How to Sound like a Native Speaker and Improve Your Spoken American English

Happy Holidays! Let’s study the American  English pronunciation by looking at this  

scene from Friends from one of their holiday  episodes. We’re going to go in-depth with  

understanding the pronunciation.  This is going to help you improve your  

listening comprehension and your spoken English  skills. Let's dive right in. First, the scene.

Before this scene, Ross has told Rachel  all of the reasons why he’s not interested  

in her romantically and they weren’t  flattering. So he is now telling her,  

you tell me what you don’t like about  me and her response is pretty great.

Hey Rach. You know what? I think, I think  I know what will make you feel better.

How about you make a list about me?

What? Forget it, Ross, no.

I’m not going to stand here...

Come on!

And make a list of...okay. You’re  whiny, you are, you are obsessive,  

you are insecure, you’re, you’re gutless.

You know, you don’t ever, you don’t,  just, sort of, seize the day, you know?

You liked me for, what? A year?

And you didn’t do anything about it.

And, uh, uh. You wear too  much of that gel in your hair.

Now, let’s do an in-depth  analysis of everything we heard.

Hey, Rach.

Hey, Rach. Hey, hey, hey. Hey,  a little bit flatter, less loud  

her name Rach. And he’s shortening  it using a nickname more familiar,  

Rach. Up down shape of stress, names and other  proper nouns are pretty much always stressed,  

so there will be at least one  stressed syllable there. Rach.

Hey, Rach.

You know what?

All smoothly linked together, no breaks, so it  feels just like one continuous line of sound, you  

know what? First going down and up. You know what?  Notice there’s no T release there at the end for  

that T. That’s a stop T, and abrupt stop. What?  What? And that’s what signifies to us the T. The  

T is pronounced this way at the end of phrases or  when the next sound is a consonant. You know what?

You know what?

Do you notice how the word you is pronounced ye.  It’s not you know what? But he’s reducing that,  

I would write that in IPA with  the Y sound and the schwa, ya. Ya,  

ya, ya. You know what? You know what?  Make that as smoothly as you can. Let  

me say that last thing again. Make that  as smoothly as you can. You know what?

You know what?

I think I know what will make you feel better?

If you love this kind of in-depth analysis  of American English pronunciation, I really  

encourage you to check out my online courses  at Rachelsenglishacademy.com. We have one on  

all sorts of different Hollywood scenes. There  are over 50 there to choose from. From movies,  

from TVs, and in all of them we take a scene,  we study it, we do that in-depth pronunciation  

analysis together. The best part though is  each video comes with an audio soundboard  

so you can train the little mini phrases  yourself and really get it into your voice.

You can see it.

And when you listen in slow motion  it helps you really hear the rhythm,  

the stress and the linking. So be sure to check  

out Rachelsenglishacademy.com.  Let’s get back to our scene.

You know what?

I think, I think I know what  will make you feel better?

I think, I think. He’s going up here and it’s very  smooth, no break between I and think. I think.  

Then there’s a tiny pause, maybe a little bit  lift while he repeats himself. I think, I think.

I think--

I think I know wheat will make you feel better?

I think, I think I know. I think I know. Again,  everything here is just linking together really  

smoothly and make sure for the th in think,  that’s an unvoiced th. Make sure that your  

tongue tip does come through that teeth for that  really lightly. Think. I think, I think, I think.

I think--

I think I know

If you have a hard time with that sound, you’ll  want to slow it down to make sure you can focus  

in on that tongue movement. I think and just  feel the lightness of the tongue through the  

teeth not stopping the air, just do that over  and over until it starts to feel natural.

I think, I think I know--

I think I know what will make you feel better.

So lots of stressed words there. I think  I know what will. Both unstressed. What’ll  

make you feel better. And maybe a little  bit on better but coming down so think,  

know, feel. Verbs are almost  always stressed in a sentence.

I think I know what will make you feel better.

But let’s just look at the first four words.  Notice how I is less stressed. I think,  

I know. So I is I, I, I, I.  Lower in pitch, less energy,  

linking together smoothly. I think I  know. Try that with me. I think I know.

I think I know--

I think I know what will make you feel better.

What will. That gets reduced. What apostrophe  ll. What’ll, what’ll. So by making this an  

apostrophe we’re just adding schwa l at  the end, what’ll, what’ll. That’s going  

to turn this T into a flap T which can sound  like a d between vowels in American English,  

what’ll, what’ll, what’ll, what’ll. Not will but  what’ll, know what’ll, know what’ll, know what’ll.

I know what will--

I know what will make you feel better.

What will make you feel better.

Make you. Do you feel how make is higher  than you. This change of pitch is part of  

natural American English. Some of my students  don’t have enough distance between their highs  

of their stressed syllables and their  lows of their unstressed syllables and  

that makes them a little bit harder to  understand. So make sure you’re matching  

that pitch so that you’re feeling the  pitch difference. Make you feel better.

Make you feel better.

Feel better. And he brings his pitch up  a little bit at the end. This shows that  

he’s going to go on. His idea continues. Feel  better. A couple things about sounds here. The  

double T here is again a flap T. A T is almost  always a flap T when it comes between vowel or  

diphthong sounds like it does here. It comes  between e and the schwa, better, better. Now,  

the L here is a dark L. L’s are dark L’s if  they come after the vowel or diphthong in the  

syllable. So here it’s the end of the word so we  know it’s a dark L. So we make that sound with the  

back of the tongue. Feel. Pressing down and back  a little bit, the tip of the tongue doesn’t lift,  

it doesn’t have to lift. So, see if you can  do that . Feel better. Without lifting your  

tongue tip for the L, it will probably make the  dark sound a little bit more clear. Feel better.

Feel better.

How about you make a list about me?

So now he really stresses you and me because  he made a list about her so how about you,  

how about you. Lots of stress there.  It’s longer, lots of up down shape.

How about you--

How about

How about you. So how and about are bot a little  faster, less important here because he’s using  

you. So how about. He drops the first syllable  there. So it becomes how about, how about, how  

about, how about. Said quickly, said simply with  a stop T at the end. How about, how about you.

How about you--

Make a list.

Breaks it up here a little bit. The more you break  something up, the more dramatic it is. How about  

you make a list. List, the noun the most stressed  word here. So our most stressed words are usually,  

verbs, nouns, adverbs and adjectives but not  all of them are always going to be stressed.  

For example here the verb ‘make’ is less stressed  than the noun list. Make a list. Make a, do you  

hear that, it all links together smoothly, the K  releases into the schwa which goes right into the  

L. This one is a light L because it begins the  word. You do lift your tongue tip. Make a list.

Make a list--

The T here in list, we do hear that released,  tt, tt, list, list. That’s because it’s a part  

of a cluster. I said before like in the word  about. If a T ends a word that it will often  

be a stop T not if it’s part of a cluster. If it’s  part of a cluster, it’s going to be a light true  

T unless it links into a consonant then it might  be dropped. I know the T rules are so confusing.

Make a list--

About me.

So really stressing me , here he doesn’t  drop the first syllable of about, we do  

hear that it’s a schwa, about me and stress  on me, stop T there. About, about, about me.

About me.

What?

Super high. Try to match that pitch.  What? What? Goes up a little bit,  

cut off abruptly for that stop T.

What?

Forget it Ross.

Forget it. Forget it Ross. So, the phrase forget  it, three syllables, the middle one is stressed.  

Forget it. And it links together really smoothly.  The T links into the vowel that turns that into  

a flap T to link. I love linking with the  flap T, it’s so smooth. In American English,  

we really value smoothness, forget it, forget  it. And a stop T, the T is not released. Now,  

look here the word looks like it might  be pronounced for but it’s for, for,  

forget it. Just don’t worry about the vowel  there at all. For, for, for, forget it.

Forget it--

Ross no,

Forget it Ross. She goes down, it’s a statement,  

she doesn’t want to do it. Ross, no. Again, a  statement, very clear, I don’t want to do that.

Forget it Ross, no.

I’m not going to stand here--

So everything is said pretty quickly, I am not  going to becomes I’m not gonna, I’m not gonna.

I’m not going to--

I’m not going to stand here--

Which really brings emphasis on the word  stand. I don’t want to do that. I won’t,  

don’t wanna be here doing that. So I’m  not going to becomes I’m not gonna,  

I’m not gonna. Said quickly, stop T  here, abrupt stop of air. I’m not gonna.

I’m not going to--

I’m not going to stand here--

Going to becomes gonna and everything links  together smoothly, I’m not gonna stand.

I’m not going to stand--

I’m not going to stand here--

Stand here. So she keeps  going while he says come on.

Come on.

So stress not on come but on come on  on. Come on Rach. So we can think of  

this as just being a K sound and  then the word er that sounds man,  

man come on. You might see it written  like this: C’mon, C’mon and he actually  

doesn’t just say come on. He says come on  Rach. Again, that nickname, come on Rach.

Come on Rach.

Come on Rach.I think It’ll and he says It’ll.  Just lke he said what’ll earlier. The apostrophe  

L is a schwa dark L sound and that turns that  T into a flap T. I think it’ll I think it’ll,  

I think it’ll. It’s a little harder to hear  because they’re both talking at the same time.

Stand here and make a list of--

So she’s still talking here as he’s talking.  And make a list of. This is what she doesn’t  

want to do. And make a list of. List,  our noun, make our verb. Both stressed.

and make a list of--

And make a list of. And, and, and. No D there,  and, and, and. The vowel here unclear. And make,  

and make, and make. Linking together really  smoothly. And make a. I would write that as  

the schwa, and make a list. Again, this L is  a light L because it begins the word so you  

do want to lightly lift. The tip of your tongue  to the roof of your mouth. And make a list of.

And make a list of--

Okay, you’re whiny. So, she badgers  her enough that she gives up and she  

is going to go over her list. So even  though she just said she didn’t want to,  

she goes right into the word okay and  right into her list. No breaks at all.

Okay, you’re whiny,

Okay, okay, you’re whiny. Okay, second syllable  stress, linking right into your and whiny,  

whiny. First syllable stress, it’s going up  in pitch because it’s a list and with lists,  

we go up in pitch. For each item on our list until  the last one where we go down. So, you’re whiny,  

that intonation that goes up shows there’s  more to come on this list. Okay, you’re whiny.

Okay, you’re whiny,

Notice the words ‘you are’ in contraction  become you’re, you’re. It’s as if there’s  

no vowel there. You’re, you’re, you’re,  you’re, you’re. She doesn’t say you’re,  

she says you’re. She doesn’t say  you are. She says you’re, you’re,  

you’re, you’re. See if you can  make that simplification. You’re,  

you’re, you’re whiny. Now this H here isn’t  pronounced, it’s just a clean W sound. Whiny.

You’re whiny,

You are, you are obsessive,

It’s a little hard to tell because  of the laughing, I’m not sure if she  

actually repeats this but now she’s not doing  a contraction, she’s saying you are, you are,  

you are. But they’re not stretched. They’re  still lower in pitch compared to the adjective  

she’s about to say. You are obsessive,  much clearer. Obsess, it’s got second  

syllable stress and then it goes up because  guess what? Her list isn’t over. Obsessive.

You are, you are obsessive,

You are--

You are. So again, not doing the  contraction but they’re flat. You are,  

you are. That shows unstressed.

You are--

Insecure,

You are obsessive, you are insecure. Do you hear  how they sound different? It’s the difference  

between stressed and unstressed. Unstressed  words are going to be a little bit flatter,  

a little bit quieter sometimes, less energy,  and then our stressed words in this case,  

our adjectives are louder and we have much more  pitch variation there. That makes them more clear.

You are insecure,

You are insecure. And do you hear  insecure, she goes up because guess what,  

she’s not done, there are still more  things she doesn’t like about Ross.

You are insecure,

So she pronounces that insecure but you’ll  also hear insecure, cure, cure, cure or cure.

Insecure,

You’re, you’re gutless,

You're, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re,  do you hear how flat those are. You’re,  

you’re, again one of the differences  between stressed and unstressed words.

You’re, you’re

Gutless.

Gutless, gutless. A lot more pitch variation there  because it’s stressed and it goes up because she’s  

still has more things she wants to say about Ross.  There are still more things she doesn’t like about  

Ross. Poor Ross, he should never asked for this  list. Gutless. Do you hear how there’s not tt,  

tt sound there. It’s a stop T because it’s  followed by a consonant. Gutless, gutless.

Gutless,

You know, you don’t ever, you don’t just,

You know, you know, this is just a filler  phrase, you know, you know. And again,  

just like before, the word you was reduced  and here it’s also reduced. It’s not you,  

it’s you, you, you know, you know,  that’s a question. Do you understand  

what I’m talking about? You know, you  know, really smoothly linked together.

You know,

You know, you don’t ever you  don’t just sort of seize the day.

So what she’s saying here is you don’t seize the  day. All of this or you don’t ever seize the day,  

this is repetition, just and sort of are  filler words as she’s thinking about how  

to articulate this criticism. So,  they all come by pretty quickly

You know, you don’t ever you  don’t just sort of seize the day.

But I want to talk about the pronunciation of the  n apostrophe t. There are several different ways  

that Americans might pronounce that and here  she’s saying you don’t ever, you don’t ever.  

She’s doing a little lift here, a little bit of  a stop T feeling. We don’t hear tt, don’t but  

it’s also not dropped, it’s a stop T. You don’t  ever. You don’t, you don’t, you don’t, you don’t.

You don’t ever, you don’t--

Just sort of.

So the T in just is dropped. That’s really common  when it’s followed by a consonant. Just, just  

,just. Not much of a vowel here. You might think  this word is just uh but it’s often reduced so it  

sounds like it’s maybe written with an I, just or  a schwa, just, just, just. So it’s not very fully  

or clearly pronounced a lot of the time because  it’s a filler word. Just sort of, just sort of.

Just sort of--

Just sort of.

What else is happening? The T gets turned into  a flap T as it links the two words together. A  

T is a flap T if it comes between two vowel or  diphthongs or if it comes after an R before a  

vowel. Here the word of is reduced to the schwa so  the T comes between R and schwa, that’s a flap T,  

sort of, sort of, sort of, sort of, just sort  of, just sort of, just sort of, just sort of.

Just sort of--

Seize the day.

Seize the day. So, the verb seize is stressed,  

seize the day, and so is the noun day. You know  it’s stressed because there’s a change of pitch,  

it goes up and then down or down and up. Seize  the, and the Z sound links right into the the,  

the schwa links right into the D, no breaks, no  separation in the words. Seize the day. This means  

to get done what you want to get done in the day,  don’t put it off for another day. Seize the day.

Seize the day,

You know?

Seize the day, you know? Again, just  this sort of little filler phrase,  

you know? Looking for agreement, the word you  reduced, ye, ye, ye, you know? Going up in  

pitch because it’s a yes no question even though  she’s not expecting him to answer it. You know?

You know?

You like me for what? A year?

You like me for what? Okay, so again, you reduces  to ye. You liked, you, you, and we have stress on  

our verb, you liked me for what? A year? Okay now,  let’s talk about the Ed ending here. The Ed ending  

makes a T when the sound before is unvoiced  like the K. Like, you liked me. But sometimes,  

we drop the T when it comes between two  consonants. Here, T comes between K and M.  

And you know what? I don’t hear it, I don’t hear  T, I don’t hear the ed ending at all. So, this is  

a case where the past tense can sound just like  present tense in conversational English. I have  

a series of videos on the ed ending, we give lots  of examples so you start to hear this and notice  

this, so check out Rachel’s English ed ending and  you’ll find the video series that explains this.

You liked me for what?

You liked me for, you liked me for.  The word for reduces, f schwa r, for,  

for, for. You like me for. So, no T sound,  not you liked me for but you liked me for.

You liked me for--

what? A year?

You liked me for what? A year? Now,  I notice more linking. You liked me  

for what? A year? What a, what a, flap  T linking into the schwa, of a year,  

what a year? What a year? This kind of  linking and smoothness is so characteristic  

of American English but it can make it hard  to understand if you don’t know about it.

You liked me for what? A year?

Also, the wh in what, just pronounced as a w what,  

what, what is the uh as in butter  vowel here. What, what, what a,  

what a, what a, what? A year? What? A year? And  make sure you connect your schwa into the Y sound.

for what? A year?

It can be hard sometimes for my  students to connect that smoothly  

but there’s no break there. It’s  not a year, a year. It’s not a jeer,  

a jeer. But it’s a year? Schwa right into the  Y sound. Now, ih as in sit followed by schwa R  

isn’t quite pure so the I as in sit is a more  like an e vowel. Year? A year? What? A year?

what? A year?

And you didn’t do anything about it?

More stress here and you didn’t do  anything about it. Stress on didn’t,  

stress on anything. First syllable  stress there and about it. Stress there,  

change in direction and a stop T at the  end. We don’t hear it, about it? Let’s  

look at our reductions. What words are said  so quickly that a sound is dropped or changes.

And you didn’t do anything about it?

And you didn’t, and you didn’t, and  you didn’t. And becomes just an n  

sound nn. nyuh, nyuh, nyuh. It links  right into the reduction on you which  

becomes yuh. Nyuh, nyuh, nyuh, nyuh. Try  that. Nyuh, nyuh. And you, nyuh. This is  

how we combine and smooth out less  important words. And you, and you.

And you--

And you didn’t--

Do anything about it.

And you didn’t do anything about it.  About [flap], a flap of the tongue there  

to link the two words together.  The T comes between a diphthong,  

the au diphthong and a vowel, e vowel  links with a flap, about it, about it.

About it.

And uh.

And uh. Okay, she slows down a little bit, we  do get a full pronunciation of and the d links  

right into the thinking vowel uh. And uh, and uh.  Pitch is going up, she has one last thing to say.

And uh--

Oh, you wear too much of that gel in your hair.

Oh, you wear too much of that gel in your  hair. So we got a bunch of these up down  

shapes of stress. Oh, you wear, going up  too much to our adverb. Too much of that  

gel. Gel in your hair. So we have three  stressed words in that phrase and overall,  

the trend of this is down because it’s a  statement, it’s the last of our list. So  

remember for a list, intonation goes up until  the last one and then intonation goes down.

Oh, you wear too much of that gel in your hair.

You wear too much. You wear, you wear, you  wear. A couple things to notice here. First,  

the you reduction. Again  becomes yuh. You wear. Also,  

it’s linked together smoothly and  it’s all going up. You wear, you wear,  

and then we change direction on the stressed  syllable. Too. You wear too, and this does  

have a strong clear true T at the beginning, a  nice crisp release of air. Too, you wear too.

You wear too--

You wear too much of that gel in your hair.

Too much of that gel in your hair. And it  all kind of tumbles down like a waterfall  

with a couple little up downs on  gel and hair. Too much of that,  

too much of that. The word of becomes  just a single sound, the schwa,  

linking the ch of much and the th of that.  Much of that, much of that, much of that.

Much of that--

And there’s a stop T at the  end of that. No T release,  

too much of that gel, too much of that gel.

Too much of that gel--

In your hair.

Gel in. Again, linking in smoothness, the L  goes right into the ih vowel of in, gel in,  

gel in your. Your becomes yer. Your, your, your,  your reduced vowel said more quickly. Gel in your,  

gel in your, gel in your, gel in your hair.  Uhuhuh. You know you can practice a phrase  

just on uh. Uhuhuh. That helps you feel the  pitch and the melody of it. It can also help  

you feel the smoothness. It can help you think of  it as one line and not a bunch of separate words.

Gel in your hair.

Ross’s ego has just been torn down as  his friends decorate the Christmas tree  

in the background. Let’s listen to  this conversation one more time.

Hey Rach. You know what? I think, I think  I know what will make you feel better.

How about you make a list about me?

What? Forget it, Ross, no.

I’m not going to stand here...

Come on!

And make a list of...okay. You’re  whiny, you are, you are obsessive,  

you are insecure, you’re, you’re gutless.

You know, you don’t ever, you don’t,  just, sort of, seize the day, you know?

You liked me for, what? A year?

And you didn’t do anything about it.

And, uh, uh. You wear too  much of that gel in your hair.

Thank you so much for studying with me,  I love doing this kind of scene analysis.  

If you like this kind of exercise, I have  many, many lessons like this in my Academy.  

We’re taking scenes from movies and TV and  we’re doing a full analysis then you have  

a soundboard to work with the audio so that  you can really take what you’ve learned and  

get it into your body to transform your own  accent. If this sounds interesting to you,  

check out Rachelsenglishacademy.com. In the  meantime, please subscribe with notifications on,  

I absolutely love being your English teacher.  And you can keep your learning going right now  

with this video. That’s it and thanks  so much for using Rachel’s English.