English Movie—How To Speak English Like an American With Top Gun | English Movies To Learn English

464,867 views ・ 2020-06-02

Rachel's English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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In today’s video you’re going to learn English with movies, and when we study this way,
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you’ll be able to understand American movies and TV effortlessly, without subtitles.
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Today’s video uses the trailer for the movie Top Gun: Maverick.
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You know, this movie was supposed to be out this month for a summer blockbuster, but because
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of the coronavirus, it got pushed back to December. We'll see what happens.
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We're going to go as in-depth as we can on the way Americans speak, how they speak,
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so you'll not only be able to understand everything, but you're going to understand what Americans do
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with English, in a way that will allow you to imitate perfectly. You might be the next Tom Cruise.
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Maybe so, sir.
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We're going to be doing this all summer.
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June through August, stick with me every Tuesday, they're all great scenes and there's going to be so
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much to learn that can transform the way you speak and understand English.
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And as always, if you like this video or you learn something, please like and subscribe with notifications.
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You're going to watch the clip then we're going to do a full pronunciation analysis together.
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This is going to help so much with your listening comprehension
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when it comes to watching English movies in TV. But there's going to be a training section.
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You're going to take what you've just learned and practice repeating it, doing a reduction, flapping a T,
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just like you learned in analysis. Okay, here's the scene.
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Thirty plus years of service. Combat medals. Citations.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Yet you can’ get a promotion, you won’t retire.
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Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.
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You should be at least a two-star admiral by now.
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Yet you are here.
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Captain.
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Why is that?
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It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.
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The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.
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Maybe so, sir.
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But not today.
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And now the analysis.
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Thirty plus years of service.
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Okay to start, let's go ahead and write out thirty and plus. It would almost always be written this way
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with the digit and then the plus sign, but as we talked about the sounds, we'll write it out.
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Now you probably noticed that the T in thirty is a flap T.
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This follows the rules in that it comes after an R before a vowel. Like in dirty, this is a T that we would flap.
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So rather than being ttt, a true T, the tongue simply flaps against the roof of the mouth. Thirty da-da-da thirty.
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Thirty. Thirty. Thirty plus--
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Thirty plus--
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Thirty plus--
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And we have first syllable stress on thirty.
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Thirty, so stressed, then unstressed, the ending unstressed EE sound. Thirty plus--
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Thirty plus-- thirty plus-- thirty plus years of service.
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Some stress on plus, then we also have stress on years, and ser--vice.
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So of and --vice, are both unstressed. Thirty plus years of service.
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Thirty plus years of service.
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Thirty plus years of service.
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Thirty plus years of service.
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Thirty plus years of service. So those are our longer syllables with the up-down shape of stress.
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The other syllables are going to be shorter, but everything links together we don't want to feel
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any separation between the words. Thirty plus years of service, would not be natural sounding American English.
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We need this contrast and then we also need the linking. Thirty plus years of service. No breaks there.
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Thirty plus years of service.
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Thirty plus years of service.
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Thirty plus years of service.
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Combat medals.
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Okay, now in this little two-word phrase, you tell me what are the most stressed syllables?
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Combat medals.
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Combat medals.
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Combat medals.
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Combat medals. The most stress probably on combat, the adjective here describing the kind of medal.
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Combat medals. And then also some stress on the noun. Combat medals. The second syllable of combat
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is unstressed, it has a stop T, bat bat bat, because the next word begins with a consonant.
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So again, the T is not released. Combat medals. Medals.
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Combat medals.
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Combat medals.
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Combat medals.
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This D can also be a flap just like thirty, medals, rararara, because it comes between two vowel sounds.
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Here, it's the EH as in bed vowel and then the schwa L combination. Medals, medals, medals. Combat medals.
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The vowel here in the unstressed syllable is AH, but we don't want it to be AA,
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that would be stressed, we want it to be ah, ah, combat, combat medals.
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Combat medals.
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Combat medals.
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Combat medals. Citations.
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Citations. Do you feel how it's that middle syllable that's stressed? Citations.
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The letter A here is TAY, the AY as in say diphthong. That letter A can have several different pronunciations.
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Here it's: ay, ay, citations. The letter C makes the S sound.
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Citations.
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Citations.
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Citations.
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The letter I makes the AI diphthong. The letter I, so many of the letters, almost all of the letters in American English
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can have various different pronunciations, which makes English so hard you can't necessarily tell
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the pronunciation by looking at it. Citations. SH schwa N, and then Z, a weak ending Z sound.
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Citations.
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Citations.
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Citations.
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Citations.
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The stress is really important in American English. We want to know what stressed, and what's unstressed,
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so that we can feel that we make a peak on that stressed syllable. We definitely don't want all syllables
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to feel the same. Citations. That would have the right pitch, but not the right rhythm.
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It's not DA-DA-DA but it's da-DA-da. The first one is very short and the last one is very short. Citations. Citations.
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Citations.
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Citations.
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Citations.
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Also I should point out this T in ta-- is a true T because it starts a stressed syllable.
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So if a T starts a stressed syllable, and it's not part of the TR cluster, then it will be a true T. Tay, tay, citations.
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Citations.
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Citations.
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Citations.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Okay, now we have a much longer phrase. I want you to listen to it a few times and see
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what you think is the most stressed word.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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I hear it is the last word. In the last forty years-- years-- he sort of holds on to the beginning Y consonant a little bit.
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Years. Draws out the length and it definitely has that up-down shape. Now certainly, we have other syllables
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that are stressed in the sentence, but I think this is the most stressed in the phrase.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Let's look at our other stressed syllables and do we have any reductions?
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
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Everything links together really smoothly. So let's take it bit by bit.
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Only man to shoot down--
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Only man to shoot down--
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Only man to shoot down--
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Only man to shoot down-- So we have stress on OH. Only man-- not on the word 'to', that's a preposition,
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usually not going to be stressed. Shoot and down, both have some stress and length.
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Did you notice that the word 'to' wasn't pronounced 'to' it was reduced. Man to-- man to--
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Flap T or a D sound and the schwa. Man to-- man to-- only man to--
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Only man to--
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shoot down--
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I have a friend named Amanda, and we often as a nickname, as a way to shorten it, call her just 'Manda'.
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Manda. And it sounds just like these two words together: man to-- Manda, Manda, Manda,
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when you make that a flap T.
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Only man to--
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shoot down--
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Only man to shoot down--
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Only man to shoot down--
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So we have two letters T here. The first one is a flap T, or it's sort of like a D sound, and then the second T
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is a stop T. Shoot down. Which means we stop the air, but we don't release the T, that would be shoot down.
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We definitely don't hear that. It's just shoot down, shoot down.
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Shoot down--
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Now a word of caution with the word down, a lot of my students, especially students whose native language is
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Chinese, but not just those students, have a hard time with the word down. It's the OW diphthong,
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OW, plus the N consonant. And they kind of mix the N into the diphthong and nasalize it. Down.
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We don't want that at all. We want it to be completely un-nasal in the diphthong.
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Dow-- Dow-- Dow-- nnn-- Dow-- nnn--
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And then you can practice it that way splitting off the N, make sure you're not going down,
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and mixing the two into a nasal diphthong sound. Down, down, shoot down.
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Shoot down-- shoot down-- shoot down three enemy planes.
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Then we have three words, and they're all stressed, so we have quite a few words and syllables that are
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stressed in this sentence. Three enemy planes. I want to point out that even in a stressed word,
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if it has more than one syllable, it will have unstressed syllables. So the only syllable stressed here is EH.
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Enemy. Nemy. Nemy. Nemy. Then the rest of the syllables are unstressed and said very quickly.
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Three enemy.
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Three enemy.
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Three enemy.
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Three enemy.
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Now, we have a vowel to vowel link here. We have the EE vowel in three and the EH vowel in enemy.
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Some students feel like they need to split that up a little bit to make it clear, the change between words,
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you don't need to do that in English. And we don't want you to do that. We want it to glide together smoothly.
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Three enemy. Three enemy.
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If you have a hard time linking them together, it can help to think of, in this particular case, with this particular link,
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a Y consonant. So you could think of the word as being yenemy, three enemy, three enemy, three enemy.
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If you link it together, that might help you smooth it out you don't want to make a very big heavy Y,
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but a little light Y glide consonant to link those two words together,
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might help you make a smooth transition.
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Three enemy.
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Let's talk a little bit about the consonant cluster here. It's TH unvoiced and R consonant.
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Thr, thr, thr, thr, thr, thr. His TH almost has like a T quality in it. I think when I listen to it on repeat.
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But it's definitely not: three, three, three, that's something that a lot of non-native speakers do, they substitute in TR
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instead of THR and then it sounds like a tree, you know, like, oh, a tree. But we don't want to be saying tree.
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We want to be saying three , three , three. So let your tongue tip come lightly through your teeth,
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don't build up the air, don't put pressure there, don't bite on the tongue at all, that will make it sound more like a T.
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We want th-- the easy passage of air. Three, three, three enemy planes.
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Three enemy planes-
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in the last forty years.
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In the last forty years. So in and the, both said so incredibly quickly.
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Let's just listen to: in the last--
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in the last--
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I actually think it sounds like the TH is dropped. In the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the.
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It's just IH as in sit, N linking right into the schwa. In the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the.
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You can only do this if you do it very, very quickly. It's low in pitch, it's low in volume, try that.
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In the, in the, in the, in the. You should be able to do it without moving your jaw at all.
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Your lips, your face, should be totally relaxed, the only thing moving is the tongue inside the mouth.
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You want to take away all the extra movement that
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you don't need so that you can say this as quickly as you need to. In the, in the, in the, in the last forty years.
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The last forty years.
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The last forty years.
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The last forty years.
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Okay, again, we're going to write out the word 'forty'.
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Our T again is a flap T because it comes after an R and before a vowel.
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The vowel is the EE as in she vowel. Forty, forty, forty. Thirty, thirty, thirty.
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These all have a flap T which can sound like a D. Dadadada forty forty.
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Forty--
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years.
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Now we have some stressed words other than years, let's listen to the phrase again:
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In the last forty years--
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In the, in the, last forty, and then we've already marked years. So the unstressed syllable of forty is unstressed.
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We have stress in the word last with the AA vowel. Notice the T is dropped there.
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It's very common to drop the T in an ending cluster like ST when the next word begins with a consonant,
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the next word begins with F, so we're gonna drop that T to smoothly connect. Last forty, last forty.
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Last forty--
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So out of all of our letters T here on this page, we have a flap T, in we have a stop T in combat,
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we have a true T in citations, because it begins a stressed syllable, but then the next T is actually
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part of the TION ending, and that's an SH sound. In the word to, the reduction is da, flap T, not a true T.
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In the word shoot, it's a stop T. And in the word last, its dropped.
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So out of all of the T sounds in this particular part of this conversation, there's only one true T.
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And then we even have as the T and the TH, it's fully pronounced in one case and then dropped in another.
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So you really need to study how Americans speak and what happens with reductions and linking
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and dropping sounds, in order to figure out how they do things so smoothly.
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But after you study this, and you look at this part of the video several times, you'll be able to go back
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and imitate that audio, and that's when it really gets fun,
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when you can not only understand what's happening with American English, but when
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you can imitate it yourself in a way that sounds natural. It really can feel freeing to do that.
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And that's what this video series is all about this summer.
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Last forty years. Last forty years. Last forty years. Yet you can't get a promotion--
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Okay in this next phrase, what's the most stressed word do you think?
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Yet you can't get a promotion--
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Yet you can't get a promotion--
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Yet you can't get a promotion--
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I'm feeling can't, and promotion, as being really stressed. Yet you, really low in volume, low in energy,
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harder to hear, right? Let's listen to just those two words together.
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Yet you--
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Yet you--
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Not very clear, but that's what we need. We need that less clear to provide contrast with our more
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clear syllables. That's what makes up the character of American English. So we have yet, with the stop T,
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yet, yet, yet, yet, Yet you-- Yet you-- Yet you-- Yet you--
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Yet you--
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can't get a promotion--
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Can't get a promotion-- Okay we have an N apostrophe T ending in the word can't.
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That can be pronounced three ways. One of them is can't, with a true T, one of them is can't, with a stop T,
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and one of them is can with the T totally dropped. I'm having a hard time deciding if I think it's a stop T,
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or a dropped T, because if I listen to it three times thinking it's a stop T, that's what I hear.
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If I listen to it three times thinking it's dropped, that's what I hear. So at any rate, it's not a true T.
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We'll call it a stop T, very subtle, very quick, can't get, can't get, can't get, can't get, can't get, can't get.
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Not a big lift but just a tiny little break there before the G: can't get, can't get.
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Can't get--
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The vowel is the AA vowel. When it's followed by N it's not really a pure AA anymore, it's not ca-- ca--
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but cauh-- it starts with a little less jaw drop and the back of the tongue relaxes, which brings in a sound
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sort of like UH. Ca-uh, ca-uh, can't can't can't can't can't.
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And we know that this is different than the word can, because if the word was you can get a promotion,
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then we wouldn't stress it, we would say, you can get, you can get, you can get.
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That would be reduced to the schwa. The word can't never reduces, always has this AA vowel in it.
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Can't get,
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a promotion.
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Now we have get and a, not stressed, along with the first syllable of promotion, that's a schwa there.
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Pro--
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So we have get a pro-- but that's not how it's pronounced, it's pronounced: get a, get a, get a, get a,
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flap T linking into the schwa, and the schwa links right into the PR. That's what helps us link everything together,
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is we just don't stop the sounds. Get a, get a, get a, get a pro, get a pro, get a pro, get a promotion.
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Get a promotion--
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Again we have a TION ending and that is SH schwa N. Tion, tion, tion. It's not: shen, shon, it's shun, shun.
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Try to make it with a no vowel at all. N absorbs the schwa, so just try to make SHN and say that quickly.
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SHN SHN promotion.
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Promotion--
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Get a promotion.
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21:24
Get a promotion--
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you won't retire.
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21:31
I wrote the word you here, but it is so, so subtle. You, you, you, you.
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I almost just hear it as a superlight weak Y sound in the throat, but
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I could even see someone saying it's totally dropped.
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You won't retire--
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You won't retire. So we have two stressed syllables there, and again, I feel like I'm hearing this
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N apostrophe T as a stop T. Won't, won't , won't , won't. Won't retire.
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Be careful here, some people say something more like: won-- wo, oh, oh, won-- but it's woah--
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So your lips start in a circle for the W, then they loosen up a little bit for the first half of the OH diphthong,
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then they have to round again. Woah-- If you miss that second rounding, then you're not gonna get the
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correct sound there. Won't, won't, won't retire.
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You won't retire.
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You won't retire.
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You won't retire.
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Again, this T is a True T, why? Because it starts a stressed syllable. Tire, retire. Retire.
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Retire--
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Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.
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What do you hear as the most stressed syllables in that phrase there?
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Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.
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Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.
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Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.
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Despite your best-- A little bit of stress on best. A little bit of stress on efforts. But more on refuse and die.
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Okay, let's look at the rest of the words, the rest of the syllables, do we have any T's that change from a true T?
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Do we have any reductions? How do we link all of this together and provide the rhythmic contrast we need?
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Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.
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Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.
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Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.
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Let's just look at the first two words: despite-- despite your-- so this T is a stop T because the next sound
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is a consonant sound, the Y consonant. Also we want this to be a schwa in DE, and a schwa in RE,
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retire, so don't say re-- retire, say ruh-- retire. Duh-- despite, despite, the letter I here makes the AI diphthong.
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Despite. Stop T. So it's different from dropped T because that would be despie-- the sound would be the same,
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AI but it would change shape, AI, it would go up and then come down. Despie--
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but when we cut it off, despite, despite.
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Despite--
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your best--
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That cutoff is a stop of air, and that signifies the T. Now the word your, is reduced it becomes the schwa R.
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Those two sounds blend together. The R absorbs the schwa.
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So you don't even need to try to make a vowel there. It's just yy--rr-- yrr, yrr, yrr, yrr, yrr, yrr.
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Say that as quickly as you can. Your, despite your, despite your.
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24:57
Despite your--
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best efforts.
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Best efforts. So we have an ST cluster. If the next word began with the consonant, we would drop that T,
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but it doesn't, it begins with the EH as in bed vowel. So we will link that with a light true T.
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Best efforts, best, best efforts.
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25:23
Best efforts--
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We don't want to say efforts. We see a letter O here, maybe you want to do some lip rounding,
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but it's not, it's a schwa. Effor--
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And remember just like we said here, schwa is absorbed by the R so you don't even need to try to make a vowel
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right from F into R. Effor-- for for for. Efforts. Efforts.
300
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25:49
Efforts--
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you refuse to die.
302
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Efforts, you re--
303
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So we have three unstressed syllables here. We have the unstressed syllable of efforts, the word you,
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which doesn't reduce. He could have said yuh, but he said you, but he said it low and unstressed.
305
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26:07
You, you, you. You re-- you re--
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26:10
Then again just like retire, we have refuse, with a schwa, not refuse, but re re refuse,
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26:20
Refuse--
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26:23
to die--
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26:24
You refuse to die. Now, I listen to this quite a few times to decide, do I think this is a true T in to or a flap T?
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I think it's a true T. Refused to. But it's got the schwa. It's not to it's to to to, it's low in pitch, it's said very quickly.
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Refuse to die, before the stressed word die. Now I want to talk about this word, refuse, so it can be pronounced
312
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two different ways, it can be unstressed, re, R schwa, actually, you know what, it's not the schwa,
313
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27:04
it's the IH as in sit vowel, which brings up something interesting. This is actually an IH as well,
314
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27:12
as is despite, if I look it up, I see it's an IH, refuse is an IH, so why am I saying it's a schwa?
315
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I've always said to me, the IH as in sit, unstressed sounds just like the schwa.
316
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Re re re re re refuse. Retire. Re re re re refuse. Retire.
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In the word themselves, they pretty much sound the same to me. So I always tell students, don't worry
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about an unstressed syllable like this, do whichever one helps you say it more quickly.
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But I love this, when I look something up and I find, oh man I'm wrong.
320
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The official pronunciation does show an IH,
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if you say it with a schwa that doesn't really matter. What matters is that it's said very quickly.
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With this word, we actually have two different pronunciations.
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Two different meanings but same spelling. So the first one is how it's used here, it's a verb.
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28:12
We have the R consonant, IH vowel, unstressed. And then in a stressed syllable, we have the F consonant,
325
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the JU as in few diphthong, and the Z. Refuse, refuse. That's the verb.
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And it means no way will this person do something.
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Refuse--
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28:38
The other pronunciation of it is a noun, and it's refuse. So now, the first syllable is stressed,
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28:44
we have the EH as in bed syllable there and then in our unstressed syllable, we still have the JU diphthong
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but we have an S at the end instead, and this is the noun and this is just another word for trash.
331
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So two different words, two different meanings, same spelling, but different pronunciation.
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Refuse. Refuse.
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29:05
Refuse--
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to die.
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29:12
You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.
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29:15
You should be at least-- some stress there. You should be at least a two star Admiral by not by now.
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29:23
Two star Admiral by now.
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29:28
You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.
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29:31
You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.
340
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29:34
You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.
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29:38
Let's look at our first four words here. You should be at--
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29:44
You should be at--
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29:47
You should-- The D, the letter L is always silent in this word, the D is very subtle and actually, you can drop it,
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29:55
you can think of it as being dropped, before a word that begins to the consonant: shuh-- shuh-- shuh--
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30:01
So it's SH and schwa,
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30:03
you should be, you should be, you should be, you should be at-- you should be at-- you should be at--
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30:08
Be linking right into at which reduces, at at at, I would write that with the schwa and a stop T.
348
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30:16
Be at, be at, be at, be at, be at, you should be at, you should be at, you should be at.
349
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30:22
You should be at--
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30:26
least a two star Admiral by now.
351
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30:28
Four less clear words before we have some of our words with stressed syllables.
352
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30:34
You should be at least a two star--
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30:36
You should be at least a two star--
354
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30:38
You should be at least a two star--
355
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30:41
At least a-- Now, here, T in an ST cluster but the next sound is the schwa.
356
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30:47
So we do hear a true T linking into that. Least a, least a. At least a two star.
357
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30:54
Now this is a T starting a stressed syllable, so that will be a True T. Two star, two star, two star Admiral by now.
358
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31:04
AA. There we have that AA vowel again. Hope you feel pretty good about it because it's in this sentence,
359
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31:10
it's in this conversation quite a bit. Two star Admiral by now.
360
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31:17
At least a two star Admiral by now.
361
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31:20
At least a two star Admiral by now.
362
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31:22
At least a two star Admiral by now.
363
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31:25
Admiral, Admiral. I love that word. It really is clear that the first syllable is stressed,
364
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31:31
and the second two are unstressed. Miral, miral, miral. Don't say MEERAL or anything like that.
365
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31:38
Miral, miral, miral.
366
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31:40
Admiral--
367
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31:43
Both unstressed syllables have the schwa. Schwa followed by R. It gets absorbed by the R.
368
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31:50
Schwa followed by L, it gets absorbed by the L. M, N, R, L. All absorb the schwa.
369
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31:57
So they're called syllabic consonants. You don't need to try to make a schwa there. It's just
370
1917600
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32:02
Mm, rr, ll. M right into the R sound, and then a dark L. Miral, miral, miral, miral. Admiral.
371
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32:11
Admiral--
372
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32:14
by now.
373
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32:15
By now, by now. A little bit of stress on now, but it's the end of the phrase, his voice has lost some of the energy,
374
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32:22
it's lower in pitch.
375
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32:24
By now--
376
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32:28
Yet here you are.
377
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32:30
Okay in this little four-word sentence, what is the stress?
378
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32:34
Yet here you are--
379
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32:40
Yet here you are.
380
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32:45
Here and are, more stressed, everything links together very smoothly. We have a stop T in yet,
381
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32:51
because the next word begins with a consonant, the H consonant. Yet here you are.
382
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32:56
Yet here you are.
383
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32:58
Yet here you are.
384
1978420
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33:00
Yet here you are.
385
1980400
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33:03
Captain.
386
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33:04
Captain. Ca-- again, that AH vowel in our stressed syllable. Captain.
387
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33:13
Captain--
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33:20
A light true T here. Now why would this one be a true T? The rule is if it's part of a consonant cluster, like in PT,
389
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33:29
that it's a True T, although we've definitely seen exceptions to that, haven't we?
390
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33:35
ST followed by a constant, it's dropped, but here, part of the PT cluster, it is a light true T.
391
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33:41
And again, captain, tain, tain, captain. Don't try to make a vowel there. Schwa N. Captain.
392
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33:49
Captain--
393
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33:56
Actually, I just looked it up because I was curious. Dictionary.com shows both schwa N or IH,
394
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34:03
N, as an ending and as i've said before, to me, they sound the same.
395
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34:07
Captain--
396
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34:15
Why is that?
397
2055040
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34:16
Why is that? Why is that? Most stress on the question word. Why is that?
398
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34:24
And then the pitch sort of falls down from that. Why is-- really link that AI diphthong, why is,
399
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34:36
into the IH as in sit vowel.
400
2076140
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34:38
You might need to feel like you go through the glide consonant Y to help you link them.
401
2078080
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34:42
Why is that? Then a weak Z.
402
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34:46
TH, AH as in bat vowel, stop T. Now why is this a stop T? It's not followed by a consonant.
403
2086900
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34:55
It's a stop T because T is a stop T if it's followed by a consonant,
404
2095120
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34:59
or it's the end of a thought group, like it is here.
405
2099640
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35:03
Why is that?
406
2103020
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35:04
Why is that?
407
2104660
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35:06
Why is that?
408
2106400
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35:10
It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.
409
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35:12
It’s one of life’s-- more stress there, mysteries, sir. One has a little bit of stress, sir has a little bit of stress.
410
2112640
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35:22
It's one of life's mysteries, sir.
411
2122620
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35:24
It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.
412
2124860
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35:27
It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.
413
2127300
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35:29
Let's look at the other words the word its. Vowel is dropped. It's just the TS cluster before the W of one.
414
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35:37
It's one, it's one, it's one, it's one. It's not uncommon to pronounce it's that way.
415
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35:42
You can even do that with what's and let's. Like if I was going to say let's go, I might say:
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35:48
let's go, let's go I'm ready to go. Let's go. That's can also be reduced to just the TS cluster. It's one.
417
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35:56
It's one of--
418
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35:59
life's mysteries, sir.
419
2159720
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36:01
It's one of-- the word of, I would write that with the schwa and the V.
420
2161120
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36:06
You can drop the V sound but he doesn't. It's one of life's mysteries, sir.
421
2166120
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36:13
It's one of life's mysteries, sir.
422
2173840
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36:16
It's one of life's mysteries, sir.
423
2176380
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36:18
It's one of life's mysteries, sir.
424
2178720
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36:20
The word mysteries can be pronounced as three or two syllables, mys-ter-ies or mys-teries.
425
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36:30
I actually think he's doing it as three but this middle syllable is so fast.
426
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36:35
Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries.
427
2195460
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36:39
Mysteries--
428
2199500
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36:42
sir.
429
2202320
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36:43
And there's not really a break between mysteries and sir. Mysteries, sir.
430
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36:49
So even though an IPA, this would be written with the Z.
431
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36:53
It's more like an S that just keeps going into the stressed sound sir, into the stressed word, sir. Mysteries, sir.
432
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37:03
Mysteries, sir.
433
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37:07
Everything in this phrase really smoothly connected.
434
2227620
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37:11
It's one of life's mysteries, sir.
435
2231300
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37:13
It's one of life's mysteries, sir.
436
2233660
2340
37:16
It's one of life's mysteries, sir.
437
2236000
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37:19
The end is inevitable, Maverick.
438
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37:21
Okay, our stress here. The end is inevitable, Maverick.
439
2241840
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37:32
The end is inevitable, Maverick.
440
2252080
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37:34
The end is inevitable, Maverick.
441
2254720
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37:37
The end is inevitable, Maverick.
442
2257260
2220
37:39
End has the most stress, I would say. Now, the word the, here is pronounced the.
443
2259480
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37:46
The rule is that's what we do when the next word begins with a vowel, and here the next word begins with EH,
444
2266280
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37:51
the EH vowel. Usually it would be the, but here it's the, the end, the end.
445
2271580
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37:57
Now do Americans always follow this rule? No. But if you noticed it, that's what's going on.
446
2277680
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38:02
The end. The end is inevitable. Inevi--dadadadada Do you hear that?
447
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38:12
That's a flap T because it comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds. Inevitable.
448
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38:20
So it's a four syllable word with second syllable stress. Inevitable. Five syllable word with second syllable stress.
449
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38:30
Unstressed, then stressed, then three unstressed. Inevitable.
450
2310160
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38:38
Inevitable.
451
2318060
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38:41
And everything links together really smoothly. D into beginning IH, Z into beginning IH.
452
2321760
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38:49
The end is inevitable.
453
2329980
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38:52
The end is inevitable, Maverick.
454
2332720
2500
38:55
The end is inevitable, Maverick.
455
2335220
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38:57
The end is inevitable, Maverick.
456
2337760
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39:00
Maverick. This is another word that can be pronounced as three or two syllables
457
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39:04
depending on if you drop the middle. Ma-ver-ick. Just like mys-ter-y. Or Mave-rick.
458
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39:15
Maverick.
459
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39:18
Dropped, the feeling of the vowel, and make this like, feel like a cluster. Rick, Rick, maverick.
460
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39:26
And that's what he did. He does not release the K. K is a stop sound just like T and we can skip the release at the
461
2366840
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39:34
end of a thought group like he does here. Or when the next word begins with a consonant.
462
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39:39
It's a little bit less of a strong rule. The T is almost always a stop T in these cases.
463
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39:45
K it's a little bit more likely to release it, but he doesn't. Maverick. Maverick.
464
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39:51
Maverick.
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Sort of an abrupt stop of air there, signifies the K.
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40:00
Maverick.
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40:03
Your kind is headed for extinction.
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40:05
Now let's look at our next sentence. The word your. The last time we saw that, it was reduced.
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It wasn't your, it was your, your, does that happen again? Listen.
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40:17
Your kind is headed for extinction.
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2600
40:20
Your kind is headed for extinction.
472
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2440
40:22
Your kind is headed for extinction.
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40:24
Honestly, I almost don't even really hear an R sound. Ye ye ye ye ye kind.
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40:30
Your kind--
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40:33
is headed for extinction.
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40:34
Your kind is headed-- Stress on kind, head, headed for extinction.
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40:43
So the word your, definitely reduced. We have stress on kind, it's the AI diphthong, and your links right into kind ,
478
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40:54
then the D links right into the IH vowel for our unstressed syllable is.
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41:00
Weak Z sound links right into the H.
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Kind is headed--
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Kind is headed. The ED ending after a D is schwa D. Headed. Headed. Could you think of that?
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I'm sorry I said schwa, but I wrote IH because you can also think of it as schwa D. Headed. Headed. Headed.
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Headed--
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for extinction.
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41:29
The word for, now I know this word usually reduces, is it for? Let's listen.
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Headed for--
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Headed for, headed for. It's not for. It is fur fur fur. I would write that with a schwa.
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Fur fur, reduced, headed for extinction.
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41:48
Headed for extinction.
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41:50
Headed for extinction.
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1600
41:52
Headed for extinction.
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41:53
T here starting a stressed syllable, that's a true T. Unstressed IH, K sound, the letter X here is interesting,
493
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it makes KS and the syllable break actually happens between K and S so it's actually IK, and then ST cluster.
494
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42:12
Extinction.
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So in the stressed syllable, STING, I'm just gonna write this over here, we're getting crowded there. Extinction.
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Extinction.
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42:31
Extinction.
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1300
42:32
Extinction.
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42:34
In the stressed syllable, we have the IH as in sit vowel but that's followed by the NG consonant.
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42:39
Now here, it's the letter N. But it's not made at the front of the mouth, like N, it's made at the back,
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42:45
with the back of the tongue like NG and that's because it's followed by a K sound.
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42:49
Exting---, that's the back of the tongue lifting to the soft palate.
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42:56
When IH is followed by an NG sound, it's not really IH, it's more like EE,
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43:02
you'll notice this in the word sing, or ring, it's not IH, sing, but sing, sing.
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43:12
Extinct, extinction. Extinction. Sort of a tricky word. You might want to slow it down as you practice it. Extinction.
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43:23
Extinction.
507
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5140
43:28
Maybe so, sir.
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1500
43:30
Maybe so, sir. A little bit of stress on may-- much more on so, a little bit of stress on sir.
509
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8420
43:38
And everything links together really smoothly, doesn't it? Maybe so, sir.
510
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5300
43:43
Maybe so, sir.
511
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1980
43:45
Maybe so, sir.
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1700
43:47
Maybe so, sir.
513
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1540
43:51
But not today.
514
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1120
43:52
But not today. Okay, so I think this T is actually dropped, I don't really hear it as a stop, but
515
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6320
43:58
I hear the UH going right into the N. But not, but not, but not. But not today.
516
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44:04
But not today. Stress on not. But not today.
517
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6720
44:11
But not today.
518
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44:12
But not today.
519
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44:14
But not today.
520
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1120
44:15
But not today. Not today. So we have two Ts here. These words will link together with the true T.
521
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7720
44:23
But not, but not today. But not today. And it's not to, today. It's to, to, schwa. To to today.
522
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12940
44:35
But not today. But not today.
523
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44:39
But not today.
524
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1540
44:41
But not today.
525
2681100
1360
44:42
But not today.
526
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1400
44:43
Listen to this whole conversation one more time.
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44:46
Thirty plus years of service. Combat medals. Citations.
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44:52
Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years.
529
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4320
44:57
Yet you can’ get a promotion, you won’t retire. Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.
530
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45:06
You should be at least a two-star admiral by now.
531
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45:09
Yet you are here.
532
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45:12
Captain.
533
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2440
45:15
Why is that?
534
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4020
45:19
It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.
535
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3100
45:22
The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.
536
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5300
45:27
Maybe so, sir.
537
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3140
45:30
But not today.
538
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1200
45:31
Now for the fun part. You'll look at the notes we took together and you'll hear a part of the conversation
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45:36
on a loop three times. Then there's a space for you to repeat. For example, you'll hear this:
540
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45:43
Maybe so, sir.
541
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45:46
Then you'll repeat it: maybe so, sir. Try to imitate everything about this exactly.
542
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45:52
So when you see this then you'll repeat it. Maybe so, sir.
543
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45:59
You'll also have the opportunity to listen and repeat in slow motion.
544
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46:03
This will be important for you if you're more of a beginner,
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46:06
or if you're having a hard time focusing on linking or the melody.
546
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46:10
Maybe you'll want to do it both ways, but the important thing is here is your opportunity
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46:16
to take what you learned and put it into your body and your own habit.
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46:20
That's what's going to transform your speaking. You might do well to work with the audio section of this video
549
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46:26
every day for a week imitating the rhythm, and the simplifications will get easier each time you do it.
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46:33
If you can't keep up with the native speaker, do the slow-motion imitation. Okay here's our audio training section.
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Don't forget to come back and do this audio again tomorrow, and the next day.
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56:19
You want to build habits here, so you don't need to think about it so much when you're speaking in conversation.
553
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56:24
You can focus on the words and not the expression or pronunciation.
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56:29
Don't forget, this is part of a series, all summer long, 13 videos, 13 scenes from movies.
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Check out each one. Learn something new each time.
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I make new videos on the English language every Tuesday, and I'd love to have you back here again.
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Please subscribe with notifications and continue your studies right now with this video.
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And if you love this video, share it with a friend. That's it guys and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
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About this website

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