EMOTIONAL English: How to Speak Powerfully

Today we're looking at how to add emotion to your  speaking in American English. We're taking part  

of a monologue from the movie ‘Barbie’ to study  how to add more stress to stressed syllables,  

to add clarity and emphasis. The English you use  in giving a speech or presentation is going to  

be a little different than conversational  English. And today we'll study how. First,  

here's the clip we'll study:

I'm just so tired, of watching myself  

and every single other woman tie herself  into knots so that people will like us. 

And if all of that is also true for a doll, just  representing a woman, then I don't even know. 

Now, let's do the analysis.

I'm just so tired. 

Okay, so we start out, I'm just so tired.  Tired, our adjective really has that up  

down shape of stress, she puts a  little bit of a break after tired. 

I'm just so tired—

So there's a little  

bit of a splitting up the thought group there.  I'm just so tired. So, I'm just so. These three  

words just lead up to that peak of stress, that  up down shape of the voice. They don't feel like  

their own separate words, I'm just so, I'm just  so, I'm just so, I'm just so, I'm just so tired. 

I'm just so tired—

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myself. I'm Rachel and I've been teaching  the American accent on YouTube for over 15  

years. Try the accent training yourself go to  Rachelsenglish.com/free to get my free course,  

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So try to think of this as one unit, with one most 

important point and that is tired, with the  up down shape of stress, the melody going up,  

we do have a true T here. So, it's not a flap  T, It's not a stop T, it's not a dropped T. So,  

you're going to want to make that t, with your  teeth releasing. If your native language is Hindi  

or a related language, your T is going to want to  be, tt, tt, kind of soft, T, we want a crispness  

to it. Tt, tired.

Tired— 

Did you see the Barbie movie? What did you  think of it? Let me know in the comments below. 

Hey Barbie, can I come to your house to tonight? Sure! I don't have anything big planned just  

a giant blowout party with all the Barbies  and plain choreography and a his spokes on,  

you should stop by. So cool. 

Now let's look at ‘I'm just so’. We  know those are said really quickly. 

I'm just so— The T is totally dropped in just. This is  

really common when just is followed by a word that  starts with a consonant. So, here it's just one S  

sound linking them together. I'm just so I'm just  so. Also I'm is pronounced I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm. 

I'm just so—

It's short. It doesn't have that up down shape  

of stress. Those three words sort of all blend  together. I'm just so, I'm just so. Try that. 

I'm just so—

tired 

I'm just so, I'm just so tired. So, the feel of  an unstressed word and a stress word in American  

English is very different. I'm just so tired.

I'm just so tired 

The word tired looks like it should  maybe be tired, but it's not. True t,  

I as in buy diphthong, first syllable stress,  tire. I would write that schwa R, remember R takes  

over the schwa so you don't need to try to make  a separate vowel sound there. Tired, tired. It  

might help you to think of there being a Y sound  to connect these two syllables smoothly. Tired. 

Tired—

of watching myself 

Of watching myself. So stress, that up down shape  on our verb. Watching myself. Also watching who,  

the object, myself. Of watching myself

Of watching myself.  

Teeny tiny lift here. Of watching myself.  

Notice the word of, just like the words ‘I'm just  so tired’, it doesn't feel like its own separate  

word. It just very quickly attaches to the  momentum of the voice going up. Of watching, of  

watching. So, of becomes of, of, of, of watching.

of watching— 

And the unstressed syllable of watching and  the unstressed syllable of myself, they're just  

part of this little valley linking together, of  watching myself. And so they're lower in pitch,  

they're shorter and they don't have that change  of direction in the melody of your voice,  

it's the change of direction and the length that  marks it is a stressed syllable. So, here in the  

first phrase we had ‘I'm just so tired’.

I'm just so tired— 

of watching myself,

So tired, we had the one  

up down shape of stress. Now in this phrase, we  have two of ‘watching myself’. Keep that melody,  

keep that smoothness. The momentum of your voice  is always moving forward. Of watching myself. 

Of watching myself—

and every— 

And every, and every. Three syllables, one peak.  So the word ‘and’ leads up to the stress syllable  

of every let's go ahead and write every here,  since it's part of the same line. And every,  

uh so every, just like tired, it kind of  looks like there should be some sort of vowel  

sound happening here. Every, but actually the  way we pronounce that, it's just two syllables,  

ev, e as in bed vowel and that one's stressed that  syllable, ev-ry, vry, vry. And then one unstressed  

syllable. And every—

And every— 

And, and, and, and. The word ‘and’ said quickly,  I'm trying to think how do I want to write that  

phonetically. I think I might write it with schwa,  and, and, and. Schwa, because it's definitely not  

a, and a little bit of a D sound, releasing  right into the e vowel, and every, and every. 

And every—

single 

Single. So she really stresses that  word and here are a couple things  

that she does that makes it more stressed  than just a normal conversational word. 

Reason number one: She breaks it up into its own  thought group. It's not linking into other words. 

Reason number two: That it feels  extra stress is she holds on to  

the beginning sound a little bit single. So those two things make the word more stressed.  

It's got first syllable stress single.

Single-- 

Now, the vowel in ‘sing’, if you look it  up in the International Phonetic Alphabet,  

you'll see I like sit, but it's followed by an  NG consonant which we write in the International  

Phonetic Alphabet with this symbol. And when I is followed by that sound,  

it actually sounds more like e, single. I also  want to talk about the ending sound, that is a  

dark L, and guess what? Americans don't lift their  tongue tip for that in many cases. H ere, it's not  

linking into another word, it's just g g g g. That  sound is made at the back of my mouth, at the top  

of the throat, not with the tip of the tongue. Tip  of the tongue stays down. Single, ul, ul, single. 

Single—

other woman— 

Other woman. Okay, again just little  breaks, not linking the words together  

like we did here with ‘I'm just so’. Other, woman. Again, that just that  

separation makes us feel more stressed. She is  passionate about what she's saying. Single other  

woman. These are all two syllable words with first  syllable stress, so they have the same pattern,  

the same feeling. dada- 

Single other woman—

Woman. So the vowel in  

our stressed syllable of woman is the same vowel  that we have in push, that we have in sugar, uh,  

uh, woman. Single other woman.

Single other woman— 

tie herself into knots—

Tie herself into knots. A little break there. So  

now, she's starting to link more words together,  which is more natural for conversational English. 

Tie herself into knots—

Tie herself into knots. So we have  

our verb tie, tie herself into knots. So, herself  into. These four syllables are all lower in pitch,  

and they're flatter, they don't have the  length or the up down shape of stress. 

Tie herself into knots—

Another true T here, t, t, t.

Make sure you get that crisp release.  Your teeth will need to come together and  

then separate. You don't want your tongue right  behind the teeth touching the teeth. T, the tip  

of the tongue should be the roof of the mouth. So  you get that tt, really clean escape of air, tie. 

Tie—

herself into knots. 

She's also moving her hand on her  stressed words. Tie herself into knots. 

Tie herself into knots—

Into knots. Into knots. So, into. There are  

a couple different ways we can pronounce that. She  is making a true T and then the vowel is schwa.  

Into, into, into, into.

into knots— 

In Rachel's English Academy, in the Hollywood  course, you can find this analysis video with an  

audio training soundboard and downloadable audio.  Watching the analysis video and then training with  

the soundboard, speaking out loud in slow motion  to help you hear the up down shape of stress. 

I'm just so tired. Then at regular pace over and over, 

I'm just so tired—

Can really help you smooth out your speech,  

simplify your mouth movements and get a more  relaxed and natural American placement in sound. 

If you feel you could benefit from more ease  in speaking American English please check out  

Rachelsenglishacademy.com, we have a great  training program that's helped thousands of  

students improve their American accent and  speak with less effort and more confidence. 

So she's not saying into. Into, she's saying  into, uh, uh, uh, the schwa. Tie herself into  

knots. You probably know the KN consonant cluster  written, it's just one sound and it's n, knots. 

into knots—

so that people-- 

So that people. Again, breaking this up with  a little lift, a little stop in her voice,  

not linking it, to add more  stress to what she's saying. 

So that people—

So that people, so that people. There's one  

stressed syllable. Can you hear which one it is?

So that people— 

So that people. People, that's the E vowel,  people, and another dark l, pull, pull, pull. 

So that, just part of the energy leading up.  Let's look at the pronunciation. Are there any  

reductions there? Do we hear so that?

So that— 

So that. Definitely very fast, we have a  stop T that gives a bit of an abrupt stop  

to the word that. I think I would write  the word so not with O but with O, so,  

so, so that, so that, so that. The vowel does  change in that to the schwa. That, that, that,  

that. So these two words together, so that,  so that, so that. Very little mouth movement,  

no up down shape of stress, linked together.  

So that—

This contrast of unstressed versus stressed is  so important for clarity in American English. 

So that—

so that people— 

So that people. Ahuh. All of the voice goes up  to and then falls away from that one stressed  

syllable. When you're practicing with the audio  of this, you might want to even lift your arm up  

and down on that. So that people. Let your  body match the melody, help you find that  

stress. So that people.

So that people— 

will like us. Will like us. Will like us.  

One stressed word there. These two  words linking together with one L,  

will like us. That is a light L here because  it starts a word, will, but you can move into  

a dark sound. Will, ill, ill, ill. Before  you lift your tongue tip because this L,  

an ending L is a dark L. Are you confused enough  yet about light L versus dark L? Don't worry,  

the academy and the YouTube channel  both have videos on that. Will like us. 

will like us.

Like us. The K links in to the u vowel of us,  

kuss, ,kuss, kuss, kuss kuss. This linking  together is part of the smoothness of American  

English. And I've pointed out here there are a lot  of places where she is not linking words to add  

stress, but in general, in conversational English,  we link words together all the time. Will like us. 

will like us.

And if all of that— 

And if all of that. If you slow down audio, you  hear even more clearly the up down shape of stress  

on our stress syllables. She puts a little break  here. And if all. So ‘and’ and ‘if’ they're just  

leading up to that stress. ‘Of’ is on our, is in  our little valley here. And if all of that. So  

you really want to feel the up down of the voice.  If you don't have very much pitch change in your  

voice, it's pretty hard to understand. And if all  of that. And if all of that. But when we have that  

pitch change, it makes everything clearer and it  also adds more stress here. And if all of that. 

And if all of that—

And if, and if, and if. So the D  

is releasing into the i as in sit vowel, linking  consonant to vowel, and if, and if, and if. And  

it's just going up to that peak of stress, and if  all. This is a dark L. All, all. Make sure you get  

that dark sound in there.

and if all of— 

All of, all of. The word ‘of’, I would  write that with schwa, of, of, of, of,  

and if all of. You know what's fun? These  two words linking together sound really a  

lot like the word olive. Do you like olives? I  love them. And if all of. And if all of that. 

and if all of that—

All of that. And she does  

release that ending T into a nice crisp true  T, bringing more stress to the word ‘that’. 

all of that—

She doesn't reduce the vowel,  

it's the a vowel. So the word that is a  word that can be stressed or unstressed. 

all of that—  

Back here we had a unstressed example. That, that, 

that. That pronunciation, really different.

That-- 

Then that, that, that. So comparing  those two different versions of that,  

can give you a really good feel of what a stressed  word feels like and an unstressed word feels like.  

So let's just play the unstressed ‘that’ and  the stressed ‘that’ back and forth a few times. 

that 

all of that is also true for a doll. Is also true for a doll. Okay, two more  

up down shapes of stress there. Is also true for  a doll. And she stresses that beginning consonant  

more than normal conversational English because  it brings more stress to the word. It's like,  

can you believe it? Not just a human,  but even a doll is feeling this pressure. 

is also true for a doll.

Is also true. Remember is,  

that ends in a Z sound not an S.

is also— 

Al, al, al. She sort of restresses this vowel, is  also, is al- also. There are a couple different  

ways you could think of this. I think of it  as the a as in law followed by dark L. Also,  

and again as a dark L you don't need  to lift your tongue tip for that.

Also. 

Also—

true for a doll. 

True for a, true for a. Okay, a couple interesting  things to notice here about our unstressed words.  

Thing number one, TR cluster this is pronounced  like a CHR sound. True, true. It links right into  

the for reduction. It's not for, it's pronounced  fr, fr, fr. And it links right into the schwa  

which is how we pronounce this article. For  a, for a, for a, true for a, true for a. 

True for a—

You know now  

that I've listened to this a few more times, I  think I actually want to erase this link because  

even though that's very normal in conversational  English, she doesn't really say ‘for a’, she says  

‘for a’. And that stresses it a little bit more.  This speech is all about showing how adding stress  

brings more emotion in. It's not necessarily very  conversational English. It's like giving a speech  

English. Giving a passionate speech.

true for a doll. 

Doll. A as in law, followed by dark L makes  it a little bit less open and don't lift  

your tongue tip for that dark L. It will  bring the sound forward in your mouth,  

and the dark L is made at the back. Doll,  my tongue tip is down for that sound. 

Doll—

Just— 

Just. Okay, this is interesting because ‘just’  is in its own thought group. Just but even so,  

it's so natural to reduce this word that she  doesn't say just, with an up down shape of stress,  

there is no up down shape of stress, it's  flat and the t is still dropped. Just. 

Also, it's not ah, a very pure, ah  vowel but it's more like schwa. Just. 

Just—

representing a woman, 

Representing a woman. Okay, two up down shape  of stress here. Even though the voice is  

getting quiet and whispery, we still hear those.  Representing a. The e as in bed vowel, woman. 

The uh vowel like and push,  the other words just part  

of the scoop up and the falling down.  Representing a. Notice this S is a Z. 

Representing—

a woman. 

Representing a woman. She does make a  little true T here, a little light release. 

representing a woman,

A woman, a woman. The schwa here links  

our two words together. A woman.

a woman— 

then—

Then. Again,  

flat. This does not have an up down shape of  stress of a stressed syllable. It's unstressed.  

Even though it's separated out from the thought  group. Then, then, then. It's not super clear,  

it's not then. Then, then. Tongue tip doesn't need  to come through for this voiced th, and I think  

it's not really coming through here. Then.

Then— 

I don't even know.

I don't even. Stress on I. I don't even. Don't  even, unstressed, flatter in pitch, no. Up down  

shape of stress. I don't even know. All linking  together, sliding together, one thought. Feels  

like one unit, with two up down shapes of stress.

I don't even know. 

Don't even. It's really common to pronounce  this with a dropped T when the next word begins  

with a vowel and it links into it. The next  word begins with the E vowel of even. Even. 

I don't even know.

Don't even. Don't even, don't even.

So, the N links into the E of even. Don't  even, don't even, don't even. No T at all. Try that.  

Don't even, don't even.

I don't even— 

And like we've seen in other spots in this  monologue, ending sound beginning sound, the same,  

because we know we don't say that k sound. It's a  silent K. So now, we link with the single N sound.  

Even know. And it ends with the O diphthong. You  will need a little bit of lip rounding for that.  

Even know. Even know. I don't even know.

I don't even know. 

It's very important to think of English in these  terms. What are our up down shapes of stress?  

What links together. The smoothness and the stress  are so important for clarity in speaking English. 

I don't even know.

Let's listen to the  

whole conversation one more time.

I'm just so tired of watching myself  

and every single other woman tie herself  into knots so that people will like us. 

And if all of that is also true for  a doll, just representing a woman,  

then I don't even know.

I hope you've enjoyed this video.

I absolutely love teaching about the  stress and music of spoken American English. 

Keep your learning going now with this video and  don't forget to subscribe with notifications on, I  

absolutely love being your English teacher. That's  it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.