Rachel's English Trifle ✏️Learn English with Friends TV Show 👀Rachel’s English

Thanksgiving is just around the corner,

so, today we're going to study

the Friends Thanksgiving episode

where Rachel famously makes an English trifle.

It's the Rachel's English trifle.

We're going to take a little scene from this episode

and we're going to do a full pronunciation analysis.

So, by the end of this video,

you're going to be able to speak English

just like Rachel Green.

Here's the scene.

So, if I mess this up,

there's nothing else for dessert?

You're not gonna mess it up.

Wow, Monica, I love that.

You really have faith in me.

Thank you. - Yeah.

Technical question,

how do you know when the butter's done?

Well, it's done about two minutes

before it looks like that.

Actually, next week, we're going to do another scene

from this same episode.

It's where Rachel is describing the trifle to Joey and Ross.

So, be sure to come back and check that out.

Now, let's do the full analysis.

What makes American English sound American?

It has a lot to do with the stress

and we'll talk about that.

So, if I, if I mess this up

In this first phrase, she repeats herself.

She repeats if I, and these two words are linked together

and said so quickly both times.

If I, If I.

If I, If I, If I, If I, If I, If I.

So, if I, if I.

So, if I, if I.

So, if I, if I.

So, the words are unstressed,

they're flatter in pitch.

If I, If I, If I, If I.

And they link together with that F consonant.

So, we have the ih vowel, which we barely hear,

the F consonant, which links right into the I diphthong,

f'I, f'I, f'I, f'I.

So, if I, if I.

So, if I, if I.

So, if I, if I mess this up.

The word so is longer, it's more stressed.

So, f'I, f'I.

And then, we have mess this up.

And the pitch goes up.

That's to show that she is not done talking.

This is the first part of what she wants to say.

So, if I, if I mess this up.

So, if I, if I mess this up.

So, if I, if I mess this up.

If I, if I,

unstressed links together, no break.

And then, the word this also unstressed.

Listen to the words mess this up.

Mess this up,

Mess this up,

Mess this up.

Mess this up, mess this up.

Mess up, more stressed.

This, said very quickly, flatter and lower in pitch.

Mess this up.

Mess this up,

Mess this up

Mess this up.

And everything links together very smoothly.

No breaks between words.

Mess this up,

Mess this up,

Mess this up,2

there's nothing else for dessert?

The P in up is not released.

It's not up there's.

But it's up there's.

Up, lips come together for the P,

but there's no puff of air, no release.

That's because the next word begins with a consonant,

and that's fairly common for stop consonants.

Up there's.

Up there's, up there's.

- Mess this up, there's,

mess this up, there's,

mess this up, there's nothing else for dessert?

Let's listen to the rest of the sentence.

What are our stressed words?

- There's nothing else for dessert?

There's nothing else for dessert?

There's nothing else for dessert?

Nothing, else, dessert.

And again, dessert, pitch goes up, just like it did here.

Now, here at the end of up,

it went up because she was continuing her thought.

Here it's goes up because it's a yes-no question.

There's nothing else for dessert?

- There's nothing else for dessert?

There's nothing else for dessert?

There's nothing else for dessert?

No, there's nothing else for dessert.

So, noth, else and ssert are our stressed syllables.

Let's look at the word there's.

There's nothing,

There's nothing,

There's nothing.

It's not fully pronounced

with the eh vowel, is it?

It's more like there's, there's, there's.

I would write that with a TH, schwa, R, Z.

There's, there's.

There's nothing, there's nothing.

There's nothing,

there's nothing,

there's nothing.

This is a common way to pronounce this word.

It can reduce here.

It's not one of the more important words in the sentence.

There's nothing, there's nothing, there's nothing.

The word nothing, we have an unvoiced TH,

that sound can me tricky.

Tongue tip does have to come through the teeth for that.

Nothing, nothing.

And even though we have the letter O here,

it's not an O sound, it's the uh as in butter sound, nuh.

Noth, nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing else.

Nothing else, nothing else, nothing else for dessert?

What do you notice about the word for?

Nothing else for dessert?

Nothing else for dessert?

Nothing else for dessert?

It's not for, is it?

For dessert, it's for dessert.

For, for, for.

That word reduces.

The vowel changes to the schwa.

And schwa gets absorbed by the R.

So, we try not to even make a vowel there.

For, for, for.

For dessert?

- For dessert?

For dessert?

For dessert?

And you might be noticing

the double S in this word, dessert, is pronounced as a Z.

Dessert?

- Dessert?

Dessert?

Dessert?

What happens to the T

at the end of this word?

Do you hear it?

- Dessert?

Dessert?

Dessert?

No, we don't hear it.

She makes that a stop.

Dessert, dessert.

It's not dessert.

- Dessert?

Dessert?

Dessert?

You're not gonna mess it up.

So, Monica gives her

a very friendly, kind response.

What are her most stressed words?

- You're not gonna mess it up.

You're not gonna mess it up.

You're not gonna mess it up.

You're not.

Little bit more up-down shape there.

Little more length, little more stress.

You're not, mess it up.

And then, up has the most stress.

It's part of that phrasal verb.

So, she's stressing the phrasal verb, to mess something up,

and then, she's stressing the word not.

The other words are less stressed

and every word in this thought group flows together.

There's no break between words.

Very smooth connection.

- You're not gonna mess it up.

You're not gonna mess it up.

You're not gonna mess it up.

Do we have any reductions?

Let's look.

How about you are?

How is this contraction pronounced?

- You're not, you're not, you're not.

You're, you're, you're not, you're.

Very fast, very low in pitch, very low in volume.

You're, you're, you're, you're not, you're not.

It's gotta sound really different than not

and let it blend right into it.

No break, very smooth connection.

You're not, you're not.

The T at the end of not is a stop T,

we don't wanna release, t, that is not what she does.

- You're not,

you're not gonna mess it up.

Stop T because the next word

begins with a consonant, the G consonant.

Now we have going to.

That is reduced, isn't it?

She doesn't say going to, she says gonna.

That's so common in conversational English.

And it's said very quickly, isn't it?

Gonna, gonna, gonna.

Actually, these four words, going to mess it,

are all said pretty quickly.

Gonna mess it, gonna mess it, gonna mess it.

Gonna mess it,

And they all link together really smoothly.

The schwa at the end of gonna

glides right into M with no break, gonna mess.

Then, the ending S sound, now here, double S, is and S,

links right into the vowel of it,

mess it, mess it, mess it, mess it.

Gonna mess it, gonna mess it, gonna mess it.

- Gonna mess it,

What about the T in it?

Mess it up,

This is actually a really quick flapped T

connecting the two words.

It's very common to make a T a flapped T

when it comes before and after a vowel.

And that's what happens here.

Mess it up, mess it up.

Mess it uh, tuh, tuh, tuh, tuh.

Really quick flap of the tongue on the roof of the mouth.

Mess it up,

And here at the end of the thought group,

it's not followed by another word.

She does do a really light release of the P sound.

Mess it up.

Mess it up,

What does the phrasal verb mess up mean?

Mess this up, mess it up.

It means to do it the wrong way.

You can mess up a recipe.

You can mess up a relationship.

"I messed up, I forgot to call him."

You can mess up anything.

To do something the wrong way, to forget something,

to get something messy, "I messed up my new shirt.

"I got makeup on it."

And Rachel here is afraid she's gonna mess up the dessert.

Mess it up,

Wow, Monica, I love that.

You really have faith in me.

Thank you. - Yeah.

What are our stressed syllables

in this phrase.

Wow, Monica, I love that.

You really have faith in me.

Thank you. - Yeah.

- Wow, Monica, I love that.

You really have faith in me.

Thank you. - Yeah.

- Wow, Monica, I love that.

You really have faith in me.

Thank you. - Yeah.

- [Instructor] Wow, Monica,

I love that.

I and that less stressed.

Also, the unstressed syllables nica, nica, nica.

Monica, Monica.

So, on the stressed syllables,

our voice has this up-down shape, more length,

and on the unstressed syllables,

they're said more quickly and the pitch is flatter.

Wow, Monica.

- Wow, Monica, I love that.

Wow, Monica, I love that.

Wow, Monica, I love that.

If you listen to just I love that,

you can notice that the word love is longer, it's stronger,

it is the center of that phrase.

I love that, I love that.

- I love that,

And it ends in a stop T.

That's because it goes right into the next word,

which begins with the Y consonant.

- I love that, you really have faith in me.

I love that, you really have faith in me.

I love that, you really have faith in me.

All of these words link together very smoothly, no breaks.

Now, with the word you.

Okay, that can be written,

that is written with these two symbols in IPA

and I often call this a diphthong,

like in the word music or in the word use.

But sometimes, it does function like a consonant and a vowel

and it does that when it comes after a T.

So, this sound combination,

even though I sometimes call that a diphthong,

will not turn a T before it into a flapped T.

So, it's a stop T.

Now, in the phrase you really have faith in me,

what is our stress?

- You really have faith in me.

You really have faith in me.

You really have faith in me.

I'm hearing you as stressed.

You really, you really.

Really is then lower, you really have faith,

then, more of that up-down shape.

You really have faith in me.

And a little bit of the up-down on me.

So, really have, lower in pitch, flatter,

same with the word in,

but everything links together really smoothly,

it's all in the same line,

ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.

You really have faith in me.

So smooth.

- You really have faith in me.

You really have faith in me.

You really have faith in me.

In the word faith,

we have another unvoiced TH.

Tricky sound, tongue tip must come through.

And that links right into the next vowel,

faith in, faith in, thin, thin, thin, thin.

It's like the word thin.

Thin, faith in, faith in, faith in.

That's how much words link together.

The ending sound can sound like it begins the next word.

Faith in.

Faith in, faith in, faith in.

Faith in me.

- Faith in me,

Thank you.

Thank you.

Which of those two syllables is stressed?

- Thank you,

It's the first one.

Thank you.

And then the pitch falls off from thank,

and you just falls into that line.

Thank you, thank you.

Now, again, we have an unvoiced TH here.

I know this is a tricky sound.

Sorry that you're getting so many here

in this little dialogue.

Lots of practice.

- Thank you,

Tongue tip comes through the teeth.

Now, let's talk about the vowel here.

This is from the Thanksgiving episode.

Thank, Thanksgiving.

Yes, it is Thanksgiving.

And one thing I'm thankful for is this tree.

I have an amazing tree outside of my office window.

And today, I wanted to bring a fundraiser to your attention.

Do any of you know or follow MrBeast?

When he reached 20 millions subscribers on YouTube,

his fan base challenged him to plant 20 million trees.

And so, he's teamed up with a foundation

called the Arbor Day Foundation

to plant 20 million trees and he needs your help.

So, if you're able to give a dollar to this fundraiser

before the end of the year,

then, the Arbor Day Foundation will plant one tree.

One dollar, one tree.

What a great deal.

It's easy, go to teamtrees.org,

enter the number of trees you want to plant,

and you're done.

Now, I know money doesn't grow on trees

but if you have any extra to give this season,

please, consider giving to this fundraiser at teamtrees.org.

Let's help MrBeast meet this amazing goal.

Can YouTube do it?

Can you do it?

That's teamtrees.org.

I've given and I invite you to give right now.

Actually, I'm gonna take a little bit from MrBeast's video

to remind you to give this very second.

Teamtrees.org is at the top of my video description

and it's also in the pinned comment.

Check it out.

Okay, let's get back to the analysis.

Thank, Thanksgiving.

This will all be written in IPA with the ah as in bat vowel.

And did you know that the N in this word

is actually the ng sound?

Thank.

So, it's made with the back of the tongue,

touching the soft palate,

not the front of the tongue in the front of the mouth.

Thank, thank.

You might be saying, "Well, I don't hear ah."

Thank, ah.

Thank.

No, you're right.

When the ah vowel is followed by ng sound, that changes.

Ah becomes more like ay.

Thay, the ay diphthong.

Thank.

And that's because of this ng sound.

Ah followed by ng.

That's what you'll see in the dictionary,

but that's really not what it is.

That turns it into and ay diphthong.

Thay, thank, thank you.

Thank you.

And it's the same in the word Thanksgiving.

It's not thah, thanks

but thay, thanks.

Thanksgiving.

- Thank you,

Technical question.

Okay.

Now, she raises her finger.

She has a lot of energy here.

Two-word thought group.

What are our stressed syllables here?

- Technical question,

Technical question.

Both of those stressed syllables

in those words are stressed.

Technical question.

So, we have a three-syllable word

and then a two-syllable word,

and they each have one stressed syllable.

The CH sound,

sorry, the CH letters here make the K sound.

Technical.

The letter C also makes the K sound.

Technical, technical.

Now, don't try to make a vowel here.

This is just schwa L,

and the L does absorb the schwa.

So, you don't need to try to make a separate vowel sound.

Cal, cal, cal, cal.

Just K and then quick dark L.

Technical, technical.

Technical, technical, technical question.

Question.

We have another K sound here,

it's in the cluster KW, kwah, kwah.

The lips do have to round for that W.

Question.

And the letter T makes a CH sound, ch, ch.

Tion, tion, question.

And again, there's no real vowel here.

It's the schwa.

And schwa is also absorbed by N.

So, L, N, M, and R,

all absorb the schwa.

Those are called syllabic consonants.

So, you don't need to try to make a vowel there.

That will help you

make that unstressed syllable more quickly.

Technical question.

Technical question.

- Technical question,

When we break it down like this,

it makes words that can be tricky

feel a little bit more simple, doesn't it?

Technical question.

Really focusing on stress can help with longer words.

- Technical question,

technical question, Technical question,

how do you know when, uh, the butter is done?

Okay. Then she has a little bit of a longer thought group.

She breaks I up with uh.

What are our most stressed words here,

in the first part of this thought group?

- How do you know when, uh, the butter is done?

How do you know when, uh, the butter is done?

How do you know when, uh, the butter is done?

How do you know when, uh.

How do you know when.

So, how and know are our most stressed words there.

Do and you are not pronounced do you.

How are they pronounced?

- How do you know when,

how do you know when,

Both of those vowels change to the schwa.

So, it's not do you, it's duh ya.

I'll just write that over here.

How d'ya, how d'ya, how d'ya.

Not how do you.

These reductions are what help Americans

add rhythmic contrast to English.

So, it helps us make words

that are less important even shorter,

so that they provide contrast to the longer words.

How d'ya, How d'ya, how d'ya.

How d'ya,

- How d'ya, how d'ya, how d'ya know

when, uh, the butter is done?

How d'ya know when, uh.

How d'ya know when, uh.

Know when, how d'ya.

All of these words glide together

so smoothly with no breaks.

Even the N in when glides right into the thinking vowel uh.

Know when, uh, know when, uh.

- How d'ya know when, uh,

how d'ya know when, uh, the butter is done?

What about stress

in this last little part of the thought group?

- The butter is done,

The butter is done.

Now, this is a question but it's not a yes-no question,

so, it can go down in pitch.

The, said very quickly, the has a schwa at the end.

The, the, the, the.

The butter, the butter, the butter.

The butter,

What to you notice about the two Ts here?

That's a flap sound.

The T sound comes between two vowels here,

so, just a quick flap of the tongue

against the roof of the mouth.

Butter, butter, butter.

As soon as it comes down from the flap

it pulls back a little bit for the schwa-R sound.

Butter, butter.

- The butter,

the butter, the butter is done.

The butter is done.

So, the second syllable of butter is flatter and unpitched,

so is is, they link right together.

Eris, eris, eris, butter is, butter is.

The butter is done.

And then, again an up-down shape of stress.

So, in the word butter, we have the uh vowel.

We have that same vowel on done.

It's written with the letter O, but it's the uh vowel.

Done.

Butter is done.

- The butter is done,

the butter is done

- Well, it's done about two minutes

before it looks like that.

Okay, Monica's response.

What are our most stressed words?

- Well, it's done about two minutes

before it looks like that.

Well, it's done about two minutes before it looks like that.

Well, it's done about two minutes before it looks like that.

Well, some stress there.

Well, it's done about two minutes,

the most stress on the word two.

Two minutes before it looks like that.

Looks, like and that, all a little bit longer,

all have a little bit of that stressed quality.

The other words are said more quickly,

they don't have that up-down shape of stress.

- Well, it's done about two minutes

before it looks like that.

Well, it's done about two minutes before it looks like that.

Well, it's done about two minutes before it looks like that.

It's done about,

it's done about, it's done about.

Flatter and always links together very smoothly.

It's done about two minutes before it looks like that.

A little bit of stress on min,

minutes before it, minutes before it,

minutes before it looks like that.

Looks like that.

What's happening with our Ts here?

In the word about we have an ending T.

In the word two we have a beginning T.

Those link together with a single true T.

About two.

- Well, it's done about two minutes

before it looks like that.

Well, it's done about two minutes before it looks like that.

Well, it's done about two minutes before it looks like that.

And then, we have two stop Ts.

It looks like that.

So here, it's a stop T

because the next word begins with a consonant.

And here, it's a stop T

because it's at the end of a thought group.

You really have to be careful with ending Ts.

They're usually a stop T or a flapped T.

It would be a flapped T

if the next word began with a vowel or diphthong.

And sometimes,

when it's in an ending cluster, like the word just,

it will be dropped altogether

because it will link into a word

that begins with a consonant,

like in the phrase just my.

So, here the T comes between two other consonants,

we often drop that T.

So, ending Ts can be tricky.

- It looks like that,

Also, in the word minutes,

I just wanna point out that we have the letter U

but it is the ih as in sit vowel.

Minutes, minutes, minutes.

- Minutes, minutes, minutes.

Let's listen to the whole conversation one more time.

So, if I, if I mess this up,

there's nothing else for dessert?

You're not gonna mess it up.

Wow, Monica, I love that.

You really have faith in me.

Thank you.

Technical question,

how do you know when uh, the butter is done?

Well, it's done about two minutes

before it looks like that.

- As I said earlier, next week,

we're going to look at another scene from this episode.

This is what we'll study next week.

- Rach, you're killing us here.

Will you serve the dessert already?

- What is it? - It's a trifle.

It's got all of these layers.

First, there's a layer of ladyfingers,

then a layer of jam,

then custard, which I made from scratch,

then beef sauteed with peas and onions,

then a little bit more custard, and then bananas,

and then I just put some whipped cream on top!

- What was the one right before bananas?

- The beef?

Yeah, that was weird to me, too.

But then, you know, I thought "Well, there's mincemeat pie,"

I mean, that's an English dessert.

These people just put very strange things

in their food, you know.

By the way, can I borrow some rum from your place?

- Yeah, sure. - Okay.

And while I'm gone, don't you boys sneak a taste.

- Okay.

- If you love learning English with TV,

we do have a whole playlist for that, check it out.

And if you love this kind of full pronunciation analysis,

I do a lot of it in my academy.

My academy is where I help students train

and really reach they're accent,

they're pronunciation goals.

It's Rachel's English Academy.

There's a 30-day money back guarantee,

so, don't be afraid to try it.

Also, don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel.

I make a new video every Tuesday.

That's it, guys.

And thanks so much for using Rachel's English.