GET BETTER at COMPREHENSION! [What makes American English sound American?!?]

Let's analyze real conversation to find out what  makes American English sound American and how  

you can improve your listening comprehension. In this video, I've just made a mess and I'm  

doing my best to clean it up. At the end I'll even  put in an imitation training section so you can  

work on mastering the American accent. First,  here's the whole conversation we'll analyze. 

I just spilled something on my carpet.  Unfortunately, in my office right in the  

middle. So now, I have to spend a few minutes  trying to get the stain out. I've been using  

this new charcoal toothpaste, I really like it,  but I was picking stuff up off my office floor  

when Sawyer called me. “Mom I need you”, and I  said “I'll be there in a second.” And of course,  

some charcoal toothpaste fell out  of my mouth right onto the floor. 

Now, let's do the analysis. I just spilled something on my carpet. 

I just spilled something on my carpet. So  we have a couple stressed syllables there.  

I'm hearing ‘spilled’ and ‘car’ as the most,  I just spilled something on my carpet. Now,  

I'm making my intonation go up because I'm  going to say a little bit more about it. So  

that's why ‘pit’ is higher than car, carpet. I'm Rachel and I've been teaching the American  

accent on YouTube for over 15 years. Go to  Rachelsenglish.com/free to get my free course,  

The Top Three Ways to Master the American Accent.

I just spilled something on my carpet. 

I just spilled something. Do you hear that  smoothness? How do we get it? I just spilled.  

Well, first of all, I dropped the T there. It's  common to drop the T in a cluster like ST when  

it's followed by a consonant. It's common  to drop the T between two other consonants.  

I just spilled.

I just spilled— 

I just spilled something— Spilled something. So we have a dark L, a D sound,  

an S, all linking together really smoothly with  no break, there's no lift to say something is  

a separate word than spilled. We don't do that in  American English unless we want to really stress  

something. Spilled something.

Just spilled something— 

The energy just keeps going forward. So the D, dd  isn't released but ‘spilled’, the vocal cords make  

that D sound and then go right into the S. I just  spilled something. I just spilled something. No  

breaks there. Now, I want to point out the L here,  spilled, that is the dark L, and I don't lift my  

tongue tip for that, spill, but the back of my  tongue shifts down and back a little bit to make  

that dark sound. I just spilled something.

I just spilled something— 

Okay, now here's a controversial question.  Do you think you should brush your teeth  

before or after breakfast? Let me know  in the comments. I love reading them. 

Now beware, ‘something’ has that unvoiced  th, tricky, tricky, something. We don't  

want something, we don't want two S's if we  can avoid it, we want something. Something. 

Something— on my carpet. 

On my carpet. On my, on my, on my. Those two  words, a little bit lower, flatter and pitch,  

less volume, a little less clear. Of course,  those are our unstressed words for contrast  

with our stress words. Carpet. It sounds like  IH as in sit T, doesn't it? I would actually  

have to look it up to know if the dictionary  calls IH as in sit or schwa because to me,  

they really sound the same in an unstressed  syllable. IH as in sit sounds the same as schwa,  

carpet, carpet, with a really clear  abrupt stop there for the stop T. 

on my carpet— unfortunately, 

Unfortunately, unfortunately. One word thought  group, stress on the second syllable, and I'm  

going up again so it's unfortunately.

Unfortunately, 

The stressed syllable has the AH as in law vowel  but followed by R, that does change it. So,  

it's the lips round a little bit more  and the mouth closes a little bit more,  

so instead of AH, it's oh, oh, more lip rounding,  tongue shifts back just a little bit, un-for-tu,  

so the first T is a CH sound the second.  The second T is a stop T. Fortunately. 

Unfortunately,

in my office. 

Unfortunately, in my office. So my intonation  keeps going up while I finish my thought. In  

my office. So, the stressed syllable of  office is where I have the pitch change.  

In my office, office.

In my office, 

right in the middle. Right in the middle, right in the middle.  

And again, going up and pitch, still connecting  my thought about what's happened, what I'm doing. 

It's right in the middle. Right in, right in. I notice I do a stop T there,  

right in, instead of a flap T to connect. Right  in, right in the middle. So that would be pretty  

common, but by not connecting it by doing a stop  T I'm stressing the word even more. It would have  

been convenient to have this stain over on the  side of my carpet, but instead it's in the middle,  

it's right in the middle. It's right in the middle. 

Right in the middle. Right, right, right. In the,  in the, in the. The next two words, less long,  

less clear, those are my unstressed words. In  the, in the, in the. See if you can do that with  

as little mouth movement as possible. In the, in  the middle. And then a pitch change, more volume,  

a little bit more time given. Middle.

It's right in the middle. 

Middle. This is so tricky, we've got a flap  sound. Just like the word ‘metal’. M-e-t-a-l.  

Both of these words end with the same sounds, and  that's flap schwa dark L. And these two sounds  

combine to just the dark L. Middle [flap].  So the front of the tongue flaps against  

the roof of the mouth and then the back of  the tongue, uhl, shifts down and back for the  

dark L. Really tricky sound combination  and if you go to the consonants course,  

you will find a soundboard that focuses just on  these sounds together. Flaps followed by dark L.  

Like in metal like in middle. But again, this L  is a dark l so don't lift your tongue tip for it. 

The middle,

so now, 

So now. So the word so, not too clear, not very  stressed. So now, but the word now I have a couple  

pitch changes on it. So now.

So now, 

So, so, so, so not really a whole  diphthong here.

So, so, so, so now. 

So now,

I have to spend a few minutes. 

So now, I have to spend a few minutes.  So my verb and my noun getting my length,  

my stress. I have to spend a few  minutes and that's typical verbs nouns,  

also sometimes adjectives and adverbs, those are  our function words that tend to get the stress. 

I have to spend a few minutes,

The H is a little bit unclear,  

it can be dropped. I have to, I have to, I'm not  sure I'm really hearing it, but I definitely want  

to point out ‘have’ followed by ‘to’, this is a  really common combination of words, and usually  

how we pronounce that is we change the V sound to  an F. Haf-to, and then that connects into the true  

T with schwa. I have to, I have to, have to, have  to. Isn't that funny how the T changes the V? 

I have to—

I have to, I have to, I have to. 

I have to— spend a few minutes. 

Spend a few minutes. Really smooth and  connected, spend a few. The D in spend  

releases right into the schwa. Spend a, spend a  few minutes. Even though we see the letter U here,  

that is also the IH as in sit vowel,  just like the first syllable, minutes. 

To spend a few minutes-- trying to get the stain out. 

Trying to get the stain out. Okay. Trying  to, trying to, trying to get the. Okay,  

we have stress on try, trying to. I'm not really  hearing the T and to. Let's talk about why. Well,  

first, let's address the TR cluster, that  almost always sounds like a CHR in American  

English and that's what I'm hearing here. I'm not hearing try, I'm hearing CH, chry. 

trying to get the--

Trying to becomes tryin’ to. Okay,  

what is happening. So, ing, it's fairly common  to drop the NG sound and just make an N Sound,  

trying to. Now, we have an N followed by a T and  it's pretty common to drop the T after N so that  

also gets dropped by changing the NG ending  to an N ending we then drop the T. So now we  

just add the schwa to the end of the word. So  trying to becomes tryna. Tryna, tryna, tryna. 

Trying to get the— stain out. 

Trying to get the stain out. Trying  to get the, get the, get the. Stop T,  

both words said pretty quickly. Stain  out and then I stress stain going up,  

stain out. The word out, just part of  that rising intonation and a stop T. 

Trying to get the stain out.

I've been using this new charcoal toothpaste. 

I've been using this new. So there we go again,  my verb. I've been using, it's my first peak of  

stress, my first stress word. I've been using  this new charcoal toothpaste. Then my noun  

and one of my adjectives, charcoal toothpaste.

I've been using this new charcoal toothpaste. 

And actually, I do make my intonation go up a  little bit at the end, toothpaste. Still talking,  

still forming my idea. Intonation going up shows  a couple things. It shows that you're uncertain  

or it can be that you're asking a yes no  question or it can be to signal that you  

have more to say and that's what's happening  here. Keeps going up because I'm sitting here  

talking to my camera and I haven't completed  my thought about this stain on my carpet. 

I've been using this new charcoal toothpaste.

I've been, I've been, I've been. So the V almost  

gets lost here next to the B. You can think of  it as just the I diphthong, I’ve been, I’ve been,  

why is that?

I've been— 

The ending V honestly is a pretty weak sound,  which is why have to loses the V and it instead  

becomes an F. So here the B is just sort of  taking over that V sound. I've been, I've been,  

I've been. Even though I don't think of it as  being dropped, I definitely hear it as dropped  

when I go back and listen. I've been, I've been.

I've been— 

I've been using this new charcoal toothpaste. I've been using this new. Smoothly connected,  

using, that letter S is a Z. Using this new  charcoal toothpaste. So, new, also an adjective  

not stressed here. I'm really stressing charcoal,  the kind of toothpaste that it is and it's just  

the first syllable the stressed syllable that's  going to have that stress. Charcoal. We still  

have an unstressed syllable there. Coal, coal,  coal. And guess what? It ends in a dark L,  

the next sound is a consonant. Don't lift your  tongue tip for that. Coal, coal, charcoal. 

Charcoal— Toothpaste. 

Toothpaste, toothpaste. Too clear true Ts. One  because it begins a stressed syllable and the  

other because it's part of a cluster. If a word  ends in a cluster like ST, FT and it does not  

link into a consonant, like here it's the end of  my thought so it doesn't link into anything. Then  

you will hear a true T.

Toothpaste. 

I really like it. I really like it. I really,  

I'm really stressing the word really. I really like it. 

I really like it. So ‘real’ and ‘I’ get my stress,  one of them is up down, the other is down up. I  

really like it. Lots of intonation change there.  I'm not saying I really like it, but I really  

like it. Much more varied. That adds more emotion  more stress to it. I don't just think it's okay,  

I really like this toothpaste.

I really like it. 

The word ‘really’ has several pronunciations. The  way I'm doing it here. Re-, first syllable stress,  

rea-lly. So you can think of this as a light L,  you can lift your tongue tip. This is a light L,  

it begins the word, you can lift your tongue tip.  I really. I really like it. I really like it. 

I really like it.

Smoothly connected,  

a little bit more length on the R to stress it.  I really like it, like it. This ending K releases  

right into the IH as in sit vowel to make that a  smooth connection and then we end with a stop T. 

I really like it.

But, 

But, but. It's own sort of separate  little word. But. Stop T, abrupt ending. 

But,

I was— 

I was. Now, I was. There a little two-word thought  group I put a little break there. What is the  

stressed word. Only one of them is.

I was— 

I was. I was is not was but it's was, I was.  I would write that w schwa Z, it all links  

together really smoothly but was doesn't have  much of a vowel. I was, unstressed, reduced. 

I was—

picking stuff up. 

Picking stuff up. So, a phrasal verb to pick  up. I've really put stress on both parts of that  

phrasal verb. Picking stuff up.

Picking stuff up— 

Picking stuff up. A little bit of a break  here even. Picking stuff up. And that little  

break lets me emphasize that beginning vowel  a little bit more. Stress that word. This is  

what happened. I was picking stuff up. Now I'm  using this intonation, I'm a little frustrated  

about what happened and that's why I'm  stressing the story a little bit more. 

Picking stuff up.

Stuff, also has that UH as a butter vowel,  

so stuff up, same vowel, uh, uh.

Stuff up— 

off my office floor. Off my office floor. So stress on off, off my  

office floor, then floor has two changes in pitch.

Off my office floor, 

Why do we do that? We do that when  we're exasperated. When we want  

to add more emotion. It's not just my  office floor but it's my office floor. 

Off my office floor—

Off my office. I love this. Off is all AH in law  

F, off my office, and office begins with the same  two sounds. So we have stressed, unstressed. And  

then stressed, unstressed. Off my office. Off my office— 

Off my office, off my office. Off has a little bit  of stress but not like floor, which has a lot of  

stress. You've probably noticed the word office  ends in the S sound. IH as in sit S. Office. 

My office— Floor, 

The word floor, door, core, more, those are both  written, those are all written schwa R, not a pure  

A, but more closed. Oo, oo, oo. Floor.

Floor. 

when Sawyer called me. when Sawyer called me. 

When soy, stressed syllable, peak of stress.  Sawyer called me. Another stress word,  

changing direction. I'm still making my  pitch go up. Because I'm still telling  

all the parts of my story, and when I get  to my conclusion, my pitch will go down. 

When Sawyer called me.

When Sawyer called me. And linking together,  

no breaks or skips between our words. When Sawyer. Sawyer is written with the  

OY diphthong, schwa R ending, Sawyer called me.  Called me. Dark L, D-M. No break. AH as in law,  

dark L, don't lift your tongue tip. D, don't  release the D, just go right into the M. Called  

me, called me. And then of course the E vowel.  So, dark L, no lifting of tongue tip. Called. Oh,  

sorry I was almost going to make my intonation  go up down, but here it goes down up. Called  

me. Do you hear the D sound before the M  but without D, a release. Called me. It's  

hard to hold that out, but the vocal cords  vibrate. Tongue is in position for the D. 

When Sawyer called me.

Mom I need you. 

So my voice is higher, is breathier, as I'm  quoting my son. Mom, I need you. So me, the  

person he's calling, the person whose attention  he's getting, and the verb, both stressed. Linked  

together smoothly. Notice the D, into the Y,  that is becoming a J sound. Need you. Need you. 

Mom I need you. And I said— 

Mom I need you. And I said. So all of  this linking together I'm not putting  

a break because of the period I'm still  connecting it.

Mom I need you, and I said— 

And I said, and I said. Little bit of pitch  change on ‘said’ but ‘and’ and ‘I’, pretty flat,  

dropped the D, and I, and I, and I, and I said. And I said, 

I'll be there in a second. I'll be there in a second. So again,  

my voice is a little breathy, my pitch  is a little higher because I'm quoting  

myself in the past. I'll be there in a  second. So two stressed syllables there. 

I'll be there in a second.

B and Se, the words ‘I will’,  

become all, all, all.

I'll be there— 

Said so quickly. You can think of it sort of  is being this word. I’ll, but really fast. 

I‘ll, I’ll, I’ll, I'll be I'll be. I'll be  there. I'll be there in a second. And ‘in a’,  

linking together really smoothly. This  is the schwa of course. Unstressed. Less  

volume, flatter and pitch.

I'll be there in a second. 

Second. Second. So, not hearing a d released.  Second, second, but it's almost like a little stop  

after the nd, second, because it's not second. The  end doesn't just keep going down. It does sort of  

cut off, which has us feel that D. Second.

For a second. 

And of course, some charcoal toothpaste. So, I put a break here, breaking up my  

thought groups, the connection is really  smooth, what are ,our stressed syllables? 

and of course some charcoal toothpaste. And of course, and of course. So,  

the word of course, and of course, is stressed,  the D gets dropped, and of, an of, an of. 

and of course,

Little bit of a down up,  

and of course. And just like the word core,  more, door, floor, it's AH as in law, R, so not  

a pure vowel but lips round a bit more, tongue  shifts back a little bit, o, o, o, o, course. 

and of course, some charcoal toothpaste. 

And of course, some charcoal toothpaste.  Okay, so let's look here. And of course,  

some, no break. Linking together with  a single S sound. And of course, some. 

and of course, some— Also, some is not some,  

but it's sum, reducing to the schwa, said  really quickly. Sum, and of course, sum, 

and of course, some— charcoal toothpaste. 

Charcoal toothpaste, so stress on  char, going up, charcoal toothpaste. 

Some charcoal toothpaste. Some charcoal too, so dark L here,  

don't lift your tongue tip and  it links right into a true T,  

toothpaste, try to get that unvoiced  TH there if you can. Tooth. Toothpaste. 

Some charcoal toothpaste. Paste, paste. Do you hear that  

true T release? If I linked it into to the word  ‘fell’, toothpaste fell, the T would be gone.  

It would be dropped, because it would come  between two vowel sounds. But because I put  

a little break here, separating it away from the  word, I do make that a clear true T. Toothpaste. 

Toothpaste— fell out of my mouth, 

Fell out of my mouth. Fell, exaggerated.  Scoop up, fell out of my mouth. Up down  

and then back up again. Fell out of my mouth, 

Fell out of my, fell out of my. So, let's talk  about the word fell. That's a dark L, fell. But  

when a dark L links into a vowel or diphthong,  then we do lift our tongue tip. Fell out,  

out. It's almost like a light L begins the next  word, fell out, fell out, fell out of my. Let's  

look at our three words, out of my.

Fell out of my— 

Fell out of my, fell out of my, out of my,  out of my, out of my. Smooth, right? Flap T,  

the word of reduces to just the schwa and that  schwa links smoothly into the M. Out of my,  

out of my, out of my, out of my. Out of my becomes  out of my, out of my. Smooth, connected, easy to  

say. Out of my. Or in this case, since our pitch  is going up, out of my, out of my, out of my. 

Fell out of my— fell out of my mouth, 

Fell out of my mouth, fell out of my  mouth, mouth, mouth. Again, unvoiced TH,  

tongue tip does come through  there. Mouth, mouth, mouth, mouth. 

My mouth— right onto the floor. 

Right onto the floor. Right onto the. So, we have  some nice smooth connection of flap T, helps us  

with that. Right onto the, right on, right on.  So, the T, you might look and say wait, this is  

not a vowel, no G and H are consonant letters but  in IPA with the I, they make the I diphthong. So,  

right has the I diphthong before it. So, the T  is made of flap T, because it comes between two  

vowels or diphthong sounds. Right on, right on. Right onto the floor. 

Right onto the. Super light, super duper light  true T here. I've definitely heard that become  

more of a flap T, onto, onto, but I'm hearing  a really like true T I think, onto, onto, onto,  

that's definitely not to but tuh, schwa,  onto, onto, onto the, onto the, onto the. 

right onto— right onto the floor. 

Right onto the floor. Okay, so again, floor, I  have two pitch changes. It just shows exasperation  

and emotion and I did promise you when I got to  the end the story that my intonation would go  

down and look, it doesn't. Right onto the floor. 

I was wrong. I actually know that I did keep  going with this little monologue, but I had  

to cut it off to make this video a decent length.  So it's sort of a conclusion, but I also did keep  

going and share a few more thoughts I think that's  why. I made my intonation go up again at the end.  

Floor, I was so annoyed by the whole thing.

Right onto the floor. 

And again, just like with course, this floor  a plus r is not a pure a but a little bit more  

rounded. Flo-o, floor, floor.

The floor. 

In case you're curious, I did get the stain out,  I also don't use that charcoal toothpaste anymore,  

even though I liked it. Alright, let's  listen to this monologue one more time. 

I just spilled something on my carpet,  unfortunately, in my office, right in the middle. 

So now, I have to spend a few  minutes trying to get the stain out. 

I've been using this new charcoal toothpaste. I really like it. But, I was picking stuff up  

off my office floor when Sawyer called me. “Mom  I need you.” And I said, “I'll be there in a  

second.” And of course some charcoal toothpaste  fell out of my mouth, right onto the floor. 

In this training section, you'll hear each  sentence fragment twice in slow motion then  

three times at regular pace. Each time, there  will be a pause for you to speak out loud.  

Imitate exactly what you hear. Do this training  twice a day, every day this week and see how the  

conversation flows at the end of the week.

I just spilled something on my carpet. 

Unfortunately, in my office, right in the middle.

So now, I have to spend a few minutes, 

trying to get the stain out.

I've been using this new charcoal toothpaste.

I really like it. But, 

I was

Picking stuff 

up off my office floor.

when Sawyer called me.

‘Mom, I need you.’ And I said,” 

“I'll be there a second.”

And of course, charcoal toothpaste 

Fell out of my mouth,

right onto the floor. 

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.