American English Accent Practice with the TV Show FRIENDS!

Did Joey get his big break? Let’s find out  as we study a scene from the show ‘Friends’  

to learn American English pronunciation.  We’re going to do an in-depth analysis so  

you understand everything about what was said  and why. Let’s start firs with this scene.

I got fired.

Oh!

They said I acted too much with it.

I told everybody about this. Now everyone is  going to go to the theater expecting to see me.

Joey, you know what? No one  is going to be able to tell.

My mom will.

And now, the in-dept analysis.

I got fired.

Oh!

The context of this scene  is Joey was cast in a movie,  

an Al Pacino movie, a famous American Actor and  this was feeling like his big break. The role that  

he had was not actually a role, he was a double  for Al Pacino for a shower scene where it was  

just going to be the back of Joey and so he was  calling himself Al Pacino’s butt double, his butt  

double. Now, he’s been cut. He’s been fired from  the movie and here he is, feeling bad for himself.

I got fired.

We start off with a simple three-word  phrase. The words are not given equal  

weight. The word ‘fired’ is more stressed and  we know that because it’s got a change in pitch.

I got fired.

Fired. And this up-down shape of stress  is the most common thing we do with our  

voice to show stress. I and got are on  their way up. I got, I got, I got fired.  

And this stress in this melody is an important  part of sounding natural in American English.

Let’s look at the T here. This is a stop  T. The rules for T pronunciations are we  

make it a stop T if it comes before a consonant.  

So here, the next word is fired. So rather than  saying I got fired with a full T, we say I got,  

I got, I got. That abrupt stop is the T. We  stop the air in out throat. I got, I got fired.

I got fired.

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can see it.

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

the stress and the linking. So be sure to check  

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

I got fired.

Fired. Now the ed ending here or in this  case, just a d because fire ends in an e,  

just adds an extra sound and it’s  D so if I was going to write this  

out in the International Phonetic  Alphabet, it would be F consonant,  

I as in by diphthong, fire, then schwa R  and we’re adding a d for past tense. Fired.

Fired.

Oh!

Everyone is disappointed, making disappointed  noises, up-down shape of stress. Oh.

Oh!

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it.

So we got some up-down shape of  stress, some melody there. Yeah,  

a little on there, yeah. They said I,  a little one there. They said I acted  

too much with it. Acted our verb  has most stress in this phrase.

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it.

This idea of some words being stressed and longer  and more important and some words being unstressed  

and faster and less important, this idea is  what makes up the rhythm of American English,  

we don’t have every syllable being the  same length but we have varied length.

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it.

And it’s said pretty quickly because of  those unstressed words being so fast.  

They said I. They is not pronounced  ‘they’, It’s pronounced they, they,  

fast, simple. They said I,  they said I, they said I.

They said I--

They said I acted too much with it.

Also, everything links together really smoothly.  The D links right into the I diphthong for I,  

so said I, said I. Sounds like you can  almost hear the word ‘die’ in there. Die,  

die, die, said I, said I, said I,  because of the linking and that’s  

an important characteristic of American English.  Smoothness, linking words together. They said I.  

Practice just that. See if you can really simplify  your mouth movements. They said I, they said I.

They said I--

They said I acted too much with it.

Acted too much. Acted. Acted. So  here we have ah as in bat vowel  

in our stressed syllable and he’s really  bringing that out. Ah, ah, acted, acted.

Acted--

To bring even more stress to that word.  The ed ending here, adds an extra syllable,  

it’s ih as in sit D, so the ed ending  is different, we have three different  

cases. I do have a series of YouTube videos  on those different cases so you know exactly  

how to pronounce the ed ending, I’ll link  to the playlist in the video description

Acted--

acted too much with it.

Do you hear how ah is higher? Acted to. The second  syllable and the word ‘to’, they are lower in  

pitch, they are unstressed. Acted too much with  it. Then again we end with two unstressed words.

acted too much with it.

Lower and said more quickly, with it, with  it, with it. So we do have an unvoiced th  

here but don’t put too much pressure into  it, tt. It’s actually relaxed especially  

because it’s an unstressed word. With  it, with it, with it. It’s very fast.

The T at the end is a stop t so I said before,  we make a t a stop t when the next sound is a  

consonant but we also make it a stop t at the  end of a phrase. Not always but often. So he  

doesn’t say with it. He says with it. With  it, it. And that abrupt stop is the stop T.

with it.

Acted too much with it. I do want to talk about  this word, ‘too’ because it’s different than this  

word, ‘to’. Because this word often reduces. This  one never reduces, we never change the sounds.  

So it’s always pronounced true t and the  u vowel too, too, too. Too much with it.

Too much with it.

I told everybody about this.

And everyone laughs. The reason why this is funny  is because he didn’t have any lines. He was I  

think playing a dead person in a hospital  or a person who was unconscious in a coma.

I told everybody about this.

Okay now, he’s feeling a lot of emotion here  and that means his stressed syllable is even  

more stressed. Listen to this phrase. And  listen for where is there the most energy,  

the highest pitch, that up-down  shape. Where do you hear that?

I told everybody about this.

Ev. And he even gives us a hand  gesture so we know for sure. Now  

the reason why I’m talking so  much about stress is because I  

want you to really understand that it  is important in American English that  

you give variation to your syllable length.  Do not make every syllable the same length.

I told everybody about this.

I told everybody about this. So, just  like up here when I got was going up  

in pitch. I told we’re going up towards our  stressed syllable ah, everybody about this.

everybody about this.

I told everybody about this. He  even does a little break here to  

attack the eh vowel a little bit  more, eh, eh. I told everybody

I told everybody--

Let’s just look at this word really quickly.  It looks like it’s pronounced ever-e.  

But actually forget this letter e, just put  the r right with the v, evry, every, everybody.

everybody--

Practice that with Joey. Everybody.

everybody--

Everybody about this. A little bit about  of that up-down shape of stress there but  

everything links together. Everybody uh.  They Y which is an e vowel linking right  

into the first vowel of about which  is the schwa. Everybody about this.

Everybody about this.

About this. About. Just a tiny little lift there,  

a tiny little break for the stop T because the  next sound is a consonant, it’s the voiced th  

sound. All these symbols that I’m writing  are the International Phonetic Alphabet.  

It’s how we can write a symbol for a sound  because in American English, the letters  

don’t correspond directly with the sounds. One  letter could be pronounced five different ways.  

So that’s why we use the International  Phonetic Alphabet also called the IPA.

About this--

Now everyone’s going to go to  the theater expecting to see me.

Sort of a long phrase, so many words  linked together said quickly. I mean  

look at these words. He says them so fast

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater--

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater.  So we have stress on ev. Now everyone’s  

going to go to the theater.

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater--

expecting to see me.

Go to the theater expecting to see me. So  even though it’s fast, we do have some words,  

some syllables that are a little bit longer with  this up-down shape of stress and that’s what  

makes it so that we can understand because  we feel that rhythm, we feel that stress.  

Let’s look at some reductions and all  of the linking that’s happening here.

Now everyone’s going to go to  the theater expecting to see me.

Now everyone’s going to go to the  theater. Now everyone’s going to go.  

I notice here that I left out a word, let’s add it. It’s going  

to go to the theater. That means we need to erase  this little stress mark that’s not right anymore.  

And neither is this one. So, we  said before the stress was on go  

and the, the first syllable there. When I listened  again I realized well, of course he’s saying  

gonna because that’s such a common reduction but  gonna is a reduction of going to not just going.  

So, part of how he’s saying this quickly is  by putting in reductions. Such a common part  

of spoken English even in formal situations  we use reductions. Maybe not always gonna but  

when we see the to reduction that we’ll study,  that happens even in the most formal settings,  

the to reduction. Many happen  all the time when we’re speaking.

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater--

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater.  Now everyone’s gonna. Now everyone’s gonna.  

Now everyone’s gonna. Notice how low his pitch is.  It’s probably lower than you naturally speak when  

you’re speaking American English. Try to match his  pitch. Now everyone’s gonna. Now everyone’s gonna.  

Notice what muscles you need to relax in your  neck and your body to say it that lowly. Now  

everyone’s gonna. Now everyone’s gonna. Remember,  it’s not every but it’s ev-ry. So pretend that  

the e is not there, we just go right from  the v into the r. Now, everyone’s gonna,  

the apostrophe s here is a really light z sound.  Now everyone’s gonna. Now everyone’s gonna.

Now everyone’s gonna--

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater--

Now everyone’s going to go to the theater. Go the  the theater, go to the theater, go to the. Do you  

notice that this doesn’t sound like to? Go to, go  to. That’s a flap t which I rate with the d and  

then the vowel here is an ooh but it’s uh, uh, the  schwa, go to, go to, go to. Very common reduction.  

It helps make that smoother, that transition  between words it helps link the words go to,  

go to, go to the, go to. So we definitely don’t  want to the, but we want go to, go to, go to.  

So the word ‘the’ is also not super  clear, it’s also low in pitch, flatter,  

low in volume. So, stress go and then back  off of ‘to’ and ‘the’, go to the, go to the,  

go to the, go to the. See how much you can relax  when doing that over and over. The more you do it,  

the more you repeat it, the more you’ll be  able to relax while doing it. Go to the.

go to the theater--

Go to the theater. Theater, theater.  So he’s also making this a flap t,  

it’s not theater which is sort of what  it looks like but he’s saying Thee-thur.  

So, unvoiced th e,e,e,e, and then  a flap t schwa r. Theater, theater.  

Go to the theater. Go to the theater.  This word is tricky, I’m not going to lie,  

I mean that unvoiced th is hard, the r in  American English is hard so slow it down,  

theater. Practice that flap, hold out your r.  If you’re doing it really quickly and you’re not  

quite getting it, that’s not going to help. Slow  it down, think through the mouth position, get all  

of those sounds in order before you speed it up.  It might take you a week or practicing that word.  

Theater. To feel like you get it. So take that  week. Might as well make the word perfect.

go to the theater--

Expecting to see me.

Expecting to. You know what? Shame on  me. My accent mark here is very lazy.  

Expect. We have stress on the second syllable  there. Not the first syllable expecting,  

expecting to. This is another case where the word  ‘to’ is pronounced with a flap t and a schwa,  

expecting to. It’s just like an extra syllable  at the end of the word before expecting to.

Expecting to see me--

I mean, it’s even kind of hard  to hear isn’t it? It’s not that  

clear. It’s very fast. Expecting  to, expecting to, expecting to.

Expecting to see me--

This t is not very clear either. Expecting,  expect. It’s almost like a very light d but  

at any rate it’s said very quickly.  The place where the length of that  

word happens is on the stressed vowel. E,  expecting, expecting. The letter x here is  

making two different sounds, K and S. The first  vowel is expecting, expecting to, expecting to.

Expecting to see me--

Expecting to see me. See. Notice how this word has  

length. It feel longer. We’re not  rushing by it. See, it’s our verb,  

one of our most important words. Expecting to see  me. We also put some length on me because Joey,  

he is the reason why people that know Joey are  going to watch this movie. They want to see Joey.

Expecting to see me, and--

Expecting to see me and. Really quick  and at the end, it’s just quick schwa n,  

we don’t make D at all, we reduce  the vowel. See me and, see me and.

see me, and-- Joey

Joey, first syllable stress on his name Joey,  and the whole thing has that up and then down  

shape of stress, Joey. Joey. Joey. Joey. Uhhhuhuh.  It’s not flat, Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey, Joey.  

But Joey, Joey. The difference between Joey. Flat  and Joey, same length but with that up down shape,  

the difference is Joe-, that one is easy for us  to understand. The one with much pitch difference  

is hard for us to understand. We need that pitch  change, that up-down shape to understand. Joey.

Joey--

You know what?

Joey, you know what? You know what? So here  it’s a question and sometimes with questions  

with certain kinds of questions  the pitch goes up. You know what?  

And that’s what she’s doing here. You know,  you know, you know what? You know what?  

Stop T at the end. Why? Because  it’s at the end of the phrase.

You know what?

So linked together, so smooth.  See if you can imitate that.

You know what?

No one is going to be able to tell.

No one. So here she’s stressing no,  no one and it’s going up. No one,  

and then it starts to come down.  Is going to be able to tell.

No one is going to be able to tell.

One thing I’ve noticed with my students when  they’re working on their American accent is  

this pitch change starting low going high,  coming back down. It’s not comfortable. They  

want to make it much smaller. No one. No one.  They kind of want to do it like that. No one.  

And I’m often telling them make the pitch  more dramatic. That can make it clearer  

to be understood. So a lot of my students  don’t use enough pitch variation because  

it feels uncomfortable but sometimes more pitch  variation would make them easier to understand.

No one is going to be able to tell.

No one, no one. And she does a little tiny  break there. No one. Make sure you link those  

together. No one is going to be able, is going  to be, is going to be. Going to becomes gonna.  

There’s a little bit of stress on the first  syllable of gonna, go, go, go, go, gonna, gonna.  

But not much. It’s not a very stressed syllable.  Is gonna, it’s gonna, is gonna be, is gonna be,  

gonna be. So make that smoothly, quickly and the  s in is is a z. is, is, is gonna be, is gonna be.

No one is going to be--

No one is going to be to-

Is going to be able to. Is going to be able to.  So the first syllable of able, the ei diphthong,  

that gets some length, some up-down shape.  Is going to be able. Is going to be able to,  

able to. Another case where to word to becomes  a flap t schwa. So, this vowel ooh almost always  

changes to the schwa in this word. The t sometimes  is a flap t, sometimes is a true t. It’s pretty  

common to make it a flap t like here when the  sound before is a vowel or is voiced. So here,  

the sound before is a dark l. Able. That’s a  voiced consonant able to. So it’s common to  

flap the t there. Able to, able to, able  to tell. And tell starts with a true t.  

Able to. Able to tell. The word tell also ends in  a dark L. You know you’re confused about what the  

heck is a dark L. It actually is pretty confusing  and I have a whole video on it. If you go to the  

sounds playlist on my channel, you’ll be able  to find a video about the dark L. You’ll also be  

able to find a video about T that will go over  all the different T’s. True T, stop T, flap T

is going to be to tell.

My mom will.

My mom. So stressing mom, of course the  most important person. I’m just saying  

that because I’m a mom. Just kidding. My mom will,  

and drifting off but smooth. That doesn’t sound  like three separate words smoothly connected.  

My mom will. Also this ends in a dark L.  The L at the end of a word is a dark L.

My mom will.

And of course, this is funny because why would  Joey’s mom still know what his butt looks like.

My mom will.

Let’s watch the whole scene one more  time, side by side with the analysis.

I got fired.

Oh!

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it.

I told everybody about this.

Now everyone’s going to go to the  theater expecting to see me, and...

Joey, you know what?

No one is going to be able to tell.

My mom will.

Let’s look at that one more time,  this time we’ll play the scene in  

slow motion so that you can really hear  the pitch change and all the linking.

I got fired.

Oh!

Yeah. They said I acted too much with it.

I told everybody about this.

Now everyone’s going to go to the  theater expecting to see me, and...

Joey, you know what?

No one is going to be able to tell.

My mom will.

My students who work with these kinds of  lessons really improve their listening  

comprehension quickly and in Rachel’s English  Academy, I have 50 or 60 different scenes from  

TV and movies where we do in-depth analyses  like the one you saw here and in addition to  

that analysis video, we also have audio  training. My students use this training,  

use these sound boards to get this new way of  speaking that they have just learned in the  

video into their bodies, into their own  accents. If this sounds like fun to you,  

please check out RachelsEnglishAcademy.com.  And for now, please subscribe with that  

notification bell on so you never miss a  video. Keep your learning now with this video,  

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