ESL Pronunciation Exercise: Breakfast (Ben Franklin Exercise)

In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to study American English by looking

at a short text. Topic: what I ate for breakfast.

I call this a Ben Franklin exercise. This is when you take very good notes, very detailed

notes, on what you're hearing. And then go back and try to record yourself based on what

you've written down, the notes. Did you write down a flap T, or the way two words link together?

After you've recorded yourself, compare it to the original. Did you do everything that

you wanted to do? In this video, we're going to take notes together.

This morning for breakfast, I had Barbara's Shredded Oats with milk. This is my favorite

breakfast. But sometimes, I do have eggs.

So let's take a look at what's happening here.

This morning for breakfast.

One of the first things I notice is how much this S and M were

connected. This morning, this morning. It's almost like the S went on the next word: smorning,

smorning. This morning. This morning for breakfast. Did you notice how I pronounced the word 'for'?

That was reduced to 'fer', 'fer', 'fer'. Very quick, with the schwa/R sound. For, for, for

breakfast. This morning for breakfast. Also I notice the rhythm here. Morn- and break-

are the two stressed syllables. This morning for breakfast. They have that swooping up and

then down shape of the voice that makes up a stressed syllable. Let's listen in slow

motion.

This morning for breakfast.

This morning for breakfast, I had Barbara's Shredded Oats with milk.

What do you hear as being the stressed syllables? I hear Barbara's, Shredded, and milk.

What else do you notice?

I had Barbara's Shredded Oats with milk. I notice that 'Barbara's' is only two syllables,

even though it looks like it might be three. We sort of leave this middle sound out here.

Barb-ra's, -ra's. Also note this apostrophe S is the Z sound. That's because the sound

before is voiced, so the apostrophe S is also voiced. Zzz, zz, -ra's, -ra's. Barbara's.

I also notice that the ED ending here is pronounced as the IH as in 'sit' vowel, D sound. That's

because the sound before was a D. ED endings are among the few cases in American English

that follow regular rules.

I had Barbara's Shredded Oats with milk.

I notice that the word 'with' is not reduced, but it's very flat in pitch because it is

unstressed. With, with, with. It's also quite fast. With milk, with, with, with, with milk.

I had Barbara's Shredded Oats with milk.

Let's listen in slow motion.

I had Barbara's Shredded Oats with milk.

I had Barbara's Shredded Oats with milk. This is my favorite breakfast. What was stressed

in that sentence? I heard fav- and break-. Also, these three words, 'this is my', those

were incredibly fast. Listen again.

This is my favorite breakfast.

So this string of three unstressed words, this is my [4x]: very fast, and very connected.

I also notice that the word 'favorite' was only pronounced with two syllables, as if

this letter was dropped. Fav-rit, favorite, favorite.

This is my favorite breakfast.

I'm also noticing this T pronunciation. The final T in 'favorite' was pronounced as a

stop. Favorite, favorite, favorite breakfast. So, there was no release, tt, of the T sound.

Favorite breakfast. Let's listen in slow motion.

This is my favorite breakfast.

This is my favorite breakfast. But sometimes, I do have eggs.

Did you notice the lift here, where the comma is? But sometimes, I do have eggs. There was

just a little pause there for the punctuation. I also noticed how I stressed the word 'do'.

I do, I do have eggs.

But sometimes, I do have eggs.

The word 'eggs', even though it's a content word, a noun, which is usually stressed, doesn't

have that much stress, I notice, because it's at the end of a sentence. I do have eggs.

Eggs, eggs, with just a little curve up, and then down in the voice. I do have eggs. Also,

the plural ending here, S, is pronounced as a Z. That's because the sound before, the

G sound, is a voiced consonant. Eggs, eggs. Let's listen in slow motion.

But sometimes, I do have eggs.

But sometimes, I do have eggs.

So, just three little sentences. But we really were able to study a lot about American English

pronunciation. Let's listen once in slow motion.

This morning for breakfast, I had Barbara's Shredded Oats with milk. This is my favorite

breakfast. But sometimes, I do have eggs.

I hope this has given you some ideas on how to take notes and study the speech of native

speakers. Do this on your own. Take video and audio clips that interest you, or that

have topics that are important to your field of work. After you take good notes, record

the text yourself, and compare to the original recording. What do you still need to work

on, or what did you do well? This is a great way to improve your pronunciation.

That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.