Real Life English Conversation: Colorado Mountains -- American English

In this American English pronunciation video, you’re going to come with me and my parents

to Colorado. You’ll get to see some of the natural beauty of this state, and study American

English pronunciation in real life.

Today’s topics: Words that reduce. At, for, that’s, can, and, was, and probably.

>> This… >> Oh.

>> There we go. >> So, we’re at 12,335 feet. Now, yesterday

morning, when I got on a plane, I was at about 1 foot, there at New York’s LaGuardia airport.

So no wonder I had such a hard time catching my breath on this hike.

>> So for the metric fans of Rachel’s English, this is almost 4,000 meters.

>> It’s pretty high.

Americans speak with a mix of long and short syllables. It’s what helps make speech clear

to us. Short syllables are often reductions—words where we’ve changed or dropped a sound to

help us say them faster.

Let’s discuss three reductions in the passage you just saw.

The first is the word AT. AT has the AA vowel. But usually we reduce that in a sentence to

the schwa, at. I can make that very fast, at. It’s abrupt because I’m making a Stop

T. That’s because the next word begins with a consonant. At twelve, at, at, at twelve,

we’re at twelve. When I make the word ‘at’ very short, it makes the word ‘twelve’

more important. This is what makes English clear. Listen again.

>> at 12 [3x] >> At 12,335 feet. Now, yesterday morning,

when I got on a plane, I was at about 1 foot

Another ‘at’ example: I was at about 1 foot. I was at about. I was at about. Do you

hear how ‘I’ and ‘bout’ are clearer? The middle three syllables are all less clear:

was at a, was at a. Though it may seem wrong to make some syllables less clear, it actually

makes speech overall more clear to Americans, because American English depends on this contrast

of long and short syllables. Was at a, was at a. Practice that with me. Was at a, was

at a, was at a. You really need to simplify the sounds and mouth movements, and take some

of the energy and volume out of the voice to make these syllables this fast. Yes, do

that. Was at a. Was at a. I was at about. Listen again.

>> I was at about [3x] 1 foot, there at New York’s LaGuardia

airport. So no wonder I had such a hard time catching my breath on this hike.

>> So for the metric fans of Rachel’s English…

The reduction of the word ‘for’. For. In a sentence, you’ll usually hear it as

‘fer’. How fast can you make it? Practice. Fer, fer, fer. Listen again.

>> For the metric fans >> for [5x] the metric fans of Rachel’s

English, this is almost 4,000 meters. >> It’s pretty high.

Finally, the word ‘that’s’ was reduced to ‘ts’. TS pretty. TS pretty high, ts.

This is the same reduction we would use for ‘what’s’ or ‘it’s’. At the end

of the video, follow the link for more information on the TS reduction.

>> That’s pretty high. >> Ts [6x] pretty high.

>> Ts pretty high. [2x] >> Very high.

>> As you can see. >> Very cold and windy.

>> Yeah.

We just heard two more reductions. The word ‘can’, a helping verb here, was reduced

to kn. How fast can you make that? Practice with me: kn, kn, kn. Can see. Listen again.

>> You can see [2x] >> Can [4x]

>> You can see. >> Very cold and windy.

And the ‘and’ reduction: nn, nn. Practice with me. Nn, nn. Make it fast. Cold n,

cold n windy.

>> Very cold and windy. >> Cold and [3x]

>> Very cold and windy. >> Yeah. It’s very interesting landscape.

>> Mom, what did that sign say about this area?

>> It said that this was once a vast plain.

Mom reduced ‘was’. She said wuz instead of was. It’s less clear, isn’t it? Was,

was. That this was once, wuz. That’s exactly what we want for these unimportant words.

Listen again.

>> It said that this was [3x], was [4x]

>> It said that this was [3x], was [4x]

>> It said that this was once a vast plain, that was pushed…

Another reduced was, wuz, wuz. That was pushed.

>> That was [3x] pushed and thrust upward by tremendous pressures

of the earth. >> Wow.

>> Yeah. You can see some patches of snow over there.

Did you catch that ‘can’ reduction? Can, you can, you can see, can, can.

>> Yeah. You can [3x] see some patches of snow

you can see some patches of snow over there. >> Where?

>> Right over there. >> Oh yeah.

>> They’re very dirty. >> Right.

>> That’s all that’s left from last year’s snowfall. And they’ll probably get snow

here within the next couple of weeks.

Did you hear how my dad said probably? He reduced it to ‘prolly’.

>> Probably [3x] And they’ll probably get snow [3x]

A real life example of the word ‘probably’ – At the end of the video, follow the link

for information on reducing this word.

>> You can see some patches of snow over there. >> Where?

>> Right over there. >> Oh yeah.

>> They’re very dirty. >> Right.

>> That’s all that’s left from last year’s snowfall. And they’ll probably get snow

here within the next couple of weeks.

I hope you enjoyed this cold mountaintop study of real life American English. I know it seems

strange to pronounce things quickly, not fully, but reductions are an important part of American

English. Follow the links here, or in the description below, for more information on

the reductions we studied today. That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.