Speaking English: You ACTUALLY Need This To Speak Well

Is your accent holding you  back when speaking English,  

or your listening comprehension of English? Understanding native speakers and fast  

English isn’t about understanding the sounds of  American English, it’s about all the other things:  

linking, reductions. The more you study them, the more effortlessly you’ll be able to speak  

fast English and understand native speakers. Movies, TV, real life. Understanding English  

conversation can be hard, but with the exercises  we’ll do today, you’ll be well on your way  

to more effortless English conversation. Today, we’re going to do just that in eight  

conversations and monologues. Here’s the first one  we’ll study with the analysis we’ll do together. 

Rachel. Yeah. 

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular. 

Okay. Fine. Gunther, you know what, I am a terrible waitress. 

Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress? Because I don't care.

I don't care. I don't care which  pot is regular and which pot is  

decaf. I don't care where the tray spot is.

I just don't care. This is not what I want to do.

So, I don't think I should do it anymore. I’m going to give you my weeks notice.

What?

Gunther, I quit.

Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

And now with the analysis.

Rachel

Rachel

Rachel

Rachel, first syllable  stress and the pitch goes up.

Ra-chel and the pitch goes up because he's trying to get her attention.

It's like saying Rachel do you hear me.

Pitch goes up Rachel

Rachel

Rachel

Rachel

yeah

then she does a really breathy response.

Yeah. Yeah.

Up-down shape.

The breathiness just sort of shows  exasperation and that she's kind of over it,

She's kind of over this job.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

And then this next set group is pretty long.

What do you hear as the most stressed syllables?

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

It's longer so there are a few. I'm hearing re-mind

the stress syllable of that first word the verb remind me to review with you,

review some on that verb as well which pot is decaf and which pot is regular.

So, the two verbs and then the difference between coffees,

decaf and regular and we do have a few reductions.

We actually have a dropped D here in the  stressed word, in the stressed syllable.

It's not uncommon to drop  a D between two constants  

especially when the first one wasn't N like this.

So, it's remin' me, remin' me and this  is a pretty common two-word phrase.

Remind me to do this. Remind me to call mom. Remind me to pick up the dry-cleaning.

Remind me... Re-mind me.

I diphthong N and then write into the M with no D, remin' me.

Remind me...

Remind me...

Remind me...

Now, the word to is not reduced and that's not very natural.

It's pronounced with the true T and the OO vowel.

Remind me to review with you

and when I was trying to think about  why he would do this fully pronounced.

It is still unstressed, so the stress is right  

but by not reducing that word it  sounds a little bit more formal

and this character is supposed  to be a little bit odd

and so by not doing a reduction that's one way to develop that character,

but it is still unstressed.

Remind me to review, me to re... Me to re... Me to re....

These three syllables all flatter in pitch compared to the up-down shape

of the stressed syllables mind and view.

Remind me to review

Remind me to review

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

Review with you which pot is decaf then these  five words all a little bit lower in pitch.

Less of the up-down shape of stress.

Review with you which pot is decaf...

Review with you which pot is decaf... Review with you which pot is decaf...

The two words pot and is are linked.

Which pot is... Which pot is with the flap T  and that's really common when one word ends

in a T, a vowel or diphthong and T and the  next word begins with a vowel or diphthong,

very common to link with a Flap T.

Pot is, pot is, pot is, pot is decaf.

... pot is decaf

...pot is decaf

... pot is decaf

Decaf is short for decaffeinated. Decaffeinated coffee.

So, in the whole word de-caffeinated

its caf that stressed but when we shorten it for  some reason the stress changes and it's de-caf

it's not decaf but it's de-caf so the stress  changes now we have first syllable stress.

Also, the vowel changes it's the E vowel

in the word decaffeinated  it's a SCHWA de-caffeinated,

but we can't ever have a SCHWA in a stressed  syllable and so the vowel changes de-caf

de-caf

...decaf

...decaf

...decaf and which is regular.

Decaf and which is regular. So, in the word and the D is dropped.

That reduction happens almost every single time you'll hear this word.

Sometimes the vowel reduces he doesn’t,  

but he does drop the D in  decaf, and which one is regular.

...decaf and which is regular

...decaf in which is regular

...decaf in which is regular

Decaf an' which is regular.

Regular and his pitch does go  up a little bit at the end.

That's not super common for statements but it does sometimes happen.

Here he might be doing it  to soften what he's saying.

You know, he's basically saying

you messed up and I need to teach you how  to do this it could also be used to say

in a way I can't believe that you don't know the  

difference why would I have to  teach you this which is regular

...which is regular

...which is regular

... which is regular

Okay. Fine.

Okay. Okay.

The second syllable stressed  there. It's a little bit harder  

to hear because the audience is laughing but okay.

K is the one with the up-down shape, okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay. Fine.

Fine. Fine. A little flatter fine shows a little bit of exasperation.

Okay. Fine.

Okay. Fine.

Okay. Fine.

Okay. Fine. Gunther,

Gunther, Gunther

and it goes up in pitch first  syllable stress Gun-ther.

She goes up in pitch because  she's not done talking. 

She has something to say

and we all know it's important. So, let's hear what she has to say.

Gunther, Gunther,

Gunther, you know what?

You know what? What's the stress there?

...you know what?

...you know what?

...you know what?

You know what?

You know what?

Dah, dah, dah. Know and what are both longer  and the word you is said very quickly.

It's actually reduced it's not you it's yu, yu, yu know what

and everything links together really smoothly  you know what and that phrase ends with a stop T.

There's not a release of air.

...you know what?

...you know what?

...you know what? I am a terrible waitress.

In this next sentence what  are the stressed syllables?

I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible waitress.

So, I and terr the most stressed.

Am and a lower in pitch flatter everything links together smoothly.

I am a terr.

I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible waitress.

Actually, I take that back I and am don't link  together really there's a little lift there.

I am a terrible waitress and by separating  those it brings a little bit more stress to it.

I am a terrible waitress. So, by separating it off

it makes it even more clear brings even more prominence to her,

what she is saying about herself,  I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible waitress.

Imma, Imma, Imma lower in pitch flatter terrible lots of stress there.

There's a true T and she gives it a little  bit extra air to bring even more stress.

Whenever we exaggerate a beginning consonant it  brings more stress to that word, I am a terrible.

I am a terrible...

I am a terrible...

I am a terrible...

Terrible, three syllable word  with first syllable stress.

...terrible

...terrible

...terrible waitress.

Waitress, waitress,

two syllable word, first syllable stress.

Do you notice anything about the T.

Listen to just this word.

...waitress.

...waitress.

...waitress.

It actually sounds like a CH waichress, waichress.

...waitress.

...waitress.

...waitress.

Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

Okay, and in the next sentence what's our stress?

What are our most stressed syllables?

Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

Do you know why, lots of stress on why and again stress on terr, terrible

and a little bit on waitress, waitress, So,  these first three words flatter in pitch;

less important that energy leads up to that peak and why.

Do you know why...

Do you know why...

Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

Do you know why I am a terrible.

Actually, I wrote this with a contraction,  

but I don't hear that as I'm,  I hear that as two syllables

I am, I am a, I am a, I am a,

but they all link together really smoothly I am a,  I am a. They're all unstressed, flatter in pitch.

Not I am a, that would be all three stressed but it's I am a, I am a, I am a

I am a...

I am a... I am a terrible waitress.

I am a terrible and then  we get a big up-down shape.

Lots of stress after those three flatter words  with the stressed word, the adjective terrible.

...terrible

...terrible

... terrible waitress?. Because I don't care.

What are our most stressed  syllables in this next phrase.

Because I don't care.

Because I don't care.

Because I don't care.

Because I don't, because I don't care.

I and care are the most stress, but all of these words are clearly pronounced.

Because can be reduced it's not.

She actually puts a quick E vowel

so if you look it up in the dictionary this would be an I or maybe a SCHWA

but sometimes when people are being  extra clear or even just out of habit

these little unstressed syllables that have the letter E in them

can be pronounced with the E vowel be, be, be, because, because.

Because

Because

Because

Because second syllable stress K,

UH as in butter Z cuz, cuz and there is some  up-down shape to that too because, because.

Because

Because

Because I don't care.

How is the word don't pronounced?

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I'm actually going to put an  up-down shape of stress on that too.

I really think she's stressing each one  of these words for emphasis I don't care,  

I don't care, I don't care.

All of those to me feel long and with a little bit of that up-down shape.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I'm hearing a really subtle stop T there. I  don't care, I don't care, and that tiny lift

signifies the T, the stop T.

Okay, now we get I don't care two more times. Let's listen to the pronunciation.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care. I don't care.

I don't care. I don't care.

There I is less stressed, and it's

more smoothly connected as one thought  instead of each word being stressed.

Stress on don't and more stress on care.

I don't care, dah, dah, dah.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care and again a very subtle quick lift  here signifying the stop T. It's definitely not,

I don't care but it's I don't care, I don't care. I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care which pot is regular.

I don't care which pot is regular I don't care again stress on that word.

I don't care which pot is re-gular and again there  was that subtle lift that signifies that stop T.

It's not completely dropped. That would be I don' care, I don' care, don' care.

We do drop that T sometimes especially if the next word begins with a vowel

or a diphthong but when it's a consonant it's much more common

to make a quick stop T I don't care; I don't care which pot is regular.

I don't care which pot is regular.

I don't care which pot is regular.

I don't care which pot is  regular and which pot is decaf.

I don't care which pot is pot is, pot is, pot is.

Do you notice just like the other character  she is linking those two words with a flap T.

Pot is, pot is, which pot is regular and  then she really stretches which doesn't she?

Which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

Does she connect these two  words with a flap T again?

Listen.

...which pot is decaf.

...which pot is decaf.

...which pot is decaf.

Yes, she does. That's a flap T connecting pot is, pot is, pot is.

...which pot is decaf.

...which pot is decaf.

...which pot is decaf.

The word and she does do a full reduction,  So, she reduces the D and the vowel

n, n, n, n, n.

I say to my students it can sound like this word  in said very quickly regular 'n, regular n' which.

...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

You know this is the third  time now that we're seeing  

and hearing the word pot and I want to point out

it's the letter O and that causes some people  to round their lips and sort of shut it down

but it's more open.

It's the AH as in father  vowel pot, AH, AH, pot, pot.

...which pot is...

...which pot is...

...which pot is decaf

Decaf, a little bit of stress on that stressed syllable D, decaf.

...decaf

...decaf

...decaf. I don't care where the tray spot is.

I don't care and another break here, I don't care.

She does a little lift and again there's a stop T there, I don't care.

Most of the stress on care.

I don't care.

I don't care.

I don't care where the tray spot is.

Where the, where the, where the, flatter  lower in pitch unstressed then we have

tray spot is and she connects  spot and is with a flap T.

Ending T coming after a vowel or  diphthong followed by a vowel or  

diphthong linking that with a flap T.

...where the tray spot is.

...where the tray spot is.

...where the tray spot is.

Now, what is tray spot.

This is not a very common phrase, common  thing. I guess that what she's referencing

is probably something that  came up earlier in the episode

that the tray that she's supposed to take

drinks out on has a particular spot and she  was not putting it in its particular spot.

...where the tray spot is.

...where the tray spot is.

...where the tray spot is.

Also, just like pot we have the letter O but it's the AH as in father vowel.

...tray spot is.

...tray spot is.

...tray spot is. I just don't care. This is not what I want to do.

Then she says two more phrases, but she links  them all together into one thought group.

Every word smoothly connects to the next word.

I just don't care. This is not what I want to do.

I just don't care. This is not what I want to do.

I just don't care. This is not what I want to do.

I just don't care this is not, a little  bit of stress there, not what I want to do.

So, care and do get a lot of  stress. Notice the word not. Again,  

the letter O it's the AH as in father vowel.

I just don't care. This is not what I want to do.

I just don't care. This is not what I want to do.

I just don't care. This is not what I want to do.

Let's look at the first part of this thought group. I just don't care,

dah, the pitch, the melody everything is rising.  

The energy rising up towards  that peak of stress on care.

I just don't care.

Again, a stop T there.

Now, the T in just is actually totally dropped

and this is really common with this word  and any word that ends in an SC cluster

or a T cluster of any kind when the  next word begins with a consonant.

We usually drop the T,

very common to drop the T between consonants  and just link the two words together,

I jus' don't, jus' don't,  right from the S into the D.

I just don't care.

I just don't care.

I just don't care. This is not what I want to do.

This is lower in pitch, this is not, this is not said more quickly

and again they link together just  like every word in this thought group.

This is, this is, this is not.

This is not...

This is not...

This is not...

This is not with a stop T.

Now, why is this a stop T?

Pot and spot, those words linked in with a Flap T.

That's because the next word began with a vowel or diphthong.

Here, the next word begins  with a consonant sound W.

So, that ending T is a Stop T.

This is not what I want to do.

This is not what I want to do.

This is not what I want to do.

This is not what I want to do.

Listen to just the words what I want to.

...what I want to...

...what I want to...

...what I want to...

Said very quickly these are unstressed, flatter in pitch, less clear.

What I, these two words link together with a Flap T, what I, what I.

Want to, that gets reduced, that gets changed to  wanna what I wanna, what I wanna, what I wanna.

…what I want to...

...what I want to...

...what I want to...

Listen to those four words together again  and then there's going to be a little break.

Try to repeat it back so you'll hear it three times and then you try to say it

and try to match exactly what she's doing.

There's a lot of simplification you might want  

to pronounce more than she  is, try not to, just repeat.

...what I want to...

...what I want to ...

...what I want to do.

And then all of that links into the next word, the stressed word do

with that longer length and that up-down shape.

...do

...do.

...do. So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

Okay. In this next sentence what do you hear  as the peak of stress for the whole sentence.

So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

So, I don't, little bit of stress there.

So, I don't but then even more stress on.  So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

Definitely the peak of stress is do and all of the words lead up to that

and then all of the words after that kind of fall away from that peak of energy,

that peak of volume, that peak of stress.

So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

So, I don't think, so I don't think up. Again, I  would write that as a really light quick Stop T.

So, and I said really quickly.

Not that clear. I don't think  I hear an O diphthong in so.

So, I don't think...

So, I don't think...

So, I don't think...

It's more just like sou, sou, sou I don't, sou I don't, sou I don't.

I guess I would right that as the SCHWA  so, so, so I don't, so I don't, so I don't

linking together really smoothly, really quickly.

So, I don't think...

So, I don't think...

So, I don't think...

These first two words unstressed then we have think I should.

Let's listen to just those three words.

...think I should...

...think I should...

...think I should...

Think I should, think I should, think I should, think I should.

A little bit more length on think.

Think I should, think I should, think I  should linking together really smoothly.

The word should is like just an SH and a SCHWA.

The next word begins with the D and so these  really combine, wouldn't make the D twice.

Single D sound and it really goes with the stressed feeling.

So, you could almost just think of the D in should  as being dropped should do, should do, should do.

...think I should do it anymore.

...think I should do it anymore.

...think I should do it anymore.

Should do it anymore.

What do you think we're going to hear with this T when we study it.

It's the end of a word.

The sound before is a vowel and the next word begins with a vowel.

I should do it anymore.

I should do it anymore.

I should do it anymore.

Do it anymore.

Did you guess the Flap T? You were right.  it any, it any, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

The tongue just flaps against  the roof of the mouth.

So, we have a lot of stress on do, some  stress on don't, some stress on think

and then the other words are said really quickly.

We have some reductions. This contrast  is really important in American English.

It's one of the characteristics that makes it sound American.

...do it anymore.

...do it anymore.

...do it anymore.

I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

Okay. In this next sentence what are the most stressed words?

I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

'm going to give you my week’s notice.

I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

So, basically she's saying she quits, and she'll work one more week.

I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

Okay, before the first stressed word give what do we have?

I'm going to...

I'm going to... I'm going to...

I am going to become muh, muh.

I actually did another video on this about how extreme this reduction is.

We lose the I, we lose the G,

so this did become this is common to be reduced to gonna,

going to becomes gonna but sometimes  when the contraction I am comes before

we actually replace the beginning G with the M  so it's just monna, monna, monna, monna, monna.

I'm going to...

I'm going to... I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

I'm going to give, I'm going  to give, I'm going to give.

I am going to, those are five syllables and  they get reduced to two, monna, monna, monna.

I'm going to give...

I'm going to give...

I'm going to give...

I would write that in IPA with the M consonant,

UH as in butter and then the end in the  SCHWA, monna, monna, monna, monna give.

I'm going to give you...

I'm going to give you...

I'm going to give you my week's notice.

I'm going to give you my.

You and my lower in pitch, unstressed and  then week's notice, stress on weeks and notice

falls off in pitch from that, week's notice.

I'm going to give you my week's notice.

I'm going to give you my week's notice.

I'm going to give you my week's notice.

The T in notice is a Flap T because it comes between two vowels

and it does not start a stressed syllable.

...week's notice.

...week's notice.

...week's notice.

What?

Okay. So, I've just listened to him saying this about a thousand times

to try to determine if I thought I heard a little escape of air before the W, what.

I think I do hear a really, really light one.

That's not very common anymore, it's something  my mom does, and my friend said her mom does it.

We love our moms. They're in  their seventies and it's not  

really that current to speak that way anymore.

So, by making that little escape of air

is again making him just a little bit  different like when he didn't reduce to before

and is maybe part of his character.

Maybe this guy in actual conversational English

would be making just a pure W sound what,  what but instead it's what, what, AH, AH

and the vowel is closer to  the AH as in father vowel

whereas I think it's more common to make it the UH as in butter vowel.

Both are acceptable pronunciations, but the  difference is what versus what, UH, UH, what.

What?

What?

What?

And he does a little light release of a True T.

Again, not the most common  way to pronounce that T.

It would be more common to make that a stop what, what.

What?

What?

What?

Gunther, I quit

Okay what is our stress of this sentence?

Gunther, I quit.

Gunther, I quit.

Gunther, I quit.

Gunther, I quit.

Gun, the stressed syllable of his name  Gunther, I quit and then the verb.

So, the two middle syllables  less stressed, lower in pitch

Gun-ther, I quit.

Gunther, I quit.

Gunther, I quit.

Gunther, I quit.

And she does do a True T release here

making that word even more clear, making it an even stronger statement.

Gunther, I quit.

Gunther, I quit.

Gunther, I quit.

Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

Okay. Then Chandler with his asides, so funny.

What's the stress here?

It's under his breath, it's  a little bit less clear

but we can still hear the contrast between stressed and unstressed.

Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

Does this mean, a little bit of stress on mean.

Does this mean we're going to have to start pay-ing for coffee?

Mean, pay and co.

We have some reductions. Let's look at the first two words does this.

Does this... Does this...

Does this...

So, the word does would be written in IPA  fully pronounced D, UH as in butter, Z

and the word this voiced TH as in sit and S.

Does this but what he did here is something  that you'll hear in conversational English.

Does this mean, does this mean.

We drop the first sounds of does we take the Z and we replace the TH,

zis, zis, zis, zis mean, zis mean, zis mean smoothly linked together.

Does this mean?

Does this mean?

Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

We're going to have to start.

We're going to have to start

then we have a bunch of words that are lower in  pitch, unstressed compared to pay, we're going to.

Going to is reduced, gonna, gonna have to start, gonna have to start.

Going to have to start.

Going to have to start.

Going to have to start.

have to, have to, have to, have to.

So, this is being pronounced HAHF.

The V sound gets turned to an F because  of the next sound being a True T.

When these two words go  together that happens a lot.

True T but then SCHWA-

have to, have to, have to, have to.

We're going to have to start, we're going to have to start.

...we're going to have to start...

...we're going to have to start...

...we're going to have to start...

And then stress on pay, we're going to have to start pay-ing.

...we're going to have to start paying...

...we're going to have to start paying...

...we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

Paying for coffee and then we have one final reduction.

The word for pronounced fer, such a common  reduction, fer, fer, paying fer coffee.

...paying for coffee?

...paying for coffee?

...paying for coffee?

And it goes up in pitch  because it's a yes/no question

even though he's not expecting an answer. It's just a joke.

...paying for coffee?

...paying for coffee?

...paying for coffee?

Rachel quits her job. 

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

Rachel.

Yeah.

Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

Okay. Fine. Gunther, you know  what, I am a terrible waitress.

Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

Because I don't care. I don't care. I don't care  which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

I don't care where the tray spot is. I just  don't care. This is not what I want to do.

So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

I’m going to give you my week’s notice.

What? Gunther, I quit. 

Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee? 

You want to get personal. Where were you born? 

Huntsville, Alabama. But technically, I don't remember that part. 

>> First job? >> Soldier. Straight out of high school.

>> Left the ranks a full bird colonel. >> Then? 

>> Spy. >> Where?

>> It was the Cold War, we were everywhere. >> Now? 

Been riding a desk for the past six years, 

trying to figure out where future enemies are coming from. Never occurred to me they 

would be coming from above. Now the analysis. 

You want to get personal. I love this sentence because there's such 

contrast between the stressed and unstressed syllables and words. He really stresses the

word 'you' at the beginning.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal. And in the stressed syllable of 'per', the first syllable is also

stressed, but the three words 'want to get' are all much lower in pitch, much less clear,

flatter than the 'you', up-down shape, higher pitch of the stressed word 'you'.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

Listen to just 'want to get'.

Want to get--

Want to get-- want to get-- want to get-- Much less clear than 'you'. Now listen to

the word 'you' with 'want to get' together, stressed and then unstressed.

You want to get--

A big difference there in the quality of those stressed versus unstressed syllables. We have

a reduction. 'want to' becomes 'wanna'.

Want to get-- want to get-- want to get--

And the word 'get' has a Stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.

Get, get, get, get, want to get, want to get.

Want to get-- want to get-- want to get personal.

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Okay, let's get back to the analysis. You want to get personal.

Then the unstressed syllables, son--, al--, both said really quickly, those both have

the schwa, and in both of these cases, they're followed by a syllabic consonant, that means

the consonant takes over the schwa. We don't make a separate vowel sound. So we go right

from S into N. Sn, sn, sn-- person, person. And then right from N into L, without making

any kind of vowel sound. Nal, nal, nal, nal.

Now, this is a Dark L, which  does have a vowel-like quality.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

Whoa! Different day, different outfit, important announcement. Did you know that with this

video, I made a free audio lesson that you can download? In fact, I'm doing this for

each one of the youtube videos I'm making this summer, all 11 of the learn English with

movies videos. So follow this link, or find the link in the video description to get your

free downloadable audio lesson. It's where you're going to train all of the things that

you've learned about pronunciation in this video. Back to the lesson.

Now, here is how Americans make the L in this case. It's a Dark L, it's at the end of a

thought group, it doesn't link into anything. We make that without lifting the tongue tip.

Can you do that too? We make the Dark L with the back part of the tongue. Uhl, uhl. Back

part of the tongue presses down a little bit, uhl, uhl, while the tongue tip stays forward.

I find that most of my students are so heavily trained in lifting their tongue tip, that it's

a very difficult habit to break. I want to challenge you to do this. Per-so-nal--

uhl-- your tongue is lifted for the N, bring it back down, nal-- uhl-- and use the back

of the tongue to make the dark sound for the Dark L.

Personal.

Where were you born?

She's speaking quickly here without much emotion, very straight faced. Where were you born?

Where and born, both are stressed words there.

Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Where were you born? They both have that up-down shape, were you--

on the other hand, are much flatter, much faster. Were you, were you, were you.

The word 'born' this would be written with the AW as in law vowel, followed by R. When these

two sounds come together in the same syllable, like here, the AW as in law vowel is not pure.

It's not AW but it's owh. My lips round more, the tongue pulls back a little bit, born,

born. Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Huntsville, Alabama but technically,  I don't remember that part.

So this is a longer thought group. He says: Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't

remember that part. No brakes. If it's no brakes, then that means it's one thought group.

So I've written in here with Huntsville Alabama, on this slide, and on the next slide, is the

second half of the thought group, but he didn't actually put a break there.

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

The stress of these multi-syllable words, we have huntsville, first syllable stress,

Alabama, so the most stressed syllable is bam--, and the first level has a little secondary

stress, so I would put the primary stress marker there, secondary stress marker there.

The other two A's are schwas. Actually, just a few weeks ago on the channel, I made a video

of how to go over the pronunciation of the 50 states and their capitals, we talked about

the four A's in this word. Click here or in the video description to check out that video

that goes over the pronunciation of the 50 states.

Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

But technically, I don't remember that part. Our stressed syllables, very clear, but tech--

but technically, I don't remember that part. Those have higher pitch, they have the up-down

shape, that curve. The rest is a little bit flatter. It's either leading up to a peak,

or falling away from a peak.

But tech-- but, but--

But technically, I don't remember that part.

But technically, I don't remember that part.

But technically, I don't remember that part.

Now we have an ending T, and a beginning T. Those will combine into a single sound, one

true T, but technically, but technically.

But technically, but technically, but technically.

He's pronouncing this word as three syllables, first syllable stress, tech-- and the ch here

makes a hard K sound. Tech-nic-- the C here makes a hard K sound. Tech-nic-lly-- and then

he's not pronouncing this at all, just an LY ending then. Tech-nic-lly-- technically.

Technically.

Technically, I don't remember that part.

And all of these words linked together really smoothly. Technically, I don't re--

Okay what's happening with the N apostrophe T contraction? We have lots of different ways

we pronounce that. And in this particular case, I think I'm actually hearing the whole

thing dropped. Doh remember-- doh, doh. So we have the D consonant, oh diphthong, and

then I hear that linking right on to the next sound, which is the R.

I don't remember that part.

I don't remember that part.

I don't remember that part.

Now, it doesn't sound like 'do' because 'do' has different sounds. It has the D consonant,

and the oo vowel. So the fact that we have this oh diphthong, that's how we know it's

the negative. Doh-- don't remember. Don't remember. But I actually, I definitely don't

hear the T. For a second, I listened to it on a loop, I was asking myself: do I hear

a light quick N? I don't think I really do. I think it's just dropped. Don't remember.

Don't remember. Don't remember. Don't remember. Doh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Just the OH diphthong

right into the R. Isn't it crazy? We can pronounce this contraction without the N apostrophe

T at all, without the part that makes it a negative. But I still hear it as that word

because of the OH diphthong.

I don't remember that part.

I don't remember that part.

I don't remember that part.

Are you pronouncing this word? Remember? Try 

to pronounce it with the  schwa. Remember, re-re-re,

remember

remember,

I want you to listen to just the last three words. Remember that part.

Remember that part.

Kind of mumbly, it's at the end of the thought group, it's losing the vocal energy, and when

I'm listening to the word 'that', which would have a Stop T in most cases because it's followed

by the P here, I actually think I am also not hearing that. That part, that part, that

part, that part, that part. I think he drops it. TH, quick AA vowel, and then right into

the P. That part, that part, that part, that part.

The ending T, he's also not really pronouncing that too clearly. I would still write that

as a Stop T, I don't think it's dropped, that would sound like par-- and I don't hear that.

I hear: part, part, and that more abrupt end is the Stop T. But let's listen to these last

three words on a loop again and think about how you have to simplify everything in your

mouth to be able to say this this quickly and this unclearly. It's a little bit mumbled.

This is pretty common for how words  come out at the end of a thought group.

They're definitely less clear.

Remember that part.

First job?

First job? First job? Two stressed words. They're both a little bit longer. First job?

And pitch goes up at the end because she's asking the question. She wants to know what

was his first job. Notice how we're pronouncing the T here. This T is dropped because it comes

between two consonants. That's really common to do that when we have an ending cluster

like the ST cluster in 'first' or 'just' or 'must'. When it's followed by a word that

begins with a consonant, you'll hear that T dropped. That helps to link the two words

together more smoothly. So right from the S into the J sound. First job. Also note we

have the letter O here. I know my students see that and they want to do some lip rounding.

No lip rounding in this sound. It's the AH as in father vowel. It is not job, actually,

this reminds me of Tom who's a Rachel's English teacher. His name is the same, single syllable

has the letter O. It makes the AH as in father vowel. And even so, almost all of his students

say something like: Tom, Tom, instead of Tom, ah-ah, with no lip rounding, even though he

reminds them it's not an OH sound, it's the AH vowel.

We see the letter O, we have such a strong association. But in English, one of the challenges

is to break your association between what you see on the page, and the actual natural

American pronunciation. Because as you can see, we change things quite a bit.

We drop sounds, vowels are not what we think they are, so the vowel in 'job' and in the word

'Tom' is the AH as in father vowel. Oh--

First job?

First job?

>> First job? >> Soldier.

Soldier. Soldier. Two-syllable word, first syllable stress, soldier.

DI here is pronounced as a J sound, which we  would write in IPA: dj-- soldier, soldier.

Soldier. Soldier. Soldier.

And the L here, this is the break of the syllable. Soldier. So the L comes after the vowel. That

makes it a Dark L. He made it without lifting his tongue tip. I make it without lifting

my tongue tip. Soldier. Soldier. I'm not lifting my tongue tip at all there, I'm using the

back of my tongue for a more dark sound, for the Dark L. I challenge you to do the same

thing. Do not lift your tongue tip. An L is a Dark L when it comes after the vowel or

diphthong in a syllable. Soldier.

Soldier. Soldier. Soldier.

Straight out of high school.

Five-word thought group, the word 'straight' and 'high', most stressed. School also has

some length, but it's at the end of the thought group, the pitch isn't as high. Straight out

of high school. Straight out of high school.

Straight out of high school.

Straight out of high school.

Straight out of high school.

We have an STR beginning cluster, strai-- strai-- the T can come out as a CH there.

Stch-- strai-- strai-- straight out of-- straight out of--

Just make sure you make it light. Don't put too much ch-- air in it. Strai-- strai--

then these four letters, a-I-g-h, all make the AY diphthong.

Straight out of high school.

All of the words in this thought group are really smoothly connected. We have a couple

Flap T's linking words together, like connecting 'straight out'. Straight out, straight out,

dadadada.

Straight out ah-- straight out ah-- Another Flap T connecting here.Straight outta--

The word 'of' reduced, it's just the schwa. Straight outta-- straight outta-- straight

outta-- straight outta-- dadadadada-- two flaps linking those words.

Straight out of high school.

Straight out of high school.

Straight out of high school.

High school. High school. High school.

And again, we have a Dark L. I guarantee you he is not lifting his tongue tip. Don't lift

your tongue tip as you practice this.

High school.

Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

So, the word 'left' stressed, 'ranks' also sort of stressed, but also not totally clear.

We'll talk about that in a second. Then the last three words, even more clear, even longer.

Full bird colonel.

Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

Left the ranks a full bird colonel. Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

So the rhythm pattern of these first four words, I would say, is still: da-da-da-da.

Stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed. Even though 'left' and 'ranks' are said more

quickly, it really slows down then on 'full bird colonel'. He's really stressing all three

of those words.

Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

Left the ranks a full bird colonel. Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

Left the ranks, left the ranks. T is dropped, it comes between two other consonants.

Left the, left the. So a quick F goes right into the voiced TH, which doesn't come through

the teeth here, because it's beginning an unstressed word. Left the, the, the, the--

I make that sound by just pressing my tongue on the backs of the teeth. It's not at the

roof of the mouth, that would make it sound like a d, but the tongue tip doesn't come

through the teeth either. Left the, left the, left the ranks. Left the ranks a--

Left the ranks--

The N here is the NG sound because it's followed by the letter k. Ranks, ranks, ranks. And

I really feel like it's very subtle here. He says this word quickly, a little unclearly.

It almost sounds like 'rakes' without the ng to me.

Left the ranks-- left the ranks-- left the ranks a full bird colonel.

Full-- we have a Dark L. Don't lift your tongue tip. Try it: full, full, full bird. 'bird'

has the UR vowel, and that's overtaken by the R so you don't actually need to try to

make a vowel at all. Make the B sound, the R sound, the D sound. Bird, bird.

Now the word 'colonel'. Okay, that's obviously...

This is one of the weirdest words in American  English as far as letters and sounds.

Full bird colonel. Full bird colonel. Full bird colonel.

We have the K sound, which we get from the letter C, then we have the same sound combination

as in 'bird', the ur vowel and the R consonant. Where's the R, exactly? So where's the O?

Don't know. Where's this O? Don't know. It's just very strange. I don't know how this word

evolved, it'd be interesting to look into that. Colonel. Two-syllable word, first syllable

stress, K sound, R sound: ker-- ker--, and then a very quick: nl, nl, nl. And Dark L

sound at the end. Colonel.

Colonel.

Then?

Then?

Voice goes up in pitch, she's asking a question,

it's not a statement. She's saying what's next? Then?

Then?

Spy.

Spy. So his voice has a little bit of popcorn quality. There's not a full engagement of

the air. Quick up-down shape of a stressed syllable. That is a statement. It comes down.

Spy.

Spy.

Where?

Where?

Now this one also comes down and she also

has a popcorn quality of her voice. Uhhhh-- where? Where? Instead of: where? Where?

Which has more volume, more air.

Where?

Now, why does this one go down in pitch, where the other question statement went up in pitch?

That's a great question. The general rule is for the most part, if it's a yes/no question,

it goes up in pitch, if not, it goes down in pitch. But there are always exceptions

when she said 'then?' going up here, that was not a yes/no question, but going up made

us know it was a question. Here, the pitch of 'where' it goes down. We still know it's

a question.

Where?

The word 'where' as a statement wouldn't exist, wouldn't really make sense. And I'm trying

to think: would I ever make the intonation of 'where' go up? And I would. I would if

someone had told me where something was, and I didn't hear them, and I needed them to say

it again, then I would say: where? But this is her first time asking the question: where?

She's making it a statement.

Where?

It was the cold war, we were everywhere.

Okay, this is interesting. We have: it was the cold war. It was the cold war. Stress

on 'cold'. It was the-- those three words, hmm, how are they pronounced?

It was the cold war--

I'm hearing a Z sound, I'm hearing a schwa. It was the cold war-- it was the cold war--

Now, I know that the phrase grammatically would be 'it was the cold war.' but he says

those three words really quickly, just combines them into two sounds. It was the cold war--

it was the cold war--

It was the cold war--

We were everywhere.

Then the words: we were everywhere. We were-- pitch goes up, energy goes up. We were eh--

we have the peak on the EH vowel, everywhere. And then the pitch comes down. We were everywhere.

We were everywhere. All connected, smoothly together.

We were everywhere.

We were everywhere.

>> We were everywhere. >> Now?

Now? Now? Again, her pitch goes up, showing it's a question. Now, this is a word that

we could make as a statement. Now? Like if someone said: hey rachel! When are you leaving?

Now. So by making the intonation go up, now? It's inviting that question by a conversation.

Now?

Now? Now? Now?

Been riding a desk for the past six years,

trying to figure out where future enemies are coming from.

Then he has a really long thought group. Actually, let's add the end of this thought group here

to this slide. So we have lots of words that are a little bit longer, a little bit clearer.

Been riding a desk for the past six years--

Been riding a desk for the past six years--

Been riding a desk for the past six years--

Been riding a desk for the past six years,

trying to figure out where our  future enemies are coming from.

Trying to figure out where our future enemies are coming from.

Future. A little bit of length on 'enemies co--', but we have some reductions,

what are you noticing? First  let's look at the first word.

Been riding,

EE is pronounced as the letter IH, that's actually not a reduction, but it's just the

pronunciation, but it's said very quickly.

Been, been, been, been. Been riding, been riding--

Been riding, been riding, been riding a desk--

Riding a desk-- riding a-- riding a--

NG sound is changed to just an N sound.

Ridin a--

And that links right into the  schwa. Ridin a-- ridin a--

Been riding a,

Now, we have 'desk for the'.

I want you to listen to those three  words, and listen especially for the K.

Been riding a desk for the--

Desk for the-- desk for the-- desk for the-- K is dropped.

Comes between two consonant sounds,

we sometimes do that when we're  linking things together. Desk for the--

Been riding a desk for the--

Desk for the-- desk for the--

'for the', both said really quickly, we have a for reduction, the word 'the',

tongue tip does not need to come through the teeth  for that TH, you can just touch it at the back

of the teeth, the back of the front teeth. For the, for the, for the, for the.

How fast can you say that? For the, for  the, for the. Desk for the, desk for the.

Desk for the-- desk for the-- desk for the past six years.

Now look, let's look ahead.

We have STS, a cluster, the T comes  between two other constant sounds.

Do you think it's dropped? I think it is. Let's hear.

The past six years. The past six years. The past six years.

Past six years. Past six years. Past six years.

Okay, yup. It is dropped. Past six.

Those two words connected with the single S  and actually, I'm gonna write a little bit of

length on that word too. Past six years, past six years.

I think they all have a  little bit of length to them.

The past six years. The past six years. The past six years, trying to figure out where

future enemies are coming from.

Trying to figure out-- okay, that has... That's not how it's pronounced.

The TR, I am hearing a CHR, trying,  trying, that's really common.

Now the ING, again, he's dropping the G sound.

He's making that an N sound. Tryin, tryin, tryin. The word 'to' this word is reduced

to just the schwa. We don't usually drop the beginning sound, we do make that a Flap T

sometimes. But I have noticed we do sometimes drop that altogether when the sound before

is an N, and that's what's happening here. Tryna-- tryna-- tryna--

Trying to figure out,

Trying to figure out, trying to figure out, trying to figure out. Figure out. Figure out.

Figure out. Figure out.

Also said pretty quickly, out, we have a Stop T here, figure out, figure out, figure out.

Because the next word begins with a consonant, the W sound.

Trying to figure out,

where our future enemies--

WH word but he makes just a clean W sound. There's no wh, wh, wh, where in front, it's

just: where, where. The word 'our' pretty unclear. I would probably write that schwa R,

it's reduced. Where our, where our, where our, where our.

Where our future enemies-- where our future enemies-- where our future enemies--

You know, I would normally write this schwa R, but I actually almost think I'm just hearing

it like a schwa. Where our-- where our future-- where our future enemies are--

That's not too common, but I do think that's what he's doing here. Where our future-- where

our future enemies are--

He's just speaking so quickly. This particular word is said so quickly. Now, when it's all

linked together, I totally get it. It would sound weird to pronounce 'our' that way if

it wasn't linked in as part of the sentence.

Where our future enemies--

This word 'our' and this word 'are', both often reduced to something that sounds pretty

much the same, schwa R. Of course, over here, I said the R was dropped but here, I do hear it.

Enemies are-- enemies are-- enemies are-- ending Z sound linking right into the next sound.

Zar, zar-- enemies are--

Enemies are--

coming from--

Are coming from-- are coming from-- are coming from-- so he has three ING verbs here, and

for each one of them, he's changed the NG sound into an end N sound.

I do tell my students not to do this all the time.

It just doesn't sound quite  right, mixed in with other things

that students tend to do. There will be some native speakers that do it all the time, that

will definitely sound like an accent, a regional accent in the us, and that's fine. Especially,

you know, if you live there, you might want to pick that up. Although people in the US

move around so much, I can't say that, you know, everyone in a particular region speaks

that way. A lot of people would speak with a more standard accent. And that's what I teach.

So I just want to talk about that here, he's done it three times, a student watching this

might think: oh, it's... We should be doing this all the time. I wouldn't say that.

The last word 'from', not reduced. Sometimes, we reduce this word to: from, from, but the

vowel is not reduced. It is the UH as in butter vowel. We generally don't reduce the last

word in a sentence, or a thought group.

Coming from,

Never occurred to me they  would be coming from above.

So let's talk about stress. Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

And the most stress on that last  word because this is what is unusual.

The enemies are coming from above.

Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

Also, grammatically, we would have the word 'it' here. The word 'it' is implied. It never

occurred to me. But he doesn't say that, he just says: never occurred to me--

Never occurred to me--

Never occurred to me--

Never occurred to me--

Never occurred to me--

So in the stressed syllable of  occur, we have that R vowel again.

Occur-- ur-- occured--

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

It's really the R sound. Occurred. Occurred.

Occurred.

A little bit of stress on the first syllable of ne-- never uh-- then the R links into the

schwa. Never uh, never uh, never occurred--

Never occurred--

to me--

Never occurred to me-- occurred to me-- so the ED ending here is a little light D sound,

not released. Then he makes the word 'to' with a true T, and the vowel is reduced to

the schwa. Occurred to-- occurred to-- do you hear that D sound in my vocal cords before

I make the T? Occurred to-- occurred to me-- occurred to me--

Occurred to me-- occurred to me-- occurred to me

they would be coming from above.

So we have the stressed syllable: occurred-- then we have 'to me they would be', all of

these words before the next stressed word.

To me they would be coming--

To me they would be coming--

To me they would be coming--

To me they would be, to me they would be,

to me they would be, to me they would be.

A little bit flatter in pitch but you don't have much of that up-down shape.

To me they would be, to me they would be, to me  they would be. Now, I hope you're noticing the

L in 'would' is always silent. To me they would be, to me they would be.

A very light D sound in the vocal cords here, again, not released. That would be: they would be.

They would be. They would be.

We don't hear that. They would be, they would be, they would be. That's what we hear.

They would be. Little D sound, the vocal cords are vibrating, that's a voiced sound, but

it's not released, I go right into the B sound.

To me they would be--

coming from above.

Coming from above. We have interesting stress here. He's playing

with it a little bit because of the surprise 

of the enemies coming from  above, from outer space.

Coming from above. Da-da-da-da-da. Really stressing that last syllable.

Now, here we have an ING word, he does pronounce  that as an ING word. He makes the NG sound

instead of an N sound. Coming, coming, coming, coming, coming from, coming from.

Now, here I probably would write this as the from reduction with a schwa instead of the

UH as in butter vowel. Coming from, coming from above. Coming from above.

Coming from above.

The last thing I want to talk about is he does do a little lift here: from above.

When I was practicing it one time, I did it with  the link: from a, from a, from a, from above,

from above. But no, it's not how he does it. He says: from above, from above, from-- little

break, above. Putting that little break there makes that word even more stressed. If we

linked it into the word before, it would sound a little bit more conversational. But by putting

a little lift there, a little break in the sound, it brings more stress to that word.

Wow. The enemies are coming from above.

Coming from above.

Let's listen to this whole conversation one more time

You want to get personal.

Where were you born?

Huntsville, Alabama. But technically, I don't remember that part.

>> First job? >> Soldier. Straight out of high school.

>> Left the ranks a full bird colonel. >> Then?

>> Spy. >> Where?

>> It was the cold war, we were everywhere. >> Now?

Been riding a desk for the past six years, trying to figure out where future enemies

are coming from. Never occurred to me they 

would be coming from above. Too tight?

Uhmmm A little?

No. Leave it for now. We’ll see.

'kay.

If it feels too tight later, I’ll let you know.

So, do you have a vision?

Mm-hmm.

What is it?

I want to take with your  permission, I’d like to go to here.

What do you think David? I don’t  know. That might be too much.

You should try it. It’ll always grow.

I know, but in the meantime, what if I hate it?

Well, it won’t be too short. I think it’ll  be good because it’s going to have layers

and movement.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

Darn it.

Darn it (laugh). I just don’t have the balls.

Well, but you could grow a set.

I know, I could, but I’m too busy feeding a  baby and building a business and all that.

Yep. And now the analysis

Too tight?

Too tight? Tight? Pitch going up at  the end. She was asking me a question.

Too tight?

Too tight? Notice she had a clear  stop T at the end of the word tight.

Tight?

Tight. So, that sounds different than the  word tie, which has the same sounds only no T.

Tight. Tie. Tight.

Tight?

The word tight is a lot more abrupt  because of this stop than tie,  

which has more of a curve in the voice. Too tight?

Too tight?

Umm... A little?

Then she said “a little?” as in a  little too tight? A little? Again,  

her voice went up in pitch at the end.

Umm...

A little?

A little? Little is a really tough  word. The double T is a flap,  

so it sounds like the American D.

It might sound like the R in your  language. Little. Little. Little.

A little?

It also has a dark L, and when I say this  word, I don’t move the front top of my tongue

away from the roof of the mouth  between the flap and the L. Little.

I go from using the front  of the tongue to the back,  

but I don’t actually move the front of the tongue.

A little? A little?

A little?

No. Leave it for now. We'll see.

'kay.

No. Leave it for now. Leave it for now. A couple  things to note. How did I pronounce the word for?

For now.

With the schwa. So, the schwa  is absorbed by the R sound.

For. For. Leave it for. Leave it for now.

Leave it for now.

Also, a stop T in it. Less time to pronounce  it. No release. It for. It for. It for.

Leave it for now.

Leave it for now. Leave it. Leave it.

One way that can help you connect these two  

words is to maybe think of the V  sound as beginning the word it.

Vit. Leave it. Leave it. Leave it for now.

Leave it.

Leave it for now. We'll see.

We'll see. We'll see. We'll see.  How did I pronounce we will?

We'll see.

The contraction. We'll. We'll. We'll.

I made a schwa sound here, and then  the dark L was the dominant sound.

We'll. We'll, uhl,uhluhl. Where the back  of the tongue pulls back. We'll. We'll see.

We'll see.

I don’t lift the tip of my tongue  to finish the dark L. We'll, ul.

I can leave it down. I'm just using the back of my  tongue to make the dark L. We'll see. We'll see.

We'll see.

'kay.

My sister-in-law said a really  quick, 'kay. 'kay, 'kay.

'kay.

This is short for the word okay.

You’ll hear it shortened to K a lot. K. K. K.

'kay.

Now let me show you what makes exercises  like these special in the academy. You not  

only have the analysis but you have  a soundboard where you can play with  

listening and repeating. As you do this you  can really improve your skills in linking,  

reductions, perfecting vowels and  developing a feel of American English.

Each conversation is broken down into little  phrases and you can listen to them over and  

over doing the play it, say it method which  will really help you sound more natural.

Do you have a vision? You can listen at a regular pace.

Do you have a vision?

And slow motion, this helps you figure out what  exactly is being said, what exactly you hear,  

which is so important for the flow of  conversation. So let’s just try this now.  

I’m going to play this three times. After each  time, you repeat it back just like you hear it.

Do you have a vision?

I've found when my students work like this with  the play it, say it method that they’re able to  

make corrections to themselves without me even  saying anything. Their ears and their mouth, 

their body just starts working together to  

make corrections in a way that  makes them sound so natural.

Leave it for now.

So if this is something that  looks interesting to you,

I’d like to go to here.

As a training tool then head  over to RachelsEnglishAcademy.com

What if I hate it? Oh, I don’t think you’re going to hate it?

Repeating like this builds those pathways  in your brain, builds your understanding of  

the American sound and builds your American  voice. Now let’s jump back to that analysis.

If it feels too tight later, I'll let you know.

If it feels too tight later, I'll let  you know. If it feels. The word feels  

was longer. It had that up-down  swell. If it feels. If it feels.

If it feels---

The word if was really short. F-feels. F-feels.

There was almost no vowel, just a very quick  ---ih, but if I had just said f-feels and just  

made the F sound attaching it to the next  word, she would have known what I meant.  

Another stop T here, because the next word  begins with a consonant. F-feels. F-feels.

If it feels--

too tight later--

Too tight later. Too tight later. So,  

unlike the word T-O, which can often  reduce, the word T-O-O never reduces.

It will have the -ooh as in boo  vowel. If it feels too tight later.

If it feels too tight later--

What do you notice about tight?  Again, a stop T. The next sound is  

a consonant. Too tight later. Later.  Later. How did I pronounce that T?

Too tight

later.

That T was again flap T. Later. Later. Later.

Later I'll let you know.

I'll let you know. The word 'I'll' reduced. So it  

sounds like the word 'all'. I'll  let you know. I'll let you know.

I'll let you know.

I think you're probably noticing the strong  -ch sound instead of a T. Let you. Let you.

I'll let you know.

Let you know.

This often happens in American English when the  T sound is followed by the word you or your.

Let you know.

What else about the word you? The -ooh vowel  was reduced to the schwa. Let you. Let you.

I'll let you know.

I'll let you know. This is a pretty common phrase.  I'll let you know. Practice that a couple times.

I'll let you know.

I'll let you know. I'll let you know.

So, do you have a vision?

Mm-hmm.

So. I kind of drew that word out a little bit.

So,

So.This is a diphthong. The OH as in No diphthong.

OH. So, make sure that your  lips do move they will round  

more. So. For the second half of the diphthong.

So,

Do you have a vision?

Do you have a vision? Do you have a vision?

The -ooh vowel in do was very fast. It  could even be interpreted as a schwa.

Do you have? Do you have? Do you have?

Do you have? a vision?

Also, the word 'you' is very fast.

Do you have a vision?

And it could have been the schwa, but I think  I actually am hearing a real -ooh vowel there

although it's fast. Do you have a vision?

Do you have a vision?

Have a. Have a. Here we have an ending  consonant linking into a beginning vowel.

Remember, we're talking about sounds  when we deal with these rules of  

linking and other things, not letters.

So, even though the letter E is here, it's  silent. The final sound is the V sound.

Have a. Have a. Have a. So, we can link that  really nicely into the article -ah. Have a vision?

Do you have a vision?

Vision. Here the letter S makes  the -zh sound. Vision. Vision.

Vision?

Do you have a vision?

Do you have a vision? And my  voice is going up in pitch  

at the end. I'm asking her a yes-no question.

Do you have a vision?

Do you have a vision?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. This is a common  response. Yes. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Do you have a response like that in your language?

That’s sort of just a grunt that doesn't  even involve opening your mouth? Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. That's a common one in American English.

Mm-hmm.

What is it?

I want to take with your permission.

What is it? What is it? How did we say  that so quickly and link things together?

First of all, the T here comes between two vowel  sounds. So, I linked those words with a flap T.

What is it? What is it?

What is it?

And also, the letter S makes the Z sound in this  word, and the Z did connect into that next word.

Zit. Zit. What is it?

What is it?

What is it? So, we linked all  three of these words together  

by an ending consonant to beginning vowel link.

What is it? What is it?

What is it?

Try that with me and follow the same stress  pattern where 'is' is the most stressed.

What is it?

What is it? What is it?

What is it?

I want to take, with your permission.

I want to take. I want to take. So,  

you can probably notice that she  is saying wanna, not want to.

I want to--

I want to take.

So, she's combining these  words, dropping the T sound.

Want to. Want to. With the schwa at the  end. I want to take. I want to take.

I want to take

with your permission.

With your permission. She's  hesitating here a little bit.

With your permission. With your permission.

Because she knows she needs my  permission to do this. Your permission.

How does she pronounce the word 'your'?

Your

permission.

It's reduced. Schwa R. Your. Your.

Your-- permission.

Your permission.

With your permission, I'd like to go to here.

What do you think, David?

I'd like to go to here. Okay, a  couple interesting things here.

I'd like to go to here.

So, she's saying I would like. I'd.

She won't do this if I don’t give her  permission, but this is what she wants to do.

I'd like--

So, she's using the contraction  I would to I'd. I'd.

I'd like-- to go to here.

I'd like to go to here. Okay. The word to. It  appears twice. Both times, she uses the schwa.

The first time it's a clear  true T. Like to. I'd like to.

I'd like to.

T-T-T. But the second time you barely  hear it. I'd like to go to here.

I'd like to go to here. It's a light flap. So, she made a true T here

because the sound before was  unvoiced, an unvoiced consonant K. K.

I'd like to go to here.

And because this sound is unvoiced, she's going  ahead and making the T sound unvoiced as well.

Like to. Like to.

I'd like to.

So, it's a K sound. She's stopping the air  and she's not releasing the K. Like to.

She's going straight from the stop of air  into the true T sound. Like to. Like to.

I'd like to. Like to. Like to.

So, you might not even hear the  K. I'd like to. I'd like to.

But the back of her tongue is moving  up to the soft palette to make the K.

A native speaker will hear that as a K sound  even though the K isn't released before the T.

I'd like to go to here.

I'd like to go to here.

What do you think, David?

What do you think, David? Okay,  

that was really unclear. Very mumbly.  What do you think? What do you think?

What do you think? With a flap T here,  dropping the D sound and just making a flap

to connect these two words, but my flap was pretty  sloppy. What do you. What do you. What do you.

What do you think?

Not a clear flap against the roof of the  mouth at all. The word 'you' was reduced.

Instead of the -ooh vowel, I used  the schwa. What do you think?

That is a very common phrase. What do you think?

What do you think?

What do you think? This is how you ask  somebody’s opinion. What do you think?

What do you think, David? What do you think, David?

I don't know. That might be too much.

You should try it.

Okay. Then I got really mumbly  before that might be too much.

Listen to just that little bit again while  I tried to figure out what I wanted to say.

I don't know. That might be too much.

I don’t know. That might be too much.  Very unclear. A native speaker would  

definitely understand aow as  I don't know. I don't know.  

I don't know. That might be too much.  But I basically didn't make a D sound.

I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know. That might be too much.

I don't know. I don't know. Would be  a much clearer way to pronounce that.

I was mumbling. I didn't want  to do what she wanted to do.

I felt bad about it. I was trying  to figure out what to say about it.

I don't know.

I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.  A very unclear way to say I don't know,

but Americans will certainly  do that. I don't know.

I don't know. That might be too much.

And I'm continuing my mumble  here. That might be too much.

That might be too much. That might be too much.

I'm really only saying an -ah  or an -uh kind of vowel here.

That might

be too much.

I'm not really saying the -th, and I  am not even really making a T sound.

That might be too much.  Eh-Eh-Eh-Eh. That might be too much.

That might-- be too much.

That might be too much. I am making a  stop T at the end of might. Might be.

That might be too much. That might be too much.

That might be too much. That might be too much.

You should try it.

You should try it. You should try it.

Okay, what about the word should? She's  not really making the final D sound.

Now, the L in the word should is always silent.

You should

try it.

It's not part of the sounds, but  the D usually is or sometimes is,  

but we often drop that in conversation,

especially when the next sound is  a consonant. You shuh-shuh-shuh.

Uh. So, just the -uh vowel. You shuh. You shuh.

You should.

Try that. You shuh. You shuh. You should try it.

You should--

try it.

You should try it. You should try it.

You should try it.

Now, so often, people make a -tr  sound and make it a -chr sound. Try.

But my sister-in-law actually didn't do that.  She made a pretty clear tr sound. Try it. Try it.

Try it.

You should try it.

You should try it. Try it. Vowel to vowel  link here, and then a stop T. Try it.

Try it.

So, she made everything there really smooth,  

really connected. You should  try it. You should try it.

You should try it. You should try it.

You should try it.

It’ll always grow.

It’ll. It’ll. This is just like the  word little that we discussed earlier.

It’ll--

It will. And it's a flap that comes between the  -ih vowel and the schwa L or the dark L here,

but you don’t need to bring your  tongue back down after the flap.  

You can just put it up to the roof of  the mouth for the flap and then move  

the back of your tongue for the dark  L. It’ll. It’ll. It’ll always grow.

It’ll--

always grow.

Always grow. Always grow.

Notice she doesn't really make an L sound  there. It's more just a clear al, al. Always.

Always--

Always instead of always.

So, that's a shortcut you can use for that  word. Always. Always. It’ll always grow.

Always--

It’ll always grow.

I know, but,

I know, but. I know, but. Really stressing  the word know, there. I know, but.

I know, but.

Stop T at the end of but. An abrupt end there.

I know, but in the meantime, what if I hate it?

In the meantime. In the meantime.  This is a pretty common phrase.

Mean is very stressed there compared  to the other words. In the. In the.

In the meantime--

In the meantime. In the  meantime. This means until then.

In the meantime.

Shortcut with a phrase like ‘in the’.  You have an N and the voiced -th sound.

In the meantime.

You can make the N with the top part of  the tongue touching the roof of the mouth,

even with the tip of the tongue out. So the tip  of the tongue can already be making the -th shape

with the tip through the teeth. Nn the. In the.

You can make the N with the part of the tongue  that's further back while the tip of your tongue

prepares for the next sound.

This will help you make that more  quickly. In the. In the meantime.

In the meantime,

what if I hate it?

What if I hate it? What if I hate it? How did I  say that so quickly and link those words together?

What if I hate it?

Well, there's only one word  that was really stressed there,  

that was really long, and  that was the word 'hate'.

What if I hate it?

What if I hate it? The rest  of the words were very fast.

And we linked together the words  what and if with the flap T.

What if. What if. What if I.

What if I--

What if I. The F linked right  into the I diphthong. What if I.

What if I--

What if I hate it?

What if I hate it? What if I hate it? And again,  

we had a flap T linking hate and  it. Hate it. Hate it. Hate it.

Hate it?

And a stop T at the end of it. What if I hate it?

What if I hate it?

I think you're probably starting to  notice that we very rarely make true Ts.

Okay, maybe very rarely is an  exaggeration, but more often than not,

a T is either a stop T or a flap T.

What if I hate it?

Well, it won't be too short.

I think it’ll be good because it's  going to have layers and movement.

Well, it won't be too short. It won't be.  It won't be. What about those Ts again?

Well,

it won't be--

She is making her sentence  more smooth. She's linking  

words together more easily by making those stops.

Well, it won't be. It won't be too short.

It won't be--

too short.

Again, too with the OO vowel not  reduced. We don’t reduce that word.

Too short.

She's stressing the word too. It won't  be too short. It's the main word,  

the main stressed word of that sentence.

Well, it won't be too short.

It won't be too short.

All of the words before are leading up to it,  and the word after it is falling away from it.

It won't be too short.

So, she's saying, it might be  short, but it won't too short.

It won't be too short. I think it’ll be good.

I think it’ll be good. Again, the ‘it

will’ contraction, it’ll.  It’ll. With that flap it’ll.

It’ll be good.

I think it’ll be good.

I think it’ll be good. Think and good. Longer  than I. It’ll be. I think it’ll be good.

I think it’ll be good--

cuz it's going to have layers.

Cuz it's going to have. cuz it's, it's. cuz it's.

So, she changed the word because to just cuz. Cuz.

Cuz it's,

Cuz it's, cuz it's, cuz it's. And she linked  the Z into the next word, the vowel, it's.

Cuz it's, cuz it's, cuz it's.  Because it is. Cuz it's.

That's how Americans will pronounce those  three words very often. Cuz it's, cuz it's.

Cuz it's-- going to have layers and.

Going to have layers and. You probably  noticed 'going to' was pronounced 'gonna'.

It's going to have. It's going to have.

It's going to have

layers and.

Going to have layers and. Okay, which word there  is the most clear, the longest, the most stressed?

Going to have layers and---

Going to have layers and. Definitely  the word layers. Layers and.

Layers and---

The next word, and, was reduced  to just the N sound. Layers and.

Layers and--

And the Z sound connected into the  word and. S pronounced as a Z here.

It's going to have layers and movement.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

Movement. Movement. Here she does  make a nice true T. Movement.

Movement.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

Can you do one inch longer than that?  I'm really stressing the word one.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

I don’t really agree with her, so this  is what I'm asking for as the compromise.

Can you do one inch longer than that? What did you notice about the word can?

Can you?

That was reduced. Can. This is  usually how we pronounce this word.

When it's a helping verb and  it's usually a helping verb,  

that means it's not the main verb in  the sentence. The main verb is do. So,  

I'm going to reduce can. Can. Can. Can  you do one inch longer? One inch longer?

Can you do

one inch longer

than that?

Longer than that. Longer than that.

Longer than that?

What about the word than? Reduced. It  had the schwa. Longer than. Longer than.

Longer than--

that?

Longer than that. And again, a stop T  at the end of that. Longer than that.

Longer than that?

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

Darn it.

Okay, fine. She's kind of saying it quietly.  She really didn't want to agree with me at all.

Okay, fine. Okay, fine.

Okay, fine.

Okay, fine. Pitch falling off.  She's a little disappointed.

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

And I said, okay, thank you. I reduced  the word okay to just K. K, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

I'm also speaking quietly here. It was like  

painful for us to come up with  something we agreed on here.

We both kind of gave up more than we wanted.  So, we both kind of mumbled our agreement.

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

Darn it.

Darn it. Darn it is like, oh man, I'm  disappointed. That's not how I wanted that to go.

Darn it.

Darn it. She makes a stop T at the end of it.

That's because it's at the end of  a thought, the end of a sentence.

Darn it.

Darn it. (laughing)

I repeat what she says. Darn it.  Even though I'm not disappointed.

I just don’t have the balls.

Well, but you could grow a set.

I just don’t have the balls. Okay, a couple of  things. The word just. So often, we drop the T.

We do this when the next word begins with  a consonant. I just don’t. I just don’t.

I just don’t---

I just don’t. This helps up connect the word.

We drop the T when it comes between two  consonants all the time. I just don’t have.

I just don’t have--

Don’t have. Don’t have.  Don’t. Very quick stop here.

So, it's not a dropped T, but it's sort of a  weak stop. I just don’t have. I just don’t have.

I just don’t have--

the balls.

I just don’t have the balls. I'm  stressing the words don’t and balls,  

and notice that the S is a Z there.

I just don’t have the balls. Well, but you could grow a set.

Well, but you could grow a set. But you  could. But you could. Again, ending T.

The word you becomes a -ch. But you. But you.

But you-- could grow a set.

And did you notice the L is silent in 'could'?

But you could

grow a set.

Grow a set. With a stop T.

Grow a set.

If you're unsure what these idioms mean, check  out the lesson that goes with this video,

Vocab, Idioms, and Phrasal Verbs.

I just don’t have the balls.

Well, but you could grow a set.

I know, I could, but I'm too  busy feeding a baby and--

I know, I could.

I know, I could.

So, these two mini phrases  have that up-down shape.

I know, I could. Again, the L in could is silent.

I know, I could--

but I'm too busy.

But I'm too busy. But I'm. But I'm. Connecting  those two words with a flap T. But I'm. But I'm.

But I'm--

too busy.

Too busy. Again, the word too,  

not reduced. It's got the pure -ooh  vowel. Too. Too. But I'm too busy.

But I'm too busy.

Did you notice the word busy has a letter  S, but the S is pronounced as a Z? Busy.

Busy.

Busy. Also, the letter U represents the -ih sound  here. That doesn't happen too often. Busy. Busy.

Busy--

feeding a baby and--

Feeding a baby and. Feeding a baby and.  Stressing the stressed syllable of feed.

Feeding a baby. They both  have first syllable stress.

Feeding a baby, all connected  with the schwa for the word 'a'.

Feeding a baby and--

Feeding a baby and. Baby and. The word  and was reduced to just the schwa N sound.

So, it just kind of sounds like an N sound  at the end of the word before. Baby and.

Baby and--

Feeding a baby and.

Feeding a baby and.

I'm too busy feeding a baby and  building a business and all that.

Yep.

Building a business and all that.  So, just like feeding a baby.

Feeding a baby,

Building has stress on the first  syllable. Building a business.

Building a business.

Business also has stress on the first syllable.

So, again, these two words were linked together  with the article a, pronounced shwa -uh.

Building a business. Business.

Just like in the word busy,  

the letter S here makes the Z sound  and the letter U makes the -ih vowel.

Biz. Busy. Business.

Business

Building a business and all that.

Yep.

Business and. Again, reduce the word  'and' to just the schwa N sounds,

which just sounds like an N. And all  that. And all that. All that. Stop T.

And all that. Yep.

She agrees with me. She doesn't like it,  but she agrees. Yep. Yep. Very abrupt.

And all that. Yep.

Stop P, not releasing it. Yep. Yep.

This is my sister-in-law, who cuts  everyone’s hair in the family.

She has very good ideas. She's very good at it,

but I tend to like my hair long, and  she wanted to go just a little shorter.

Let's listen to the whole dialogue again.

Too tight?

Umm… A little?

No. Leave it for now. We’ll see.

'kay.

If it feels too tight later, I’ll let  you know. So, do you have a vision?

Mm-hmm.

What is it?

I want to take, with your  permission, I’d like to go to here.

What do you think David? I don’t  know. That might be too much.

You should try it. It’ll always grow.

I know, but in the meantime, what if I hate it?

Well, it won’t be too short. I think it’ll be good  because it’s going to have layers and movement.

Can you do one inch longer than that?

Okay, fine.

Okay, thank you.

Darn it.

I just don’t have the balls.

Well, but you could grow a set.

I know, I could, but I’m too busy feeding a  baby and building a business and all that.

Yep.

What did you do today?

Ah, Stony slept in. And that was a miracle.

And you beat my dad at golf. that  has, has that happened before?

Probably not.

Dad says he's just gotten terrible.

Today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

He says that that's his new normal.

Maybe.

That's unfortunate. That's too bad.

Now we’ll study how words  reduced, linked together,  

how sounds were dropped to improve your  listening skills and American accent.

What did you do today?

There's one stressed word in this phrase. Can  you feel what it is? Let's listen three times.

What you do today?

What did you do today? It's always where the  pitch change happens. We have a peak of stress,  

a peak of melody on the word do. What did you do  

today? And everything either leads  up to that or falls away from that.

What did you do today?

What did you, what did you, what did you, what did  you. These first three words said really quickly,  

what did often becomes wud, we drop the T link  and then just leave the D, What you do, what you.

What did you--

Whadju. So, we drop every sound except for the D  what did becomes wud but then d plus j can make  

a j sound, jj, jj, jj, so what did you becomes  whadju. Let's write the whole thing out in IPA.

Whadju

What did you do.

What did you do today?

Do today. Do today. So the word ‘today’,  the first vowel is always the schwa,  

never make that to. Always make that  t. But the first T can be a flap if  

it links into a word that ends with a vowel  or diphthong and that's what I'm doing here,  

I'm making that a flap oops, let me write that a  little bit more clearly. A flap t, do today. And  

then this is also a flap because it's a d between  two consonants. Flap T and flap D sound the same.

Do today.

Ah,

Ah, thinking. Sort of a mix between uh  as in butter and a as in father. Ah.

Ah,

Ah, Stony slept in.

Stony slept in. Two stress syllables there.  First, the first syllable of the proper noun.  

Stony slept in. Then, the second part of the  phrasal verb. And it's all smooth and connected.

Stony slept in.

So the word slept ends in the PT cluster.  A cluster that ends in t if the next word  

begins with a consonant, we usually drop it if  the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong,  

we usually say it. Let's try to listen  really closely and see what David is doing.

Stoney slept in.

Oh man, I I don't even really feel  like I hear it but slept in, slept in.

That's not sounding right to me, so even  though I'm trying to isolate a t sound,  

I don't really hear it. I still think  you should think of that as a true T.  

Super light, slept in, slept in, slept in.

Slept in.

And that was--

And that was. Little break here,  breaking up thought groups thinking  

about what to say and the A vowel held out  a little bit. A as in bat followed by n,  

d is dropped. And. When we have A followed by  N, it's not an but ae, a little bit of a more  

relaxed sound going into the uh as in butter  or you could think of it as the schwa. And.

And that was--

So the N right into the th sound of that,  

no break. Then we have a as in bat, stop T.  And then was. I would definitely say that's  

reduced it's not uh as and butter  but it's the schwa, was, was, was .

And that was--

a miracle.

A miracle. A miracle. Little two-word thought  group the article. A schwa, just links right  

in the word, a miracle. So, no break there  Miracle first syllable stress. Miracle. Miracle.

A miracle.

Now if you look this word up in IPA,  

you'll see I as in sit vowel in  the stressed syllable. Mir-acle.

A miracle.

Miracle when the I as in sit vowel is followed  by R, it is not I as in sit. It's more like e  

as in she, so it's not me like in miss, miss,  miracle me but it's me, ee, ee meer. Miracle.  

Ending in a dark L don't lift your tongue tip for  

that. Make that with the back part of  the tongue, uhl, uhl, uhl, miracle.

A miracle.

And you beat my dad at golf.

Okay, then my sentence. What are the stress  syllables there? Let's listen three times.

And you beat my dad at golf.

And you beat, and you beat. Stop t, beat  my dad at golf. So, we have stressed,  

unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed. [flap]

And you beat my dad at golf.

And you beat my dad at golf.

And, again, D dropped. And, and, and you, and  you, and you, and you, and you. Smooth connection.

And you--

beat my dad at golf.

And you beat my dad at, dad at. The word at  reduced stop T and the vowel reduces to the  

schwa, this sounds a lot like the word ‘it’  even though it's ‘at’. Bad at, bad at golf.

bad at golf.

Golf. This word is tricky. It can be written with  either the ah as in father or ah as in law vowel,  

I think a is a little bit more common  so we have G vowel LF. So the L comes  

after the vowel in this syllable  that means it's a dark L. Golf.  

And really it blends with that vowel  doesn't it? It's not golf but golf.

Golf.

So it can be a little bit more open for the  ah vowel then a little bit more closed the  

back of the tongue gets even closer to  the back of the throat for the dark l.

Golf. But the tongue tip never lifts.

Golf. And then finally the F. Golf.

Golf.

that has--

Stressing that and then moving up because  I'm asking a question that has stop T,  

the ending sound in has is a Z but  I change what I'm going to say. So  

there's a little lift here a little  break. That has, that has, that has.

that has--

That has, has that happened before?

That has, has that happened before? So then I  rather than making the statement that has never  

happened before, I asked the question, ‘has that  happened before?’ And haa, haa, has this stress,  

we're going up because this is a yes no question  and yes no questions generally go up and pitch  

which means our stressed syllables towards the  end will go down and up instead of up and down.

Has that happened before?

Has that, has that. I would say the  word has is reducing to the schwa, has,  

has, has. So then it can kind of sound  like the word his, his, his, his that,  

has that. Stop T, not releasing  it. Has that happened, happened.

Has that happened--

before?

Happened before? And my intonation  is just going up and I really do  

get pretty high there at the end.  For? For? For? Happened before?

That happened before?

Mmm,

Mmm, another thinking sound we make,  Mmm, just the M consonant, Mmm.

Mmm Probably not.

Probably not. Two stressed syllables there. Pro,  probably not. Stop T to N, probably. It's really  

common to reduce this to probably so we drop  that. It's just two syllables probably. Probably.

Probably not.

Dad says he's--

Dad says he's. Dad says he's. So I'm  stressing says dad says he's. Now of  

course we say, say but when we add  an S the a diphthong changes to E,  

says. And this letter S is a  Z sound. Says. Dad says he's.

Dad says he's--

And I do pronounce that H there. I could  have dropped it dad says he’s but I said  

dad says he's, he's, he's.  And this is short for he has,  

he has gotten and that letter s is a  z so this letter s is going to be a z.

Dad says he's--

Dad says he's. So the D here  in Dad it's not released dad,  

but we do vibrate the vocal  cords for that. Dad says he's.

Dad says he's--

Just gotten--

Just gotten. Stressing just, just gotten, just  

gotten. Even though that word is  stressed, the t is still dropped.  

St ending cluster linking into a consonant  so, so common to drop that T. Just gotten.

Just gotten--

Let's look at the word gotten.  We have g consonant, a vowel,  

t schwa n. When we have these sounds together,  t schwa n, we do a stop T got n and we go right  

into the n so you can think of there as being  no vowel here. Gotten, got, gotten. Not gotten.  

That's not a very common pronunciation  in American English but gotten, gotten.

Gotten--

Terrible.

Terrible. Three syllable word, first syllable  stress, terrible. And I'm giving that a really  

clean clear true t and I'm even pausing just a  bit before to let the stop air build up, terrible,  

to let that t be even more exaggerated because  this is not a word that has a meaning that sort  

of in the middle. It's extreme. He's not just a  little bit bad, but he's really, really bad now,  

he's terrible. Which is why there's a little extra  stop, a little extra air in that t to stress it.

Terrible.

So for this word we have a true t starting  a stressed syllable e as in bed r, schwa and  

then b schwa dark l, ter. So I want to talk  about this e followed by r. The r consonant  

changes some of our vowel sounds when they're  in the same syllable together like they are  

here and r does change a so it's not quite te,  te, but it's te, ter, so not as much jaw drop,  

not as much space between the tongue and the  roof of the mouth, a little bit more closed  

down. Teeeer, ter, terrible. And of course this  is a dark l, don't lift your tongue tip for that,  

bull, bull, bull. No kind of vowel sound  there just b dark l, bull, bull, terrible.

Terrible.

Today he was a little bit terrible.

Today he was a little bit  terrible. so we have today,  

quite a bit of stressed there. Today he was  a little bit. Then these are more unstressed.

Today he was a little bit terrible.

Tiny bit of stress on li, little bit  terrible, stress on terrible again,  

a true t there starting our stressed syllable.

A little bit terrible,

for him.

For him and then a little add-on for  him with one stressed syllable and the  

word for reduced. So not for him but for,  for, for him, for him, for him, for him.

For him,

today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

Today, today so very very light true  t here. Earlier, I made it a flap T  

because the word was linking into a vowel,  here it's the beginning of his sentence  

really light true T but again as always  schwa in that first syllable ttt today.

today --

today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

So if we listen to Just he was a little bit,

he was a little bit--

You can see how that's all  lower in pitch, less clear,  

less vocal energy, that is unstressed.  He was up becomes he was a, he was a,  

he was a. The E vowel linking smoothly into the  w. That's not was, that's was, was reduced. And  

that ending s is a z sound, that z links right  into the schwa, he was a, he was a, he was a.

He was a little bit--

He was a little bit, he was a little bit, he was  a little bit, little, little, little, little,  

said quickly that's a tricky word we've  got a flap t followed by schwa l. Little,  

little, little, little, little. Oops,  I didn't write that as schwa did I?  

Let's change that. That should be written  like this. Little, little, little, little.

He was a little bit--

The way I do this sequence, flap t schwa l is  I don't actually flap my tongue because I don't  

bring it down. Li, this is a true sorry a light  l starting so you do lift your tongue tip there.  

Li, so I lift the tongue I bring it down  for the vowel then I put the tongue tip  

back up for the T sound. Little, but I don't  release it. I tend to leave the tongue tip up  

and then make the dark l sound at the back of  the tongue with the tongue tip up. So if I say  

little my tongue starts up for the light  L and it ends up for the flap T dark L.  

Little. It's kind of confusing to explain because  the flap t is made with the front of the tongue  

so it goes up but rather than flapping it down  I do something with the back, I bring the back  

of the tongue down and back a little bit for  that dark l. Little, little, a little bit.

a little bit.

It's tricky and you might want to  just work on that sound by imitating  

it and I know that we do have that in the  soundboards I believe in the consonants  

chapter. Sorry the consonants course in,  it's either the T chapter or the L chapter.  

We have a soundboard with this sequence, flap  T dark L little, a little bit, a little bit.

A little bit.

terrible.

Now we have ending T beginning T  

you can think of it as a stop T true t or a  drop T true T little bit terrible but we stop  

the air once and we release it once. Bit  te, bit terr, and that's the true T sound.

a little bit terrible.

a little bit terrible for him.

He says that that's his new normal.

He says that that's his new normal. A couple  

stressed syllables there. He  says that that's his new normal.

He says that that's his new normal.

He says. Again it looks like it should be says  but it's say as in bed he says. now I love this.  

We have the same word twice in a row once it's  contracted for that is. But we have that that  

and the first one is reduced, that, he says that.  So we have the schwa and then that t is a stop t  

because the next word begins with a consonant.  He says that, he says that. He says that.

He says that--

that's his new normal.

He says that that's. So we have that that's,  

that that's. The second time the vowel is  not reduced it is the a as in that vowel.

He says that that's--

He says that that's .The that's. So it looks  like same word same pronunciation but no. One  

of them is functioning as a function word and  the other one is being stressed. That that's.

He says that that's--

his new normal.

He says that that's his, that’s his. I'm dropping  the H in his. Now we're watching a tennis match  

here and you can hear that racket hitting the  ball. I hope that doesn't mess you up too much  

when you're working with this soundboard  here. That that's his, that that's his.

That that's his--

New normal.

Uhhuhuh. Those two up down  swells of the intonation.  

Those are our two stressed syllables. New normal.

New normal.

Normal. We just talked about how r changes the  e as in bed. It also changes ah as in law. So  

the first syllable of normal would be written  with these sounds, the ah as in law vowel,  

this is very much so changed by the r consonant  so it's not law, no normal but it's no,uhuhl.  

Lips round more, tongue shifts back a little  bit more maybe even up a little bit getting in  

towards that r. No- o, o, or nor, nor, this is in  quarter. Normal. Horse, o, o, o, changed a vowel.

Normal.

And we end with schwa L dark L, do not lift your  tongue tip for that. Normal. Uhl,uhl,uhl, uhl.

I'm just making that with the  tongue tip down pressing the  

back of the tongue down and back  a little bit. Uh,uh,uhl, normal.

Normal.

Maybe.

Maybe, maybe. First syllable stress  we're sort of giggling it's just the  

pits getting older guys. My dad  at this point he was probably  

73, 74. For a while, he kept getting better  at golf and now he's starting to get worse.

Maybe.

It's unfortunate.

That's too bad.

So then we both make a comment starting with  that's. That's unfortunate and that's too bad.

It's unfortunate. That's too bad.

It's unfortunate.

That's too bad.

It's unfortunate.

That's too bad.

So David does the reduction where he just uses  the ts sound and links it into the next word.  

The th and the a vowel totally dropped  it's unfortunate. We do this quite a bit,  

ts can mean it's. It can mean lets like if I was  to say let's go, let's go, that would be let's go  

and that's. It can also mean what’s like if I  was going to say what’s up, what's up. So all  

of these can be reduced to just the ts sound  and that's what he's doing. It's unfortunate.

It's unfortunate.

Sun, sun, sun. So it's linking right  into the vowel. It's unfortunate.  

Stress on the second syllable it's  unfortunate. Stop t. It's unfortunate.

It's unfortunate.

That's too bad.

And then I don't really reduce it. That's,  that's, that's, that's. It's not super stressed or  

anything but I'm not really changing or dropping  any of the sounds. that's, that's, that's,  

that's. I definitely do reduce this to just ts  sometimes but I'm not here that's, that's, that's,  

that's too bad. T-o-o never reduces, it's always  a true t and the u vowel to, to, that's too bad.

That's too bad.

And that is my stressed word, everything  leads up to it. That's too bad,  

and then falls away from it. Bad,  bad, bad, the ending d there not bad,  

d, not released but I do make the  sound with the vocal cords, bad.

That's too bad.

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

What did you do today?

Ah, Stony slept in. And that was a miracle.

And you beat my dad at golf. that  has, has that happened before?

Probably not.

Dad says he's just gotten terrible.

Today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

He says that that's his new normal.

Maybe.

That's unfortunate.

That's too bad.

Seizures create anxiety,  which can trigger aggression.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Uh, it’s not random.

You know, it was your flash,  That's what set him off.

>> Hey. >> Well.

How’s he doing?

He’s much better.

I imagine that I owe you all an apology.

Now, the analysis.

Seizures create anxiety,  which can trigger aggression.

Okay so there's a little bit of a cymbal crash,  

a little bit of leftover music, or  sound effect as he begins speaking.

But he says the word 'seizures' and then  there's a little bit, a little bit of a lift.

Seizures create anxiety,  which can trigger aggression.

Seizures create anxiety,  which can trigger aggression.

Seizures create anxiety,  which can trigger aggression.

Seizures create anxiety-- so I would maybe  separate that into its own little thought group.

What's the stressed syllable  in the word 'seizures'?

Seizures create anxiety--

Seizures create anxiety--

Seizures create anxiety--

Seizures-- first syllable stress.  Seizures. A little curve up,  

then a curve down, and the  second unstressed syllable

just falls into that line.  Seizures, zures, zures, zures.

Seizures.

Seizures.

Seizures.

That's sort of a tricky  word. We have the DJZ sound,  

which isn't too common. So  first syllable stressed,

sei-- zures, zures, zures, then  the DJZ sound right into the  

schwa R sound. Zures, zures, and a super light,

light Z at the end, you could even think of that  as being a super light S, seizures, seizures.

Seizures.

Seizures.

Seizures create anxiety,  which can trigger aggression.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

What are our stressed syllables here?

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

We have a few stressed syllables. Create  anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Those are the four syllables that are a little  bit longer, and have more of that up-down shape.

The other syllables are flatter,  lower in pitch, and said more quickly.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

So a lot of those other syllables are actually  unstressed syllables within the stressed word.

Like the first syllable crea--  crea-- crea-- in the word 'create'.

So even when we're talking about stressed  words, we only ever mean the stressed syllable

that has that up-down shape. Unstressed syllables  

in a stressed word are said  quickly and more simply.

Create, create, create, create, create.

Create anxiety,

create anxiety,

create anxiety.

Now, here we have a T that  links the two words together.

Create anxiety, create an-- create  an-- And that is a flap T, to connect.

Create anxiety.

Create anxiety,

create anxiety,

create anxiety.

Another word that's a little tricky,  

that you may not be sure how to  pronounce by looking at the letters.

So we have AN, but actually, the letter N  here makes the NG sound so we're making that

with a back of the tongue: an-- an--

Create anxiety.

Create anxiety.

Create anxiety.

Anxie-- the stressed syllable, the  letter X makes the Z sound here. Anxie--

And we have the AI as in buy  diphthong. Anxi-- iety, iety,  

iety, iety, and then two unstressed syllables.

IH vowel, flap T, which I write as the D because  

the flap T sounds like the  American D between vowels,

and then an ending EE sound. Unstressed, and  make a quick flap with your tongue there:

iety, iety, iety, iety, iety, anxiety.

Practice that word with me. Four  syllables, second syllable stress:

An-- xie-- ety, anxiety, anxiety.

Create anxiety.

Create anxiety.

Create anxiety.

Create anxiety, which can trigger aggression.

So then we have two more unstressed words,  which can, before our stressed word 'trigger'.

So how are these two words pronounced?

Which can trigger--

which can trigger--

which can trigger--

Which can-- which can-- which can-- which can--

Very fast, low in pitch, flat, remember, we  really need this contrast of this kind of word.

Which can-- which can-- which can--  against words that have that up-down shape,

that stressed syllable like 'anxiety'.

So 'which can', it's a clean W sound, there's  no escape of air, but just: which, which, which,

with the IH vowel said very quickly, ending  CH sound, which can-- which can-- which can--

goes right into the K sound of 'can' and  you're probably noticing that vowel is reduced,

it's the schwa: can, can, can.

Which can-- which can-- which can--

When 'can' is a helping verb, meaning  it's not the only verb, it reduces.

Can trigger, trigger is the stressed  word so it becomes: can-- can trigger,  

can trigger, trigger is the main verb.

Which can trigger--

which can trigger--

which can trigger--

The TR cluster can be a CHR and usually is,  here, I think he is making a clean T sound:

trigger, trigger, trigger, trigger. Try  that: trigger, trigger, trigger, instead of:

trigger, trigger, trigger,  trigger, trigger, trigger.

Trigger,

This word is tough. We have two R sounds. Trr---  

if you're having a hard time  with the word, practice it

slowing down the R. Trrrrigger. Both times.  

Holding out the R will help  you fine-tune the position,

your ear and your mouth can work together  to make a sound that's more accurate.

Trrriggerrr. Trigger.

Trigger

aggression--

Trigger aggression-- trigger aggression--  Two stressed words in a row, but again,  

it's only the stressed syllable

that has that up-down shape. The other  syllables said simply, quickly, unstressed.

So we have the ending schwa R sound,  the schwa beginning the word aggression.

Tri-- gger a-- gger a-- gger a-- gression.

Trigger aggression--

trigger aggression--

trigger aggression--

Trigger aggression-- So make sure that  you really feel that change in intonation,

that up-down shape on your  stressed syllables. Aggression--

Here, the double S is making the SH sound,  schwa N is the ending: sion-- sion-- sion--

Aggression--

aggression--

aggression--

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Okay, she's feeling like hmmm... Aggression is one  thing, but randomly attacking is another thing,

and can siezures really cause that? So in this  thought group, what are her stressed words?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

A little bit of length on 'yeah'  a little bit more height, yeah,  

but like, but like, much flatter, lower in pitch.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Rand-- and tack-- are most  stressed syllables there.  

Even though 'other people'  could both be content words,

they're not said with stress, I would  say, they sound flatter, less energy.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Listen to just 'other people'.  Listen to how quietly they're said.

Other people--

There, at the end of the sentence, she's lost her  vocal energy, she's not stressing these words.

The words that are most important  are 'randomly' and 'attacking'.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Whoa, different day, different  outfit, important announcement.

Did you know that with this video, I made  a free audio lesson that you can download?

In fact, I'm going this for each one of  the YouTube videos I'm making this summer,

all eleven of the Learn  English with Movies videos.

So follow this link, or find the link in the video  

description to get your free  downloadable audio lesson.

It's where you're going to train all of the  

things that you learned about  pronunciation in this video.

Back to the lesson. Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people? Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

As you imitate with the audio  that goes with this video lesson,  

make sure that you're really paying attention to

things like volume as well.  One thing that I work with  

my students on sometimes is taking the energy and

volume out of the voice towards  the end of a thought group.

That really helps bring an American  feeling to what they're saying.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Let's talk about a few other things. We  have a stop T in 'but'. Yeah but like,  

but like, but, but, but, but.

Because the next word begins with a constant, the  L consonant. Then we also have a stop consonant,

the K sound, and it's not released. She doesn't  say: like randomly-- like randomly-- like--

We do not hear that release, that's also  a stop. Like randomly, like, like, like.

The back of her tongue probably  goes up into position for the K  

very quickly rather than releasing the air

and going into the R. She just goes right to the  

R. Like randomly-- So we don't  hear that little escape of air.

It's common to do this with stop consonants,  

to drop the release when the next  word begins with a consonant.

But like randomly-- but like randomly--

Yeah, but like randomly--

Yeah, but like randomly--

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Okay, let's talk about our two stressed  words here. Randomly attacking.

So first of all, I want to say,  in the stressed syllable, ran--,  

we have the AA vowel followed by N. Ran--

We don't say it like that, we put an UH sound in  

between even though you won't  see that in the dictionary.

Raauh-- that's what happens because the back  

of the tongue relaxes before  the front of the tongue lifts,

so we get a UH sound in there.  Raa-- Raa-- Ran-- So not 'ran',  

not pure AH. Raa-- Raa-- Ran-- ran-- randomly.

Now, the D sound, a little hard to detect  here. It's followed by schwa M, dan-dmm--

and I don't think she really lifts her  tongue and brings it back down for a D sound.

Randomly, dom-- dom-- dom-- dom-- you want  to go right into an M sound from that D.

Try to make that as fast of a transition  as possible. And because it's schwa M,

we don't need to try to make a vowel here. We have  

four consonants that take  over the schwa: RL, M, N,

and that means they're called syllabic consonants,  that means you don't try to make a vowel,

they overtake the schwa. Whenever you see  schwa M, just think M, random, dum-dum-dum-dum.

Randomly--

Randomly--

attacking other people?

Attacking-- attacking-- listen to how  unstressed the first and last syllables are.

Attacking--

Ah-ttack-ing-- Really focus on that  as you practice this word. Actually,  

just practice it right now. Break it up.

Ah-ttack-ing-- attacking-- attacking-- Here, the T  is a true T because it begins a stressed syllable.

And a T that begins a true syllable is always  a true T, unless it's part of the TR cluster,

then you might make it a CH.  Attacking-- attacking-- make  

sure that first syllable is a schwa, uh--

attacking--

Attacking--

attacking other people?

And again, we've already discussed it, but  just make sure that this is low in volume,

simplify your mouth movements,  these words are unstressed.

Attacking other people?

Attacking other people?

Attacking other people?

Other people-- other people. And the pitch goes  up a little bit at the end it's a yes/no question.

Attacking other people?

Attacking other people?

Attacking other people?

Uh, it's not random.

Okay then we have the word 'uh', just  a little filler word as he's thinking,  

and then a three word thought group.

Talk to me about the stress here.  How do you feel the stress goes?

Repeat it, feel it, and find  the most stressed syllable.

Uh, it's not random.

Uh, it's not random.

Uh, it's not random.

Uh, it's not random.

I think 'not' is the most stressed word  there. Not random. So here she's saying

'randomly' and he's saying it's not random, not,  

contradicting that, so that's  gonna have the most stress.

It's not random. Stop T after 'not' because the  next word begins with a consonant. Not random.

And remember, just like with randomly,  

try not to make a vowel here:  random-- dom-- dom-- dom-- random--

Random-- random-- random--

You know, it was your--

Okay, so the way that I've written it  

with the commas which makes sense  grammatically is not actually how

he broke it up with his thought groups.  He put a little break after 'your'.

You know, it was your--

You know, it was your--

You know, it was your--

You know, it was your-- you  know-- You know, it was your--

So 'know' the most stressed word in  that thought group, and actually,  

'you' is reduced, its yuh with the schwa,

not the OO vowel but ye-- ye-- you know--  We say the word 'you' this way a lot.

In the phrase 'you know', it  becomes: ye know, ye know.

The word 'you're' also reduces:  yer, yer, not: you're, but yer.

You know, it was your--

You know, it was your--

You know, it was your--

Z sound in 'was', Y sound in 'your ' or yer.  They sound together a little bit like the DJZ.

It was your-- was djz-- But I probably wouldn't  tell my students to practice it this way.

In that case, it would probably end up sounding  too heavy. Was your-- was your-- was your--

I would still concentrate on making a light Z  sound connecting to the Y. Was your-- was your--

Was your--

It was your-- It was your-- Stop T in 'it', was,  I would write that with the schwa. Was, was, was.

Instead of was, less jaw drop, different  kind of vowel. Was-- it was your--

It was your--

flash--

Flash, then he puts another break here, so the  word 'flash' is its own little thought group here,

it's a single syllable, and it is  stressed, has that up-down shape.

Flash by putting that stop before, and  separating it into its own thought group,

we bring more emphasis to that word.

Flash,

That's what set him off.

Okay, now in the rest of the thought here, the  last thought group, what is our stressed word?

That's what set him off.

That's what set him off.

That's what set him off.

I would say our stressed words are:  

That's what set him off. 'What'  has a little bit of length too.

But 'that's' and 'off ' are our most  stressed, highest pitch, up-down shape.

That's what set him off.

That's what set him off.

That's what set him off.

What set him-- what set him-- what set him-- A  little bit lower in pitch, a little bit flatter,

what set him-- what set him-- Stop T in 'what'  because the next word begins with a consonant.

Now, you may think stop T in 'set' because the  next word begins with a consonant, but actually,

he dropped the H sound that's  a really common reduction,  

so now the word 'him' begins with a vowel.

It's um, um, um. So the T does come between two  vowels, he does use it to link, and it's a flap T.

Set him, set him, set him.

That's what set him off.

That's what set him off.

That's what set him off.

Set him off-- set him off--  So two words that are flatter,  

lower in pitch, unstressed, compared to 'off'.

Set him off-- set him off-- set him off--

Set him off-- set him off--

set him off--

>> Hey. >> Well.

Hey. Hey. Okay, so compared to 'set  him off-- ' which is lower in pitch,  

hey, hey, is a lot higher in pitch, isn't it?

It's more friendly, he's greeting  the person who had an issue.

Bringing the pitch up, friendly tone.  That's a lot different than: hey. Hey! Hey!

More upbeat, more positive sounding.

Hey.

>> Hey. >> Well.

Well. Well. Single word in a thought  group, up-down shape. Well. Well.

The L isn't too clear, that's a dark L.  She did not lift her tongue tip for that.

Well. Uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl.

That dark sound at the end of the dark L is made  with a back of the tongue, tongue tip stays down.

If you bring your tongue tip up,  

you're making too much of this L.  Well, uhl, uhl. Well. Well. Well. Well.

Try that, practice it, tongue tip down.

>> Hey. >> Well.

>> Hey. >> Well.

>> Hey. >> Well.

The back of the tongue, uhl, uhl, uhl,  

pushes down and back a little bit.  That's how we get the dark sound.

>> Hey. >> Well.

>> Hey. >> Well.

>> Hey. >> Well.

How's he doing?

Okay, now he speaks quietly,  and the door is opening,  

so it's a little bit harder  to hear what's going on.

But listen to it again and tell me  what you think the stressed words are.

How's he doing?

How's he doing?

How's he doing?

How's-- How's he doing? 'How's' and 'do' the  most stressed syllables there. How's he doing?

How's he-- how's he-- What's  happening in the word 'he'? How's he--

The H is dropped. So then it's just the EE vowel,  

ending Z sound, links right into  the EE. How's he-- how's he--

How's he doing?

How's he doing?

How's he doing?

And it's a little hard to tell because the  end of the word is really covered by the door,

but I think he is dropping the NG  sound and making just an N sound.

Doin, doin, doin.

How's he doing?

How's he doing?

How's he doing?

He's much better.

And she responds, three words,  

stress on the middle syllable. He's  much better. Smoothly linked together.

The H here isn't dropped, but it's  pretty light, so keep that in mind.

He's much better.

He's much better.

He's much better.

He's much better.

He's much better.

And also keep in mind that 'much' is the peak of  stress, and the word 'he's' leads up to that peak,

and the word 'better' falls away from  that peak. So it's all smoothly connected.

And what are you hearing for the T's in this word?

He's much better.

He's much better.

He's much better.

Flap T. Double T, a single flap T, because  the T sound comes between two vowels.

Now here, we have schwa R. Remember,  

R is a syllabic consonant, so  you don't need to try to make

a vowel sound, it's just: rrrr. But  even though the R takes over the vowel,  

in IPA it is written schwa R,

you do make a flap T,  

you do count that as a vowel when you're  thinking about is this a flap T or not?

T does come between vowels even though  in practice the are absorbs the vowel.

Is that confusing enough for you? Better, better.

The thing with these rules is it can be useful to  know them, but what's ultimately the most useful

is to listen to how native speakers  do it, and really imitate that.

He's much better.

He's much better.

He's much better.

I imagine that I--

I imagine that I--

Imaa-- maa-- longer, more  stressed, I imagine that I--

Now, the unstressed syllable at  the end does continue to go up,  

I think. I imagine, imagine that I--

And then it comes back down,  but the length is definitely  

on the stressed syllable 'ma' with the AA vowel.

I imagine that I--

I imagine that I--

I imagine that I--

I imagine that I--

Make sure you link 'I', the AI diphthong with  the vowel IH: Ai-ih-- Ai-ih-- Ai-ih-- smoothly.

Sometimes when it comes to linking a vowel  or diphthong to another vowel or diphthong,

students don't feel comfortable  with that. Feels too sloppy,  

too connected, and they want to restart the voice:

I imagine-- but don't do that.  Really try to link those together:  

Ai-ih-- Ai-ih-- Ai-ih-- I imagine--

I imagine that-- I imagine that--

I imagine that I--

What's happening with 'that'  and 'I'? Can you hear that?

That I-- that I-- that I--

That I-- that I-- that I-- Definitely  a flap T linking those two words.

Also, the vowel AH, that, is reduced.  It's a schwa: that I-- that I-- that I--

So the word 'that' becomes: duh,  duh, duh, duh, schwa flap: that I--

That I-- that I-- that I--

owe you all an apology.

Okay, let's just listen to  this final thought group a  

couple times on a loop. Listen to the music of it.

Owe you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology.

The more I listen to something like  this, the more I hear the music,  

the more I just think life is an opera.

We sing everything we say.

Owe you all an apology.  Da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

You could dance to that, couldn't  you? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

Owe you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology. Owe you all an apology.

I love exploring that, and that  really helps us find the stress.

Owe you all an apology. When we listen on a loop,  I think it really makes the stress super obvious.

'Owe' and 'pol, our two stressed,  longer up-down shape syllables there.

Owe you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology. Owe you all  an a-- Owe you all an a-- Then these  

four syllables here, you all an--,

and the first unstressed syllable  of the stressed word 'apology',  

flatter in pitch, you all an a--, you all an a--

And all really linked together,  

very smooth. Owe you all an a-- Owe  you all an a-- Owe you all an a--

you all an a-- you all an a-- you all an a-- Can  you do that? Just imitate those four syllables.

You all an a-- you all an a--

You all an a--

You all an a-- Now, the  word 'all' ends in a dark L,  

and you generally don't need to  lift your tongue tip for an--

a Dark L. However, when it links into a word that  begins with a vowel, like here, we have the schwa

in the word: an, an, an, then I think  it is useful to lift the tongue tip.

You all an a-- you all an a--  you all an a-- It helps to find  

the dark L moving into a word that begins

with a vowel or diphthong. So you  can lift your tongue tip here.

You all an a--

If it was the end of the thought group, or it  linked in to a word that began with the consonant,

I probably wouldn't lift the tongue tip. I owe you  

all. I really owe you all.  Owe you all. Owe you all.

There, I'm making a dark sound, light, subtle  at the end, but I'm not lifting my tongue tip.

But because we're linking into  a word that begins with a vowel,  

let's do go ahead and lift the tongue tip there.

You all an a-- you all an a-- you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology. Owe you all an apology.

Owe you all an apology.

The L in 'apology' is a dark L because  it comes after the vowel in the syllable.

But again, it's followed by another vowel here,  

another vowel sound, so I  would lift the tongue tip.

Apol-- llluh-- apology. Apology.

Apology.

Mmm... I love that. I love listening to the music  

of the speech. This was a great  little snippet of conversation,

just 15 seconds but so much to study.

Flap Ts, linking, difficult words, breaking  them down by syllables, the music of speech.

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

Seizures create anxiety,  which can trigger aggression.

Yeah, but like randomly attacking other people?

Uh, it's not random.

You know, it was your flash,  That's what set him off.

>>Hey. >>Well.

How's he doing?

He's much better.

I imagine that I owe you all an apology.

Girl 1: I'm sorry. Girl 2: I just saw Meredith. Jackson left

without talking to you? He just left? Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him but

I told Link about you before I even knew. Girl 2: Jackson left?

Girl 1: I was really kind of awful to Owen. I was really... I was really awful

to Owen.

Girl 2: Jackson left.

And now, the analysis. Girl 1: I'm sorry.

Rachel: I am sorry. She uses the contraction 'I'm'

which would be written in  IPA with the AI diphthong, 

I'm. But she doesn't really say "I" does she?

like mm, mm, mm sorry, mm sorry.

Girl 1: I'm sorry.

Rachel: I've definitely noticed this before in the

I AM contraction. People will take just the M sound and link it on the next word. msorry,

msorry. Try that.

Girl 1: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

Rachel: So it's short little 2 word thought group

and the stressed syllable is sorr. Mmsorrry. And then the voice falls in pitch as it comes

off that stressed syllable. There are no skips or jumps. Everything is smoothly connected.

Mmsorry, mmsorrry. The ending unstressed syllable. Just a really quick E as in SHE vowel -y, -y.

Mm sorry.

Girl 1: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Girl 2: I just saw Meredith.

Rachel: Okay then we have a 4-word thought group.

I just saw Meredith. What are the stressed syllables there?

Girl 2: I just saw Meredith.

Rachel: I just saw Meredith. Just and Mer are the

most stressed syllables there. Now, "saw" is a verb and that's a content word those are

sometimes stressed but in a sentence with multiple content words, they're not all going

to have the same stress. And I would say "saw", even though it's not reduced or anything like

that, it is lower in pitch compared to the other stressed syllables. I just saw Meredith.

All linked together. Smooth pitch  changes, no skips, no breaks.

What about this T? How does she pronounce that?

Girl 2: I just saw Meredith.

Rachel: She drops it. It's common to drop the T between

two consonants. So here it comes between S and S. And so actually these two words link

together with just a single S sound. Just saw, just saw, just saw.

Girl 2: I just saw, I just saw, I just saw Meredith.

Rachel: I'm going to stop here for a minute guys because

I have something important to tell you really quick. If you would like this kind of analysis,

I'm going to do 11 videos in a row starting June 18. It's the summer of blockbuster movies.

We're going to be learning English with movies and I'm going to make and extra free audio

lesson to go with each video lesson. If you want that, you'll have to sign up. I'm not going

to bombard people with emails so I only want to send people these free downloadable audio

lessons if you want them. So if you want to study English movies this summer follow this

link here or in the video description below. Pass it on to your friends, we're going to

be doing this together, it's going to be so fun, I cannot wait to spend my summer with

you. Okay now, back to this analysis. Girl 2: I just saw Meredith.

Rachel: Meredith. Merrredith. Make sure your tongue

is not flapping for the R  in "Meredith" or "sorry". 

The tongue never flaps for the R in American

English so it does not bounce against the roof of your mouth. It should be pulled back

a little bit. The tip is pulled back a little bit within the mouth. It's not touching anything.

Sorrry. Merrredith. And then the 2 unstressed syllables are lower in pitch. Edith, edith,

edith. And then they have a different feeling, a different shape than 'Mer' which has that

up-down shape. Now this does end in an unvoiced th sound, tongue tip does come through the teeth

for that, Meredith. That can be a tricky sound for some people.

Girl 2: Meredith. Meredith. Meredith. Jackson left without talking to you?

Rachel: Stressed syllables? The stressed syllable

of the name. Jackson left without talking to you? And the pitch goes up in the end because

it's a yes/no question. And that is usually 

how we deal with the intonation  with a yes/no question.

It's how we show it's a yes/no question.

Jackson left without talking  to you? It's different 

than "Jackson left without talking to you."

Pitch goes down, that's a statement. Here, pitch goes up, it's a question.

Girl 2: Jackson left without talking to you? Jackson left without talking to you? Jackson

left without talking to you?

Rachel: The letter o here is the schwa son-Jackson,

Jackson, son, son, son. So you'll say that quickly with no jaw drop. Don't try to make

a vowel there. Just s into n sound. Son, the schwa will happen on it's own. Schwa gets

absorbed by the n. Now what about this T? I said we usually drop the T when it comes between

two consonants. Here's the F consonant and here's the W consonant. How does she pronounce

that?

Girl 2: Jackson left without...

Rachel: She does release it with a very light true

T. So even these rules we usually do this, they're not always. There's always some exception

that some will make. So she articulates that T.

Girl 2: Jackson left without, Jackson left without, Jackson left without talking to you?

Rachel: Ta without Ta. We have a word that ends in

a T the next word begins in a T in these cases we link with a single T. And it is a true

T. This T starts a stressed syllable and when every T starts a stressed syllable that's

not part of the TR cluster, it is a true T.

Girl 2: Without talking to you? Without talking to you? Without talking to you?

Rachel: Without talking, without talking. Now are

you noticing what's happening here? It's not talking with the ng consonant. She drops the

ng consonant and instead makes it an n consonant. Talkin', talkin', talkin', talkin' to you?

Girl 2: Talkin' to you? talkin' to you? talkin' to you?

Rachel: Talking to. So she says talkin'. But then

what does she do with to? How is this word pronounced? Fully pronounced it would have

the true T and the U vowel. But what do you hear?

Girl 2: Talkin' to you? talkin' to you? talkin' to you?

Rachel: Talkin. Talkin. It's actually reduced to just

the schwa sound. So sometimes we'll make it a true T. Tu, tu. And then the schwa. We do

that when the sound before is unvoiced. Sometimes we make it a flap T. Talkin' to, talkin to.

to to to to. The tongue bounces against the roof of the mouth. And I have noticed sometimes

when it comes after an n, the T sound is dropped altogether and it becomes just a schwa that

links the word together. So she straight goes from the N sound into the schwa and then right

into the JU diphthong. Talking to you, talking to you. Reductions like this, reductions and

linking. It's just everywhere in spoken American English practically every sentence.

Girl 2: Talkin' to you? talkin' to you? talkin' to you?

He just left?

Rachel: He just left? He just left? What do you

think is the stressed syllable in that thought group?

Girl 2: He just left?

Rachel: He just... flatter in pitch. Left? That's where

we get more energy in the voice. And it does go up again because again, it's a yes/no question.

That makes it different from a statement. 

He just left. He just left?  "He" and "just": unclear,

lower in pitch, lower in volume and what happens to this T?

Girl 2: He just left? He just left? He just left?

Rachel: It's  

totally dropped. Comes between two consonants,

the S sound links right to the L sound. He just, he just, he just, he just. See how simply

you can make that. You don't want to use a lot of mouth movement because they're unstressed

words, you want to say them quickly so we simplify things. He just, he just, he just.

Girl 2: He just left? He just left? He just left?

Rachel: He just left? And then we do have a very light

release of a true T here. We often release a true T when it's in a cluster. Here it's

in an ft cluster, unless it links to another word. Here it's in the end of a thought group.

So that will generally be released with a light t sound.

Girl 2: Left? Left? Left?

Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him but I told Link about you before I even knew.

Rachel: That's a long thought group. There's a little

bit of a lift here. Maybe between where I put the comma for grammatical purposes. But

it's a lot of words. Let's look at the first chunk. What do you think are the stressed

syllables there? Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him,

I wish I could blame this on him, I wish I could blame this on him..

Rachel: I...wish I could blame this on him. And the

pitch going up signals I'm not done talking, there is more I would like to say. Remember

these stressed syllables, these longer syllables, are our anchors in the sentence and we need

those clearer stressed syllables in contrast to the unstressed syllables that are said

much more quickly, much more simply.

Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him...

Rachel: So I is lower in vocal energy, lower in pitch

I, I, I wish. I wish I. I could, I could, I could. These words also unstressed, lower

in pitch, lower in energy.

Girl 1: I wish I could, I wish I could, I wish I could blame this on him..

Rachel: This and on also unstressed, less clear. This

TH is really unclear. It's unvo.. it's voiced. And the voiced TH in an unstressed word can

be made without the tongue tip coming through. Blame this, this, this, this. It just touches

behind the bottom or actually both the bottom and top teeth in the front. This, this, this,

this. Doesn't have to come all the way through. But I almost feel like she drops it. That's

how unclear it is. Blame this, blame this, blame this on him? blame this... So you could

try it with a very very light TH or you could try it dropping it, and linking it in, and see

how that sounds.

Girl 1: I wish I could, I wish I could, I wish I could blame this on him...

Rachel: On him, on him... We sometimes drop the H in

him. She doesn't. The S goes right into the AW vowel. On him. And then the N goes right

into the H, everything smoothly linked together.

Girl 1: On him, on him, on him but I told Link about you before I even knew.

Rachel: But I told Link about you before I even knew. I think those are the most stressed

syllables in the 2nd half of this thought group. Everything linked together so smoothly.

But I, but I but I but I but I but I. The T becomes a flap T between two vowels or vowels

and diphthongs. That's what happens here. We have the uh vowel, the AI diphthong, that's

a flap T and it links the word smoothly But I, but I. Here it's beginning, the T is beginning

a stressed syllable so it's a true T. But I told. I told. I told, I told. Right from

the AI diphthong into the T sound, no brake.

Girl 1: But I told, but I told, but I told Link about

you before I even knew.

Rachel: So we have L,D,L. I don't know that I would

say she drops the D but it's very very subtle and I think you could drop the D. I told Link,

I told Link, I told Link. I think you could probably get away with that.

Girl 1: But I told, but I told, but I told Link about

you before I even knew.

Rachel: Link about, Link about, k k k. Ending K link

right on to the next sound the schwa. Link, k k k. Link about, link about.

Girl 1: Link about you.

Rachel: About you, about. Stop T, about you. So a

little lift there to signify the stop .This, the break in sound. Signifies the stop T.

Now another common way to pronounce a word that ends in T followed by U is a ch, about

you, about you. Have you ever heard that? She doesn't do that. She makes a quick stop

T about you, about you

Girl 1: About you,  

about you, about you before I even knew.

Rachel: Before I even knew. A little bit of length

also on the stressed syllable before. Before I. Smoothly linked together. I even. Sometimes

when we have a word that  ends in a vowel diphthong. 

Here it's the AI diphthong and a word that

begins in a vowel diphthong. Here it's the E vowel. People want to put a little brake

there. Restart their voice because they feel like linking two vowel sounds is too unclear

but we wouldn't do that. We would say I even, I even.

Girl 1: Before I even, before I even, before I even.

Rachel: Listen to how she links I and even

Girl 1: Before I even, before I even, before I even.

Rachel: Really smooth. And then here we have the ending

N sound. Even knew. Beginning N sound linked together with the single sound. So, I just

really want to stress how smooth everything is. Before I even knew.

Girl 1: Before I even knew.

Girl 2: Jackson left?

Rachel: And she asks her question again, Jackson

left? And it goes up because again she's asking it as a yes/no question. Jackson left? And

a very light release of a true T there.

Girl 2: Jackson left? Jackson left? Jackson left?

Girl 1: I was really kind of awful to Owen.

I was really...

Rachel: Again a longer thought group, starts really

quietly. And I was, and I was, and I was...

Girl 1: And I was, and I was, and I was really kind

of awful to Owen.

Rachel: Then we have a little bit more volume on "really",

which is more stressed here. And I was really.

Girl 1: And I was really...

Rachel: And I was. All unstressed, very soft. The

word "and" gets pronounced just as schwa n. And I, and I, and I. Links right into the

AI diphthong, links right into the word 'was' which was actually pronounced 'was'. Was,

was, was, was. Very fast. Reduced with a schwa. Let's practice just those 3 words together.

And I was, and I was, and I was, and I was. So if you're trying to fully pronounce everything

and say 'and I was', It's going to sound really different isn't it? And I was, and I was,

and I was. That makes the anchor of the stressed syllable really a little bit more clearer.

Girl 1: And I was really, and I was really, and I

was really kind of awful to Owen.

Rachel: Really kind of awful to Owen. And again pitch

goes up, she's not done talking, she keeps right on going.

Girl 1: Really kind of awful to Owen, really kind

of awful to Owen, really kind of awful to Owen. I was really...

Rachel: I was really. Again, big time "was" reduction.

Was, was, was, was, I was, I was, I was really.

Girl 1: I was really, I was really, I was really...

Rachel: Kind of. How does she pronounce that? She

drops the D sound kinda, kinda. nd she changes the whole word of to just the schwa. Kinda,

kinda, kinda. It would not be weird to make the D sound kinda, kinda. I think that's actually

more common to pronounce the D and then link it to the schwa, but it's unstressed, it's

low in pitch, it's got less energy. And she does drop that D. Kinda, kinda, kinda.

Girl 1: Kind of awful,  

kind of awful, kind of awful to Owen.

Rachel: What about the word 'to' here? She does make

that a true T and then a schwa. She could have made that a flap T, awful to, awful to,

awful to. But she makes it a light true T, awful to, awful to, awful to.

Girl 1: Awful to Owen, Awful to Owen, Awful to Owen.

I was really...I was very awful to Owen.

Rachel: Now, I was very awful to Owen. Ver and O get

the most stressed, awful gets some too. Another "was" reduction. It's not was but it's was,

was, was said very quickly. I was, I was, I was.

Girl 1: I was very awful to Owen.

Rachel: Actually, you know what? I don't even hear

the word I. I wrote it when I was originally typing this up. I thought I heard it. But

it might just be the I thought that because I knew it was there grammatically. But now

when I'm hearing it. When I'm listening and really listening for that I, I don't hear

it.

Girl 1: I was very awful...

Rachel: Maybe just the quietest, lowest in pitch little

vowel before was. What about to?

Girl 1: I was very awful to Owen.

Rachel: Again super light true T and then a schwa.

Awful to Owen. And again there's no brake. Everything, every word glides smoothly into

the next word within this thought group.

Girl 1: Awful to Owen. Awful to Owen. Awful to Owen.

Girl 2: Jackson left.

Rachel: Okay now what's different about this?

Girl 2: Jackson left. Jackson left. Jackson left.

Rachel: Jackson left. Now it's a statement because

the pitch goes down. So the firs two times she said it as a question Jackson left? and

now she says it as a statement. Jackson left. She wants this woman to acknowledge what that

means 'Jackson left.'

Girl 2: Jackson left. Jackson left. Jackson left.

Rachel: And again a very light release of a true T.

So much to study in this short, short scene.

Girl 2: Jackson left. Jackson left. Jackson left.

Rachel: Let's listen to the whole conversation one

more time.

Girl 1: I'm sorry. Girl 2: I just saw Meredith. Jackson left

without talking to you? He just left? Girl 1: I wish I could blame this on him but

I told Link about you before I even knew. Girl 2: Jackson left?

Girl 1: And I was really kind of awful to Owen. I was really...I was really awful

to Owen. Girl 2: Jackson left.

Hey. How'd the interview go?

Ugh. I blew it. I wouldn’t have even hired me.

Oh. Come here, sweetie. Listen.  You're going to go on, like,  

a thousand interviews before you get a job.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just,  you know, stay here at the coffee house.

I can’t. It's too late. Terry  already hired that girl over there.

Look at her, she's even got  waitress experience. Ugh.

And now the analysis. Hey. How'd the interview go?

Chandler starts out up down shape of stress  hey, hey, uh, uh. Hey. How'd the interview go?

Hey. How'd the interview go?

Hey. How'd the interview go?

Hey. How'd the interview go?

His H is not very clear or  loud here hey, hey, hey.

Hey. How'd the interview go?

Hey. How'd the interview go?

Hey. How'd the interview go?

Hey. How'd the interview go?

How'd the interview go?

The stressed syllable of interview is the most  stressed syllable in that whole thought group,

how'd the and the first two words lead  up to that peak. How'd the interview go,

and the last three syllables  come away from that peak.

Now, are you noticing how that T is  pronounced? Interview, it's totally dropped.

It's fairly common to drop the T when  it comes after N like an interview,  

internet, international.

How'd the interview go?

How'd the interview go?

How'd the interview go?

The apostrophe D here is the word did.

We can also do would, how'd you do that,  

how would you do that but in this  case it's did, how'd, how’d, how’d.

Just a D sound at the end: how'd the.

Now, we don't release the D. We have the OW,  diphthong OW and D voiced TH. How'd the--

So the D is subtle. The tongue is in position,  the vocal chords make the noise but then

the transition goes quickly into  the voiced TH, how the, how the--

and Chandler does say the E as in she  vowel for the word the instead of the.

That's because the next word begins with  a vowel or diphthong and that is the rule.

If the next word begins with  a vowel or diphthong the final  

sound of this word is the E as in she vowel

however I have noticed Americans  don’t follow that rule very closely.

But Chandler does here, the interview.

How'd the interview go?

How'd the interview go?

How'd the interview go? Ugh. I blew it.

Ugh. Ugh. Just a sound of exasperation ugh  but even that has an up-down shape ugh.

Ugh. Ugh.

Ugh. I blew it.

I is really hard to hear almost  imperceptible; I blew it.

I know it's there grammatically,  but we really barely hear it.

Blew, I blew it, blew is  the stressed syllable there.

I blew it.

I blew it. I blew it.

I blew it, blew it. She does release a true T here  and the two words link together very smoothly.

If you blow something that  means you do a poor job at it.

You can blow an interview, you can blow a test,  

you can blow a project, you  can blow a first impression.

Ugh. I blew it. It did not go well.

I blew it.

I blew it.

I blew it. I wouldn't have even hired me.

Okay. In her next sentence what  are our most stressed words?

I wouldn't have even hired me.

I wouldn’t have even hired me.

I wouldn’t have even hired me.

I wouldn't have even hired me.

I has a lot of stress there.  That's a little unusual.

I wouldn't have even hired me.  High and a little bit on me too.

So, usually we don't stress I but for  the meaning in this sentence, she is.

I wouldn't have even hired me.

I wouldn’t have even hired me.

I wouldn't have even hired me.

I wouldn't have even hired me.

Let's listen to just those  three words wouldn't have even.

...wouldn't have even

...wouldn't have even

...wouldn't have even

Wouldn't have even, wouldn't have even,  wouldn't have even, wouldn't have even.

A little bit hard to tell that's  wouldn't have even if you hear just that.

So, wouldn't have becomes wouldn't have,  wouldn't have, wouldn't have, wouldn't have.

...wouldn't have

...wouldn't have ...wouldn't have even.

Wouldn't have even becomes wouldn' have even.

So, the T. I listened to it a  bunch of times to decide. Did  

I think it was totally dropped or did  I think it's a little bit of a stop T?

I think you could do either. You  could do a really light stop T,  

or you could just drop it: wouldn' have--

Wouldn' have even, wouldn'  have even, wouldn' have even.

The H is dropped, the word have is  reduced to SCHWA V wouldn' 'ave even,

wouldn' 'ave even, wouldn' 'ave even,  wouldn' 'ave even, wouldn' ''ave even.

...wouldn't have even

...wouldn't have even

...wouldn't have even

These kinds of simplifications  are key in American English.

They provide contrast to the stressed syllables  the stressed words like the word hired.

...wouldn't have even hired me.

...wouldn't have even hired me.

...wouldn’t have even hired me.

The ed ending in hired is a D sound because the  sound before was voiced it was the R consonant,

hired me. So, we have the R sound,  the D sound and the M sound.

The D is very subtle. I actually  don't think I really hear it.

I feel like it's more dropped  hired me, hired me hired me.

...hired me

...hired me

...hired me

If anything, it's just a very  subtle D sound in the vocal chords

just like up here the D sound before  the voiced TH. So, it's not a clear D.

It's not hired me but it's hired me, hired me.

If anything, it's just d, d, d a very  quick subtle D sound not released.

Just the vocal cords vibrating  with the tongue in the position.

...hired me.

...hired me.

>> ...hired me. >> Oh.

Oh. Oh. His voice sort of has a nasal  quality to it here I'm just noticing.

Oh, oh, a little bit of sympathy, oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh. Come here, sweetie.

What is our stress in this  three word thought group?

Come here, sweetie.

Come here, sweetie.

Come here, sweetie.

Come here, sweetie. Come here  becomes c'mere, c'mere, c'mere.

The word come reduced. I  would write that K SCHWA M

and actually M takes over the SCHWA. It's a  syllabic consonant so it's really just like KM,  

k'm here, k'm here.

The H is dropped, come 'ere, come 'ere, come  'ere, come 'ere, sweetie, come 'ere sweetie.

Come here, sweetie

Come here, sweetie.

Come here, sweetie.

And stress on that k'm 'ere sweetie.

Sweetie with a flap T because the  T comes between two vowels sweetie,

k'm 'ere sweetie, k'm 'ere sweetie.  So, it's not come here it's k'm 'ere.

That's a very common way to pronounce those  two words together, k'm 'ere, k'm 'ere sweetie.

Come here, sweetie.

Come here, sweetie.

Come here, sweetie. Listen.

Listen.

First syllable stress we have that up-down shape

listen and the second syllable just comes in on the way down.

The T in listen is silent.

That's just the pronunciation, it's not something Americans do,

it's the actual official pronunciation.

Up here the actual official pronunciation of here is

with the H but every once in a while we drop it like in this phrase

but in this word it's just not ever pronounced, listen.

Listen.

Listen.

Listen. You're going to go on, like...

Okay. So, he puts a little break here.

So, in this thought group

what do you hear as being the most stressed syllable.

You're going to go on like...

You're going to go on like...

You're going to go on like...

You're going to go on like.

You're going go- I hear go,  the verb as the most stressed.

You are going to becomes you're gonna, you’re gonna, you're gonna.

You are you’re becomes yer, yer, yer.

Just a Y sound and a R sound. You don't need to try to make the SCHWA.

R is also a syllabic consonant, it overpowers the SCHWA yer, yer, yer.

Going to becomes gonna so you are going to is

you're gonna, you're gonna, you’re gonna, you're gonna

You're going to...

You're going to...

You're going to...

You're gonna go, you're gonna go.

You're going to go....

You're going to go...

You're going to go on like...

On and like just falling in pitch away from the peak of stress at go.

Go on like, go on like.

...go on like...

...go on like...

...go on like a thousand interviews before you get a job.

Okay and in this next thought group what is the most stressed syllable?

...a thousand interviews before you get a job.

...a thousand interviews before you get a job.

... a thousand interviews before you get a job.

A thousand. I think thou has the most stress.

A thousand

interviews before, a little bit of stress here as well,

before you get a job, but I think the most stress is on thousand.

So, that word begins with an unvoiced TH.

You do need to bring your tongue tip  through the teeth for that a thousand.

...a thousand...

...a thousand...

...a thousand...

And the letter A here just a SCHWA.

A thousand, oops I just realized

there's a typo here isn't there?

There's an A in that word a thousand.

...a thousand...

...a thousand...

...a thousand interviews...

Interviews, interviews,  

again he drops the T it's a very normal  and natural pronunciation interviews.

...interviews...

...interviews...

...interviews...

It's so weird I have never noticed this  about Ross before and yes I've seen this show

but his R in interviews  and before is a little weak

which is a little bit of a New York accent interviews before.

...interviews before...

...interviews before...

...interviews before you get a job.

I definitely recommend you stick with a standard American accent

which does have a bit of a stronger R sound in  those words interviews before you get a job.

...interviews before you get a job.

... interviews before you get a job.

... interviews before you get a job.

Before you get a job, before you get a job.

You can really feel that stress before you get a job, da-da-da-da-da-da.

It starts to feel like a music a little bit  when you study the stress before you get a job.

You get a, all lower in pitch flatter.

Again, the letter A is just a quick SCHWA linking the words together.

The T in get is a flap T. It comes between two vowels,

it links those words together, you get a job.

...you get a job.

...you get a job. ...you get a job.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

So, of course what he meant was it takes a lot of tries to actually get a job.

What it sounded like was she's not going to interview

very well and is going to have to do it a thousand times before she gets a job.

So, that's what he meant when he said that's  not how that was supposed to come out.

We say that if we say something and the  meaning didn't quite come across right.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

That’s not how that was supposed to come out.

That's not how that was, that's not  how that was supposed to come out.

Come out, a phrasal verb.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

That's not how that was... So, we have a full A vowel in that's

both times it doesn't reduce  that’s not how that was.

We have a stop T in this word that.

That was, that was, that was.

It's not released, that would be that was,  

that was over pronounced. We  don't release our T's very often.

This is a stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.

The word was is not pronounced

was, that's stressed.

It was pronounced waz, waz.

That's unstressed that waz, that waz.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

Supposed to,

these two words go together pretty frequently,  

and we don't say supposed to,  we say spose to, spose to.

...supposed...

...supposed...

...supposed to come out.

Listen to just supposed to come.

...supposed to come...

...supposed to come...

...supposed to come...

Supposed to come, supposed to come, supposed to come.

So, we lose the first syllable, we lose the  vowel and it's really just an SP, spo, spo

then we have the O as a no diphthong  and the stressed syllable spose to, to

then we have S, a true T or a flap T. Honestly

his T sounds weak to me

so I wouldn't write it as a  true T, spose to, spose to.

I would say that was more of a flap T D sound  sposed to, sposed to, sposed to and then a SCHWA.

SO, supposed to, three syllables becomes two sposed to, sposed to.

...supposed...

...supposed...

...supposed to come out.

And a stop T at the end of out because it's at the end of a thought group.

...was supposed to come out.

...was supposed to come out.

...was supposed to come out.

This is just the worst Christmas ever.

So, Phoebe

she's not feeling good about Christmas I  wrote this is but I actually think it's,

it's, it's just the, it's hard to hear, people are laughing and it's not very stressed

but really I think I'm just  hearing an S sound or a TS sound

which means it's would have been it instead of  this is, it's just, it's just, just, just, just.

It's just the worst...

It's just the worst...

It's just the worst...

It's just the worst, t, t, t, t. Just a quick TS sound.

We do reduce the word it's this way.

We also reduce the word let's this  way, let's go, let's go, let's go

and we reduce the word that's this way, that's okay for example.

That's okay can become 's okay, So,  we have a few words also what is, what

that can reduce to just the TS sound.

It's just the worst.

It's just the worst...

It's just the worst... It's just the worst Christmas ever.

What is the stress of this phrase? We know it's is  

not stressed because it's  reduced, it’s low in pitch

and it's kind of hard to hear

but what are the stressed syllables, the ones  that are the clearest, the easiest to hear?

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

Worst and ev' have the most stress.

Now let's look at our Ts. We have a bunch that are dropped.

When a T is part of an ending cluster like the ST  cluster and the next word begins with a consonant

like it does here with the, that T is dropped,  jus' the and that's what she does take a listen.

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

Then even in the stressed word worst it's dropped  because the next word begins with a consonant.

So, in both of those cases  even though the word just

and the word worst even though those words do have a T sound

the T was dropped because in this case  the T came between two consonants.

Now, in the word Christmas the T also comes  between two consonants and it's also dropped

although, I guess I shouldn't say it's dropped  because dropped means that it’s normally there

and it's actually not normally there. There is no  

T sound in Christmas even  though there is a letter T

because it comes between two consonants. Chrismas, Chrismas.

So, we have just the worst Christmas but all  with a no T's. Jus' the wors' Chrismas ever.

It's just the worst Christmas ever. It's just the worst Christmas ever.

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just...You  know what, Rach... You know what, Rach...

Know, definitely the most stressed  word of that three word thought group.

You know what, Rach...

The word you, I actually think that that  was reduced. I think not the OO vowel,  

but I think it was actually

reduced to the SCHWA yu,  yu, yu know, yu know what.

That's a pretty common reduction for the word too.

Yu know, Yu know what.

You know what...

You know what...

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just...

And all of those words linked  together really smoothly,

you know what.

Stop T, end of the thought group.

Rach, again up-down shape.  It's a stressed syllable.

You know what, Rach...

You know what, Rach...

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just...

Maybe you should just and then the thought  group ends here. There's a little pause.

Let's look at these four words.

Maybe you should just...

Maybe you should just...

Maybe you should just...

Maybe you should just, stress on may and just.

Maybe you should just...

Maybe you should just... Maybe you should just...

You should just.

Okay. We have a couple reductions  here. The word should is pronounced sh,

just SH and a SCHWA said quickly linking right into the next sound

which is the J sound of just.

So, the L is always silent, but the D was also dropped there.

I've noticed we do this sometimes when the next word begins with a consonant

you should just, you should just, you should just.

Then we also have a dropped T. Now, why?

Before we dropped the T in just because it  linked into a word that began with a constant.

Here it doesn't but it's just such a habit to not pronounce the T in just

that we don't do it sometimes even when we pause.

Maybe you should jus'.

It simply ends in an S sound.

Maybe you should just...

Maybe you should just...

Maybe you should just, you know...

You know, what's the stress there

...you know...

...you know...

...you know...

You know, it's definitely on no  the word you again is reduced

just like it was up here in  the phrase you know what,

you know, you know.

...you know...

...you know...

...you know, stay here at the coffee house.

And in the rest of this sentence in this thought  group what are the most stressed syllables?

...stay here at the coffee house.

...stay here at the coffee house.

... stay here at the coffee house.

I’m getting stay, a little bit on  here, stay here at the coffee house.

So, four words that are a little bit longer.

In the word coffee the stressed word it's only  the stressed syllable that has that length.

The unstressed syllable will still be very short  but at and the are not fully pronounced like that.

They are lower in pitch at the, at the, at the, flat and the word at reduces,

the vowel changes to the SCHWA, the T is a stop T  at the, at the, at the, here at the, here at the.

...stay here at the...

...stay here at the...

>> stay here at the coffee house. >> I can't.

Her voice is really breathy here.

She's a little bit I don't know if desperate  is the right word exasperated but she's just

she's frustrated and that's what's coming out in her voice.

That's what this extra breathiness is doing.

I can't.

I can't.

I can’t.

I can't, stress on the word can’t. She does do a True T release.

We often don't do that so she's really  stressing it by making that a True T.

I can't.

I can’t.

I can't.

I can't. It's too late.

It's too late.

Too and late both stressed and again she does a True T release here

where we would often make that a stop T  because it's at the end of a sentence.

So, by making these all True Ts she's  showing her desperation, her frustration.

The T in the word too is always a True T.

It's too late.

It's too late.

It's too late.

Terry already hired that girl over there.

What's our stress in this sentence?

Terry already hired that girl over there.

Terry already hired that girl over there.

Terry already hired that girl over there.

Terry, the name, the stressed syllable of Terry.

Terry already hired that girl over there.

Those are the most stressed syllables.

Also, the word Terry also has a True T.

We're actually getting some True T practice  here because it begins a stressed syllable,

Terry already hired.

Terry already hired...

Terry already hired...

Terry already hired...

Terry already hired, Terry already hired, already, already, already.

She's not making an L sound in the  word already and that's pretty common.

I don't do that either.

Already, already, already, already, just a really quick vowel

and then the stressed syllable already, already, already.

Terry already...

Terry already...

Terry already...

That's an all as in AH vowel already, already,  already, already, already hired that girl.

Again, the D sound not released  just a quick vibration in the  

vocal cords before going on to the next sound.

Hired that girl, Stop T in that because  the next word begins with a consonant.

Terry already hired that girl...

Terry already hired that girl...

Terry already hired that girl...

Now, I know girl can be one  of the trickiest words. It's  

got the R vowel GU R and then a Dark L, gurl.

One thing that can help is to use the stress  to your advantage, use the up-down shape

gurl and use that fall down in the pitch  for your Dark L gurl, gurl, gurl over there.

...girl over there.

...girl over there.

...girl over there.

You do need to make sure you're making a dark sound

otherwise it won't sound right. It's not a light L,

it's a dark L because the L comes  at the end of the syllable girl.

When I make that sound I don't lift my tongue tip at all, girl.

Now, you will lift it quickly before the O diphthong to differentiate

girl over, over,

girl over but you want the dark sound before you  lift your tongue tip otherwise it sounds like

girl and that's not quite  American girl, girl over there.

...girl over there.

...girl over there.

...girl over there.

If you're a Spanish speaker make  sure you're making a V and not a B,

Vvvvv

you can see some of your teeth  when you make that sound.

If your lips are closed then it's a B. Try  to work on a separate V sound over there.

...girl over there.

...girl over there.

...girl over there.

And she laughs a little bit  as she says there, there.

...there.

...there.

...there.

Look at her.

What's our stress in this three word thought group.

Look at her.

Look at her.

Look at her.

Look at her. Very obvious first word stress,

look at her and then the unstressed words  

just come in on the way down  for the pitch, look at her.

Now, this is a light L because it comes at the  beginning of the syllable or in this case the word

so you will lift your tongue tip, look at her.

The word at what do you notice  about the pronunciation.

Look at her.

Look at her.

Look at her.

It's not AH at but it's look at her. It almost  

sounds like the word it which  has the /I/ as in sit vowel.

It's the SCHWA look at her and  I think that the SCHWA and the  

IH as in sit vowel sound pretty much the same

when the IH is unstressed  and they're said quickly,  

look at her and there is a  stop T there, look at her.

Look at her.

Look at her.

Look at her.

That double O in look is the same vowel as in push or sugar.

Don't let the double-O fool you it's not OO, it's U luk, luk at her.

Look at her.

Look at her.

Look at her. She's even got waitress experience.

What's the stress of this last sentence.

She's even got waitress experience.

She's even got waitress experience.

She's even got waitress experience.

She's even got, little stress on even  she's even got waitress experience.

I would say most of the stress is on that first syllable of waitress.

She's even got waitress experience.

She's even got waitress experience.

She's even got waitress experience.

She's even got waitress experience.

The apostrophe s in she's is a Z sound that links right into the next vowel,

which is the E vowel she's even, even, even.  She's even got, try that. She's even got...

She's even got...

She's even got...

She's even got waitress experience.

A stop T at the end of got because the next  sound is a consonant waitress experience.

...waitress experience.

...waitress experience.

...waitress experience.

Waitress, we have a TR cluster and it's  

common for that to become CHR and  that’s exactly what happens here,

waichress experience.

...waitress experience.

...waitress experience.

...waitress experience.

Experience, a four syllable word with stress on  the second syllable ex-pe-rience, ex-pe-rience.

When you have a longer word that  feels tricky focus on the stress  

that can help a lot with the pronunciation.

It can help you figure out where to simplify experience, experience.

...experience.

...experience. ...experience. Ugh.

Ugh.

Even that expression has an up-down shape, the shape of stress, ugh.

Ugh. Ugh.

Ugh.

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

Hey. How'd the interview go?

Ugh. I blew it.

I wouldn’t have even hired me.

Oh. Come here, sweetie. Listen.

You're going to go on, like, a thousand interviews before you get a job.

That's not how that was supposed to come out.

It's just the worst Christmas ever.

You know what, Rach, maybe you should just,  you know, stay here at the coffee house.

I can’t. It's too late.

Terry already hired that girl over there.

Look at her, she's even got  waitress experience. Ugh.

Thirty plus years of service.  Combat medals. Citations.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Yet you can’ get a promotion, you won’t retire.

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

You should be at least a two-star admiral by now.

Yet you are here.

Captain.

Why is that?

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.  Your kind is headed for extinction.

Maybe so, sir.

But not today.

And now the analysis.

Thirty plus years of service.

Okay to start, let's go ahead and write out thirty  

and plus. It would almost  always be written this way

with the digit and then the plus sign, but as  we talked about the sounds, we'll write it out.

Now you probably noticed that  the T in thirty is a flap T.

This follows the rules in that it comes  after an R before a vowel. Like in dirty,  

this is a T that we would flap.

So rather than being ttt, a true T,  

the tongue simply flaps against the roof  of the mouth. Thirty da-da-da thirty.

Thirty. Thirty. Thirty plus--

Thirty plus--

Thirty plus--

And we have first syllable stress on thirty.

Thirty, so stressed, then unstressed, the  ending unstressed EE sound. Thirty plus--

Thirty plus-- thirty plus--  thirty plus years of service.

Some stress on plus, then we also  have stress on years, and ser--vice.

So of and --vice, are both unstressed.  Thirty plus years of service.

Thirty plus years of service.

Thirty plus years of service. Thirty plus years of service.

Thirty plus years of service. So those are our  longer syllables with the up-down shape of stress.

The other syllables are going to be shorter, but  everything links together we don't want to feel

any separation between the words.  Thirty plus years of service,  

would not be natural sounding American English.

We need this contrast and then we also need the  

linking. Thirty plus years  of service. No breaks there.

Thirty plus years of service.

Thirty plus years of service.

Thirty plus years of service.

Combat medals.

Okay, now in this little two-word phrase, you  tell me what are the most stressed syllables?

Combat medals.

Combat medals.

Combat medals.

Combat medals. The most stress probably on combat,  the adjective here describing the kind of medal.

Combat medals. And then also some stress on the  noun. Combat medals. The second syllable of combat

is unstressed, it has a stop T, bat bat bat,  because the next word begins with a consonant.

So again, the T is not  released. Combat medals. Medals.

Combat medals.

Combat medals.

Combat medals.

This D can also be a flap just like thirty,  

medals, rararara, because it  comes between two vowel sounds.

Here, it's the EH as in bed vowel and  then the schwa L combination. Medals,  

medals, medals. Combat medals.

The vowel here in the unstressed syllable  is AH, but we don't want it to be AA,

that would be stressed, we want it  to be ah, ah, combat, combat medals.

Combat medals.

Combat medals.

Combat medals. Citations.

Citations. Do you feel how it's that  middle syllable that's stressed? Citations.

The letter A here is TAY, the  AY as in say diphthong. That  

letter A can have several  different pronunciations.

Here it's: ay, ay, citations.  The letter C makes the S sound.

Citations.

Citations.

Citations.

The letter I makes the AI diphthong. The letter I,  

so many of the letters, almost all  of the letters in American English

can have various different pronunciations, which  makes English so hard you can't necessarily tell

the pronunciation by looking at it. Citations.  SH schwa N, and then Z, a weak ending Z sound.

Citations.

Citations.

Citations.

Citations.

The stress is really important  in American English. We want  

to know what stressed, and what's unstressed,

so that we can feel that we  make a peak on that stressed  

syllable. We definitely don't want all syllables

to feel the same. Citations. That would have  the right pitch, but not the right rhythm.

It's not DA-DA-DA but it's da-DA-da. The first one  

is very short and the last one is  very short. Citations. Citations.

Citations.

Citations.

Citations.

Also I should point out this T in ta-- is a  true T because it starts a stressed syllable.

So if a T starts a stressed syllable,  and it's not part of the TR cluster,  

then it will be a true T. Tay, tay, citations.

Citations.

Citations.

Citations.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Okay, now we have a much longer phrase. I  want you to listen to it a few times and see

what you think is the most stressed word.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

I hear it is the last word. In the last forty  

years-- years-- he sort of holds on to  the beginning Y consonant a little bit.

Years. Draws out the length and  it definitely has that up-down  

shape. Now certainly, we have other syllables

that are stressed in the sentence, but I  think this is the most stressed in the phrase.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Let's look at our other stressed  syllables and do we have any reductions?

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Everything links together really  smoothly. So let's take it bit by bit.

Only man to shoot down--

Only man to shoot down--

Only man to shoot down--

Only man to shoot down-- So we have stress on OH.  

Only man-- not on the word  'to', that's a preposition,

usually not going to be stressed. Shoot  and down, both have some stress and length.

Did you notice that the word 'to' wasn't  pronounced 'to' it was reduced. Man to-- man to--

Flap T or a D sound and the schwa.  Man to-- man to-- only man to--

Only man to--

shoot down--

I have a friend named Amanda,  and we often as a nickname,  

as a way to shorten it, call her just 'Manda'.

Manda. And it sounds just like these two  words together: man to-- Manda, Manda, Manda,

when you make that a flap T.

Only man to--

shoot down--

Only man to shoot down--

Only man to shoot down--

So we have two letters T here.  The first one is a flap T,  

or it's sort of like a D  sound, and then the second T

is a stop T. Shoot down.  Which means we stop the air,  

but we don't release the T,  that would be shoot down.

We definitely don't hear that.  It's just shoot down, shoot down.

Shoot down--

Now a word of caution with the  word down, a lot of my students,  

especially students whose native language is

Chinese, but not just those students, have a hard  time with the word down. It's the OW diphthong,

OW, plus the N consonant. And they kind of mix  the N into the diphthong and nasalize it. Down.

We don't want that at all. We want it to  be completely un-nasal in the diphthong.

Dow-- Dow-- Dow-- nnn-- Dow-- nnn--

And then you can practice it that way splitting  off the N, make sure you're not going down,

and mixing the two into a nasal  diphthong sound. Down, down, shoot down.

Shoot down-- shoot down--  shoot down three enemy planes.

Then we have three words,  and they're all stressed,  

so we have quite a few  words and syllables that are

stressed in this sentence. Three enemy planes. I  want to point out that even in a stressed word,

if it has more than one syllable,  

it will have unstressed syllables. So  the only syllable stressed here is EH.

Enemy. Nemy. Nemy. Nemy. Then the rest of the  syllables are unstressed and said very quickly.

Three enemy.

Three enemy.

Three enemy.

Three enemy.

Now, we have a vowel to vowel link here. We have  the EE vowel in three and the EH vowel in enemy.

Some students feel like they  need to split that up a little  

bit to make it clear, the change between words,

you don't need to do that in English. And we don't  

want you to do that. We want  it to glide together smoothly.

Three enemy. Three enemy.

If you have a hard time linking them  together, it can help to think of,  

in this particular case,  with this particular link,

a Y consonant. So you could think  of the word as being yenemy,  

three enemy, three enemy, three enemy.

If you link it together,  

that might help you smooth it out you  don't want to make a very big heavy Y,

but a little light Y glide consonant  to link those two words together,

might help you make a smooth transition.

Three enemy.

Let's talk a little bit about the consonant  cluster here. It's TH unvoiced and R consonant.

Thr, thr, thr, thr, thr, thr. His TH almost has  

like a T quality in it. I think  when I listen to it on repeat.

But it's definitely not: three, three, three,  

that's something that a lot of non-native  speakers do, they substitute in TR

instead of THR and then it sounds like a tree,  

you know, like, oh, a tree. But  we don't want to be saying tree.

We want to be saying three , three , three. So let  your tongue tip come lightly through your teeth,

don't build up the air, don't put pressure there,  

don't bite on the tongue at all, that  will make it sound more like a T.

We want th-- the easy passage of air.  Three, three, three enemy planes.

Three enemy planes-

in the last forty years.

In the last forty years. So in and  the, both said so incredibly quickly.

Let's just listen to: in the last--

in the last--

I actually think it sounds like the TH is dropped.  In the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the.

It's just IH as in sit,  

N linking right into the schwa. In the,  in the, in the, in the, in the, in the.

You can only do this if you do it very,  

very quickly. It's low in pitch,  it's low in volume, try that.

In the, in the, in the, in the. You should be  able to do it without moving your jaw at all.

Your lips, your face, should be totally relaxed,  

the only thing moving is  the tongue inside the mouth.

You want to take away all the extra movement that

you don't need so that you can say  this as quickly as you need to. In the,  

in the, in the, in the last forty years.

The last forty years.

The last forty years.

The last forty years.

Okay, again, we're going to  write out the word 'forty'.

Our T again is a flap T because it  comes after an R and before a vowel.

The vowel is the EE as in she vowel. Forty,  forty, forty. Thirty, thirty, thirty.

These all have a flap T which can  sound like a D. Dadadada forty forty.

Forty--

years.

Now we have some stressed words other than  years, let's listen to the phrase again:

In the last forty years--

In the, in the, last forty, and then we've already  

marked years. So the unstressed  syllable of forty is unstressed.

We have stress in the word last with the  AA vowel. Notice the T is dropped there.

It's very common to drop the T in an ending  

cluster like ST when the next  word begins with a consonant,

the next word begins with F,  

so we're gonna drop that T to smoothly  connect. Last forty, last forty.

Last forty--

So out of all of our letters T here on this page,  we have a flap T, in we have a stop T in combat,

we have a true T in citations, because it begins a  stressed syllable, but then the next T is actually

part of the TION ending, and that's an SH sound.  

In the word to, the reduction  is da, flap T, not a true T.

In the word shoot, it's a stop T.  And in the word last, its dropped.

So out of all of the T sounds in this  particular part of this conversation,  

there's only one true T.

And then we even have as the T and the TH,  

it's fully pronounced in one  case and then dropped in another.

So you really need to study how Americans speak  and what happens with reductions and linking

and dropping sounds, in order to figure  out how they do things so smoothly.

But after you study this,  

and you look at this part of the video  several times, you'll be able to go back

and imitate that audio, and  that's when it really gets fun,

when you can not only understand what's  happening with American English, but when

you can imitate it yourself in a way that sounds  natural. It really can feel freeing to do that.

And that's what this video  series is all about this summer.

Last forty years. Last forty years. Last  forty years. Yet you can't get a promotion--

Okay in this next phrase, what's  the most stressed word do you think?

Yet you can't get a promotion--

Yet you can't get a promotion--

Yet you can't get a promotion--

I'm feeling can't, and promotion,  as being really stressed. Yet you,  

really low in volume, low in energy,

harder to hear, right? Let's listen  to just those two words together.

Yet you--

Yet you--

Not very clear, but that's what we need. We need  that less clear to provide contrast with our more

clear syllables. That's what makes up the  

character of American English.  So we have yet, with the stop T,

yet, yet, yet, yet, Yet you--  Yet you-- Yet you-- Yet you--

Yet you-- can't get a promotion--

Can't get a promotion-- Okay we have an  N apostrophe T ending in the word can't.

That can be pronounced three  ways. One of them is can't,  

with a true T, one of them  is can't, with a stop T,

and one of them is can with the  T totally dropped. I'm having a  

hard time deciding if I think it's a stop T,

or a dropped T, because if I listen to it three  times thinking it's a stop T, that's what I hear.

If I listen to it three  times thinking it's dropped,  

that's what I hear. So at  any rate, it's not a true T.

We'll call it a stop T, very subtle, very quick,  

can't get, can't get, can't get,  can't get, can't get, can't get.

Not a big lift but just a tiny little break  there before the G: can't get, can't get.

Can't get--

The vowel is the AA vowel. When it's followed by  

N it's not really a pure AA  anymore, it's not ca-- ca--

but cauh-- it starts with a little less jaw  

drop and the back of the tongue  relaxes, which brings in a sound

sort of like UH. Ca-uh, ca-uh,  can't can't can't can't can't.

And we know that this is different than  the word can, because if the word was  

you can get a promotion,

then we wouldn't stress it, we would say,  you can get, you can get, you can get.

That would be reduced to the schwa. The word can't  never reduces, always has this AA vowel in it.

Can't get,

a promotion.

Now we have get and a, not stressed,  

along with the first syllable of  promotion, that's a schwa there.

Pro--

So we have get a pro-- but  that's not how it's pronounced,  

it's pronounced: get a, get a, get a, get a,

flap T linking into the schwa, and  the schwa links right into the PR.  

That's what helps us link everything together,

is we just don't stop the sounds. Get  

a, get a, get a, get a pro, get a  pro, get a pro, get a promotion.

Get a promotion--

Again we have a TION ending and that  is SH schwa N. Tion, tion, tion.  

It's not: shen, shon, it's shun, shun.

Try to make it with a no vowel  at all. N absorbs the schwa,  

so just try to make SHN and say that quickly.

SHN SHN promotion.

Promotion--

Get a promotion.

Get a promotion--

you won't retire.

I wrote the word you here, but it is  so, so subtle. You, you, you, you.

I almost just hear it as a superlight  weak Y sound in the throat, but

I could even see someone  saying it's totally dropped.

You won't retire--

You won't retire. So we have  two stressed syllables there,  

and again, I feel like I'm hearing this

N apostrophe T as a stop T. Won't,  won't , won't , won't. Won't retire.

Be careful here, some people say something more  like: won-- wo, oh, oh, won-- but it's woah--

So your lips start in a circle for the W,  

then they loosen up a little bit for  the first half of the OH diphthong,

then they have to round again. Woah--  If you miss that second rounding,  

then you're not gonna get the

correct sound there. Won't, won't, won't retire.

You won't retire.

You won't retire. You won't retire.

Again, this T is a True T, why? Because it  starts a stressed syllable. Tire, retire. Retire.

Retire--

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

What do you hear as the most stressed  syllables in that phrase there?

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

Despite your best-- A little bit  of stress on best. A little bit  

of stress on efforts. But more on refuse and die.

Okay, let's look at the rest of the  words, the rest of the syllables,  

do we have any T's that change from a true T?

Do we have any reductions? How do we link all  

of this together and provide  the rhythmic contrast we need?

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

Let's just look at the first two words:  

despite-- despite your-- so this T  is a stop T because the next sound

is a consonant sound, the Y consonant. Also we  want this to be a schwa in DE, and a schwa in RE,

retire, so don't say re-- retire,  say ruh-- retire. Duh-- despite,  

despite, the letter I here makes the AI diphthong.

Despite. Stop T. So it's different from dropped T  

because that would be despie--  the sound would be the same,

AI but it would change shape, AI, it  would go up and then come down. Despie--

but when we cut it off, despite, despite.

Despite--

your best--

That cutoff is a stop of air, and that  signifies the T. Now the word your,  

is reduced it becomes the schwa R.

Those two sounds blend together.  The R absorbs the schwa.

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

It's just yy--rr-- yrr, yrr, yrr, yrr, yrr, yrr.

Say that as quickly as you can.  Your, despite your, despite your.

Despite your--

best efforts.

Best efforts. So we have an  ST cluster. If the next word  

began with the consonant, we would drop that T,

but it doesn't, it begins with the EH as in bed  vowel. So we will link that with a light true T.

Best efforts, best, best efforts.

Best efforts--

We don't want to say efforts. We see a letter  O here, maybe you want to do some lip rounding,

but it's not, it's a schwa. Effor--

And remember just like we said here,  

schwa is absorbed by the R so you  don't even need to try to make a vowel

right from F into R. Effor--  for for for. Efforts. Efforts.

Efforts--

you refuse to die.

Efforts, you re--

So we have three unstressed  syllables here. We have the  

unstressed syllable of efforts, the word you,

which doesn't reduce. He could have said yuh, but  he said you, but he said it low and unstressed.

You, you, you. You re-- you re--

Then again just like retire, we have refuse,  with a schwa, not refuse, but re re refuse,

Refuse--

to die--

You refuse to die. Now, I listen to  this quite a few times to decide,  

do I think this is a true T in to or a flap T?

I think it's a true T. Refused to. But it's  got the schwa. It's not to it's to to to,  

it's low in pitch, it's said very quickly.

Refuse to die, before the stressed word  die. Now I want to talk about this word,  

refuse, so it can be pronounced

two different ways, it can be  unstressed, re, R schwa, actually,  

you know what, it's not the schwa,

it's the IH as in sit vowel, which brings up  

something interesting. This  is actually an IH as well,

as is despite, if I look it up, I see it's an IH,  refuse is an IH, so why am I saying it's a schwa?

I've always said to me, the IH as in sit,  unstressed sounds just like the schwa.

Re re re re re refuse. Retire.  Re re re re refuse. Retire.

In the word themselves, they pretty much sound the  same to me. So I always tell students, don't worry

about an unstressed syllable like this, do  whichever one helps you say it more quickly.

But I love this, when I look something  up and I find, oh man I'm wrong.

The official pronunciation does show an IH,

if you say it with a schwa  that doesn't really matter.  

What matters is that it's said very quickly.

With this word, we actually have  two different pronunciations.

Two different meanings but same spelling. So the  first one is how it's used here, it's a verb.

We have the R consonant, IH vowel,  

unstressed. And then in a stressed  syllable, we have the F consonant,

the JU as in few diphthong, and the  Z. Refuse, refuse. That's the verb.

And it means no way will this person do something.

Refuse--

The other pronunciation of it is a noun, and it's  refuse. So now, the first syllable is stressed,

we have the EH as in bed syllable there  and then in our unstressed syllable,  

we still have the JU diphthong

but we have an S at the end instead, and this is  the noun and this is just another word for trash.

So two different words, two different meanings,  same spelling, but different pronunciation.

Refuse. Refuse.

Refuse--

to die.

You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.

You should be at least-- some stress there.  

You should be at least a two  star Admiral by not by now.

Two star Admiral by now.

You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.

You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.

You should be at least a two star Admiral by now.

Let's look at our first four  words here. You should be at--

You should be at--

You should-- The D, the letter  L is always silent in this word,  

the D is very subtle and  actually, you can drop it,

you can think of it as being dropped,  

before a word that begins to the  consonant: shuh-- shuh-- shuh--

So it's SH and schwa,

you should be, you should be, you should be,  

you should be at-- you should  be at-- you should be at--

Be linking right into at which reduces, at at at,  I would write that with the schwa and a stop T.

Be at, be at, be at, be at, be at, you should  be at, you should be at, you should be at.

You should be at--

least a two star Admiral by now.

Four less clear words before we have some  of our words with stressed syllables.

You should be at least a two star--

You should be at least a two star--

You should be at least a two star--

At least a-- Now, here, T in an ST  cluster but the next sound is the schwa.

So we do hear a true T linking into that.  Least a, least a. At least a two star.

Now this is a T starting a stressed syllable,  

so that will be a True T. Two star,  two star, two star Admiral by now.

AA. There we have that AA vowel again. Hope  

you feel pretty good about it  because it's in this sentence,

it's in this conversation quite  a bit. Two star Admiral by now.

At least a two star Admiral by now.

At least a two star Admiral by now.

At least a two star Admiral by now.

Admiral, Admiral. I love that word. It really  is clear that the first syllable is stressed,

and the second two are unstressed. Miral, miral,  miral. Don't say MEERAL or anything like that.

Miral, miral, miral. Admiral--

Both unstressed syllables have the schwa.  Schwa followed by R. It gets absorbed by the R.

Schwa followed by L, it gets absorbed by  the L. M, N, R, L. All absorb the schwa.

So they're called syllabic consonants. You don't  need to try to make a schwa there. It's just

Mm, rr, ll. M right into the R sound, and then  a dark L. Miral, miral, miral, miral. Admiral.

Admiral--

by now.

By now, by now. A little bit of stress on now,  

but it's the end of the phrase, his  voice has lost some of the energy,

it's lower in pitch.

By now--

Yet here you are.

Okay in this little four-word  sentence, what is the stress?

Yet here you are--

Yet here you are.

Here and are, more stressed, everything links  together very smoothly. We have a stop T in yet,

because the next word begins with a  consonant, the H consonant. Yet here you are.

Yet here you are.

Yet here you are.

Yet here you are.

Captain.

Captain. Ca-- again, that AH vowel  in our stressed syllable. Captain.

Captain--

A light true T here. Now why would  this one be a true T? The rule is  

if it's part of a consonant cluster, like in PT,

that it's a True T, although we've definitely  seen exceptions to that, haven't we?

ST followed by a constant, it's dropped, but here,  part of the PT cluster, it is a light true T.

And again, captain, tain, tain, captain. Don't  try to make a vowel there. Schwa N. Captain.

Captain--

Actually, I just looked it up because I was  curious. Dictionary.com shows both schwa N or IH,

N, as an ending and as i've said  before, to me, they sound the same.

Captain--

Why is that?

Why is that? Why is that? Most stress  on the question word. Why is that?

And then the pitch sort of falls down from that.  Why is-- really link that AI diphthong, why is,

into the IH as in sit vowel.

You might need to feel like you go through  the glide consonant Y to help you link them.

Why is that? Then a weak Z.

TH, AH as in bat vowel, stop T. Now why is this  a stop T? It's not followed by a consonant.

It's a stop T because T is a stop  T if it's followed by a consonant,

or it's the end of a thought  group, like it is here.

Why is that?

Why is that?

Why is that?

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

It’s one of life’s-- more stress there, mysteries,  

sir. One has a little bit of stress,  sir has a little bit of stress.

It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

Let's look at the other words the word its.  

Vowel is dropped. It's just the  TS cluster before the W of one.

It's one, it's one, it's one, it's one. It's  not uncommon to pronounce it's that way.

You can even do that with what's and let's. Like  if I was going to say let's go, I might say:

let's go, let's go I'm ready  to go. Let's go. That's can  

also be reduced to just the TS cluster. It's one.

It's one of--

life's mysteries, sir.

It's one of-- the word of, I would  write that with the schwa and the V.

You can drop the V sound but he doesn't.  It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

The word mysteries can be pronounced as three  or two syllables, mys-ter-ies or mys-teries.

I actually think he's doing it as three  but this middle syllable is so fast.

Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries.

Mysteries--

sir.

And there's not really a break between  mysteries and sir. Mysteries, sir.

So even though an IPA, this  would be written with the Z.

It's more like an S that just keeps  going into the stressed sound sir,  

into the stressed word, sir. Mysteries, sir.

Mysteries, sir.

Everything in this phrase  really smoothly connected.

It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

Okay, our stress here. The  end is inevitable, Maverick.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

End has the most stress, I would say.  Now, the word the, here is pronounced the.

The rule is that's what we do when  the next word begins with a vowel,  

and here the next word begins with EH,

the EH vowel. Usually it would be the,  but here it's the, the end, the end.

Now do Americans always follow this rule? No.  But if you noticed it, that's what's going on.

The end. The end is inevitable.  Inevi--dadadadada Do you hear that?

That's a flap T because it comes between  two vowel or diphthong sounds. Inevitable.

So it's a four syllable word with second syllable  

stress. Inevitable. Five syllable  word with second syllable stress.

Unstressed, then stressed, then  three unstressed. Inevitable.

Inevitable.

And everything links together really smoothly.  D into beginning IH, Z into beginning IH.

The end is inevitable.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.

Maverick. This is another word that can  be pronounced as three or two syllables

depending on if you drop the middle.  Ma-ver-ick. Just like mys-ter-y. Or Mave-rick.

Maverick.

Dropped, the feeling of the vowel, and make this  like, feel like a cluster. Rick, Rick, maverick.

And that's what he did. He does not  release the K. K is a stop sound just like  

T and we can skip the release at the

end of a thought group like he does here. Or  when the next word begins with a consonant.

It's a little bit less of a strong rule. The  T is almost always a stop T in these cases.

K it's a little bit more likely to release  it, but he doesn't. Maverick. Maverick.

Maverick.

Sort of an abrupt stop of  air there, signifies the K.

Maverick.

Your kind is headed for extinction.

Now let's look at our next sentence. The word  your. The last time we saw that, it was reduced.

It wasn't your, it was your, your,  does that happen again? Listen.

Your kind is headed for extinction.

Your kind is headed for extinction.

Your kind is headed for extinction.

Honestly, I almost don't even really  hear an R sound. Ye ye ye ye ye kind.

Your kind--

is headed for extinction.

Your kind is headed-- Stress on  kind, head, headed for extinction.

So the word your, definitely  reduced. We have stress on kind,  

it's the AI diphthong, and  your links right into kind ,

then the D links right into the IH  vowel for our unstressed syllable is.

Weak Z sound links right into the H.

Kind is headed--

Kind is headed. The ED ending after a D is schwa  D. Headed. Headed. Could you think of that?

I'm sorry I said schwa, but I  wrote IH because you can also  

think of it as schwa D. Headed. Headed. Headed.

Headed-- for extinction.

The word for, now I know this word  usually reduces, is it for? Let's listen.

Headed for--

Headed for, headed for. It's not for. It is  fur fur fur. I would write that with a schwa.

Fur fur, reduced, headed for extinction.

Headed for extinction.

Headed for extinction.

Headed for extinction.

T here starting a stressed syllable,  that's a true T. Unstressed IH,  

K sound, the letter X here is interesting,

it makes KS and the syllable  break actually happens between  

K and S so it's actually IK, and then ST cluster.

Extinction.

So in the stressed syllable, STING,  I'm just gonna write this over here,  

we're getting crowded there. Extinction.

Extinction.

Extinction.

Extinction.

In the stressed syllable, we have the IH as in  sit vowel but that's followed by the NG consonant.

Now here, it's the letter N. But it's  not made at the front of the mouth,  

like N, it's made at the back,

with the back of the tongue like NG and  that's because it's followed by a K sound.

Exting---, that's the back of the  tongue lifting to the soft palate.

When IH is followed by an NG sound,  it's not really IH, it's more like EE,

you'll notice this in the word sing, or  ring, it's not IH, sing, but sing, sing.

Extinct, extinction. Extinction. Sort  of a tricky word. You might want to  

slow it down as you practice it. Extinction.

Extinction.

Maybe so, sir.

Maybe so, sir. A little bit of stress on may--  much more on so, a little bit of stress on sir.

And everything links together really  smoothly, doesn't it? Maybe so, sir.

Maybe so, sir.

Maybe so, sir.

Maybe so, sir.

But not today.

But not today. Okay, so I think this T is actually  dropped, I don't really hear it as a stop, but

I hear the UH going right into the N.  But not, but not, but not. But not today.

But not today. Stress on not. But not today.

But not today.

But not today.

But not today.

But not today. Not today. So we have two Ts here.  These words will link together with the true T.

But not, but not today. But not today. And it's  not to, today. It's to, to, schwa. To to today.

But not today. But not today.

But not today. But not today.

But not today.

Listen to this whole conversation one more time.

Thirty plus years of service.  Combat medals. Citations.

Only man to shoot down three enemy  planes in the last forty years.

Yet you can’ get a promotion, you won’t retire.  Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.

You should be at least a two-star admiral by now.

Yet you are here.

Captain.

Why is that?

It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.

The end is inevitable, Maverick.  Your kind is headed for extinction.

Maybe so, sir.

But not today.

When you watch so much analysis all at once,  you really start to feel those characteristics  

that are important to American English. You can’t  deny them. You start to feel them in your body. 

If you want to start training that, you’ll  want to work with the audio training that  

goes along with these kinds of analysis videos  in my online school, Rachel’s English Academy,  

we have thousands of students training right  now to get these habits into their voices. 

Visit rachelsenglishacademy.com to sign  up today. Keep your learning going now  

with this video and don’t forget to  subscribe with notifications. I make  

new videos on the English language every  week. I love being your English teacher. 

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