THIS IS WHY IT’S SO DIFFICULT: How to Speak American English | Learn English with FRIENDS

Some people might say Americans butcher the  pronunciation of English. We certainly do  

our own thing with it. Today we’re going to  study part of a scene from Friends to see:  

what are all the things that  Americans do with spoken English?  

How does Rachel Greene speak so fast? It’s  all about rhythm and simplification. Studying  

spoken English this way helps my students a ton with their English listening comprehension and  

also helps them speak English that’s more  smooth, natural, and easier to understand.  

Also, fresh off the press, click here or in the  video description to get a free cheat sheet, the  

sounds of American English, it’s a great reference  tool and even I use it quite a bit. This is the  

scene we’ll use for our analysis. Rachel has just  found out that Chandler and Monica are dating,  

and she really wants to tell Joey.

Oh, Joey. I have such a problem.

Oh, well, your timing couldn’t be better. I  am putting out fires all over the place today.

Okay, okay. Joey? I have  got to tell you something.

What? What? What is it, what is it?

Oh my God. It’s so huge. But you just have  to promise me – you can’t tell anyone.

Oh no, no, no. I don’t want to know.

Now let’s do that analysis together.

Oh, Joey.

There’s a little bit of stress in her voice  here. Oh. A little bit of that up-down shape, Oh,  

Joey, and then we have that very clear  up-down curve for a stressed syllable  

so the first syllable ‘Jo’ is what’s stressed.  The second syllable which is just the e vowel,  

Joey, ee, it just comes on the way down  doesn’t have it’s own separate shape or feel,  

it’s just falling away from that stressed  syllable so it’s really smooth. Joey.

Oh, Joey.

I have such a problem.

Normally, we would say problem. Really  clear first syllable stress and a very  

short second syllable but she’s bringing a lot  of stress and energy to this word, ‘problem’.  

And she really holds on to that second  syllable so it also feels stressed.

I have such a problem.

Problem. So, it would be  really common for um, to just  

be like the e in Joey and just come down  away from that stressed syllable pro,  

problem. But here it’s got its own  separate shape for stress and emphasis.

problem.

Problem. The letter o makes the ah as in  father vowel here and the e is the schwa,  

problem, lem, lem. But she does put  a little bit more of a vowel in there  

because of holding it out. So I think we can think  of that as the u vowel like in butter. Probleem.

Problem.

The other words definitely less stressed than our  noun here, I have such a, I have such a. But there  

is some on the word such, “I have such a”. And  notice the ch sound links right into the schwa,  

a nice smooth ending consonant to beginning  vowel link such a, such a, such a. I have such a.

I have such a--

So I in have said really quickly.  I have, I have, I have, I have.

You don’t want to make more of it that.  We want the contrast of the short words,  

the short syllables with the long words  and long syllables. I have, I have, I have,  

I have such. I have such a. One down shape  of stress in those four words. I have such a.

I have such a.

I have such a problem.

I have such a problem.

I have such a problem.

Oh, well--

Oh, well. Both of those are going up. Up, well.  

The word well not pronounced too clearly. Well,  well, well, well, uhuhuhl. A little bit of a w  

maybe a schwa or an f feel with a dark l  well well. But it’s short, it’s not stressed.

Oh, well--

Your timing couldn’t be better.

So let’s just look at this part of  his phrase and I want you to think  

about what are the stressed syllables like we  had such and problem in this first sentence.  

Where do you find you want to move a little  bit? Maybe move your head a little bit.  

What do you think are the most stressed  syllables with that peak of stress?

Your timing couldn’t be better.

I feel it. Your timing couldn’t be better.  On this first syllable of time, your timing,  

the first syllable of timing, your timing couldn’t  be better. But it’s all smooth, we don’t have any  

skips or break, everything’s either leading up  to a stressed syllable or coming away from it.  

So the word your, that’s not reduced. Said your,  your, your. Very fast, simplify as much as you  

can. Your, your, your, your timing. Now here  we have a stressed syllable it begins with a t,  

that is a true t. A lot of our t’s in English  change to other sounds but this is a true t,  

your timing. And as I say that, do  you hear the melody of my voice?  

Ahh, ahh, your timing, your timing. With that up  down shape of stress for the stressed syllable.

Your timing--

couldn’t be better.

I want to pop in for a huge thanks  to all my supporters here on YouTube,  

everyone who has joined my channel, they get  special badges to make their comments pop,  

early release of videos when available,  access to members-only posts and videos,  

and the top tier gets a free monthly audio  lesson. Thank you! Click JOIN to learn more.

Couldn’t be, couldn’t be. So the  word l in the word could is silent,  

the vowel there is the same vowel that we  have in push, book, here it’s spelled as ‘ou’.  

In push, it’s spelled with just the u,  

and in book it’s spelled with ‘oo’. But it’s  the same sound on all of these words, uh, uh.  

Could, could, couldn’t be.

couldn’t be--

couldn’t be better.

Let’s listen to just “couldn’t be better.” You  

tell me what you think you’re hearing with this  n’t contraction. Are you hearing tt, a true t?

couldn’t be better.

N’t contractions, we have three possibilities  there. We have the least common true t, couldn’t,  

couldn’t be. That’s not what we hear. Then we  couldn’t be. Couldn’t be with a little break,  

a little stop of air, that’s the stop  t. That’s fairly common. Couldn’t be.  

But actually, what I’m hearing is the  third pronunciation which is no t at all,  

t dropped right from n smoothly into b  with no break. Couldn’t be, couldn’t be.

couldn’t be better.

So keep that in mind when you’re  looking at n apostrophe t words,  

the least common pronunciation by far is a true t.

couldn’t be better.

couldn’t be better. Ahuhuh. Two  up-down shapes of stress, the tt  

here is a flap t, the tongue just  flaps against the roof of the mouth  

[flap], better, better.

couldn’t be better.

Some students find it tricky to  go from flap t into the schwa r  

which is the ending of this word, better.  So the tongue bounces against the roof of  

the then the tip pulls back a little bit  so it’s not touching anything. Be-tter.  

I always encourage students  to hold out the sound before  

and after a flap t to help them focus on that  clean quick movement holding out that errr,  

r schwa combination, errr will also help  you focus in on that sound. Be-tter. Better.

couldn’t be better.

I am putting out fires.

I am putting out fires. So it’s very  common to speak with the contraction  

‘I’m’ but here he is stressing I so he  doesn’t make that a contraction. I am.

I am--

I am putting out fires all over the place.

I am putting out fires. So we have an idiom  here. We have stress on the stressed syllable  

of pudding. Put now fires all over the  place. First syllable of over also stress.

I am putting out fires all over the place.

So the flap t just like in better. This sounds  like the d between vowels in American English  

so this word actually sounds just like  this word “pudding” which is a dessert.  

Because d between vowels sounds the same  as t between vowels, we call that a flap t,  

now he doesn’t say pudding with  the ing ending, he actually  

switches the ing to an in ending puttin, puttin.

I am putting out--

And when we do that, it changes actually  the t pronunciation if you can believe it.  

Changing the ending actually changes  how we pronounce the middle consonant  

I’m not getting into all the details that has  to do with the sounds in between but basically  

it turns into a flap t into a stop t. Puttin,  puttin. So I’m going to go ahead and erase  

flap t because I don’t want to confuse anybody  when you’re going back looking at it. So putting  

ing ending we’re going to make that a flap t.  

But if we make that an in ending then we change it  to a stop t, putting, putting. I am putting out.

I am putting out--

I am putting out fires all over the place.

Actually I would say we have some stress on out as  well. Putting out, another stop t. Fires all over.  

Why is this a stop t? Well, the t is a stop t, the  general rule is when it’s followed by a consonant  

so here it is followed by a consonant  so we’re going to make that a stop t,  

putting out fires, putting out fires. Now, the  ending z sound of fires links into the next word.  

This is the ah as in law vowel and it’s  really common to link ending consonants  

into beginning vowels so it almost sounds like  the ending consonant begins to the next word.  

So you could think of the as zall, zall,  zall, zall, zall. Fires all, fires all over.

putting out fires all over the place.

And that’s how we get that really smooth character  of American English. Fires all over the place.

fires all over the place.

Here again we have an ending consonant and  beginning vowel. Vowel or diphthong in this  

case the o as in no diphthong so we want to take  the l, lover, lover, allover, all over the place.

all over the place.

all over the place today.

all over the place today. Then again a little  bit more stress on the second syllable of  

today. A few things, the most stress here  really is in the vowel or the diphthong o  

and you can see he moves  his head on that all over.  

Sometimes Americans will add a physical gesture  to our most stressed syllable for emphasis.  

That’s a good clue that that’s the syllable  that you want to put your energy towards.

all over the place--

all over the place today.

All over the place today. I want to talk to  a second about the last word. People see to  

when they want to say to. But this is always  tt with a schwa, don’t make the u vowel make  

it much faster to, to, today. And this t can be  a trues t or a flap it, he is making it a true t.  

So this word is today. Not  today but today, today, today.

all over the place--

all over the place today.

The syllable er plus the words the in place,  they’re unstressed, they’re said more quickly.  

For the place, for the place, for the place.  So you need to take some of the clarity out,  

some of your voice out some of the energy out  in order to be able to make them that quickly  

so we have that important contrast of stressed and  unstressed. Now the word ‘the’. I’m going to give  

you a trick, a tip for a word like the that  starts with the voiced th and is unstressed.  

We have the, this, these those, that,  quite a few common words that follow  

this pattern of unstressed and beginning with a  voiced th. For those words, you don’t actually  

have to bring your tongue tip all the way through  the teeth. The, you don’t have to make it that  

clearly. But you don’t want to put your tongue  to the roof of the mouth because then it will  

start to sound like duh, a d and we do not want  that. So in order to make it sound like a th  

rather than having your tongue  tip at the roof of the mouth,  

have it touching the backs of the teeth. The, the,  the, the, the, the, the, the. That will help it  

sound like a th. And it will also help you make it  more quickly. The, the, the, the, the. The place,  

the place, the place. Notice those are low  in pitch and a little quiet? Those are some  

of the qualities of unstressed syllable. The  place, the place, the place, the place today.

all over the place today.

What does the idiom mean “to put out  fires”? Or “to put out fires all over  

the place”? This means deal with problems.  So if a situation, a problem has risen  

and you have to deal with it, you can say, uh,  alright, I guess I’ll go out put out that fire.

I am putting out fires all over the place today.

Okay, okay.

Okay, okay. She’s making that with first syllable  stress. That word can have either first or second  

syllable stress. You can say, okay or okay. And  here she’s doing that first syllable stress, okay,  

okay. Now that is an o diphthong in that  first syllable so make sure you’re moving  

your lips a little bit, Ou. they have to  round in more, that movement gives us the  

change which gives us the full quality of  the diphthong, ou, ou, uo, ou. Okay, okay.

Okay, okay.

Joey?

Joey? Joey? The questioning intonation going  up, she’s about to ask something of him,  

she wants permission to tell him this big secret.  So earlier, she said “Joey.” and it went down,  

the statement intonation here. Joey? it’s going up  questioning intonation and again, that unstressed  

syllable at the end doesn’t have its own shape,  it just comes into the rise of the voice, “Joey?”

Joey?

I have got to tell you something.

Okay now, let’s see if you can guess upon  

hearing this sentence three times.  What is the most stressed word?

I have got to tell you something.

It’s the one that’s the loudest, the most  stressed, got. I have got to tell you something.  

Also sometimes for emphasis, we’ll put  a little break before or a little break  

after a stressed word and it doesn’t fit  into the flow of the sentence as much.

I have got to tell you something.

So we have stress on I. I have got. And  now we have an ending t and a beginning t,  

she is linking those with a single but clear  and fully released true t. Got to, got to.

I have got--

I have got to tell you something.

Got to. So the vowel in the word to  reduces to the schwa just like in today.  

That’s not two day and this isn’t two.  This is to. Got to tell you something.

got to tell you something.

I have got to tell you something. We have two  more stressed words here, we have to tell. Again,  

with a true t. So we have two true t’s here.  One, linking got and to and one beginning the  

stressed word tell. Tell you something. So the  word something is stressed but any stressed  

word only has one stressed syllable. So thing,  still unstressed, thing, thing, something.

got to tell you something.

The letter o in got it the ah as in father vowel.  The letter oh in to is the schwa vowel and the  

letter o in something is the uh as in butter  vowel. Up here, the letter o was the o as in no  

diphthong. That is one of the things that is so  tricky about American English. The letters don’t  

have just one sound that they can represent. It  makes both pronunciation and spelling tricky.

got to tell you something.

Let’s just listen to “to tell you something.”  and I want you to listen to the music of that.  

The up-down shapes of stress on tell and some.

to tell you something.

It almost feels like a song, doesn’t it?

to tell you something.

Let’s talk a little bit about the l in  the word “tell”. So that’s a true t,  

e as in bed l. And when the l comes after the  vowel or diphthong in the syllable which here  

it’s s so it comes after then it’s called a  dark l. And Americans usually don’t lift their  

tongue tip for that dark l. They usually  make that sound a different way, uhl, uhl,  

with the back of the tongue so the tongue tip is  down. The back of the tongue presses down and back  

a little bit. uhl, uhl, uhl. And then we usually  don’t lift the tongue tip. If the next word begins  

with a vowel or diphthong, then we might to  link in just like we did on the previous page.  

Here, when we were linking the word all and over,  it was a dark l because it’s at the end of the  

word but because of the linking it feels like it’s  the beginning of the word so we do lift the tongue  

tip in that case if it’s linking into a vowel  or diphthong. But here, the next word is you,  

in this case that first sound is acting like  a consonant, sometimes the combination is  

more of a diphthong, here it’s acting  more as a consonant, the y consonant,  

tell-you. So I’m making that smoothly with no  lift of the tongue tip. Tell. This sound here  

is the dark sound made with the back of the  tongue. Tell, uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl.  

If you’re confused by the dark l,  it is a bit of a confusing sound,  

I do have some videos on it, you can look them  up on my Youtube channel.Tell you something.

to tell you something.

Now the th in something, that is an  unvoiced th so the tongue tip does  

have to come through the teeth there.  Don’t hold the air though or force it,  

thh, thhh. The air should be able to  move freely. Something, something.

you something.

You something.

What? What is it? What is it?

What? What is it? What is it?

What? Upward intonation, what? And those are  all stop t’s so a t is a stop t, I said if  

it’s followed by a consonant but also if  it’s at the end of a sentence or thought  

group. Here it’s the end. What? What? So  it’s really common to make that a stop t  

so that’s an abrupt stop of the  air without tt, that release.

What? What is it? What is it?

What is it? What is it? What  is it? What is it? So here,  

what is, both of those have stress on  is, what is it? That’s a great little  

three-word phrase to practice, it has  one peak of stress. What, leads up to it.  

It falls away from it. And we have linking  ending consonant to beginning vowel.

What is it? What is it?

Also the h in what we usually  don’t pronounce that at all.  

Some people could say what, what with  that little extra escape of air with a w,  

we write that in ipa with this little h before the  w but most Americans don’t pronounce it that way  

anymore and we just make a clean w sound. What?  What? What is it? What is it linking consonant,  

that makes it a flap t, the ending  z into the it as in sit vowel. What  

is it. What is it? And a stop t at the end  because it’s the end of the thought group  

so really smooth linking it should feel  just like one word what is it, what is it

What is it? What is it?

Oh my God, it’s so huge.

Oh my God. This phrase usually we’re going  to have stress on the first and last word, oh  

my God. And again the letter o  making the ah as in father vowel

Oh my God,

it’s so huge.

And she doesn’t put a brak here, she keeps going,  

the d links right into the  ih as in sit vowel. It’s so.

Oh my God, it’s so huge.

Oh my God, it’s so huge. And then so and huge both  have stress and I want to point out we have an  

ending s, a beginning s, those link with a single  s sound. It’s so, it’s so, no break, all connected

Oh my God, it’s so huge.

Huge. In American English, we don’t drop this  this h but it’s also not hh, very throaty,  

it’s just hhh, a very light  escape of air. The letter u  

makes the u diphthong here, huge. And then  we end with the g sound, huge, huge, huge.

it’s so huge.

But you just have to promise  me you cannot tell anyone.

So she goes all the way to here without  taking a breath without making a break.  

Everything links together even though  writing it out we would use some grammar  

punctuation like the period but she skips right  over that and talking there are no breaks here

But you just have to promise  me you cannot tell anyone.

But you just have to promise me. Wow, okay  so she says these words really quickly.  

A little bit of stress on you,  a little bit of stress of pro,  

but it’s all said really quickly, isn’t it? We  don’t have that full engagement of the voice,  

we don’t have full volume, we  don’t have a lot of up-down melody.

But you just have to promise me--

But you just have to promise me. Wow, to say it  that quickly we have to simplify some so the word  

but, said so fast and the t combines with the  you, this happens, the ending t beginning y  

consonant into a ch so but you becomes  butchyou, butchyou, butchyou, butchyou.  

Helps us say that a little bit more quickly. But you

But you just have to promise me--

But you just have to. What else is happening  that helps us simplify and say this more quickly?  

The st consonant cluster, when this is followed  by a consonant. It's the most common pronunciation  

by far to drop the t. Just have, and that’s what  she does. That also helps her say it more quickly.  

But you know what? Even in a stressed word,  you just have to. Even if I was going to stress  

just, if it’s followed by a  consonant, I do drop that t.

But you just have to promise me--

But you just have to promise me. But you just  have to, have to. So when have which is a v is  

followed by the word to which is pretty common, we  actually change the v to the f. have to, have to,  

have to. So it becomes ft schwa. Hafta, hafta,  hafta, hafta, hafta. Low in pitch, said quickly,  

simply without much mouth movement. Have to, have  to, just have to, just have to, just have to.

But you just have to promise me--

But you just have to promise me. Promise  me, promise me, promise me, promise me.  

Not a lot of melody, pretty flat,  mostly an unstressed feeling.

you just have to promise me--

You cannot tell anyone.

Now, she slows down again and she brings  more stress into some of the words.

You cannot tell anyone.

You cannot tell anyone. Okay, I’m actually going  to write this out differently. I wrote can’t,  

that’s not what’s she’s saying. She’s not  doing the contraction because she needs  

to stress it. That means she’s not going  to contract, contract it, you cannot tell  

anyone. We have three syllables in a  row, the two unstressed syllables at the  

end on anyone just come in as the voice  falls away from that stressed syllable.  

You, unstressed, leading up to  can’t. Sorry, leading up to cannot.

You cannot tell anyone.

So she doesn’t say cannot, she says  cannot, cannot. So we have k schwa  

and unstressed said more quickly. It's the  unstressed syllable here. Because she wants  

to stress not the negative. So we have you  can, you can, you can, you can, you can.

you can--

You can, you can, you can, you can,  you can, you cannot, you cannot.

You cannot--

You cannot tell anyone.

You cannot tell. Again, she has an ending  t, a beginning t, she makes that a single  

but strong and clear true  t. Cannot tell, cannot tell.

cannot tell--

Anyone.

Cannot tell anyone.

So I’m trying to decide, do I think she’s linking  the l into the eh vowel here, tell anyone, I don’t  

really think so. Tell anyone, I think there’s  just a slight lift there to bring more stress to  

the word. You cannot tell anyone. So make this  a dark l, tell, uhluhluhluhl, tell, uhluhluhl.  

Don’t involve the tip of your tongue  there. You cannot tell anyone.

You cannot tell anyone.

And actually, as I’m listening again and more, I  do think anyone. She is also kind of emphasizing  

the last syllable here which would be a little  unusual, it’s not very conversation but it’s  

definitely bringing in her point normally  we would say anyone but she’s saying anyone.  

Really stressing that. Not one person

You cannot tell anyone.

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.

Oh no, oh no. Linked together, the word  no is stressed with that up-down shape,  

these are both oh diphthongs. Oh no.

Oh no

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.

No, no, no, no, no, no. Then it’s one stress  with the rest falling in to the way down. no,  

no, no, no, no. And the tongue is just  flipping up to the roof of the mouth and  

then right back down there, all connected  not separate words. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.

And when we’re doing them like that in a string  not really saying the full diphthong each time

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Then  it becomes more like the other no’s  

are just schwa. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.

I don’t want to know.

I don’t want to know. So we have stress  on I and no. I don’t want to know.

I don’t want to know.

I actually going to change the way I’m writing  the stress on I. I think it’s more of a going up.  

I don’t want to know. And then curve up and down,  I’ll know so don’t want to, all that higher but  

flatter pitch. I don’t want to, I don’t want to,  don’t want to, don’t want to, don’t want to, don’t  

want to, don’t want to. How is he making that  so fast. Well, an apostrophe t dropping the t.  

Want to, dropping the t’s turning that into. Want  to, want to, want to, want, want to with a schwa.

I don’t want to know.

I don’t want to know. Dropping those true  t’s definitely helps to smooth that out.  

Helps us say that phrase more  quickly. Now here the word no,  

that’s the o diphthong, sounds just like this  word no, different spelling different words,  

same pronunciation, so the o diphthong  can be written o w, or just o.

I don’t want to know.

There’s so much to study in just a  few lines of English, isn’t there?  

Let’s see the scene with  the analysis two more times.

Oh, Joey. I have such a problem.

Oh, well, your timing couldn’t be better. I  am putting out fires all over the place today.

Okay, okay. Joey? I have  got to tell you something.

What? What? What is it, what is it?

Oh my God. It’s so huge. But you just have  to promise me – you can’t tell anyone.

Oh no, no, no. I don’t want to know.

Oh, Joey. I have such a problem.

Oh, well, your timing couldn’t be better. I am putting out fires all over the place today.

Okay, okay. Joey? I have got to tell you something. 

What? What? What is it, what is it?

Oh my God. It’s so huge. But you just have to promise me – you can’t tell anyone.

Oh no, no, no. I don’t want to know.

If you like this kind of analysis,  check out this playlist here on YouTube,  

or consider signing up for my Academy which has  over 150 of these kinds of pronunciation analyses  

along with all sorts of training that transforms  the voices and accents of my students – go to  

RachelsEnglishAcademy.com to learn more.  Don’t forget to subscribe here on YouTube,  

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