How do Americans Speak so Fast? | English Conversation

How and why do Americans speak so quickly? And if you’re studying English, how do you

keep up? Today, we’re studying English with TV, the

series, ‘Friends’. It’s a scene from their New Year’s Eve Party and we’re going

to talk about all the tricks of spoken English that make up the music of English. The linking

between words, the stress and the melody. You’ll understand how Americans speak so

fast, you’ll improve your listening skills, and you’ll be able to sound more natural

speaking English. Here’s the scene: Monica and Chandler are dating and Joey is the only

one that knows. This scene is about a minute long and we’re going to study everything

about the pronunciation. Here’s the full scene.

What’s the matter? We wanted to kiss at midnight, but nobody else

is going to, so, you know. Alright. I’ll take care of it.

Oh no. Joey!

Huh muh muh muh... Thirty-three, Thirty-two, Thirty-one

Ross, Ross listen, who you kissing at midnight huh? Rachel or Phoebe?

What? Well, you got to kiss someone. Can’t kiss

your sister. Oh who’s going to kiss my sister?

Chandler. Oh man really?

Dude, dude who would you rather kiss your sister, me or Chandler?

That's a good point. Yeah.

Well, since I have that whole history with Rachel, I guess Phoebe.

Okay, great! Right.

Phoebs! Phoebs! Listen, Ross wants to kiss you at midnight.

It's so obvious. Why doesn't he just ask. Rach, Rach, listen, I’m going to kiss you at midnight.

What? Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone, can’t

kiss Ross, you got the history. So?

So, who would you rather have kissing you, me or Chandler? Oh, good point.

Yeah. Three! Two! One! Happy New Year!

Happy New Year. Happy New Year.

Did you catch how ‘or’ was pronounced ‘ur’? There are lots of changes like that

in spoken English. Here’s the full analysis. What’s the matter?

So this first sentence isn’t too clear, is it? What’s the matter? What’s the matter?

What’s the said really quickly and everything leads up to the stressed syllable ‘ma’,

What’s the matter? And then comes down. So, very connected, very smooth, a little bit

breathy, ‘What’s the’ becomes ‘What’s the’. What’s the,What’s the. Barely

a W sound at all. And this is a actually a word that can be shortened to ts. What’s,

it’s, that’s and let’s are all sometimes shortened to just the ts sound. Ts’the matter?

What’s the matter?

And he’s kind of doing that here, maybe

a little bit of schwa. What’s the matter? Huh,huh,huh. What’s the matter? But it’s very

unclear isn’t it? Definitely not “what’s” fully pronounced.

The word ‘the’, this is unstressed word that begins with the voiced th just like this

that, these, those, those kind of all be pronounced with different kind of th. So, rather than

the tongue tip coming through the teeth, the tongue tip presses the backs of the teeth,

uhuhuh, and then pulls away, very quickly to make that schwa. The word ‘the’ is

this: the, the ,the, the. Said so quickly, low in pitch, low in volume, not too clear

because it’s unstressed. Then our stressed syllable with the æ vowel, ma, ma, has that

change of direction, the pitch goes up then down and then a flap t into the schwa sharp

r sound, (flap) on the way down. Ahu. All one connected, utterance, it can actually just

feel like one word. No brakes, with the one stressed syllable ma.

What’s the matter?

We wanted to kiss at midnight.

So we have a couple of stressed syllables there that are a little bit longer. Ahuhauhhau, and that’s

the way how American English works. We have stressed syllables, they usually have a curve

up and curve down. We wanted to kiss at midnight. So, three of those and the rest of the syllables

are a little bit lower in pitch, volume, now here he sort of whispering a little bit, he’s

not saying it to the whole room, he only wants Joey to hear because the relationship is secret.

We wanted to kiss at midnight.

We wanted to kiss. We wanted. Do you hear

wanted, wanted. That t is dropped. That’s the most common pronunciation of that word.

So, the ed ending here makes ih as in sit d when nt is followed by a vowel, it’s really

common to drop that t. The word ‘wanted’, almost every time you hear an American say

that, they will not say the T. Even if it’s in a business meeting, even if it’s an important

speech, even in those formal cases, we don’t usually say wanted. We almost always say wan-id, wan-id.

We wanted to kiss

We wanted to kiss.I love when you hear that on a loop, how you really start to hear the

rhythm. Tadadadada. Tadadadada. Tadadadada. So those unstressed syllables probably, you’re

not making them short enough. That’s the main thing I work with on my students when

it comes to rhythm, shortening up unstressed syllables. We wanted to, nid to, nid to, nid

to. So id said really quickly then the word to reduces, it's a very quick true T and then

schwa. We wanted to.To, to. We wanted to kiss. Uhuhuh.

We wanted to kiss

We wanted to kiss at midnight.

At midnight. How was the word ‘at’ pronounced?

I don’t hear at, do you? At. That’s the vowel in that word fully pronounced. But I

don’t hear a, I hear schwa and then a really quick stop of air at midnight. That’s the

stop T, at,at,at. So the word at, how do we make it faster? Change to vowel, make that

a stop T, at,at. It really does need to be that fast. At midnight, at midnight.

At midnight

Notice the d in midnight is not released,

it’s not mid, midnight, but midnight, mid-night. So, the d very fast, the vocal cords vibrate

but it’s not released. Midnight.

Midnight.

And again a stop T. So, the T pronunciation is usually a stop t if it comes at the end

of a thought group or if it’s followed by a word that begins with a consonant.

Midnight

But nobody else is going to–

But nobody else is going to. But nobody else. So we have a little bit of stress, a little

bit of that up down melody on no and then a lot more on else but nobody else is going to

But nobody else is going to–

Going to, going also stressed, this one goes down and up. Usually they go up and down but

sometimes, down and up. Going to.

Going to–

Little lift there, but nobody, do you notice that? Another stop t, next word begins with

a consonant. But nobody else. Okay, we need to talk about the dark L here. An L is a dark

L if it comes after the vowel or diphthong. So this is a one syllable word, the main sound

here, the vowel is the eh as is bed. So the L comes after that vowel so it’s a dark

L. And for dark L, especially when the sound is a consonant, we don’t lift the tongue

tip. So that’s just made at the back of the tongue, uhl, el, uhl. Tongue tip is down.

If you lift your tongue tip here, else, else, else. It’s an extra movement you don’t

need. It's probably going to get in the way of making the dark sound. L, uhl,uhl, L, else.

See if you can challenge yourself to make that without lifting your tongue tip.

You might need to slow it down, really think about it, L, uhl,uhl. That dark sound is made

at that back of the tongue pressing down and back a little bit L, else.

But nobody else–

But nobody else is going to,

Nobody else is going to. Now here the word to, not reduced, that is the full u vowel,

here it was reduced. We usually don’t reduce the word it if it’s the last word in a thought

group and there is a little lift here so I would say that’s why this word is not reduced.

going to,

So, you know.

So, so, again a little down up stress so, you know.

So, you know.

You know, you know, sort of a questioning

intonation. Do you understand what I’m talking about you know the word you, reduced. It’s

not you know, but it’s jə, jə, said so quickly, not a u vowel but a schwa. You know,

you know.

Alright.

Alright. Alright, again, down up stress, alright. When we do this, it can signal a couple of different things.

It can signal a question, it can also signal that there’s more to say. So he says ‘alright’,

then he follows it with ‘I’ll take care of it.’ So, intonation going up on our right

to show, okay I understand, I’m going to say more, I’m going to solve that problem for you.

Alright.

Now the L in ‘Alright’ can be dropped. Alright, alright. I think that’s what he’s

doing here, you can think of it as in aw as in law vowel, alright, alright and stop t.

You don’t hear t. a true t release, that’s because it’s the end of a thought group.

Alright.

I’ll take care of it.

I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care. So all of those words are either leading up

to or going away from the peak of stress on the word care. And notice his pitch is going

down here. He’s done. He doesn’t have more to say, so statement intonation. The

words I will in contraction often sound like the word all. And that’s what’s happening here.

I’ll take care of it.

And again we don’t hear a t, a true t release, I’ll take care of it, it, it ,it, it. Quiet

abrupt stop.

I’ll take care of it.

Notice how everything links together really smoothly, there are no breaks. Here we have

take care, a word ending in a k sound, a word beginning with a k sound they just link one

k sound. Take care, take care, I’ll take care of it. Now the word care written in IPA

would be, let’s bring this over here. Would be k consonant, eh as in bed, schwa r, and

the r, well it takes over the schwa first of all, so you don’t need to think of making

an extra schwa sound. And the schwa r sound, the r sound can change some vowels eh is one

of them. So a pure eh would be eh, bed, k, care, care, care, are, are. That’s not how

we say it, we say caaa, So the jaw drops less, caa-aa. It’s a little bit more of the beginning

of the ei diphthong, care rather than care. So less jaw drop, modified vowel there. Care

of it. The ending r links right into the schwa for of and the ending v of of links right

into the e vowel of it so everything very smooth. Care of it I’ll take care of it.

I’ll take care of it.

Okay, then Chandler starts making some sounds

like, Uh, nonono, and Monica says Joey! High intonation, going even higher up down for that peak

of stress on that stressed syllable Jo, Joey! Joey!

Uh, no. Joey!

Huh muh muh muh…

Huh muh muh muh, okay, they don’t want him to go tell people that Chandler and Monica

want to kiss, Joey’s the only one that knows that they are in a relationship. So, Joey’s

going to solve the problem in a different way.

Uh, no. Joey! Huh muh muh muh…

Thirty-three, thirty-two, thirty-one! Ross listen.

Okay, so Ross is counting down starting in the thirties, of course it’s crazy, we, most

people don’t start counting down until ten. But notice, when we have a compound number

like this , Thirty-three, stress is on the last one. thirty-two, thirty-one! So no matter

how long your number is, Eight thousand nine hundred and twenty two, the stress is always on

the last digit. Another thing to notice here is the t in the word thirty is a flap t. That’s

because if I write it out, we have unvoiced th, then we have the ur as in bird vowel r

combination, a t and the e vowel. So, the t is a flap t if it comes between two vowel

sounds or if it comes after an r before a vowel or diphthong like here. So, all of these

are not thirty but thirdy, thirdy, [flap]. A flap of the tongue. That will help smooth

that out, that will sound a little both natural, thirty, thirty. We also want to make sure

that we’re doing a little bit of stress on the first syllable there so that the second

syllable feels unstressed. Thirty, dada. Thirty-one. So a little bit of stress on thir, no stress

on ty and then the most stress on three, two and one.

Thirty-three, thirty-two, thirty-one! Ross listen.

Ross listen, Ross listen. So two stressed syllables there. Ross. Listen. The name and

also the first syllable of listen, that t is silent, it’s not that he’s dropping

the t, it’s just that in that word the official full pronunciation doesn’t have a t. Listen.

Ross listen.

Who you kissing at midnight?

Who you kissing at midnight? Who you, so he drops the word are which makes

the sentence more grammatically correct. That’s okay,that happens sometimes. Who you kissing,

so he’s stressing you. Its the peak of stress for this sentence. Because he’s saying everybody’s

going to kiss somebody, who are you kissing?

Who you kissing at midnight?

Who you kissing at midnight? A little bit of stress on the way down on ki, kissing

at midnight, also mid. The ing ending gets changed to just the n ending, so the ending

vowel there, ih as in sit, n unstressed, kissing, kissing. Who you kissing at, so we have two

unstressed syllables in a row, the unstressed syllable of kissing the second syllable, also

the word at which you all know already reduces, the ah vowel changes to the schwa and we have

a stop t, stop t because the next word begins with a consonant. Kissing at, kissing at,

kissing at midnight.

kissing at midnight?

And again, stop t there because it’s the end of his thought group, he puts a little

break, also again notice the d just like before, not released, midnight, but midnight, at mid-night, midnight.

Midnight huh?

I didn’t write it in but he says huh? And that intonation goes up. Questioning.

Midnight huh?

Rachel or Pheobe?

Then he asks another question, Rachel or Phoebe? But it’s not a yes no question so it goes

down in pitch at the end. Rachel or Phoebe. Now , the stressed syllable Ra, a little bit

higher than for Phoe, Phoebe because it’s closer to the beginning of the sentence. That’s

often what happens. Our peaks of stress tend to be higher towards the beginning of a sentence

than towards the end.

Rachel or Pheobe?

So, Rachel or Pheobe? Two unstressed syllables here and then one unstressed syllable at the end.

Rachel or Pheobe?

The word ‘or’ reduced, schwa r, it’s not or, it’s ur. Rachel-ur, Rachel-ur. Now

or absorbs the schwa like I said before, you don’t make a separate schwa sound, it’s

just ur,ur,ur, ur. A little unstressed r sound, low in pitch, ur. Rachel or, Rachel or.

Rachel or

So the L in Rachel, also a dark L but here

it is followed by a vowel or diphthong, so you can lift your tongue, Rachel or, [flap]

to separate the feeling of those two syllables but still make a dark sound. Rachel, uhl,uhl,uhl.

That unstressed syllable should just be that dark sound. Rachel, Rachel or, Rachel or,

Rachel or Phoebe.

Rachel or Pheobe?

What?

What? What? What? Question intonation, he’s

like wait we’re kissing people? What? Stop t because it’s the end of a thought group.

What? Well, you’ve got to kiss someone.

Well, you’ve got to kiss someone. Well, you’ve got to kiss someone. All of that

going up towards kiss. Well, you’ve got to kiss someone. And then falling away from

it. The word ‘well’ very unclear.

Well, you’ve got to kiss someone.

Well, well, well. I would just write that w schwa, well. And then it’s linked on to

the next word well, well, well. Well you you’ve got to kiss, well you you’ve got to kiss.

Well you you’ve got to kiss–

You got to, all going up in intonation, the v sound here for you have, dropped, you got to,

actually is it you or ya?

Well you you’ve got to kiss–

Definitely ya, ya. That reduction makes it so that he can say it more quickly, it’s

unstressed, we’re just trying to get to that peak of stress, got to reduces to gotta

and notice that is a flap t in there. Gotta, [flap] gotta.

Well you you’ve got to kiss–

So you have got to becomes you gotta, you gotta.

Simplifying that let’s us say it more quickly and you may wonder why would

we want to say that quickly becomes less clear. That’s because in American English, clarity

comes from contrast. So we don’t want every syllable to be clear, that’s not how English

works. English is a stress timed language which means the clarity comes from contrast.

Some very clear syllables, some less clear syllables. That whole thing, that whole idea

is what makes English clear to native listeners.

Well you you’ve got to kiss–

So learning these reductions and these simplifications will help you sound a little bit more natural

speaking English. It will help you be understood more easily. I know it sounds crazy, speak

less clear in some places to be better understood, yet it’s true.

Well, you you’ve got to kiss–

You’ve gotta kiss. Here we have ending s

beginning s, those words linked together with one sound, the s, just like before when we had

the k sound linking. You’ve got to kiss someone.

You’ve got to kiss someone–

Can’t kiss your sister. Two stressed syllables

there. Can’t kiss your sister. Can’t, can’t. There are couple different ways to

pronounce the n apostrophe t contraction here. It’s with a little lift, a little bit of

that stop feeling.Can’t kiss, can’t kiss. Can’t kiss your sister.

Can’t kiss your sister.

Your. not fully pronounced, reduced. Just like

you up here reduced to ya. Your down here is reducing to yer, said quickly.

your sister.

Well, who’s going to kiss my sister?

Who's going to kiss my sister? Again well, said very unclear, said very quickly, who’s

going to kiss my sister. Okay here sis is the peak of stress. We also have some stress

on who. So these question words, who, what, when, where, why, how, those all tend to be

stressed when we’re asking a question. If it’s part of a sentence then it tends to

be unstressed, a statement. For example, I don’t know .going to be there. That’s

a statement. We’re not asking a question. I don’t know who’s. Who’s will be unstressed

there. Here, we’re asking a question so that question word will be stressed.

Who's going to kiss my sister?

Again the word well, said unclearly, unstressed.

Going to becomes gonna. Who’s a really weak ending z linking in together. Who’s gonna,

who’s gonna kiss my sister.

Who's going to kiss my sister?

Going to kiss my all said quickly and we want that to be fast so we have a little

bit of contrast with our stressed syllables that have that pitch change, they’re a little

louder, a little longer. Listen to this sentence three times.

Who's going to kiss my sister?

If you’re going to match that phase, you

really need to make sure you’re simplifying your unstressed words. Gonna kiss my, gonna

kiss my, gonna kiss my, gonna kiss my. You can do it.

Who's going to kiss my sister?

Chandler.

Chandler. Chandler. Chandler. One stressed syllable and the second stressed syllable

just falling away from it. Chandler. And he drops the d sound there. Chandler.

Chandler.

Ow, man, really?

Ow, man, two clear up down shapes of stress, it’s because he slowed it down a little

bit. Ow, man, really? And then that’s a yes not question, the intonation is going up.

Ow, man, really?

The word man, make sure you’re not saying man. That’s how it looks in the dictionary.

If you look it up you’ll see m, a as in bat n, but whenever a is followed by n, it

changes a little bit. Ma uh, so make sure you get an uh vowel in there, sort of like

uh as in butter. Not man but man, ae, ae, ae, man..

Ow, man,

Ow, man, really?

Du, dude. Du, dude. Du, dude. Du, dude. You know maybe

he said dude twice but I wrote it just the first two sounds because it would connect

with one d anyway wouldn’t it. Du, dude, dude, dude.

Du, dude.

Who would you rather have kiss your sister,

me or Chandler? Who would you rather have, who. Okay a question,

starting with a question word that’s going to have some stress. Who would you rather have.

Who would you rather have kiss your sister,

Who would you rather have kiss your sister. So, some stress on kiss. Kiss your sister

and some stress on sis. Would you rather have, all said really quickly, simplified.

Who would you rather have

Who would you rather have.

Do you hear that J sound? Would you, ju. Let’s talk about that. The l in would, always silent. When

we have a word that ends in a d followed by you or your, sometimes, maybe half the time,

native speakers will combine that to a j sound which we would write in IPA like this: dʒ

and that’s what he does here. Combines the d and the y, would you, would you, would you

jujuju to get that j sound.

would you rather have would you rather have kiss your sister, me

or Chandler?

me or Chandler? Me, going up in pitch, listing two options often in a list. Every option

will go up in pitch until the last one. Me or Chandler? And then this one goes down.

Me or Chandler?

The word or again reduced. It’s not or, it’s just ar r sound. ər, ər, ər Chandler.

Again dropped d here. Chandler. So it’s pretty common to drop the d after an n. N,

Chandler. I can see saying the d after introducing yourself and trying to be really clear but

if you’re talking with friends and they all already know your name, they’re probably

going to make that shortcut, Chandler.

Me or Chandler?

That’s a good point.

That’s a good point. So good point. Everything going up towards that peak of stress. Ts a good point. We have

one stressed word and it doesn’t end with t, a release but it’s point, point. A bit

of a nasally stop there for the nt. Now remember at the beginning how I said what’s, it’s,

that’s and let’s can all be reduced to just the ts sound, that’s what’s happening

here. That just becomes just ts and links on to the next word tsa,tsa,tsa, tsa good point, tsa good point.

That’s a good point.

Everything linking together smoothly, the ending d not released, just vibrated in the

vocal cords then right into the p.

That’s a good point.

Uh, well,

Uh, well, Uh, well, Well being used a lot isn’t it? Sort of a filler thinking word.

More fully pronounced here. Uh, well.

Uh, well,

Since I have that whole history with Rachel,

Since I have that whole history with Rachel, Since I have the whole, a little bit stress

on since. Since I have that whole, then everything is going down until history with Rachel. Two more stressed syllables.

Since I have that whole history with Rachel,

Now, notice the word history. This is one of those words like camera, family that can

be pronounced as three syllables but is usually pronounced as two. So history. How does Ross pronounce that?

History

History, history, history. Two syllables. So his, ending in an s, the first syllable

then try, tr cluster. Now a tr cluster often gets change into a chr, that’s the most

common pronunciation. Chry, chry, history, history. So history becomes history.

History–

Since I have that whole, that whole, that stop t, not released. Whole. I also want to

talk about this L, dark L, don’t lift your tongue tip. You probably learned, you lift

your tongue tip for the L. Not the dark L. A lot of our Ls are dark Ls. Whole, whole.

So we have the o diphthong here but when it’s followed by a dark L, it’s not pure, it’s

not whole, whole but it’s whole. So the dark L mixes with that diphthong a little

bit. It’s really just one sound, not two, not o but uhl, so lips round but the tongue

shifts back a little bit, presses down in the back, whole, whole, whole history.

whole history

whole history with Rachel, I guess Phoebe.

Rachel, I guess Phoebe. Rachel, uhl,uhl, uhl. Again, a quick dark L, it’s unstressed,

don’t want to hold it out or make too much of it, uhl, uhl, uhl very fast.

Rachel,

Rachel, I guess Phoebe.

I guess Phoebe. Uhu. smoothly going up towards our peak of stress. The stressed syllable

of Phoe, name, pronounced Phoebe. First syllable stress, F consonant, E vowel, second syllable,

b consonant, e vowel. Phoebe. But it’s important to notice in American English we don’t have

jumps or breaks within a thought. The pitch is always changing smoothly. I guess Phoebe.

Uhuhuh, continuous sound .

I guess Phoebe.

Okay, great.

Okay, great. Okay, second syllable stress, okay, great. Both have that up down shape

of stress and we end with a stop t not a released t.

Okay, great.

Phoebes, Phoebes,

Phoebes. Okay, her nickname Phoebes. One syllable, Phoebes, Phoebes. Both stressed.

Phebes, uhuh, up down shape

Phoebes, Phoebes,

Listen.

Listen, listen. Again, up down shape, no t in that word.

Listen.

Ross

Ross, making that a little bit longer, really stressing it, Ross.

Ross

Ross Wants to kiss you

Wants to kiss you, wants to kiss you. A little bit of that up down shape on kiss. Want to,

less important, less clear. Ross wants to.

Ross wants to kiss you.

The word to reduced, a very light true t, then the schwa, wants to, wants to, wants

to, wants to. Let me make that schwa a little clear. Wants to, wants to.

wants to

wants to kiss you at midnight.

Kiss you at midnight. Kiss you at, so you and then at, a valley coming down from the

peak of stress on kiss. Kiss you at midnight. And then another peak of stress on midnight

and then again a stop t.

kiss you at midnight.

The word at, again not at but at. So the a vowel changes to a schwa and the true t changes

to a stop t. So both of those sounds change from what you may have learned. You may have

learned this word is pronounced at. In fact much of the time it’s at or a flap t if

the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong. Here, next word begins with a consonant, so

that’s a stop t. At midnight.

At midnight.

It maybe overwhelming seeing these changes in American English but there is not an infinite

number. There is a finite of reductions that we do, and the T pronunciations, they are

a little bit crazy but there are rules. So the more you study, this kind of conversation,

the more you pick up on these things that are natural in American English. The more

you learn, the more you can practice it and the more you can hear it and start noticing

and your listening comprehension improves.

At midnight.

It’s so obvious.

It’s so obvious. Again, another place where it’s, that’s, what’s, let’s. We don’t

hear that vowel. It’s really just so obvious. TS and of course those words link with a single s.

So obvious.

So obvious. So obvious. Linking together smoothly, peak of stress, obvious on our first syllable

there which is stressed.

So obvious.

Why doesn’t he just ask?

Why doesn’t he just ask? So again a question, so the question word stressed. Why doesn’t

he just ask? Now we have a couple of things here happening with our pronunciation. Let’s

look first at the n apostrophe t contraction. I said before we have a couple of different

pronunciations for that, how is it pronounced.

Why doesn’t he just ask?

Why doesn’t he, doesn’t he, I would say that t is totally dropped and the h is also

totally dropped. So the word he, him, his, it’s pretty common also her to drop the

h in those unstressed words. So here, the word he is just the e vowel. N apostrophe

t contraction, it’s pretty common to drop that t if the next word is a vowel. So we’ve

dropped the h. That means he is just a vowel, so it makes sense to drop that t and link

together smoothly with the n, doesn’t he, doesn’t he, doesn’t he.

Why doesn’t he

Why doesn’t he just ask?

Why doesn’t he just ask? Just, very light true t, just ask, just ask and a peak of stress

on a vowel.

just ask? Rach, Rach,

Rach, Rach, again just like Phoebs, Phoebs. Rach, Rach, up down shape of stress.

Rach, Rach, Listen.

Listen. Again, up down shape of stress. So Rach, that’s one syllable. Listen, that’s

two syllables but it’s still the same feel. The unstressed syllable comes in as we fall

away in the peak of stress. Rach, Rach, listen uhuhuh. So same feeling even though we have

an unstressed syllable here. And again the T in listen never pronounced.

Rach, Rach, listen. I’m going to kiss you at midnight.

Now let’s listen to this next phrase several times. I want you to listen. Do you hear a

g in going?

I’m going to kiss you at midnight.

I’m going to kiss you at midnight. So he’s stressing the two people, me and you and he

does a lot of reductions. You probably know that going to but when the word I’m comes

before sometimes reduce it, we reduce it even more. So it can become, I’munna, I’munna,

I’munna. The m just links into the word and we drop the g. So I am goI’m going to

ing to becomes I’mmuna, I’munna, I’munna. Or we can even drop the I diphthong and just

say munna, munna, munna. We do have a video on that so you can look up Rachel’s English.

But here he doesn’t drop the I diphthong so instead of I am going to, he says I’munna,

I’munna, I’munna,I’munna, I’munna. No g sound.

I’m going to

I’m going to kiss you at midnight.

I’m going to kiss you at midnight. Kiss you. So rather than stressing kiss, he’s

stressing you because again, he’s working out all of th people so it’s the people

that are stressed, I, you. How do you think at midnight is going to be pronounced?

I’m going to kiss you at midnight.

at midnight. You guessed it, schwa, a stop t. Ət,ət,ət midnight and then stress on

the first syllable, stop t at the end. ət midnight.

at midnight. What?

What? What? She didn’t know she was kissing anyone. Upward intonation, a light release

of the true t. What?

What? Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone.

Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone. Again, well hardly pronounced, wu, could have right

that w schwa wu.

Well

Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone.

Everyone's got to kiss someone. So the first syllable of everyone is stressed and he makes

it go down up. Everyone's got to kiss someone. And our peak of stress is on the e vowel for

the word kiss. Everyone’s got to. The weak ending z linking right into the g sound, everything

very smooth, got to becomes gotta, Flap t, everyone’s gotta kiss someone and again

kiss and someone link together with a single s.

Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone.

Can’t kiss Ross.

Can’t kiss Ross. Can’t kiss. Do you hear that little lift, that little break that between

can’t and kiss? That’s the stop t, can’t kiss, can’t kiss, can’t kiss Ross.

can’t kiss Ross.

Can’t and kiss going up towards our peak of stress on Ross. Ross, so up down shape

and a little bit up at the end to show there’s more to say about that. There’s more to

say about why you can’t kiss Ross. It’s because of the history.

can’t kiss Ross.

You got the history.

You got the history. I left our the word ‘the’, didn’t I? You got the history. Biggest peak

of stress on the ih vowel there. Now let’s listen, does he say history, three syllables

or does he say history, two syllables.

You got the history. History, history. I would again say two syllables just like Ross. History.

So again, we really don’t say the schwa there, we don’t really say that middle syllable.

History.

History.

So? S consonant, O diphthong, going up, questioning intonation. Why does that matter?

So? So, who would you rather have kissing you?

So?So? Also going up, he has more to say, he’s going to answer that, so? Now look

here we have a question word and a question mark so this is a question not a statement.

We know this word who. This is probably one of our stressed syllables, let’s listen.

So, who would you rather have kissing you?

Who would you rather have kissing you? Who would you rather have kissing you? Definitely

we have some of our length there. Would you rather have, all said quickly. Again would

you, we have an ending d, the word you. Now before when we heard that, we got a j sound,

let’s see if we hear that again.

Who would you rather have kissing you?

Who would you rather have, Who would you rather have, would you rather have, would you rather

have, would you rather have. I do hear a light j sound connecting those two words, now all

four of these words are said really quickly, would you rather have, would you rather have,

would you rather have. But I do hear that J, do you?

Who would you rather have

Who would you rather have kissing you? Me or Chandler?

Me or Chandler? Me, me, going up in pitch. Me or Chandler. Chan, our peak of stress on

that a vowel again . No d, Chanler. And again, or is reduced. Or, or ,or Chandler. Me or

Chandler?

Me or Chandler?

Everything links together smoothly, some words said really fast, some words reduced but some

words stressed that longer stressed syllable and most importantly, that shape of stress,

a change in intonation either a scoop up or a scoop down. That’s the character of American English.

Me or Chandler?

Oh, good point.

Oh, good point. Oh,oh, same pattern as the stressed syllable, pitch goes up and then

down, oh.

Oh,

Oh, good point.

Good point, good point, good point. Good, going up towards our peak of stress, point,

and then a change of direction, good point. The d, not released, quick vibration of the

vocal cords but then linking right into the p and a stop at the end. Not point but point.

Point.

good point.

Yeah.

Yeah.Yeah. Kind of quiet but still that up down shape of stress.

Yeah.

Three, two, one,

Three, okay so now people are really counting down. Three, three, up down shape of intonation,

three, two, one.

Three, two, one,

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Stress on ha and new. Happy New Year! And year just sort of comes in as

the pitch goes down.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year. So they’re all falling that same intonation, Happy New Year. Happy New

Year. So if you’re somewhere this New Year’s Eve and you’re at a party and people are

speaking English, Happy New Year, have that up down shape of stress. Happy New Year and

of course, you want to speed it up a little bit, Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Uhuh.

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year.

And Happy New Year to you. Now let’s listen to that whole conversation one more time while

you look up the marked up text. Notice what you hear.

I just love this kind of video. Come back in two weeks for another analysis video from

this same episode of Friends. I also have tons of other videos like this, check out

my playlist, Learn American Pronunciation through English Conversation on my channel

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