Speaking English | A Lesson with FRIENDS!

It’s that time of year where we take a  Friends Christmas episode and we do a  

full pronunciation analysis of the scene. What are  

the characteristics of American English?  Today they're talking about how much to  

tip somebody for the holidays. Here’s  the scene that we’ll study together.

Hey.

Hey, how much did you guys  tip the super this year?

Yeah, we were going to give fifty but if you  guys gave more, we don’t want to look bad.

Oh, actually, this year, we  just made them homemade cookies.

And twenty-five it is.

You gave them cookies?

Money is so impersonal. Cookies  says someone really cares.

Alright we’re broke but cookies do say that.

And now let’s do the full analysis.

Be sure to download my Sounds  of American English Cheat Sheet,  

it’s free. It’s an illustrated reference  guide for you for all the American English  

sounds including the phonetic symbols you need  to know. Link here and in the video description.

Hey.

Hey, how much did you guys  tip the super this year?

If you weren’t sure what is a common greeting  in American English, this clip will definitely  

show you that. We have the word ‘hey’  four times in a row at the beginning  

of this scene. This is a much common  way to greet a friend than hello or hi.

Hey.

Hey. Hey. Hey. So the first one a little bit  longer, hey. Hey, the second one shorter,  

they both have that up down shape of  stress. Hey, then another one. Hey.

Hey.

So these were all another way of saying hello. Now  this is just sort of, this is less about hello.  

Joey has already said hello, it’s more getting  the attention I’m about to ask you something,  

hey. And this one is really short. Hey, how  much, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, how much.

Hey, how much--

Just very quick and then the pitch  goes up for our question word how.

Hey, how much--

Also, the pronunciation of the word hey. We  do say the H in this word, we don’t always say  

beginning H’s but in this word we do. The H  consonant and the a diphthong hey, hey, hey.

Hey.

Hey, how much did you guys  tip the super this year?

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Hey, how much did you guys  tip the super this year?

How much did you guys. So, we have  a couple stressed syllables here.

How, up down, how much did you guys.

Hey, how much did you guys--

tip the super this year?

How much did you guys tip the super. Then  we have two more stressed syllables here as we  

go down. Tip the, and for that shape of  stress, pitch just goes up a little bit,  

just a little curve, tip the, and it’s a  little longer than the other syllables.  

Tip the super. Su, first syllable stress,  that’s the one with the slight up down shape.

Hey, how much did you guys  tip the super this year?

This year. And then he makes his intonation go up at  the end. Now, let’s look at the words that aren’t  

stressed. We have how, stressed. Now, usually when  we’re asking a question, the question word how,  

what, when, where, why is stressed. If we’re  making a statement with the question word, then  

it’s not stressed. For example, “I don’t know how  much it cost.” I don’t know how, how, how. There,  

it’s unstressed but if I’m saying how much does  it cost, asking a question then it is stressed.

Hey, how much did you guys--

So, we gave that length on how and then much,  did, you, guys. Those three words all said more  

quickly and really linking together smoothly, not  much time is given to those less important words.

Hey, how much did you guys--

And we’re also coming down in pitch. So, we  started higher with hey or sorry with how. How much did  

you guys, and then all of that pitch is starting  to fall down a little bit. That’s the general  

trend of sentences in American English, they start  higher in pitch and then they head down. And then  

we have little lifts and bumps up as we go for  stressed syllables like tip and su in super.

Hey, how much did you guys  tip the super this year?

So now that you know, you don’t need to  put much effort, time and energy into much,  

did, you, guys. Now that you know that,  hopefully, it will make it easier for you  

to simplify and imitate this phrase. How  much did you guys. How much did you guys.

Hey, how much did you guys--

Now, he’s linking the words ‘did you’ in one of  the ways we can do this did you. So, the d and the  

y are combining to make a j sound, jj, jj which we  write in the phonetic alphabet with these symbols.

Did you

So it’s not did you but we simplify  that did you, did you, did you

did you guys--

tip the super this year?

Tip the super this year?  [flap]. So smoothly connected,  

we don’t have any gaps or breaks between  words. Everything flows together smoothly.

Tip the super this year?

We have the word ‘the’. Starts with a voiced  th. The, the, the. We have the word ‘this’,  

starts with the voiced th. Th, th, this.  Now, when we have an unstressed word,  

these are both unstressed and it begins with  a voiced th. One thing that Americans tend  

to do is not bring the tongue tip through so  this is a shortcut. The, the, the, the . Instead,  

the tongue touches the backs of the teeth rather  than coming all the way through the teeth. The,  

the, the, this, this, this. It helps to say those  words more quickly. Also the word ‘year’. I just  

want to point out if you look it up in IPA, it  will say Y consonant, ih as in sit vowel schwa  

and the r consonant. Now, schwa R, this  ending changes the ih vowel into something  

more like an ee vowel. So it’s not  ye, year, but ye ye ye, year, year.

super this year?

The word ‘super’ is short here for  superintendent and that’s the person  

who lives at the building and is  in charge of the building. Takes  

care of maintenance if you have an issue  with your apartment, you call the super.

super this year?

Yeah, we were going to give fifty but if you  guys gave more, we don’t want to look bad.

So now, Chandler comes in with a fairly long  thought group. What is a thought group? That  

is a chunk of words that does not have  a break in speech. So if he would pause,  

that would break it up into more  than one thought group but there  

are no pauses. He links everything together,  therefore it makes this one thought group.

Yeah, we were going to give fifty but if you  guys gave more, we don’t want to look bad.

Yeah, we were going to give fifty. So we have  some stress here, yeah, we were going to give  

fifty. And then we have some stress on the  dollar amount, let’s just start with that.

Yeah, we were going to give fifty--

So, just like up here we did did you, did you  do to make those two words link together a  

little bit more smoothly. We take going to  and we make that gonna and you’ve probably  

noticed that. That’s extremely common in spoken  English and it doesn’t even have to be casual  

conversation. You will hear that reduction gonna  in speeches, in you know, the business boardroom,  

it’s just that common. Now, you don’t want to  write it, but saying it, it happens all the time.

Yeah, we were going to give--

We were going to becomes we were gonna, we  were gonna, we were gonna. So, we and were  

both said pretty quickly too. We and then were,  I think we can get by thinking of this as just  

schwa R, were, were, were. So fast. Were gonna,  were gonna, were gonna, were gonna, were gonna.  

English is full of this contrast of stressed  longer syllables with and up down shape versus  

unstressed very short syllables, were, were,  were gonna, were gonna, were gonna, were gonna.

Yeah, we were going to give--

Fifty.

Let’s just write out the word fifty so that we  can study the word itself. So, we have give,  

ending in a V, then we have fifty beginning with  and F, So, in this particular link, when we have  

an ending consonant and a beginning consonant  that are paired. So F and V go together because  

they take the same mouth position. V, F, V, F. I  alternate between V and F, the only thing I change  

is engaging my vocal cords V for that extra voiced  sound versus not F, that’s unvoiced, that’s the F.  

So when we have an ending voiced consonant linking  into a beginning unvoiced consonant that is its  

pair, we drop the ending consonant usually give  fifty. So you don’t have to worry about making a V,  

just link g into fifty smoothly and it’ll  sound perfect. Give fifty, give fifty, give fifty.

to give fifty--

Fifty. So I’m not hearing tt, a true t, fifty.  But it’s more like a soft D. Fifty, fifty, fifty.

Fifty.

Fifty. So not tt, a sharp true t release.

Fifty.

But if you guys gave more--

Alright, let’s look at the rest of the  sentence now. The rest of that thought  

group and pull out our stressed longer syllables.

But if you guys gave more--

But if you guys gave more. I’m feeling  that on you but and if said so quickly. But  

if you, but if you, but if you. Do you feel  how you is a little bit longer. But if you.

But if you--

guys gave more--

But if you guys gave more, gave more, gave more,  

gave more. We can feel that intonation  change, it’s got that up down shape.

But if you guys gave more--

We don’t want to look bad, we. We don’t want to  look bad. Alright, so but if these two words link  

together with a flap t, why? We make a t a flap t  if it comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds,  

here it comes between the uh vowel and the e  vowel, so rather than t, making that a true t,  

it’s just a flap of the tongue which sounds like  the American D between vowels, but if [flap], but  

if, but if, but if, but if, but if, but if,  but if you, but if you, but if you. Now,  

we have an F linking into the word you, it’s  going to sound sort of like the word few  

because of how we link things  together and that’s okay we want that,  

we want that smoothness. But  if you, but if you, but if you.

But if you--

guys gave more--

But if you guys gave more. Guys gave, guys  gave, guys gave. They’re a little bit flatter  

because they’re feeling unstressed here.  The more important word is more. He wants  

to compare so more has that stress not guys gave.

But if you guys gave more--

We don’t want to look bad. We don’t  want to. Alright, so just like gonna  

was for going to, wanna is what  we say for want to, wanna, wanna,  

wanna. And that’s ending in the schwa. Gonna,  wanna, gotta, all of those are ending in an  

unstressed schwa sound so it’s not wanna ah  but it’s uh, uh, wanna, wanna, uh, uh , uh.

We don’t want to--

Now let’s look at our n  apostrophe t here in don’t.  

We’re probably not going to hear a tt, a true t.

We don’t want to--

Don’t want to, don’t want to, totally  dropped. So we have a couple different  

pronunciations for n apostrophe t. One of  them is no t and that’s what he’s doing.  

The N links right into the w. don’t wanna,  don’t wanna, don’t wanna, don’t wanna.

We don’t want to--

look bad.

Look bad, look bad. So clearly, two different  pitches there. Look is higher, look bad.

look bad.

The oo there is not ooh but it’s uh  like in push. Look, look, look bad

look bad.

And the d, we make this with our vocal cords, we  don’t du, do a stop and a release. We just bad,  

make this subtle sound in the vocal cords with the  tongue in position for the d. Bad, bad, look bad

look bad.

The K, this is a stop consonant which  means there’s a stop and a release. We  

often drop the release when it’s followed by  another consonant and that’s what he does,  

he doesn’t say look bad, look, kk, kk, kk. He  doesn’t release that, it’s just look bad, look,  

little stop of air and ten right  into the word bad. Look bad.

look bad.

Oh, actually, this year, we  just made them homemade cookies.

Oh, oh. Very quick kind of quiet oh, oh.  Still a little bit of an up down shape, oh.

Oh,

Oh, actually, this year, we  just made them homemade cookies.

Actually this year. So stress on ah,  actually and then more stress on this,  

this year. So in other years maybe they have given  him cash but not this year. Actually this year.

actually, this year--

we just made them homemade cookies.

We just made them homemade cookies. Then we have  some more stress, we just made them homemade  

cookies. So that’s a nice pattern.  Stressed, unstressed, [flap].

we just made them homemade cookies.

Now we have some reductions here, some  sounds changing, let’s look at that.

Oh, actually, this year, we  just made them homemade cookies.

The word actually. This can be four syllables,  actually, but most people will say three. That’s  

what she has done, actually. So that’s a vowel  in our stressed syllable ah. I’ll go ahead and  

write out the full pronunciation in IPA.  Æk, that’s this right here is the mark for  

a stressed syllable. So the first syllable  is stressed Æk ʃəli, actually, actually.

Actually, --

this year—

Then, this year. Now I’ve noticed  with this particular combination,  

s going into a y sound that sometimes  it sounds lika an sh. This year,  

this year. And I feel like I’m  hearing that a little bit from her.

this year—

This year

So don’t stress it, don’t make it  really heavy but just a light sh  

sounds there to link. This  year, this year, this year.

this year—

we just made him homemade cookies.

So let’s listen to the rest of the sentence again.

this year we just made him homemade cookies.

You know now that I’m listening a little  bit more closely to just this section,  

I don’t really feel stress on made. I think  it’s we, home, cook. Let’s listen to that again.

year we just made him homemade cookies.

We just made him homemade cookies. So just  made him. These three words are flatter,  

said more quickly and we do have some reductions  in there. Just. We drop that t, it’s really  

common when you have a consonant cluster with  t like s-t, c-t. It’s then followed by another  

consonant to drop that t. So rather than just  made, it’s just made, just made, just made.  

Him, it’s also common in the words him, her,  his, he for example to drop the h. We make that  

a reduction and we just link ih as in sit M into  the sound before so it’s the d here so the d flaps  

into that made them, made them, made them, just  made them, just made them, just made them. So we  

make those three words more quickly. I know this  sounds confusing, why are we dropping these sounds.  

We do it to meet the overall goal of smoothness  and connection between words in American English.  

And, if this feels like a lot, I do want you  to know that there are rules for this. The t  

between consonants, that’s a rule. That happens  regularly. Dropping the h in this function word,  

that’s a rule. That happens regularly. These are  all rules that you can know, study and learn so that it  

doesn’t feel random. You start to get a sense for  how Americans link and smooth out their speech.

we just made him homemade cookies.

We just made him homemade cookies. Homemade  cookies. So two more stressed syllables. Homemade,  

this is a compound word but notice, we have an  m followed by an m. We link those with on single  

m sound. Homemade. Now, we have an ending  d consonant, just like on the last slide,  

we don’t release that. It’s not made cookies  but made, tongue in position for the D vocal  

cords vibrate but no escape of air at the end. We  go right from that d sound into the k sound, the  

first sound of cookies here again, oo doesn’t make  ooh, it makes uh like in push k cookies, cookies.

homemade cookies.

And twenty-five it is. I’m just going to write  out twenty-five so we can study that a little bit.

And twenty-five it is.

And twenty-five it is. So the most  stressed syllable there is the dollar  

amount. Twe, and twe. So the and reduction, we  dropped the d and we just link that in on the way  

up to our peak of stress and twenty-five it is.  Twenty-five. There are two t’s in the word twenty  

but that second t is pretty much never pronounced.  It’s dropped so this is another rule. After an n,  

we sometimes drop the t. It sometimes happens  almost all the time in the word twenty.

And twenty-five it is.

Twenty-five. And twenty-five it is. Now let’s  look at it and is. That is not pronounced it is  

but rather it is, it is, it is. Linking together  with the flap T which is like d between vowels  

in American English. It is, it is, it is [flap].  That flap t helps to smooth things out. That is  

smoother than a true t. It is, it is, it is, it  is, it is, it is, it is. We like that smoothness.

it is.

You gave him cookies?

Okay, now Joey asks a question,  what are his stressed words here?

You gave him cookies?

You gave him. [flap]. Do you hear the pitch  change? It goes up. You gave them and comes  

back down. That means gave is a stressed  syllable, it is a little bit longer. Again,  

we have no h in him, the v is linking right  into the ih vowel. You gave him, you gave him.

You gave him--

cookies?

Cookies? Now we have stress here as as well.  You can see his head nods a little bit. We  

have extra energy, extra stress in the k sound  of cookies, kk, kk, cookies. But the stress is  

a little bit different rather than having this  up down shape, it has a down up shape. Cookies?  

So this is less common but it is  another shape of stress. Basically,  

anytime we’re changing direction uh or uh. That is  stress. So first syllable stress but were heading  

up because it’s a yes no question and yes no  question tend ot head up in intonation. This  

is different from statements that tend to head  down. So rather than cookies, he says cookies?

cookies?

Money is so impersonal.

Monica has an argument for why they gave  them cookies. What is her stress here?

Money is so impersonal.

Money, money. Definitely we feel  that pitch change. Money is so,  

she goes up again. So impersonal. So  we have three stressed words. Money,  

so and impersonal. But I want to point  out, in all of our stressed words,  

only one syllable is stressed. So the unstressed  syllable of money is not longer. Does not have  

an up down shape of stress. And impersonal.  The other three syllables of impersonal are  

not stressed. They’re just like an unstressed  word. Sonal, sonal. So it’s not impersonal, that would be  

all syllables but ust one stressed syllable.  Impersonal [flap]. Impersonal, impersonal.

Money is so impersonal.

In these two unstressed syllables, you can just  really think of dropping the vowel, they’re both  

the schwa and the schwa gets absorbed by n. It  gets absorbed by L. So, sonal, sonal, sonal. Now  

this is a dark L, that means we make it at the  back of the tongue and not at the front. Words  

that end in a dark or that end in an L, that is a  dark L. So, if you’re unfamiliar with the dark L,  

check out my video on the L consonant and the  dark L so you can get a feel for how to make  

that. It’s not le, le, le at the front of the  mouth but uhl, uhl, uhl at the back of the mouth.

is so impersonal.

Let’s look at our linking, Is,  that is the ih as in sit Z,  

the word so S consonant o diphthong.  Is so, that’s not how we do it.

is so impersonal.

Remember when we had an ending v and a beginning  f? That's what happening here. Z and S, these take  

the same mouth position. Zz, ss, zz, ss. The  only thing that’s different is z is voiced and  

s is unvoiced so, the rule there is unvoiced is  stronger, it wins, it’s beginning a stressed word,  

we drop the z. is so, is so. So just the ih  vowel into the s but make sure you link it.  

Is so, is so, is so. Not is so but a little  easier, a little more relaxed. Is so, is so

is so--

is so impersonal.

Cookies says someone really cares.

Cookies says, cookies says someone really cares.  So we have stress on cookies. Coo, cookies says.

Cookies says someone really cares.

Then we have a llittle stress on  some, but rather than someone,  

it’s someone really cares. And we end with  the most stressed out of those three there.  

Up down shape. So we have stress going down  up, stress going down up and then cares,  

our most stressed word. Alright,  let’s look at our linking here.

Cookies says someone really cares.

Well, first let’s look at grammar, we have  cookies. Cookies, that’s plural so we could  

say they. Cookies, they, say, we wouldn’t say  says, that would be wrong. Something single,  

singular like it says. So we have a plural,  cookies but then we have it says but says  

doesn’t go with a plural, it goes with a  single object so what is happening here?  

I think the idea here is it’s the act, it’s the  gift of cookies so a single act, a single gift,  

that is something. It says someone really  cares. So, I think it’s a little bit weird,  

I think I would have said cookies say someone  really cares but they’ve said cookies says so,  

we’ll just think of this as being the gift  of cookies says someone really cares. So,  

just a quick little grammar note on why that might  be confusing. Okay, now let’s look at our linking.

Cookies says someone really cares.

Cookies says. So, cookies, the plural there  is a z sound. Cookies. It’s a weak ending z,  

it links into an unvoiced s, that one wins,  

so just drop the plural cookies says and  just think of linking it in like that.

Cookies says--

Someone really cares.

Says someone. Again says, the ending  s there is z. All ending voiced  

consonants are weak so it’s not Z, very strong but  

zzz. But again, it’s linking into a word that  begins with an S so we drop that says someone.

Says someone--

So, even though we’re dropping and linking,  I’m still feeling that as cookies says someone  

really cares but we’re linking it together,  cookies says someone, cookies says someone.

Cookies says someone--

So, a note about say and says. Say is pronounced  with the s consonant and the ei diphthong, say.  

Says. Even though all we’re doing is adding  the S actually changes the vowel, so now,  

rather than the ei diphthong, it’s the  e vowel, says. Say, says. Cookie says.  

Cookies says someone really cares.

Cookies says someone really cares.

The o vowel in some are stressed syllable  is the very related uh as in butter vowel  

in American English. Someone really  cares. Very smooth and connected.

Someone really cares.

The word really, can be three syllables but  more common to do it as two and that’s what  

she’s doing. Really, really. You'll also hear  it as re with the ih as in sit vowel. I think  

she’s doing e, really, really cares. Now, the  word cares, we have the consonant. E as in  

bed vowel followed by schwa r and this schwa r  combination does change e so it’s not pure. Ca,  

cares. It’s now how we say it, we say  cares cares. So, the R changes the e vowel,  

it’s a little bit more closed, not quite as  much jaw drop, tongue is closer to the roof  

of the mouth. Ca--, cares. Cares. And  this s is a very weak ending Z, cares.

really cares.

Alright, we’re broke.

Alright, we’re broke. Alright, a couple  of fun things happening here. Alright,  

alright, stop T, so we don’t hear  that release, alright, alright. Also,  

the L is pretty much dropped. That’s the most  common pronunciation so you can think of it  

as being a very quick o as in law vowel,  aw, aw aw, aw. Alright, alright, alright.

Alright--

we're broke.

Alright, we’re broke. [flap]. The same  stress pattern, unstressed, stressed,  

unstressed, stressed. We are,  we’re reduces becomes we’re,  

we’re. So say that as quickly as you can.  We’re, we’re, we’re. We’re broke. We’re broke.

we're broke.

but

Broke but. Broke but. I don’t really  hear the release of the K, do you? I  

think that that’s more of a stop without the  release. We’re broke but, we’re broke but

we're broke but--

but cookies do say that.

We’re broke but. Do you notive how I’m saying  this word, I’m not saying but. I’m saying but,  

but, reduced. B consonant, schwa, stop T not but,  just but, but, but, but. But cookies. But cookies.

But cookies--

but cookies do say that.

Cookies do say that. So we have a lot more  stress here. She really wants to make her point.  

Cookies do say that. I would  say they’re all stressed.  

We have up down shape of stress. Up down, up  down and then down up, that stop t at the end  

not released. So, she’s stressing more words than  you normally would in a sentence because she feels  

challenged. She feels like they think that she’s  being cheap, she’s trying to make a nice gesture.

Cookies do say that.

Cookies do say that. Smoothly linked together.

Cookies do say that.

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

Hey.

Hey, how much did you guys  tip the super this year?

Yeah, we were going to give fifty but if you  guys gave more, we don’t want to look bad.

Oh, actually, this year, we  just made them homemade cookies.

And twenty-five it is.

You gave him cookies?

Money is so impersonal. Cookies  says someone really cares.

Alright we’re broke but cookies do say that.

Thank you so much for studying with me. Be  sure to subscribe with notifications on so  

you know about each new lesson and keep your  learning going now with this video. I love  

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