Speaking English Practice–A Free Lesson on Why Linking is Critical in Spoken English

In today's lesson we're going to study a scene from a movie

and you're going to learn so much about pronunciation.  

We're really going to focus on smoothness in American English,

especially vowel to vowel links and how using these same kind  

of links and smoothness in your own speech will help you sound

so natural and American.  Linking two words with a single sound.  

Also the way we drop syllables in American English

like how families becomes fam-lies, two syllables.  

There's so much to learn about  smoothness

and linking in American English.  

You're going to get perfect pronunciation on some common two-word

phrases like ‘used to’ becoming ‘used tə’ and wanted a becoming ‘wɔntɪd ə’. 

So stick with me, I am so excited for you to learn these tips and tricks about 

American English pronunciation. First here's the scene we'll study. 

Lola said you asked about her potato mashers.

Your kid is super dope. And I was thinking I used to help out families 

in my neighborhood, like if parents wanted a night out,  

I would stay with their kids or like even  watch their house, and I was wondering if  

like you and Lola have a situation like  that with someone who I need to kill. 

No.

Let's do the analysis. 

Lola said you asked about her potato mashers. 

An interesting first sentence let's look at our stressed words.

The name, the proper noun Lola, Lola. That's got that up down shape of stress,  

Lola. That smooth gliding in American English, we don't really have jumps

or skips for the most part. It's generally smooth gliding from

sound to sound, syllable to syllable, word to word. 

Lola said yes. you asked about her potato mashers. 

Lola said you asked about. A little bit  of that up down pitch change on asked,  

our verb. Lola said you asked about  her potato mashers. So all of those  

words gliding together smoothly with no breaks.

Lola said you asked about her potato mashers. 

So, the word Lola, this name ends in the schwa sound

and the schwa goes right into the S of said.

So, if you want to practice linking,  you could say ‘ə said, ə said’. So you can  

link that ending schwa into the word said with no break as if it was the same word. 

ə said, ə said. Lola said, ə said, Lola said.

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Lola said--

Lola said you asked about her potato mashers. 

Said you asked about her, said you asked about her.

These are all a little bit lower in volume  and energy than Lola, potato.

Lola said you asked about her, said you asked about her.

It's a little quieter and it's very fast, isn't it? Very fast. Said you asked about her,  

said you asked about her.

Said you asked about her— 

Said you asked about her. There are a couple different ways that we may

pronounce D plus the word you.

Said-ju, it's very common to  make a J sound, I don't really hear that,  

said you said. The D is vibrating in the vocal cords and then it goes right into

the U diphthong for the word you. Said you, said you, said you,  

said you, said you, said you, said you asked. 

Now we have an U vowel or the second half of the U diphthong linking into another vowel.  

ae as in asked. The ED ending here makes a T,

and linking vowel to vowel is sometimes the hardest one to do smoothly.

You-asked. So, in this case it can help you to feel like you're going through  

a W consonant which is a glide consonant, that can help you connect these smoothly.

You asked,  you asked, you asked.

You asked— 

This lesson was recently released in  my Academy with audio to train with,  

you will hear me reference training with that material in this video.

Watching the analysis video and then training with the soundboard, 

speaking out loud in slow motion to help you hear the up down shape of stress.

I'm just so tired. 

Then at regular pace over and over—

I'm just so tired. 

Can really help you smooth out your speech simplify your mouth movements

and get a more relaxed and natural a American placement in sound.

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please check out  Rachelsenglishacademy.com.

We have a great training program that's helped thousands of students

improve their American accent and speak with less effort and more confidence. 

Now, you may notice she's not saying asked. She's saying asked.   

What is happening? This many consonants in a row especially unvoiced  

can be tricky so it's pretty common to drop the middle one,  

and then you get asked, asked, asked instead of asked, asked, asked.

It really simplifies it. You asked, you asked, you asked. 

So that W to connect, low and volume in pitch, very smooth and dropping that K. You asked. 

You asked—

about her potato mashers. 

Her potato masher, about her potato masher. About her. Asked about.

So, the ending T of asked links into the beginning sound the schwa of about asked ə,

asked ə, asked about, asked about, this T is pronounced as a stop T, 

about her, about her, about her, about her. So that little tiny lift there, that little lift in 

energy, is what signifies the stop T. Another way to pronounce these two words,

about her, about her, that would be a flap T no H, that's another common pronunciation.

In fact, it's maybe even more common than stop T with it H.

About her, about [flap].

Do you hear that flap? About her. But here it's about her, about her, about her. 

About her— potato mashers. 

Potato mashers. Potato. So, a lot more pitch change here than we had in this little one for asked.

Pota, ey. Don't be afraid to hit  more extreme up and downs as you're practicing  

your English. This may be exactly what your English needs.

Pota-to. So notice we have two different T's here.  

This first one is a true T, that's because it starts a stressed syllable,  

starts a stressed syllable. And the second one is a flap T, potato. Also we have two letters O,  

but two different pronunciations. The  first one is a schwa, pə, pə, and the  

second one is an O diphthong. Ou, ou. Ou-t-r. So, the letters don't always make the same sounds.  

This word is good for noticing that. Two letters O but two different pronunciations.

Two letters T,  

but two different pronunciations.

Potato-- 

Potato mashers.  

Potato mashers. Her voice is very soft. mashers 

this is the a vowel. Mashers. First syllable  stress, a little bit of that up down shape. 

Mashers. Your kid is— 

Your kid is. Your kid is. And then a break. 

So he's not linking everything together quite the same way she is.

He's putting more stress into this sentence. He wants it to be really

known to her that he means it. Your kid is.  Your kid is. The D and kid links right into  

the next word. The T continues right into the K, no breaks here.

No breaks until the end of is. Your kid is.

Your kid is— 

I love how we can really hear that D linking into the ih vowel. Kid is [flap], kid is. 

kid is— super dope. 

And the ending S of the word is a Z sound. Now, if he had linked these together,

Z linking into S, that's usually going to turn the Z into an S.

But he put a break here, so we have a Z and then an S. Super-dope.

super dope. 

Super dope. So we have a stressed  syllable then unstressed. Super. So,  

the unstressed syllable is this. Quiet. Not much to it. The stress  

syllable is su. Louder, up-down shape of  stress. We need this contrast. Su, super,  

super dope. Uhhuh, super dope. Super dope. 

The letter U makes the U vowel here, super. 

And the letter O makes the OH diphthong, dope,  

just like the ending sound of potato, oh, oh.

super dope. 

and I was thinking— And, a little break, breaking  

up his thought groups. I was thinking. Again, no linking there, so ‘and’

doesn't link in. And, the pitch going up at the end shows that he's going to continue

with his thought. And. Now, the word and if you look that up in the dictionary  

you'll see ae. You'll see ae as in bat, N and D. But this ae,  

it's not pure when it's followed by N. So it's  not A, that's like cat. A, and. But it's ænd,  

ænd, or in this case, ænd, ænd. So see if you can  imitate that A, it's more relaxed and it goes into  

sort of, you could think of it as the UH as in  butter or the schwa sound, ænd before the N, ænd. 

And— I was thinking. 

I was thinking. What do you notice  about the intonation, the melody there? 

I was thinking. Again it goes up a little bit at the end to show he's not done,

he's about to say what he was thinking. Was is unstressed, I and think both

 stressed with that up down shape and the whole thing links together really smoothly.

I was thinking— 

The word ‘was’, you can think  of that wəz, wəz. It's fast,  

it's unstressed. The vowel UH reduces to the schwa. wəz, wəz, I was, I was.

So I is clear, was is unclear. I was, I was, I was. Now I know this transition

from Z into TH can be tricky. 

I was—

I was thinking. 

Was thinking. So this TH is unvoiced, that means the tongue tip has to come through the teeth.  

For the word was, I wəz. My teeth are more or less together and the back of the tongue tip is  

touching the very backs of the teeth. So, inside the mouth here, the tongue tip,

and outside the mouth here. But it's a little movement. It's not sticking way,

way far out for this. It's just the very tip and the air should flow freely there.

You might want to slowly go back and forth really thinking about both

positions and just notice what change is happening in the tongue. 

Z. It's not that big of a change. It moves  up and out of the teeth just a little bit. 

I was thinking—

I used to help out families in my neighborhood, 

I used to help out families in my neighborhood. Okay, so what are our stress words here?

We have I, and this time rather than going down or up and down it's sort of going down and up. I used  

to help out families in my neighborhood. So,  all of those stress syllables are going down  

and up because again he's going to continue on with his thoughts.

So we have this upward aiming pitch. I used to help out families.  

And again all this links together pretty smoothly.

No abrupt stop or skips in the melody. It all glides.

I used to help out families in my neighborhood, 

I-U, I-U. So, smoothly linking together those two diphthongs. The I diphthong, I-U. I-U, I-U, I-U. 

I used— to help out. 

I used to help out. When we have  used, which is the U vowel Z-D,  

and it's followed by the word to, this  happens a lot, this is a common phrase,  

something happens.

I used to help out— 

The pronunciation changes. So the Z  changes to an S, the D gets dropped  

and the S links into the T and usually this vowel reduces like it does here. Instead of to it's tə.

So, used to is almost always pronounced.  Used to, used to. You know what, I realized,  

I’ve said U vowel, I meant U diphthong, let  me rewrite that down there. U, I-U. I used to,  

I used to, I used to, I used to. You say it enough times it stops sounding like three words, right? 

If you feels like one word. That's what we  want, that smooth connection. I used to,  

I used to, I used to.

I used to— 

help out families.

I used to help out families. So, a little bit of up down shape on helping out.  

Help. Out. This is a phrasal verb. Two parts to it. Help and out.

Help out, help out. The P releases into the O diphthong, so it's not help out but it's

help out. You can think of the p is  connecting in help out, help out, help out.

There shouldn't be a stop there. Now, here there's a little stop because of the stop T.

Why? When the next word begins with a consonant, usually a t in this case is pronounced as a stop T.  

So, it's not help out, but it's help out, out. It's not dropped. Out, out.

It's this abrupt stop that signals. It's this abrupt stop that signals the T.

Help out families. Help out families. 

Help out families—

Families, families, families. Now, you might notice this looks like it should be fa-mi-les.

Family. Three syllables.  

It's much more common to pronounce it as two syllables and that's what he's doing. Fam-lies,  

lies. This ending s is a Z. Families, families. So don't make that three syllables. Simplify it. 

Families—

in my neighborhood. 

In my neighborhood, in my neighborhood. In my, said so quickly.

In my, in my, in my, in my, in my, in my, in my, in my. How quickly can you 

say those two words linking them together? In my, in my, in my, in my, in my.

This contrast of very, very short words and syllables and longer  

syllables is important for clarity.

In my neighborhood— 

In my neighborhood, in my neigh, stressed syllable, neighborhood, borhood, borhood,

borhood. Last two syllables not stressed, the pitch is just going up, from this  

dip for the stress. Borhood, borhood, borhood, borhood. This letter O is the schwa, neighborhood. 

In my neighborhood—

In my neighborhood,  in my neighborhood. It's really fast.

Neigh is the only syllable that has some length. 

In my neighborhood— Like— 

Like, like. Filler word said pretty flatly  here. Little bit of up down shape. Like, like, like.

like, 

And he does release the K,  kk, kk, we hear that sound. 

Like,

if parents wanted a night out. 

If parents wanted a night out. If  parents, if parents wanted a. So,  

we have up down shape of stress there. Wanted a night out. And then also on the word night out,  

the phrase night out. Night out and again he makes  his pitch go up and down. Sorry, down then up,  

so he can continue his thought. He signals with that intonation that he's going to keep going. 

The word if said so fast. Up here we're talking about how ‘in my’ is so fast,

the word if, honestly all I really hear is the F consonant. F, parents, f, f, f, f parents, F parents, f parents, 

if parents—  

wanted a—

If parents wanted a, wanted a, wanted a, wanted a. What do you notice about this T and wanted?

It gets dropped, doesn't it? Wanted a, wanted a, wanted a. There are a couple different vowels  

you can give this. AH and father, AH and law, UH and butters also pretty common though you  

might not see that in the dictionary. Wanted a, I think I tend to use this one the most.

If parents want a. So here, the ED ending we studied before a case where the ED

ending was a T and the word ‘asked’. Here the ED ending is an extra syllable, 

so it's a vowel sound and a consonant sound. Id,  

id, wanid, wanid a, and then that D links  right into the schwa, for a, wanted a,  

wanted a, wanted a, wanted a, wanted a. Just like used to, used to, used to, used to,  

up here. There a lot of cases where it's a super common two-word phrase

or three-word phrase and it gets reduced and simplified.

If parents wanted a-- 

night out,

Let's look at the two-word phrase night out. Two T's at the end, how are they pronounced?  

Night out,

Night out, night out [flap],  

that's a flap T. To me it sounds like  a D, depending on your native language,  

it might sound like an R, but that's the flap  T. And we use the flap T to link words between  

vowel or diphthong sounds. So the word night in IPA would be written N consonant, I diphthong,  

night, and then the word out is with the AU  diphthong. Out. So here's a diphthong, here's  

a diphthong. The T between is a flap. Night out. Now, the ending T here, he does do a true T release.

He could have even linked it in, night out I, night out I. But he separates it. Night  

out, Night out.

Night out, 

I would—

I would, I would. Little break. He's breaking this up quite a bit. I would,

I would. One word is stressed. It's I. The next word not stressed. It just smoothly

falls down from the peak of stress for I. I would. Would, would. Simple. I would. 

I would— stay with their kids. 

Stay with her kids, stay with their kids. So  ‘stay with’ there said quickly and it's pretty  

flat in pitch. Stay with their kids. Now he's  listing things. Things that he would do. So when  

we list things, everything goes up in intonation at the end until the last part of the list. So,  

stay with her kids, stay with their, stay with  their, stay with their, stay with their. That's  

all sort of that unstressed, less clear feeling, isn't it? And it all links together.

Here we have two different th's, we can link those together with a single unvoiced TH,

with there, with there, with their, with their, with their, with their, with their,

stay with their, stay with their, stay with their kids.

Stay with their kids— 

or like, The word ‘or’, he reduces it.  

schwa R said so fast, linked into the word ‘like’. This is all really flat. And it's lower in

volume,  lower in pitch. It's again a little bit of a filler word. Or like, or like, or like,  

or like, or like, or like. See if you can get that same low open quality. Or like, or like, or like. 

Or like,

or like even watch their house.

Even watch their house. So, again he's still  listing things. Even watch their house.  

So, it's still going up, he's not done with  his thought on what he's going to offer.

Now, let's look at this word ‘even’. It's not stressed.

even watch— 

I basically don't even hear very much  of the word. I sort of hear the E vowel,  

I sort of hear the N consonant but it's  really reduced. It's not said very clearly.  

It's crazy but in American English, we simply don't say every single word clearly.

We say some less clear and that provides contrast to the more clear and we  

like having those two different kinds. That's what makes it clear. Even watch. 

Even watch— 

Even watch their house. Watch their house. So the word there like

even, it's unstressed. It doesn't have an up down melody or down up ,it's just kind  

of flat in this case it's connecting these two, and it's not pronounced there but it's their. 

watch their house.

Their house, their house. So fast, there, there, there, there, there.

I don't even need to bring my tongue tip through the teeth for that TH, there,

there, there. I just touch it on the backs of the teeth. Their, their, their. That  

way I can make the word super, super short. So, it's not their, it's their, their. 

their house.

It kind of stops sounding like the word, doesn't it? Their, their. Sometimes when you

isolate these unstressed words by themselves, it sounds like it can't possibly

be the right pronunciation because it's so unclear, and yet  

it is. Their, their, their house.

their house. 

And— And. Little bit of a break there, full  

pronunciation and it's really common to reduce that but since he's breaking it out into its own  

thought group, he's fully pronouncing it. And.

And— 

I was wondering if— I was wondering if, I was wondering if,  

I was wondering if. Teeny tiny little lift here, but if you'll notice we have four words here. 

I was wondering if. And only one of them has a stress syllable, wondering if, I was. So,  

I was just going up and during if, just going  down from that one peak of stress.

It's one smooth up down shape of the voice. Uhuh, uhuh, 

I was one wondering if, I was wondering if. Very smooth and connected.

I was wondering if— 

you and Lola have— You and Lola have. He  

must feel very shy here because he's putting all of these breaks in.

You and, Lola have. Little bit of a break here and look at this word and.

 Here we said he fully pronounced it, and here he totally doesn't. And, and, you and,

you and. The word and becomes and, and, you and. Link that in smoothly with you. You and.

You and Lola have— 

You and, you and Lola have. Have, we still  get all of those sounds but it's still lower,  

flatter, not as long not as loud still has an  unstressed feeling. Lola have, uhhuh, Lola have. 

Lola have—

situation like that. 

And then he does another break. I don't  even hear the UH sound really. Uh, uh,  

uh. Although grammatically, it would be there, uh, situation. He must be saying it so, so quickly,  

and linking it into the S, that it, just didn't  really get picked up by the mic, a situation. 

Situation—

Situation, situation.  

So this word has primary stress on a and  secondary, a little bit of up down on sit, situ. 

The TU here is making a CHU, si-chu-way.  You might feel here linking these two sounds  

that you're making a W to glide them smoothly. Situation. T-I-O-N ending here is SH schwa N,  

shu, shun, situation.

Situation— 

a situation like that. A situation like that,  

like that, like that. Do you hear the difference? They're both getting quieter at the end of the  

phrase but like is flatter, like that. That  up down shape of stress on our vowel,

that, and then he does do a light  true T release because again,  

he's breaking it up from the next part of  the sentence. He's not linking it together. 

like that— with someone, 

With someone, with someone, with someone.

A little bit more up down on with. With someone, but overall still pretty flat, 

we have an unvoiced TH here, and then an S sound with someone. Now, it would be

pretty common to drop the TH and just replace it with an S, with someone,  

with someone, with someone, were you there with someone. But here, he doesn't.  

He is making a quick little light TH with someone.

With someone, before he continues, with someone. 

with someone—

I wouldn't think of this as being some, but more like some.

Fast with schwa, some, some, someone, someone. 

with someone— who I need to kill. 

Making a joke here. He wants to be  the person who takes care of Lola. 

who I need to kill.

Who I need to kill. Now here, no breaks, this is all, all five of these words linking

 together smoothly. Who I need to kill. Who I need to, who I need. One stress word  

there, it's our verb. To kill, and another verb, uhuhuh. So those five words,

two up down shapes of stress, the rest is either leading up to one  

peak or coming down. Who I, who I.  Who ends in oo, I diphthong, who I,  

it might help to think of going through a  W. Who I. That can help you link smoothly. 

who I need to kill.

Who I need to, who I need to. So, it's pretty common when one word that ends in D  

is linking into the word to, to reduce that to, to just the schwa and link it onto the D.

Need to, need to, need to, need to, need to kill, need to kill. 

This L is a dark L, it comes after the vowel in the syllable, kill.

That's made with the back part of the tongue, not the tip the tip should not lift  here. 

Kill. Who I need to kill. So many things are happening but slow it down break it up, 

practice it in slow motion first, simplify, simplify, and after you've done it in slow

motion many, many times and it's starting to feel more natural then bring it up to

regular pace. So that you can keep everything you simplified like dropping  

the D in need, like changing the vowel in to. The smooth link of who and I. It's really about  

saying it out loud, playing it and saying it over and over. Who I need to kill, who I need to kill. 

Who I need to kill.

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

Lola said you asked about her potato mashers. 

Your kid is super dope. And, I was thinking, I used to help out families in my neighborhood,  

like, if parents wanted a night out,  I would stay with their kids or like,  

even watch their house, and I was wondering if you and Lola

have a situation like that with someone, who I need to kill.  

I hope you've enjoyed this video, I absolutely love teaching about the stress 

and music of spoken American English.

Keep your learning going now with this video and don't forget to subscribe  

with notifications on, I absolutely love being your English teacher.  

That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.