English Movie: The #1 METHOD for Better Speaking!

77,398 views ・ 2021-02-23

Rachel's English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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When my husband proposed to me, he got down on one  knee in Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia on a  
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beautiful September day. In today's video, we're  taking a scene from a movie Welcome to Marwen and  
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a marriage proposal is about to happen. We'll use  this scene to study English, specifically American  
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English pronunciation. We'll do an in-depth  analysis like this, which greatly improves  
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your listening comprehension when it comes to  movies, TV, and English conversation. And the  
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more you know about these pronunciation habits of  native speakers, the easier it will be for others  
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to understand you speaking English. As always, if  you like this video or you learned something, new  
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please give it a thumbs up and subscribe with  notifications, I'd love to see you back here.
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The premise of the movie is Mark suffered  a violent crime. He was beat up very badly.  
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Then he built this world of dolls in his  backyard to help him cope. And in this world,  
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there's a doll of himself and a doll of a woman  named Nicole. Mark wants to propose to Nicole.  
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But first he has the doll version of himself do  it. So in this clip, he is showing some scenes of  
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that proposal to Nicole. Here's the clip.
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He built her a teahouse and then proposed  
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to her in it? Yes. That's right. 
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Wow. That's exactly what Nicole said. 
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And then, he gave her a medal? Well, he couldn't find a ring. 
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Remember there's a war on. Oh yeah, of course. 
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And he got down on one knee and everything. 
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Did you notice that the T was dropped in the 
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word exactly? Did you notice how the H was  dropped in the word 'her' in the phrase  
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'gave her a medal'? Let's do an  in-depth analysis of the scene now.
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He built her a-- So she puts a pause here,  
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while she's considering what to say, and we have  one stressed word in this first thought group.  
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He built her a-- and it's the peak of stress. The  word 'he' builds up to it. The words her and a,  
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fall away from it, and it's all very smooth. He built her a-- the true T here releases  
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right into the H. He built her a-- this is just  the schwa. He built her a-- he built her a--  
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think of that as one word. Try to  make it that smooth. He built her a--
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He built her a--  
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tea house?
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Tea house? Tea house? The intonation goes up,  that's a little bit questioning, clarifying,  
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she's not sure ,is it a tea house? Tea house?  Tea house? We have another true T here,  
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because it starts a stressed syllable.
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Tea house?
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Tea house. It's a compound word, and with  compound words like eyeball, basketball,  
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stress is on the first word of the compound  word. Tea house? Tea house? So this is house,  
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house, unstressed. That's different than house,  house, how it would sound stressed. Tea house,  
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house, tea house. Although he or she makes the  intonation go up, so it's tea house? Tea house?
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Tea house? Tea house? Tea house  and then proposed to her in it?
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And then propose to her in it? And  then propose to her in it? So posed,  
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is the most stressed syllable here. And rather  than drawing it like this with an up down shape,  
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I’m gonna draw it going up, because her sentence  goes up. Proposed to her in it? And it's  
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just all going up. So when we're in a part of a  phrase where the intonation is going up, this is a  
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yes/no question, and those usually go up in pitch,  when we have a stress syllable like that, rather  
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than being up down, he built, it tends to scoop  up. Propo, po, and then propose to her in it?
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And then proposed to her in it?  
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And then, pronounced: and then, and then, and  then, and then, and then, low in pitch, very flat,  
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they're unstressed words. The D is dropped. And  then, and then, and then. This is a simplified  
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voiced TH because it starts an unstressed  syllable. So you don't need to bring your tongue  
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tip through. Then, then, and then, and then,  and then, and then. The tongue moves forward,  
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touches the backs of the teeth, and then pulls  back. And then, and then, and then, and then.  
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And then
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proposed to her in it?
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Pro-- the first syllable of this stressed word is  unstressed, so it's going to feel more like these  
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words: and then pro, and then pro, and then pro--
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And then pro
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And then proposed to her in it?
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And then propose--  
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The S, the letter S here is a Z sound in  this word, proposed. Proposed to her in it?
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Proposed to her in it?
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So let's talk about our sequence of sounds here.  We have Z in proposed. The ED ending is just a D  
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sound, so it's not two sounds here, it's just a  single D sound: proposed to-- and then we have a  
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true T in the word 'to'. When we have a D between  two consonants, it's not uncommon to drop it,  
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or a T sound, so these ending, ED endings, can  be dropped if the sound before is a consonant and  
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the sound after is a consonant. So that might  be confusing, you might be like, well, how do  
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I know it's past tense? And we know that because  of the context. So we don't actually hear the ED  
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ending. We don't actually hear the D sound. But we  know it's past tense because they're talking about  
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something that happened. He's showing her pictures  telling her a story. But if you've ever wondered  
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what happens with ED endings sometimes?  That's what happens. When it's a T or  
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a D sound, and it comes between two other  consonants, it's pretty common to drop it.
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Propose to---
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So we go right from the Z sound into the true T.  
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This is a schwa. It's not to, it's: to  to to. Proposed to, proposed to, proposed  
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to. Z to T with no D. Proposed to her in it.
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Proposed to her in it.
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To her in it. To her in  
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it. She does a little tiny bit of a break  here. To her in it. In it. In it. In it.
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Again, pitch is on its way up  and we have a stop T here. In it.  
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In it. In it. Link these words together,  it shouldn't feel like two separate words.  
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The N, you can feel like begins the next  word. Nit nit nit, in it. In it. In it.
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In it. In it. In it.
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In it.
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Yes.
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Yes. Yes. Up down shape, statement,  answering the question. Yes.
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Yes.
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That's right.
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Then a little two word thought group. That's  right. That's right. Stress on right. It does  
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end with a stop T. That's right. That's  right. What happens to the word that's?  
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That's, that's, that, do you hear it?
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That's right.
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No, not really. That's, it's, what's, let's,  these can all be reduced to just TS. That's right.
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That's right.
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Now, I feel like I do hear a little sound  before. It's sort of like a super unclear TH  
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schwa. That's, that's, that's, that's. But  
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it's very subtle and it would be common to  even just drop that and just say: T's right.  
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T's right. But I'm hearing something like: it's  right, just a little vocalization before the TS.  
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That's right. That's right. That's right.
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That's right.
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Wow. Wow. Wow. Up down shape. Wow. Lips around  
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for the W constant at the beginning, and for  the second half of the OW diphthong. Wow. Wow.
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Wow.
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That's exactly what Nicole said.  
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Now he's kind of whispering. He's  excited. That's exactly what Nicole said.
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That's exactly what Nicole said.
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Let's make this a little bit more clear.
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Exact-- the stress is here on the second  syllable. That's exactly, that's exactly,  
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the TS cluster linking right into the vowel.  That's exactly. The letter X here, this has two  
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pronunciations. This one is the GZ, it can either  be GZ or KX. And here, it's-- sorry, GZ or KS.  
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Here, it is GZ. Eg eg eg-- exactly. Now do you  notice, I'm dropping the T? That's really common  
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when the T comes between two other consonants.  So if I was just saying the word without the LY  
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ending, I would say you need to be exact. Exact. I  would say the T if that was the end of my thought.  
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You need to be exact. But because it's got an  LY ending, exactly, we now drop that, so it  
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just goes right from the K sound to the L sound.  I only know one person who pronounces that T.  
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I have one friend who's very particular, and  she says: exactly, she is the only person I  
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know who does that. So she's dropping it  here, I'm sorry, he is dropping it here,  
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please also drop that T, it's going to be  more natural. That's exactly. That's exactly.
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That's exactly
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what Nicole said. 
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That's exactly what Nicole said. That's exactly what Nicole said.
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What Ni-- what Ni-- these are both going up  towards that peak of stress. We have a stop T,  
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what Nicole said. And then said is coming  off of that peak of stress. What Nicole said.  
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That's exactly what Nicole said.
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That's exactly what Nicole said. 
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When you're imitating the audio here, try to match  his vocal quality, his whisper quality as well.  
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Not just the pitch and the rhythm, but  try to match everything about the voice.  
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Pretend that you're him when  you're working with this audio.
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That's exactly what Nicole said.
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And then he gave her a medal?
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And then, and then, and then, a little break  here, breaking it up into two thought groups.  
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And then, then, is definitely the stressed word,  
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the word 'and' just comes on the way up,  and it's reduced, it's not and, what is it?
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And then---
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And then, and then, i would just write  that schwa N. And then, and then.
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And then---
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And then, and then, and then. For this  TH, you don't need to make too much of it,  
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she's not saying and then,  and then, and then. She's  
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sort of leaving it out, not really, I  mean her tongue tip is probably coming out  
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for the N. You can make the N with your tongue  tip actually out of your mouth. Nnn-- nnn--  
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And so that's probably what's happening, we  do these shortcuts without thinking of them.
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And then---
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And then, and then. And so then it's  just right there to immediately pull back  
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for the EH vowel in then. So listen again, she's  not saying and then, and then, and then, tthhh--  
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it's more subtle, more quiet than that,
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And then---
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gave her a medal?
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He gave her a medal? He gave her-- up down  shape of stress there. A medal? And then here,  
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it's going up because it's a yes/no question.  He gave her, he gave her, linking together  
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really smoothly. EE vowel right into G. V  sound right into schwa R. She drops the H here,  
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that's a common reduction. He gave her a--  er and a-- unstressed, flatter in pitch.  
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He gave her a medal. And then we have the scoop up  for this stressed syllable. He gave her a medal?
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He gave her a medal?
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The L in medal is a dark L, it comes at  the end of that word. You don't need to  
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lift your tongue tip, it's at  the end of the thought group.  
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And so we would just say: medal uhl uhl with  that dark sound, and then we would be done.  
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We don't lift the tongue tip. We make the  dark sound with the back of the tongue,  
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while the tip is down. The back of the tongue  presses down and back. Uhl uhl. Medal? Medal?
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This is a little bit tricky because we have  a flap, flap your tongue here for the D,  
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it's not medal, dull, it's not  a full D. Medal? Medal? Medal?
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But you flap your tongue against the  roof of the mouth, then let it down,  
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make the dark sound with the back of your  tongue, and you're done. Medal? Medal?
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Medal?
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Well, he couldn't find a ring.
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Well, well, going up, well,  when he makes the pitch go up,  
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that shows that he's going to continue  talking. Well, he couldn't find a ring.
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Well, he couldn't find a ring.
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He couldn't, he couldn't  find a ring. Do you feel that  
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up down shape of stress on those words?  He find a-- both flatter in pitch.
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He couldn't find a ring.
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He couldn't find a ring. He couldn't find,  couldn't. In this N apostrophe T contraction,  
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i don't really hear the T. I don't hear a  stop, so I'm going to write that as dropped.  
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He couldn't. Couldn't find. So the L in this  word is always silent. Couldn't find. Right  
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from N into F. Couldn't find. He couldn't find,  he couldn't, find he couldn't find a ring. Very  
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light D. Couldn't find a ring. Linking into the  schwa, couldn't find a ring, couldn't find a ring.
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Couldn't find a ring.
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Remember, there's a war on.
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Remember, okay little pause, except  bring it into its own thought group.  
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Three syllable word, listen to it.  Tell me which syllable is stressed.
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Remember---
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Remember, it's the middle syllable. So it's  not remember, it's ruh ruh, make that a schwa,  
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make it fast. Ruh ruh ruh ruh remember. Remember.
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Remember,
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there's a war on.
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There's a war on. There's-- so she's sort  of saying the word oh, while he's talking.  
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There's, there's, there's. This word, I  would say reduced, I'm not hearing there's.  
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There's. There's. There's. There's. And  even though this would normally be a Z,  
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I hear it as a very weak S.  There's. There's. There's. There's.
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There's---
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a war on.
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There's, There's
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A war on. A war on. A war on. Linking together,  very smoothly. The letter A is a schwa, a war  
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on. And then the R links right into  the vowel. This can be either AW or  
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AH as in father. War on. A war on.
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A war on.
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The word war, a little tricky it's W consonant,  then it's got the AW as in law vowel, followed  
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by R. This combination changes this vowel. So  this vowel is LA AH, but it's not wa wa war war.  
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It's woh oh ohr. A different vowel sound, so  what happens is the R makes the AW a little more  
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closed. Woh oh oh. Your lips are more round, your  mouth isn't as open, and the tongue pulls back a  
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little bit. Woh woh war. This is the same sound  in core. Or quarter. Oh oh oh war war. A war on.
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A war on.
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A little note about linking. So we have a word in  American Englis, moron. You would call someone a  
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moron who you think is dumb, makes bad decisions.  He's a complete moron. Moron. So this has the  
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same sounds. It's AW as in law, R, and then the  same ending. So the M is different than the W.  
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But moron sounds just like war on but with a  different beginning sound. So that just is a  
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way to illustrate how important linking is.  Linking makes two words sound just like one.  
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The only difference between war on and moron  is the beginning consonant. There's no break or  
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anything like that to show that one of them is two  words. Moron. War on. We just love to link words  
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together in a thought group in American English.  It starts to feel like one long word. A war on.
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A war on.
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Oh yeah, of course.
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Oh yeah, of course. Oh yeah, of course.  She really whispers it very quiet.  
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Oh yeah, of course. Oh yeah, of course.
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Oh yeah, of course.
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And he got down on one knee and everything.
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And he got down. Phrasal verb. Both are stressed.  Got down on one knee and everything. Everything.
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And he got down on one knee and everything.
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And he got down on one knee and everything.
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Got down, one knee, and EH are our most stressed  syllables, the first syllable of everything.  
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And he. How are those two words pronounced?
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And he.
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And he. And he. And he. And he.
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The D is dropped, the H is dropped. AA  vowel N, EE vowel. And he. And he. And he.
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You know, this is just like the name Annie,  only Annie, the name, would be stressed.
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And he---
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Except Annie, since it's a name, would probably  never be pronounced unstressed. Annie, Annie,  
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Annie, Annie. It would always have a stressed  syllable. Annie. Annie. The first syllable  
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of that is stressed. Annie. Annie. But here,  and he. And he. And he. It's the same sounds,  
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only they both have an unstressed feel.  And he. And he. And he. And he got down.
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And he got down--
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on one knee and everything.
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Got down on, got, got, got. Stop T. Got down on.  
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Linking together N into the  vowel for on. Down on one knee.
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Got down on one knee and--
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One knee, one knee, do you notice those two words?  We're just linking them together with a single  
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N sound. So the letter K is silent,  and of course there's no sound for this  
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EE. One knee. I'm not gonna actually show that  blocked off, because then it looks like the word  
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on, but we don't pronounce that letter  as its own sound. One knee. One knee.
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One knee and----
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everything.
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And everything. And everything. Now here, the word  and sounds like the word in. I would say, i would  
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write it in IPA with schwa and even though this  word, I would write with IH, N. But it's reduced:  
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and, and, and, and everything. D is dropped. And  everything. And this ending N links right into  
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the vowel of EH, the stressed syllable. And  everything. And everything. And everything.
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And everything.
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Awkwardly, later on in the scene,  
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he gets down on one knee to propose to her, and  she is not interested. Okay, let's listen to this  
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whole conversation one more time.
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He built her a teahouse and then  
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proposed to her in it? Yes. That's right. 
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Wow. That's exactly what Nicole said. 
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And then, he gave her a medal? Well, he couldn't find a ring. 
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Remember there's a war on. Oh yeah, of course. 
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And he got down on one knee and everything.
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If you love studying scenes like this,  
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check out my Learn English With Movies and Learn  English With TV playlists. If you watch all those,  
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I guarantee, your listening comprehension  will improve. If you want to go even further  
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and train with what you learn, check out  my academy at rachelsenglishacademy.com  
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I have over 150 videos like this that  you can't find on my YouTube channel,  
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and I have the method and supplemental  materials for you to train with,  
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to improve fluency, confidence, and the  effectiveness of your spoken English.  
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We do offer a 30-day Money-Back Guarantee  so there's no risk in trying it. Keep your  
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learning going right now with this video, and  don't forget to subscribe with notifications,  
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here. I love being your English teacher. That's  it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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