5 Secrets to Having an American English Accent: Advanced Pronunciation Lesson

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  

Can you really sound like an American  English speaker? Let's talk about it. 

Have you ever been watching an American TV show  or movie and you heard a phrase, don't get bent  

out of shape of over it. It seems so fast. You  feel like maybe you understood what it meant, but  

how in the world are they saying it so quickly?  What is the secret to speaking like this? Well,  

today, I would like to help you with five common  American English phrases that include key American  

English sounds. This lesson will help you to  level up your vocabulary and also level up your  

pronunciation and understanding skills, so the  next time that you hear these phrases and you hear  

American English speakers, you will know exactly  what they're saying. And of course, like always  

I have created a free PDF worksheet to go with  today's lesson. You can download this worksheet  

and learn all of the pronunciation points,  all of the sample sentences, all of the ideas,  

and at the bottom of the worksheet, you can  answer Vanessa's challenge question so that you  

never forget what you've learned. You can  click on the link in the description to  

download that free PDF worksheet today. All right. Let's get started with our  

first of American English phrase and pronunciation  point. Have you ever been looking at social  

media and you thought, huh? The grass is always  greener on the other side. And then you realized,  

maybe the grass isn't always greener on the  other side. There's probably some hidden costs  

to all of these wonderful things that you're  seeing online and that's really the truth. Social  

media's not real. So this common phrase, the grass  isn't always greener on the other side means that  

the other person's life or something that you're  not experiencing always looks better than what  

you currently have, but in reality, that's not  really true. If you get to that other place,  

if you do that other thing, it's not  always the paradise that you expect. 

So let's break down this pronunciation so that you  can use this phrase and say it clearly. The grass  

isn't always greener on the other side.  Do you hear the sound that I emphasized?  

This is the R sound or in American English, we  often call this the colored R because it's very  

strong. Listen to it when I say the word grass,  grass. Does this remind you of an angry dog?  

And this is a way to have the American English  R sound. Can you say it with me? The grass,  

the grass. Let's add the rest of this phrase.  The grass isn't always greener on the other side.  

So don't forget that hard R sound in the word  greener at the end, and also in the word other.  

Having that strong colored R sound at the end  of the word is essential in American English.  

Let's say this full phrase one more time, and I  want you to try to say it with me. Are you ready?  

The grass isn't always greener on the other side. All right. Let's go on to our second phrase and  

also our second American English pronunciation  point. Are you someone who is always late? Well,  

it might be useful for you to use this phrase,  better late than never, better late than never.  

Unfortunately, I have had to use this many times.  I am often late, hopefully just by a few minutes,  

but it's still nice to apologize and you can use  this lovely phrase. Sorry, I'm a few minutes late.  

Better late than never. You could say  it with a little joke in your voice,  

but let's break down this pronunciation. Better late than never. Listen to that word,  

better. Is there a D in this word better? Are we  talking about a bed that you go to sleep in? Nope.  

In American English, a T that is surrounded  by vowels or vowel sounds will change  

to a D, better. This is common in the word  water, or maybe you're wearing a sweater.  

This is typical of American English. So  when you use this phrase, make sure that you  

pronounce it like this, better late than never. Our third American English phrase and American  

English pronunciation is included in this phrase,  don't get bent out of shape over it. Don't get  

bent out of shape over it. What's happening here?  Well, there's one concept that we just talked  

about. Listen to the middle of this phrase, out of  shape. Here this T is changing to a D, but we've  

already talked about that. Don't get bent out of  shape. So what else are we adding here? Listen  

carefully for another T sound. A lot of these  words end in T, but as I say this phrase, I want  

you to listen to see if you can hear any of them. Do you hear when I say this phrase? Don't get  

bent out of shape over it. The sad news is no,  all of these T's are what we call stopped T's.  

So it's not wrong to say, don't get bent, but when  you hear fast American English speakers, you're  

going to hear them stop the T in their mouth.  So let's take a look at this common contraction,  

do not becomes don't, but when we pronounce it in  a fast sentence, you're more likely to hear don't,  

don't. My tongue is at the top of my mouth, like  it's going to make that T shape, but I just don't  

let the air come out. Don't get, my tongue is  stopped at the top of my mouth. I did not say  

get. Instead I said, get, and then the next  word bent becomes bent. Don't get bent. And  

our next word is the linking with a D sound,  out of shape over it. And that final word,  

it also has a stopped T. So that T is going to  be at the top of my mouth, it, it. This is a lot. 

Let me give you the context and what this means  and then we'll say it together. Let's imagine  

that your friend's boss gives her some, we'll say,  constructive criticism, some feedback that maybe  

didn't feel too great to get. You might say, "Hey,  your boss was just trying to help. Don't get bent  

out of shape over it. She was just trying to give  you some advice. It might not sound kind, and it's  

certainly not something you really wanted to hear,  but don't get bent out of shape over it. You're  

not going to get fired. It's going to be okay."  This means don't take something too seriously.  

So can you say this phrase with me? Yes. Let's say  it together. Don't get bent out of the shape over  

it. Don't get bent out of shape over it. Don't  get bent out of shape over it. It'll be okay. 

Our fourth American English phrase and American  English pronunciation is included in this phrase,  

what goes around, comes around. Let's talk about  this pronunciation really quick. What goes around,  

comes around. Here we have two instances where  the S at the end of goes is followed by a vowel,  

so that S is going to sound like a Z  in American English. What goes around,  

comes around and this phrase has to do with  your behavior if it's good or bad, like karma,  

will hopefully happen to you again too. Usually, we use this in a negative sense to  

make ourselves feel a little bit better. So for  example, if someone is not a nice person, you  

might say, well, what goes around, comes around.  Someday someone is going to be mean to him too.  

Or if one of your coworkers gets fired because  they're always late, you might say, well, what  

goes around, comes around. He didn't respect his  job and this business. He was always late, so he  

got fired. His own actions ended up affecting him. You can use this with positive things, like  

I'm always nice to my friends and when  I need them, they also care for me.  

We could say what goes around, comes around  because your behavior is coming back to you,  

but it's more likely used in a negative situation.  Bad behavior will come back to haunt you someday.  

So let's try to say this phrase together with the  S changing to a Z so that you can use it clearly  

and accurately in conversations. Are you  ready? What goes around, comes around.  

What goes around, comes around. Great work. Our final American English phrase and American  

English pronunciation point is this phrase,  we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  

We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Does  this phrase exist in your language? I feel like  

this is kind of an international idea that you're  dealing with a problem, and you know that some  

other problems might come in the future,  but you don't want to think about them now.  

We'll cross that bridge when we get there.  Let's focus on our current problems instead. 

Well, let's take a look at this pronunciation,  especially that first word. We'll  

cross that bridge when we get there. You can say  this contraction very clearly. We'll, we plus will  

is we'll, but in fast American English, we  often reduce this in a relaxed way and we say,  

we'll, we'll. This is similar to  these other contractions as well,  

like you'll, you'll. Instead of saying you will,  we say you'll, you'll, and same as we will,  

we'll. So could you say this with me?  We'll cross that bridge when we get there. 

For my family, we raised seven baby chicks, and we  knew that having adult chickens would be a lot of  

work, but we kind of just said, we'll cross that  bridge when we get there. Let's enjoy baby chicks  

while we have them. We'll cross that bridge  when we get there. Let's say it all together.  

We'll cross that bridge when we get there. We'll  cross that bridge when we get there. Great work. 

Well, I hope that this lesson was  useful to you and you didn't get  

bent out of shape over it. Now, I have a question  for you. Are you someone who has to often say  

better late than never? Let me know in the  comments and don't forget to download today's  

free PDF worksheet with all of these American  English phrases and American English pronunciation  

points so that you can speak clearly and  understand fast American English conversations.  

You can click on the link in the description  to download that free PDF worksheet today. 

Well, thank you so much for learning  English with me, and I'll see you again  

next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube  channel. Bye. The next step is to download  

the free PDF worksheet for this lesson. With  this free PDF, you will master today's lesson  

and never forget what you have learned.  You can be a confident English speaker.  

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.