Speaking English: You ACTUALLY Need This To Speak Well

0:00 Is your accent holding you back when speaking English,

0:03 or your listening comprehension of English?

0:06 Understanding native speakers and fast English isn’t

0:09 about understanding the sounds of American English,

0:12 it’s about all the other things: linking, reductions.

0:15 The more you study them, the more effortlessly you’ll be able

0:20 to speak fast English and understand native speakers.

0:25 Movies, TV, real life.

0:27 Understanding English conversation can be hard,

0:30 but with the exercises we’ll do today,

0:32 you’ll be well on your way to more effortless English conversation.

0:35 Today, we’re going to do just that in eight conversations and monologues.

0:40 Here’s the first one we’ll study with the analysis we’ll do together.

0:45 Rachel.

0:46 Yeah.

0:47 Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

0:52 Okay.

0:52 Fine.

0:53 Gunther, you know what, I am a terrible waitress.

0:56 Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

0:59 Because I don't care.

1:00 I don't care.

1:01 I don't care which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

1:03 I don't care where the tray spot is.

1:06 I just don't care.

1:07 This is not what I want to do.

1:10 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

1:13 I’m going to give you my weeks notice.

1:16 What?

1:17 Gunther, I quit.

1:21 Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

1:32 And now with the analysis.

1:34 Rachel Rachel Rachel Rachel, first syllable stress and the pitch goes up.

1:41 Ra-chel and the pitch goes up because he's trying to get her attention.

1:46 It's like saying Rachel do you hear me.

1:48 Pitch goes up Rachel Rachel Rachel Rachel

1:54 yeah then she does a really breathy response.

1:57 Yeah.

1:58 Yeah.

1:59 Up-down shape.

2:01 The breathiness just sort of shows exasperation and that she's kind of over it,

2:06 She's kind of over this job.

2:12 Yeah.

2:12 Yeah.

2:12 Yeah Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

2:16 And then this next set group is pretty long.

2:18 What do you hear as the most stressed syllables?

2:22 Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

2:26 Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

2:29 Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

2:33 It's longer so there are a few.

2:36 I'm hearing re-mind the stress syllable of that first

2:40 word the verb remind me to review with you,

2:44 review some on that verb as well which pot is decaf and which pot is regular.

2:53 So, the two verbs and then the difference between coffees,

2:59 decaf and regular and we do have a few reductions.

3:03 We actually have a dropped D here in the stressed word,

3:07 in the stressed syllable.

3:08 It's not uncommon to drop a D between two

3:11 constants especially when the first one wasn't N like this.

3:15 So, it's remin' me, remin' me and this is a pretty common two-word phrase.

3:20 Remind me to do this.

3:22 Remind me to call mom.

3:23 Remind me to pick up the dry-cleaning.

3:26 Remind me...

3:28 Re-mind me.

3:30 I diphthong N and then write into the M with no D, remin' me.

3:36 Remind me...

3:37 Remind me...

3:38 Remind me...

3:39 Now, the word to is not reduced and that's not very natural.

3:44 It's pronounced with the true T and the OO vowel.

3:47 Remind me to review with you and when I was

3:51 trying to think about why he would do this fully pronounced.

3:54 It is still unstressed, so the stress is right but by not reducing that word

3:59 it sounds a little bit more formal and this character

4:02 is supposed to be a little bit odd and so

4:06 by not doing a reduction that's one way to develop that character,

4:10 but it is still unstressed.

4:12 Remind me to review, me to re...

4:15 Me to re...

4:17 Me to re....

4:18 These three syllables all flatter in pitch compared

4:21 to the up-down shape of the stressed syllables mind and view.

4:27 Remind me to review Remind me to review Remind

4:30 me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

4:33 Review with you which pot is decaf then

4:36 these five words all a little bit lower in pitch.

4:41 Less of the up-down shape of stress.

4:44 Review with you which pot is decaf...

4:46 Review with you which pot is decaf...

4:47 Review with you which pot is decaf...

4:50 The two words pot and is are linked.

4:55 Which pot is...

4:55 Which pot is with the flap T and that's really common when one word ends in a T,

5:01 a vowel or diphthong and T and the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong,

5:06 very common to link with a Flap T.

5:08 Pot is, pot is, pot is, pot is decaf.

5:11 pot is decaf ...pot is decaf...

5:13 pot is decaf Decaf is short for decaffeinated.

5:19 Decaffeinated coffee.

5:20 So, in the whole word de-caffeinated its caf that stressed

5:24 but when we shorten it for some reason the stress

5:28 changes and it's de-caf it's not decaf but it's de-caf

5:33 so the stress changes now we have first syllable stress.

5:37 Also, the vowel changes it's the E vowel

5:41 in the word decaffeinated it's a SCHWA de-caffeinated,

5:45 but we can't ever have a SCHWA in a stressed syllable and so

5:51 the vowel changes de-caf de-caf ...decaf ...decaf ...decaf and which is regular.

5:59 Decaf and which is regular.

6:00 So, in the word and the D is dropped.

6:04 That reduction happens almost every single time you'll hear this word.

6:08 Sometimes the vowel reduces he doesn’t,

6:11 but he does drop the D in decaf, and which one is regular.

6:15 ...decaf and which is regular ...decaf in which is regular

6:21 ...decaf in which is regular Decaf an' which is regular.

6:23 Regular and his pitch does go up a little bit at the end.

6:27 That's not super common for statements but it does sometimes happen.

6:31 Here he might be doing it to soften what he's saying.

6:35 You know, he's basically saying you messed up and I need to teach you

6:40 how to do this it could also be used to say in a way

6:43 I can't believe that you don't know the difference why would I have

6:46 to teach you this which is regular ...which is regular ...which is regular...

6:52 which is regular Okay.

6:54 Fine.

6:55 Okay.

6:56 Okay.

6:56 The second syllable stressed there.

6:58 It's a little bit harder to hear because the audience is laughing but okay.

7:03 K is the one with the up-down shape, okay.

7:06 Okay.

7:07 Okay.

7:08 Okay.

7:09 Fine.

7:09 Fine.

7:10 Fine.

7:11 A little flatter fine shows a little bit of exasperation.

7:16 Okay.

7:17 Fine.

7:18 Okay.

7:19 Fine.

7:19 Okay.

7:20 Fine.

7:21 Okay.

7:22 Fine.

7:22 Gunther, Gunther, Gunther and it goes

7:26 up in pitch first syllable stress Gun-ther.

7:30 She goes up in pitch because she's not done talking.

7:32 She has something to say and we all know it's important.

7:37 So, let's hear what she has to say.

7:41 Gunther, Gunther, Gunther, you know what?

7:42 You know what?

7:43 What's the stress there?

7:44 ...you know what?

7:46 ...you know what?

7:47 ...you know what?

7:48 You know what?

7:49 You know what?

7:51 Dah, dah, dah.

7:51 Know and what are both longer and the word you is said very quickly.

7:56 It's actually reduced it's not you it's yu, yu,

8:00 yu know what and everything links together really smoothly you

8:04 know what and that phrase ends with a stop T.

8:08 There's not a release of air.

8:10 ...you know what?

8:12 ...you know what?

8:13 ...you know what?

8:14 I am a terrible waitress.

8:16 In this next sentence what are the stressed syllables?

8:20 I am a terrible waitress.

8:22 I am a terrible waitress.

8:24 I am a terrible waitress.

8:27 I am a terrible waitress.

8:30 So, I and terr the most stressed.

8:34 Am and a lower in pitch flatter everything links together smoothly.

8:40 I am a terr.

8:42 I am a terrible waitress.

8:45 I am a terrible waitress.

8:47 I am a terrible waitress.

8:49 Actually, I take that back I and am

8:52 don't link together really there's a little lift there.

8:55 I am a terrible waitress and by separating

8:58 those it brings a little bit more stress to it.

9:02 I am a terrible waitress.

9:04 So, by separating it off it makes it even more clear

9:09 brings even more prominence to her, what she is saying about herself,

9:14 I am a terrible waitress.

9:17 I am a terrible waitress.

9:19 I am a terrible waitress.

9:21 I am a terrible waitress.

9:23 Imma, Imma, Imma lower in pitch flatter terrible lots of stress there.

9:29 There's a true T and she gives it

9:32 a little bit extra air to bring even more stress.

9:35 Whenever we exaggerate a beginning consonant it brings

9:39 more stress to that word, I am a terrible.

9:43 I am a terrible...

9:45 I am a terrible...

9:47 I am a terrible...

9:48 Terrible, three syllable word with first syllable stress.

9:52 ...terrible ...terrible ...terrible waitress.

9:55 Waitress, waitress, two syllable word, first syllable stress.

10:00 Do you notice anything about the T.

10:03 Listen to just this word.

10:05 ...waitress.

10:06 ...waitress.

10:07 ...waitress.

10:08 It actually sounds like a CH waichress, waichress.

10:14 ...waitress.

10:15 ...waitress.

10:16 ...waitress.

10:16 Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

10:19 Okay, and in the next sentence what's our stress?

10:22 What are our most stressed syllables?

10:25 Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

10:28 Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

10:30 Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

10:33 Do you know why, lots of stress on why and again stress on terr,

10:39 terrible and a little bit on waitress,

10:42 waitress, So, these first three words flatter in pitch;

10:47 less important that energy leads up to that peak and why.

10:51 Do you know why...

10:52 Do you know why...

10:54 Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

10:56 Do you know why I am a terrible.

10:59 Actually, I wrote this with a contraction, but I don't hear that as I'm,

11:03 I hear that as two syllables I am, I am a, I am a, I am a, but they

11:08 all link together really smoothly I am a, I am a.

11:12 They're all unstressed, flatter in pitch.

11:13 Not I am a, that would be all three stressed but it's

11:17 I am a, I am a, I am a I am a...

11:22 I am a...

11:23 I am a terrible waitress.

11:24 I am a terrible and then we get a big up-down shape.

11:28 Lots of stress after those three flatter words with the stressed word,

11:35 the adjective terrible.

11:37 ...terrible ...terrible...

11:39 terrible waitress?.

11:40 Because I don't care.

11:42 What are our most stressed syllables in this next phrase.

11:46 Because I don't care.

11:49 Because I don't care.

11:51 Because I don't care.

11:53 Because I don't, because I don't care.

11:59 I and care are the most stress, but all of these words are clearly pronounced.

12:04 Because can be reduced it's not.

12:07 She actually puts a quick E vowel so if you look it up

12:11 in the dictionary this would be an I or maybe a SCHWA but sometimes when people

12:16 are being extra clear or even just

12:18 out of habit these little unstressed syllables

12:21 that have the letter E in them can be pronounced with the E vowel be,

12:27 be, be, because, because.

12:29 Because Because Because Because second syllable stress K, UH as in butter Z cuz,

12:38 cuz and there is some up-down shape to that too because, because.

12:43 Because Because Because I don't care.

12:47 How is the word don't pronounced?

12:50 I don't care.

12:51 I don't care.

12:53 I don't care.

12:54 I'm actually going to put an up-down shape of stress on that too.

12:57 I really think she's stressing each one

13:00 of these words for emphasis I don't care, I don't care, I don't care.

13:06 All of those to me feel long and with a little bit of that up-down shape.

13:11 I don't care.

13:12 I don't care.

13:14 I don't care.

13:15 I'm hearing a really subtle stop T there.

13:18 I don't care, I don't care, and that tiny lift signifies the T, the stop T.

13:25 Okay, now we get I don't care two more times.

13:27 Let's listen to the pronunciation.

13:30 I don't care.

13:32 I don't care.

13:33 I don't care.

13:34 I don't care.

13:35 I don't care.

13:37 I don't care.

13:38 There I is less stressed, and it's more smoothly connected as one

13:42 thought instead of each word being stressed.

13:45 Stress on don't and more stress on care.

13:48 I don't care, dah, dah, dah.

13:51 I don't care.

13:52 I don't care.

13:53 I don't care.

13:54 I don't care and again a very subtle quick lift here signifying the stop T.

14:00 It's definitely not, I don't care but it's I don't care, I don't care.

14:06 I don't care.

14:08 I don't care.

14:09 I don't care.

14:10 I don't care which pot is regular.

14:11 I don't care which pot is regular I don't care again stress on that word.

14:16 I don't care which pot is re-gular and again

14:20 there was that subtle lift that signifies that stop T.

14:25 It's not completely dropped.

14:27 That would be I don' care, I don' care, don' care.

14:31 We do drop that T sometimes especially if

14:33 the next word begins with a vowel or a diphthong

14:36 but when it's a consonant it's much more common

14:39 to make a quick stop T I don't care; I don't care which pot is regular.

14:44 I don't care which pot is regular.

14:46 I don't care which pot is regular.

14:48 I don't care which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

14:51 I don't care which pot is pot is, pot is, pot is.

14:54 Do you notice just like the other character she

14:57 is linking those two words with a flap T.

14:59 Pot is, pot is, which pot is regular

15:02 and then she really stretches which doesn't she?

15:06 Which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

15:09 ...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

15:11 ...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

15:14 ...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

15:16 Does she connect these two words with a flap T again?

15:19 Listen.

15:21 ...which pot is decaf.

15:22 ...which pot is decaf.

15:24 ...which pot is decaf.

15:25 Yes, she does.

15:26 That's a flap T connecting pot is, pot is, pot is.

15:30 ...which pot is decaf.

15:32 ...which pot is decaf.

15:33 ...which pot is decaf.

15:34 The word and she does do a full reduction, So,

15:38 she reduces the D and the vowel n, n, n, n, n.

15:43 I say to my students it can sound like

15:46 this word in said very quickly regular 'n, regular n' which.

15:51 ...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

15:53 ...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

15:56 ...which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

15:58 You know this is the third time now that we're seeing

16:01 and hearing the word pot and I want to point out

16:04 it's the letter O and that causes some people to round

16:07 their lips and sort of shut it down but it's more open.

16:11 It's the AH as in father vowel pot, AH, AH, pot, pot.

16:19 ...which pot is...

16:20 ...which pot is...

16:21 ...which pot is decaf Decaf,

16:23 a little bit of stress on that stressed syllable D, decaf.

16:29 ...decaf ...decaf ...decaf.

16:31 I don't care where the tray spot is.

16:34 I don't care and another break here, I don't care.

16:38 She does a little lift and again there's a stop T there, I don't care.

16:43 Most of the stress on care.

16:45 I don't care.

16:46 I don't care.

16:47 I don't care where the tray spot is.

16:50 Where the, where the, where the, flatter lower in pitch unstressed then we

16:54 have tray spot is and she connects spot and is with a flap T.

17:01 Ending T coming after a vowel or diphthong followed

17:04 by a vowel or diphthong linking that with a flap T.

17:11 ...where the tray spot is.

17:13 ...where the tray spot is.

17:13 ...where the tray spot is.

17:14 Now, what is tray spot.

17:17 This is not a very common phrase, common thing.

17:21 I guess that what she's referencing is probably something that came

17:24 up earlier in the episode that the tray that she's

17:28 supposed to take drinks out on has a particular spot

17:31 and she was not putting it in its particular spot.

17:35 ...where the tray spot is.

17:39 ...where the tray spot is.

17:39 ...where the tray spot is.

17:40 Also, just like pot we have the letter O but it's the AH as in father vowel.

17:47 ...tray spot is.

17:50 ...tray spot is.

17:51 ...tray spot is.

17:51 I just don't care.

17:52 This is not what I want to do.

17:54 Then she says two more phrases,

17:56 but she links them all together into one thought group.

17:59 Every word smoothly connects to the next word.

18:02 I just don't care.

18:03 This is not what I want to do.

18:05 I just don't care.

18:06 This is not what I want to do.

18:08 I just don't care.

18:09 This is not what I want to do.

18:11 I just don't care this is not,

18:14 a little bit of stress there, not what I want to do.

18:19 So, care and do get a lot of stress.

18:22 Notice the word not.

18:24 Again, the letter O it's the AH as in father vowel.

18:28 I just don't care.

18:29 This is not what I want to do.

18:31 I just don't care.

18:31 This is not what I want to do.

18:33 I just don't care.

18:34 This is not what I want to do.

18:36 Let's look at the first part of this thought group.

18:39 I just don't care, dah, the pitch, the melody everything is rising.

18:44 The energy rising up towards that peak of stress on care.

18:48 I just don't care.

18:50 Again, a stop T there.

18:52 Now, the T in just is actually totally dropped

18:56 and this is really common with this word and any word

18:59 that ends in an SC cluster or a T cluster

19:02 of any kind when the next word begins with a consonant.

19:06 We usually drop the T, very common to drop the T between

19:10 consonants and just link the two words together,

19:12 I jus' don't, jus' don't, right from the S into the D.

19:17 I just don't care.

19:18 I just don't care.

19:19 I just don't care.

19:20 This is not what I want to do.

19:22 This is lower in pitch, this is not,

19:25 this is not said more quickly and again they

19:28 link together just like every word in this thought group.

19:31 This is, this is, this is not.

19:34 This is not...

19:35 This is not...

19:36 This is not...

19:36 This is not with a stop T.

19:38 Now, why is this a stop T?

19:40 Pot and spot, those words linked in with a Flap T.

19:45 That's because the next word began with a vowel or diphthong.

19:48 Here, the next word begins with a consonant sound W.

19:51 So, that ending T is a Stop T.

19:54 This is not what I want to do.

19:56 This is not what I want to do.

19:58 This is not what I want to do.

20:00 This is not what I want to do.

20:02 Listen to just the words what I want to.

20:06 ...what I want to...

20:08 ...what I want to...

20:09 ...what I want to...

20:09 Said very quickly these are unstressed, flatter in pitch, less clear.

20:14 What I, these two words link together with a Flap T, what I, what I.

20:19 Want to, that gets reduced, that gets changed to wanna what I wanna,

20:24 what I wanna, what I wanna.

20:27 …what I want to...

20:28 ...what I want to...

20:29 ...what I want to...

20:30 Listen to those four words together again

20:32 and then there's going to be a little break.

20:34 Try to repeat it back so you'll hear it three times and then

20:38 you try to say it and try to match exactly what she's doing.

20:43 There's a lot of simplification you might want to pronounce more than she is,

20:47 try not to, just repeat.

20:49 ...what I want to...

20:50 ...what I want to...

20:51 ...what I want to do.

20:55 And then all of that links into the next word,

20:59 the stressed word do with that longer length and that up-down shape.

21:04 ...do ...do.

21:06 ...do.

21:07 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

21:12 Okay.

21:12 In this next sentence what do you hear

21:15 as the peak of stress for the whole sentence.

21:18 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

21:20 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

21:22 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

21:25 So, I don't, little bit of stress there.

21:28 So, I don't but then even more stress on.

21:31 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

21:35 Definitely the peak of stress is do and all

21:37 of the words lead up to that and then

21:40 all of the words after that kind of fall away from that peak of energy,

21:44 that peak of volume, that peak of stress.

21:47 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

21:49 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

21:51 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

21:53 So, I don't think, so I don't think up.

21:57 Again, I would write that as a really light quick Stop T.

22:01 So, and I said really quickly.

22:06 Not that clear.

22:07 I don't think I hear an O diphthong in so.

22:12 So, I don't think...

22:13 So, I don't think...

22:14 So, I don't think...

22:15 It's more just like sou, sou, sou I don't, sou I don't, sou I don't.

22:18 I guess I would right that as the SCHWA so, so, so I don't,

22:21 so I don't, so I don't linking together really smoothly, really quickly.

22:27 So, I don't think...

22:28 So, I don't think...

22:29 So, I don't think...

22:29 These first two words unstressed then we have think I should.

22:35 Let's listen to just those three words.

22:37 ...think I should...

22:38 ...think I should...

22:39 ...think I should...

22:40 Think I should, think I should, think I should, think I should.

22:43 A little bit more length on think.

22:45 Think I should, think I should, think I should linking together really smoothly.

22:51 The word should is like just an SH and a SCHWA.

22:56 The next word begins with the D and so these really combine,

23:00 wouldn't make the D twice.

23:02 Single D sound and it really goes with the stressed feeling.

23:07 So, you could almost just think of the D in should as being dropped should do,

23:13 should do, should do.

23:15 ...think I should do it anymore.

23:17 ...think I should do it anymore.

23:19 ...think I should do it anymore.

23:21 Should do it anymore.

23:23 What do you think we're going to hear with this T when we study it.

23:26 It's the end of a word.

23:27 The sound before is a vowel and the next word begins with a vowel.

23:31 I should do it anymore.

23:33 I should do it anymore.

23:35 I should do it anymore.

23:37 Do it anymore.

23:38 Did you guess the Flap T?

23:39 You were right.

23:40 it any, it any, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.

23:42 The tongue just flaps against the roof of the mouth.

23:45 So, we have a lot of stress on do, some stress on don't,

23:49 some stress on think and then the other words are said really quickly.

23:53 We have some reductions.

23:55 This contrast is really important in American English.

23:57 It's one of the characteristics that makes it sound American.

24:01 ...do it anymore.

24:02 ...do it anymore.

24:04 ...do it anymore.

24:07 I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

24:09 Okay.

24:10 In this next sentence what are the most stressed words?

24:13 I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

24:15 I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

24:17 'm going to give you my week’s notice.

24:19 I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

24:25 So, basically she's saying she quits, and she'll work one more week.

24:30 I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

24:32 I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

24:34 I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

24:36 Okay, before the first stressed word give what do we have?

24:44 I'm going to...

24:44 I'm going to...

24:44 I'm going to...

24:44 I am going to become muh, muh.

24:48 I actually did another video on this about how extreme this reduction is.

24:53 We lose the I, we lose the G,

24:56 so this did become this is common to be reduced to gonna,

25:00 going to becomes gonna but sometimes when the contraction I am comes before

25:07 we actually replace the beginning G with the M so it's just monna,

25:09 monna, monna, monna, monna.

25:10 I'm going to...

25:14 I'm going to...

25:15 I'm going to give you my week’s notice.

25:16 I'm going to give, I'm going to give, I'm going to give.

25:19 I am going to, those are five syllables and they get reduced to two,

25:26 monna, monna, monna.

25:27 I'm going to give...

25:28 I'm going to give...

25:29 I'm going to give...

25:30 I would write that in IPA with the M consonant,

25:34 UH as in butter and then the end in the SCHWA, monna, monna, monna, monna give.

25:39 I'm going to give you...

25:41 I'm going to give you...

25:41 I'm going to give you my week's notice.

25:42 I'm going to give you my.

25:44 You and my lower in pitch, unstressed and then week's notice,

25:50 stress on weeks and notice falls off in pitch from that, week's notice.

25:55 I'm going to give you my week's notice.

25:57 I'm going to give you my week's notice.

25:59 I'm going to give you my week's notice.

26:01 The T in notice is a Flap T because it comes

26:05 between two vowels and it does not start a stressed syllable.

26:08 ...week's notice.

26:10 ...week's notice.

26:11 ...week's notice.

26:12 What?

26:13 Okay.

26:13 So, I've just listened to him saying this about a thousand times to try

26:18 to determine if I thought I heard a little escape of air before the W, what.

26:23 I think I do hear a really, really light one.

26:26 That's not very common anymore, it's something my mom does,

26:29 and my friend said her mom does it.

26:32 We love our moms.

26:33 They're in their seventies and it's not

26:36 really that current to speak that way anymore.

26:39 So, by making that little escape of air is again making him just a little

26:45 bit different like when he didn't reduce

26:47 to before and is maybe part of his character.

26:49 Maybe this guy in actual conversational English would

26:53 be making just a pure W sound what, what but instead it's what, what, AH,

26:59 AH and the vowel is closer to the AH as in father vowel whereas

27:03 I think it's more common to make it the UH as in butter vowel.

27:07 Both are acceptable pronunciations,

27:09 but the difference is what versus what, UH, UH, what.

27:14 What?

27:15 What?

27:17 What?

27:17 And he does a little light release of a True T.

27:22 Again, not the most common way to pronounce that T.

27:25 It would be more common to make that a stop what, what.

27:28 What?

27:29 What?

27:31 What?

27:32 Gunther, I quit Okay what is our stress of this sentence?

27:36 Gunther, I quit.

27:38 Gunther, I quit.

27:39 Gunther, I quit.

27:41 Gunther, I quit.

27:43 Gun, the stressed syllable of his name Gunther, I quit and then the verb.

27:50 So, the two middle syllables less stressed, lower in pitch Gun-ther, I quit.

27:56 Gunther, I quit.

27:58 Gunther, I quit.

27:59 Gunther, I quit.

28:00 And she does do a True T release here making that word even more clear,

28:06 making it an even stronger statement.

28:09 Gunther, I quit.

28:10 Gunther, I quit.

28:12 Gunther, I quit.

28:16 Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

28:18 Okay.

28:19 Then Chandler with his asides, so funny.

28:23 What's the stress here?

28:24 It's under his breath, it's a little bit less clear but we

28:28 can still hear the contrast between stressed and unstressed.

28:31 Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

28:33 Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

28:36 Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

28:38 Does this mean, a little bit of stress on mean.

28:40 Does this mean we're going to have to start pay-ing for coffee?

28:47 Mean, pay and co.

28:49 We have some reductions.

28:51 Let's look at the first two words does this.

28:57 Does this...

28:57 Does this...

28:57 Does this...

28:57 So, the word does would be written in IPA fully pronounced D,

29:01 UH as in butter, Z and the word this voiced TH as in sit and S.

29:08 Does this but what he did here

29:11 is something that you'll hear in conversational English.

29:14 Does this mean, does this mean.

29:16 We drop the first sounds of does we take the Z and we replace the TH,

29:21 zis, zis, zis, zis mean, zis mean, zis mean smoothly linked together.

29:27 Does this mean?

29:28 Does this mean?

29:29 Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

29:31 We're going to have to start.

29:32 We're going to have to start then we have

29:35 a bunch of words that are lower in pitch,

29:40 unstressed compared to pay, we're going to.

29:44 Going to is reduced, gonna, gonna have to start, gonna have to start.

29:45 Going to have to start.

29:46 Going to have to start.

29:47 Going to have to start.

29:48 have to, have to, have to, have to.

29:50 So, this is being pronounced HAHF.

29:55 The V sound gets turned to an F because of the next sound being a True T.

29:59 When these two words go together that happens a lot.

30:03 True T but then SCHWA- have to, have to, have to, have to.

30:07 We're going to have to start, we're going to have to start.

30:10 ...we're going to have to start...

30:11 ...we're going to have to start...

30:12 ...we're going to have to start...

30:13 And then stress on pay, we're going to have to start pay-ing.

30:17 ...we're going to have to start paying...

30:18 ...we're going to have to start paying...

30:19 ...we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

30:21 Paying for coffee and then we have one final reduction.

30:24 The word for pronounced fer,

30:27 such a common reduction, fer, fer, paying fer coffee.

30:32 ...paying for coffee?

30:34 ...paying for coffee?

30:35 ...paying for coffee?

30:36 And it goes up in pitch because it's

30:38 a yes/no question even though he's not expecting an answer.

30:41 It's just a joke.

30:43 ...paying for coffee?

30:44 ...paying for coffee?

30:45 ...paying for coffee?

30:47 Rachel quits her job.

30:48 Let's listen to this whole conversation one more time.

30:52 Rachel.

30:53 Yeah.

30:54 Remind me to review with you which pot is decaf, and which is regular.

30:59 Okay.

30:59 Fine.

31:00 Gunther, you know what, I am a terrible waitress.

31:03 Do you know why I'm a terrible waitress?

31:05 Because I don't care.

31:06 I don't care.

31:07 I don't care which pot is regular and which pot is decaf.

31:11 I don't care where the tray spot is.

31:13 I just don't care.

31:15 This is not what I want to do.

31:17 So, I don't think I should do it anymore.

31:21 I’m going to give you my week’s notice.

31:23 What?

31:24 Gunther, I quit.

31:28 Does this mean we're going to have to start paying for coffee?

31:34 You want to get personal.

31:35 Where were you born?

31:37 Huntsville, Alabama.

31:37 But technically, I don't remember that part.

31:39 First job?

31:40 Soldier.

31:40 Straight out of high school.

31:42 Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

31:43 Then?

31:44 Spy.

31:44 Where?

31:45 It was the Cold War, we were everywhere.

31:47 Now?

31:47 Been riding a desk for the past six years,

31:48 trying to figure out where future enemies are coming from.

31:51 Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

31:55 Now the analysis.

31:57 You want to get personal.

31:59 I love this sentence because there's such contrast

32:01 between the stressed and unstressed syllables and words.

32:04 He really stresses the word 'you' at the beginning.

32:08 You want to get personal.

32:10 You want to get personal.

32:13 You want to get personal.

32:14 You want to get personal.

32:16 And in the stressed syllable of 'per', the first syllable is also stressed,

32:21 but the three words 'want to get' are all much lower in pitch,

32:28 much less clear, flatter than the 'you',

32:31 up-down shape, higher pitch of the stressed word 'you'.

32:36 You want to get personal.

32:38 You want to get personal.

32:40 You want to get personal.

32:42 Listen to just 'want to get'.

32:46 Want to get— Want to get— want to get— want to get— Much less clear than 'you'.

32:54 Now listen to the word 'you' with 'want to get' together,

32:59 stressed and then unstressed.

33:01 You want to get— A big difference there

33:06 in the quality of those stressed versus unstressed syllables.

33:09 We have a reduction.

33:11 'want to' becomes 'wanna'.

33:13 Want to get— want to get— want to get— And the word

33:17 'get' has a Stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.

33:21 Get, get, get, get, want to get, want to get.

33:24 Want to get— want to get— want to get personal.

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33:28 Okay, let's get back to the analysis.

33:29 You want to get personal.

33:30 Then the unstressed syllables, son--, al--,

33:33 both said really quickly, those both have the schwa,

33:37 and in both of these cases, they're followed by a syllabic consonant,

33:41 that means the consonant takes over the schwa.

33:44 We don't make a separate vowel sound.

33:46 So we go right from S into N.

33:49 Sn, sn, sn— person, person.

33:51 And then right from N into L, without making any kind of vowel sound.

33:57 Nal, nal, nal, nal.

33:58 Now, this is a Dark L, which does have a vowel-like quality.

34:04 You want to get personal.

34:06 You want to get personal.

34:08 You want to get personal.

34:10 You want to get personal.

34:11 Whoa!

34:11 Different day, different outfit, important announcement.

34:11 Did you know that with this video,

34:11 I made a free audio lesson that you can download?

34:11 In fact, I'm doing this for each one

34:11 of the youtube videos I'm making this summer,

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34:11 So follow this link, or find the link in the video

34:11 description to get your free downloadable audio lesson.

34:12 It's where you're going to train all of the things

34:12 that you've learned about pronunciation in this video.

34:12 Back to the lesson.

34:12 Now, here is how Americans make the L in this case.

34:15 It's a Dark L, it's at the end of a thought group,

34:18 it doesn't link into anything.

34:20 We make that without lifting the tongue tip.

34:24 Can you do that too?

34:25 We make the Dark L with the back part of the tongue.

34:29 Uhl, uhl.

34:29 Back part of the tongue presses down a little bit,

34:32 uhl, uhl, while the tongue tip stays forward.

34:35 I find that most of my students are

34:37 so heavily trained in lifting their tongue tip,

34:40 that it's a very difficult habit to break.

34:43 I want to challenge you to do this.

34:46 Per-so-nal— uhl— your tongue is lifted for the N, bring it back down,

34:51 nal— uhl— and use the back of the tongue to make the dark sound for the Dark L.

34:58 Personal.

35:02 Where were you born?

35:03 She's speaking quickly here without much emotion, very straight faced.

35:07 Where were you born?

35:08 Where and born, both are stressed words there.

35:12 Where were you born?

35:13 Where were you born?

35:14 Where were you born?

35:15 Where were you born?

35:16 They both have that up-down shape,

35:18 were you— on the other hand, are much flatter, much faster.

35:22 Were you, were you, were you.

35:24 The word 'born' this would be written

35:26 with the AW as in law vowel, followed by R.

35:29 When these two sounds come together in the same syllable,

35:32 like here, the AW as in law vowel is not pure.

35:35 It's not AW but it's owh.

35:38 My lips round more, the tongue pulls back a little bit, born, born.

35:45 Where were you born?

35:48 Where were you born?

35:49 Where were you born?

35:51 Where were you born?

35:51 Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

35:54 So this is a longer thought group.

35:56 He says: Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

35:59 No brakes.

36:00 If it's no brakes, then that means it's one thought group.

36:03 So I've written in here with Huntsville Alabama,

36:05 on this slide, and on the next slide, is the second half of the thought group,

36:10 but he didn't actually put a break there.

36:13 Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

36:16 Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

36:19 Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

36:22 The stress of these multi-syllable words, we have huntsville,

36:27 first syllable stress, Alabama, so the most stressed syllable is bam--,

36:33 and the first level has a little secondary stress,

36:38 so I would put the primary stress marker there, secondary stress marker there.

36:43 The other two A's are schwas.

36:45 Actually, just a few weeks ago on the channel, I made a video of how to go over

36:51 the pronunciation of the 50 states and their capitals,

36:54 we talked about the four A's in this word.

36:57 Click here or in the video description to check out

37:00 that video that goes over the pronunciation of the 50 states.

37:05 Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville,

37:09 Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

37:11 But technically, I don't remember that part.

37:15 Our stressed syllables, very clear,

37:17 but tech— but technically, I don't remember that part.

37:21 Those have higher pitch, they have the up-down shape, that curve.

37:26 The rest is a little bit flatter.

37:28 It's either leading up to a peak, or falling away from a peak.

37:32 But tech— but, but— But technically, I don't remember that part.

37:38 But technically, I don't remember that part.

37:40 But technically, I don't remember that part.

37:42 Now we have an ending T, and a beginning T.

37:45 Those will combine into a single sound,

37:47 one true T, but technically, but technically.

37:54 But technically, but technically, but technically.

37:58 He's pronouncing this word as three syllables, first syllable stress,

38:02 tech— and the ch here makes a hard K sound.

38:06 Tech-nic— the C here makes a hard K sound.

38:11 Tech-nic-lly— and then he's not pronouncing this at all, just an LY ending then.

38:21 Tech-nic-lly— technically.

38:22 Technically.

38:23 Technically, I don't remember that part.

38:25 And all of these words linked together really smoothly.

38:30 Technically, I don't re— Okay what's

38:32 happening with the N apostrophe T contraction?

38:35 We have lots of different ways we pronounce that.

38:38 And in this particular case,

38:40 I think I'm actually hearing the whole thing dropped.

38:43 Doh remember— doh, doh.

38:46 So we have the D consonant, oh diphthong,

38:50 and then I hear that linking right on to the next sound, which is the R.

38:56 I don't remember that part.

38:58 I don't remember that part.

38:59 I don't remember that part.

39:01 Now, it doesn't sound like 'do' because 'do' has different sounds.

39:05 It has the D consonant, and the oo vowel.

39:07 So the fact that we have this oh diphthong,

39:10 that's how we know it's the negative.

39:12 Doh— don't remember.

39:13 Don't remember.

39:14 But I actually, I definitely don't hear the T.

39:17 For a second, I listened to it on a loop,

39:20 I was asking myself: do I hear a light quick N?

39:23 I don't think I really do.

39:25 I think it's just dropped.

39:26 Don't remember.

39:27 Don't remember.

39:28 Don't remember.

39:28 Don't remember.

39:29 Doh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

39:31 Just the OH diphthong right into the R.

39:34 Isn't it crazy?

39:35 We can pronounce this contraction without the N apostrophe T at all,

39:39 without the part that makes it a negative.

39:41 But I still hear it as that word because of the OH diphthong.

39:46 I don't remember that part.

39:48 I don't remember that part.

39:50 I don't remember that part.

39:51 Are you pronouncing this word?

39:53 Remember?

39:54 Try to pronounce it with the schwa.

39:57 Remember, re-re-re, remember remember,

40:04 I want you to listen to just the last three words.

40:11 Remember that part.

40:13 Remember that part.

40:14 Kind of mumbly, it's at the end of the thought group,

40:18 it's losing the vocal energy,

40:19 and when I'm listening to the word 'that', which would have

40:22 a Stop T in most cases because it's followed by the P here,

40:26 I actually think I am also not hearing that.

40:28 That part, that part, that part, that part, that part.

40:32 I think he drops it.

40:34 TH, quick AA vowel, and then right into the P.

40:38 That part, that part, that part, that part.

40:41 The ending T, he's also not really pronouncing that too clearly.

40:44 I would still write that as a Stop T, I don't think it's dropped,

40:48 that would sound like par— and I don't hear that.

40:50 I hear: part, part, and that more abrupt end is the Stop T.

40:55 But let's listen to these last three words

40:58 on a loop again and think about how you

41:00 have to simplify everything in your mouth to be

41:03 able to say this this quickly and this unclearly.

41:06 It's a little bit mumbled.

41:08 This is pretty common for how words come out at the end of a thought group.

41:12 They're definitely less clear.

41:14 Remember that part.

41:18 First job?

41:19 First job?

41:20 First job?

41:21 Two stressed words.

41:22 They're both a little bit longer.

41:25 First job?

41:26 And pitch goes up at the end because she's asking the question.

41:29 She wants to know what was his first job.

41:32 Notice how we're pronouncing the T here.

41:34 This T is dropped because it comes between two consonants.

41:38 That's really common to do that when we have an ending

41:42 cluster like the ST cluster in 'first' or 'just' or 'must'.

41:46 When it's followed by a word that begins with a consonant,

41:49 you'll hear that T dropped.

41:51 That helps to link the two words together more smoothly.

41:53 So right from the S into the J sound.

41:57 First job.

41:57 Also note we have the letter O here.

42:00 I know my students see that and they want to do some lip rounding.

42:04 No lip rounding in this sound.

42:06 It's the AH as in father vowel.

42:08 It is not job, actually,

42:10 this reminds me of Tom who's a Rachel's English teacher.

42:13 His name is the same, single syllable has the letter O.

42:17 It makes the AH as in father vowel.

42:20 And even so, almost all of his students say something like:

42:24 Tom, Tom, instead of Tom, ah-ah, with no lip rounding,

42:28 even though he reminds them it's not an OH sound, it's the AH vowel.

42:33 We see the letter O, we have such a strong association.

42:36 But in English, one of the challenges is to break

42:39 your association between what you see on the page,

42:42 and the actual natural American pronunciation.

42:44 Because as you can see, we change things quite a bit.

42:48 We drop sounds, vowels are not what we think they are,

42:52 so the vowel in 'job' and in the word 'Tom' is the AH as in father vowel.

42:58 Oh— First job?

43:00 First job?

43:02 First job?

43:03 Soldier.

43:03 Soldier.

43:04 Soldier.

43:05 Two-syllable word, first syllable stress, soldier.

43:11 DI here is pronounced as a J sound,

43:16 which we would write in IPA: dj— soldier, soldier.

43:22 Soldier.

43:23 Soldier.

43:24 Soldier.

43:25 And the L here, this is the break of the syllable.

43:30 Soldier.

43:30 So the L comes after the vowel.

43:33 That makes it a Dark L.

43:35 He made it without lifting his tongue tip.

43:38 I make it without lifting my tongue tip.

43:41 Soldier.

43:42 Soldier.

43:42 I'm not lifting my tongue tip at all there,

43:47 I'm using the back of my tongue for a more dark sound, for the Dark L.

43:51 I challenge you to do the same thing.

43:54 Do not lift your tongue tip.

43:55 An L is a Dark L when it comes after the vowel or diphthong in a syllable.

44:02 Soldier.

44:02 Soldier.

44:03 Soldier.

44:04 Soldier.

44:05 Straight out of high school.

44:07 Five-word thought group, the word 'straight' and 'high', most stressed.

44:11 School also has some length,

44:13 but it's at the end of the thought group, the pitch isn't as high.

44:16 Straight out of high school.

44:18 Straight out of high school.

44:20 Straight out of high school.

44:22 Straight out of high school.

44:23 Straight out of high school.

44:25 We have an STR beginning cluster,

44:27 strai— strai— the T can come out as a CH there.

44:32 Stch— strai— strai— straight out of— straight out

44:37 of— Just make sure you make it light.

44:40 Don't put too much ch— air in it.

44:43 Strai— strai— then these four letters, a-I-g-h, all make the AY diphthong.

44:55 Straight out of high school.

44:57 All of the words in this thought group are really smoothly connected.

45:00 We have a couple Flap T's linking words together,

45:04 like connecting 'straight out'.

45:06 Straight out, straight out, dadadada.

45:13 Straight out ah— straight out ah— Another Flap

45:13 T connecting here.Straight outta— The word 'of' reduced, it's just the schwa.

45:17 Straight outta— straight outta— straight outta— straight

45:20 outta— dadadadada— two flaps linking those words.

45:24 Straight out of high school.

45:26 Straight out of high school.

45:28 Straight out of high school.

45:29 High school.

45:30 High school.

45:32 High school.

45:33 And again, we have a Dark L.

45:35 I guarantee you he is not lifting his tongue tip.

45:38 Don't lift your tongue tip as you practice this.

45:42 High school.

45:45 Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

45:47 So, the word 'left' stressed,

45:49 'ranks' also sort of stressed, but also not totally clear.

45:54 We'll talk about that in a second.

45:56 Then the last three words, even more clear, even longer.

45:59 Full bird colonel.

46:08 Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

46:10 Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

46:10 Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

46:10 So the rhythm pattern of these first four words,

46:13 I would say, is still: da-da-da-da.

46:16 Stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed.

46:18 Even though 'left' and 'ranks' are said more quickly,

46:22 it really slows down then on 'full bird colonel'.

46:25 He's really stressing all three of those words.

46:29 Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

46:34 Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

46:34 Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

46:34 Left the ranks, left the ranks.

46:37 T is dropped, it comes between two other consonants.

46:40 Left the, left the.

46:41 So a quick F goes right into the voiced TH,

46:46 which doesn't come through the teeth here,

46:49 because it's beginning an unstressed word.

46:52 Left the, the, the, the— I make that sound

46:56 by just pressing my tongue on the backs of the teeth.

46:59 It's not at the roof of the mouth, that would make it sound like a d,

47:03 but the tongue tip doesn't come through the teeth either.

47:05 Left the, left the, left the ranks.

47:08 Left the ranks a— Left the ranks— The N here

47:15 is the NG sound because it's followed by the letter k.

47:21 Ranks, ranks, ranks.

47:22 And I really feel like it's very subtle here.

47:26 He says this word quickly, a little unclearly.

47:29 It almost sounds like 'rakes' without the ng to me.

47:33 Left the ranks— left the ranks— left the ranks a full bird colonel.

47:38 Full— we have a Dark L.

47:41 Don't lift your tongue tip.

47:44 Try it: full, full, full bird.

47:48 'bird' has the UR vowel, and that's overtaken by the R so you don't

47:52 actually need to try to make a vowel at all.

47:56 Make the B sound, the R sound, the D sound.

48:00 Bird, bird.

48:00 Now the word 'colonel'.

48:03 Okay, that's obviously...

48:05 This is one of the weirdest words

48:07 in American English as far as letters and sounds.

48:11 Full bird colonel.

48:12 Full bird colonel.

48:13 Full bird colonel.

48:15 We have the K sound, which we get from the letter C,

48:19 then we have the same sound combination as in 'bird',

48:22 the ur vowel and the R consonant.

48:25 Where's the R, exactly?

48:27 So where's the O?

48:29 Don't know.

48:29 Where's this O?

48:30 Don't know.

48:31 It's just very strange.

48:32 I don't know how this word evolved, it'd be interesting to look into that.

48:37 Colonel.

48:38 Two-syllable word, first syllable stress, K sound, R sound:

48:42 ker— ker--, and then a very quick: nl, nl, nl.

48:46 And Dark L sound at the end.

48:49 Colonel.

48:50 Colonel.

48:54 Then?

48:55 Then?

48:56 Voice goes up in pitch, she's asking a question, it's not a statement.

49:01 She's saying what's next?

49:05 Then?

49:06 Then?

49:06 Spy.

49:07 Spy.

49:08 So his voice has a little bit of popcorn quality.

49:11 There's not a full engagement of the air.

49:14 Quick up-down shape of a stressed syllable.

49:16 That is a statement.

49:18 It comes down.

49:19 Spy.

49:20 Spy.

49:26 Where?

49:27 Where?

49:28 Now this one also comes down and she also has a popcorn quality of her voice.

49:34 Uhhhh— where?

49:35 Where?

49:36 Instead of: where?

49:37 Where?

49:38 Which has more volume, more air.

49:41 Where?

49:45 Now, why does this one go down in pitch,

49:47 where the other question statement went up in pitch?

49:49 That's a great question.

49:50 The general rule is for the most part, if it's a yes/no question,

49:55 it goes up in pitch, if not, it goes down in pitch.

49:59 But there are always exceptions when she said 'then?' going up here,

50:02 that was not a yes/no question, but going up made us know it was a question.

50:06 Here, the pitch of 'where' it goes down.

50:08 We still know it's a question.

50:12 Where?

50:15 The word 'where' as a statement wouldn't exist, wouldn't really make sense.

50:19 And I'm trying to think: would I ever make the intonation of 'where' go up?

50:23 And I would.

50:24 I would if someone had told me where something was, and I didn't hear them,

50:28 and I needed them to say it again, then I would say: where?

50:31 But this is her first time asking the question: where?

50:35 She's making it a statement.

50:37 Where?

50:40 It was the cold war, we were everywhere.

50:42 Okay, this is interesting.

50:43 We have: it was the cold war.

50:46 It was the cold war.

50:48 Stress on 'cold'.

50:49 It was the— those three words, hmm, how are they pronounced?

50:55 It was the cold war— I'm hearing a Z sound, I'm hearing a schwa.

51:00 It was the cold war— it was the cold war— Now,

51:03 I know that the phrase grammatically would be 'it was

51:06 the cold war.' but he says those three words really quickly,

51:12 just combines them into two sounds.

51:15 It was the cold war— it was the cold

51:19 war— It was the cold war— We were everywhere.

51:21 Then the words: we were everywhere.

51:23 We were— pitch goes up, energy goes up.

51:26 We were eh— we have the peak on the EH vowel, everywhere.

51:30 And then the pitch comes down.

51:32 We were everywhere.

51:33 We were everywhere.

51:35 All connected, smoothly together.

51:38 We were everywhere.

51:41 We were everywhere.

51:41 We were everywhere.

51:42 Now?

51:42 Now?

51:43 Now?

51:43 Again, her pitch goes up, showing it's a question.

51:46 Now, this is a word that we could make as a statement.

51:50 Now?

51:51 Like if someone said: hey rachel!

51:53 When are you leaving?

51:54 Now.

51:55 So by making the intonation go up, now?

51:58 It's inviting that question by a conversation.

52:01 Now?

52:02 Now?

52:03 Now?

52:04 Now?

52:04 Been riding a desk for the past six years,

52:06 trying to figure out where future enemies are coming from.

52:09 Then he has a really long thought group.

52:12 Actually, let's add the end of this thought group here to this slide.

52:16 So we have lots of words that are a little bit longer, a little bit clearer.

52:23 Been riding a desk for the past six years—

52:29 Been riding a desk for the past six years—

52:31 Been riding a desk for the past six years—

52:33 Been riding a desk for the past six years,

52:35 trying to figure out where our future enemies are coming from.

52:38 Trying to figure out where our future enemies are coming from.

52:41 Future.

52:41 A little bit of length on 'enemies co--',

52:44 but we have some reductions, what are you noticing?

52:47 First let's look at the first word.

52:50 Been riding, EE is pronounced as the letter IH, that's actually not a reduction,

52:56 but it's just the pronunciation, but it's said very quickly.

53:01 Been, been, been, been.

53:01 Been riding, been riding— Been riding, been riding,

53:04 been riding a desk— Riding a desk— riding a— riding

53:09 a— NG sound is changed to just an N sound.

53:13 Ridin a— And that links right into the schwa.

53:18 Ridin a— ridin a— Been riding a, Now, we have 'desk for the'.

53:24 I want you to listen to those three words, and listen especially for the K.

53:31 Been riding a desk for the— Desk for the— desk

53:34 for the— desk for the— K is dropped.

53:37 Comes between two consonant sounds,

53:39 we sometimes do that when we're linking things together.

53:44 Desk for the— Been riding a desk for the— Desk

53:48 for the— desk for the— 'for the', both said really quickly,

53:52 we have a for reduction,

53:54 the word 'the', tongue tip does not need to come through the teeth for that TH,

53:58 you can just touch it at the back of the teeth, the back of the front teeth.

54:02 For the, for the, for the, for the.

54:04 How fast can you say that?

54:06 For the, for the, for the.

54:08 Desk for the, desk for the.

54:11 Desk for the— desk for the— desk for the past six years.

54:12 Now look, let's look ahead.

54:14 We have STS, a cluster, the T comes between two other constant sounds.

54:19 Do you think it's dropped?

54:21 I think it is.

54:22 Let's hear.

54:23 The past six years.

54:24 The past six years.

54:26 The past six years.

54:27 Past six years.

54:28 Past six years.

54:29 Past six years.

54:30 Okay, yup.

54:31 It is dropped.

54:33 Past six.

54:33 Those two words connected with the single S and actually,

54:35 I'm gonna write a little bit of length on that word too.

54:39 Past six years, past six years.

54:42 I think they all have a little bit of length to them.

54:45 The past six years.

54:46 The past six years.

54:47 The past six years, trying to figure out where future enemies are coming from.

54:52 Trying to figure out— okay, that has...

54:56 That's not how it's pronounced.

54:59 The TR, I am hearing a CHR, trying, trying, that's really common.

55:04 Now the ING, again, he's dropping the G sound.

55:09 He's making that an N sound.

55:11 Tryin, tryin, tryin.

55:12 The word 'to' this word is reduced to just the schwa.

55:16 We don't usually drop the beginning sound, we do make that a Flap T sometimes.

55:21 But I have noticed we do sometimes drop

55:23 that altogether when the sound before is an N, and that's what's happening here.

55:28 Tryna— tryna— tryna— Trying to figure out, Trying to figure out,

55:32 trying to figure out, trying to figure out.

55:35 Figure out.

55:35 Figure out.

55:36 Figure out.

55:37 Figure out.

55:37 Also said pretty quickly, out, we have a Stop T here,

55:41 figure out, figure out, figure out.

55:43 Because the next word begins with a consonant, the W sound.

55:47 Trying to figure out,

55:50 where our future enemies— WH word but he makes just a clean W sound.

55:55 There's no wh, wh, wh, where in front, it's just: where, where.

56:00 The word 'our' pretty unclear.

56:02 I would probably write that schwa R, it's reduced.

56:07 Where our, where our, where our, where our.

56:11 Where our future enemies— where our future

56:13 enemies— where our future enemies— You know,

56:15 I would normally write this schwa R,

56:17 but I actually almost think I'm just hearing it like a schwa.

56:20 Where our— where our future— where

56:22 our future enemies are— That's not too common,

56:25 but I do think that's what he's doing here.

56:27 Where our future— where our future enemies are— He's just speaking so quickly.

56:32 This particular word is said so quickly.

56:34 Now, when it's all linked together, I totally get it.

56:37 It would sound weird to pronounce 'our' that way

56:40 if it wasn't linked in as part of the sentence.

56:44 Where our future enemies— This word 'our' and this word 'are',

56:52 both often reduced to something that sounds pretty much the same, schwa R.

56:58 Of course, over here, I said the R was dropped but here, I do hear it.

57:02 Enemies are— enemies are— enemies are— ending

57:04 Z sound linking right into the next sound.

57:08 Zar, zar— enemies are— Enemies are— coming from— Are coming from— are

57:15 coming from— are coming from— so he has three ING verbs here,

57:20 and for each one of them, he's changed the NG sound into an end N sound.

57:25 I do tell my students not to do this all the time.

57:30 It just doesn't sound quite right,

57:32 mixed in with other things that students tend to do.

57:35 There will be some native speakers that do it all the time,

57:39 that will definitely sound like an accent,

57:41 a regional accent in the us, and that's fine.

57:44 Especially, you know, if you live there, you might want to pick that up.

57:48 Although people in the US move around so much,

57:50 I can't say that, you know, everyone in a particular region speaks that way.

57:55 A lot of people would speak with a more standard accent.

57:58 And that's what I teach.

57:59 So I just want to talk about that here,

58:01 he's done it three times, a student watching this might think: oh, it's...

58:05 We should be doing this all the time.

58:07 I wouldn't say that.

58:09 The last word 'from', not reduced.

58:11 Sometimes, we reduce this word to: from, from, but the vowel is not reduced.

58:16 It is the UH as in butter vowel.

58:18 We generally don't reduce the last word in a sentence, or a thought group.

58:22 Coming from, Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

58:29 So let's talk about stress.

58:32 Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

58:38 And the most stress on that last word because this is what is unusual.

58:42 The enemies are coming from above.

58:45 Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

58:48 Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

58:51 Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

58:54 Also, grammatically, we would have the word 'it' here.

58:57 The word 'it' is implied.

58:59 It never occurred to me.

59:01 But he doesn't say that, he just says:

59:03 never occurred to me— Never occurred to me— Never occurred to me— Never

59:07 occurred to me— Never occurred to me— So in the stressed syllable of occur,

59:15 we have that R vowel again.

59:19 Occur— ur— occured— So you don't need to try to make a vowel there.

59:23 It's really the R sound.

59:26 Occurred.

59:27 Occurred.

59:27 Occurred.

59:30 A little bit of stress on the first syllable

59:33 of ne— never uh— then the R links into the schwa.

59:37 Never uh, never uh, never occurred— Never

59:43 occurred— to me— Never occurred to me— occurred

59:45 to me— so the ED ending here is a little light D sound, not released.

59:51 Then he makes the word 'to' with a true T,

59:54 and the vowel is reduced to the schwa.

59:57 Occurred to— occurred to— do you hear that D

1:00:01 sound in my vocal cords before I make the T?

1:00:06 Occurred to— occurred to me— occurred to me— Occurred to me—

1:00:12 occurred to me— occurred to me they would be coming from above.

1:00:16 So we have the stressed syllable: occurred— then we have 'to me they would be',

1:00:24 all of these words before the next stressed word.

1:00:29 To me they would be coming— To me they would be

1:00:32 coming— To me they would be coming— To me they would be,

1:00:34 to me they would be, to me they would be, to me they would be.

1:00:38 A little bit flatter in pitch but you don't have much of that up-down shape.

1:00:41 To me they would be, to me they would be, to me they would be.

1:00:44 Now, I hope you're noticing the L in 'would' is always silent.

1:00:47 To me they would be, to me they would be.

1:00:50 A very light D sound in the vocal cords here, again, not released.

1:00:54 That would be: they would be.

1:00:56 They would be.

1:00:57 They would be.

1:00:59 We don't hear that.

1:01:00 They would be, they would be, they would be.

1:01:02 That's what we hear.

1:01:03 They would be.

1:01:04 Little D sound, the vocal cords are vibrating, that's a voiced sound,

1:01:10 but it's not released, I go right into the B sound.

1:01:14 To me they would be— coming from above.

1:01:19 Coming from above.

1:01:20 We have interesting stress here.

1:01:21 He's playing with it a little bit because of the surprise

1:01:25 of the enemies coming from above, from outer space.

1:01:28 Coming from above.

1:01:30 Da-da-da-da-da.

1:01:30 Really stressing that last syllable.

1:01:34 Now, here we have an ING word, he does pronounce that as an ING word.

1:01:38 He makes the NG sound instead of an N sound.

1:01:41 Coming, coming, coming, coming, coming from, coming from.

1:01:44 Now, here I probably would write this as the from reduction

1:01:47 with a schwa instead of the UH as in butter vowel.

1:01:53 Coming from, coming from above.

1:01:57 Coming from above.

1:01:59 Coming from above.

1:02:01 The last thing I want to talk about is

1:02:03 he does do a little lift here: from above.

1:02:05 When I was practicing it one time, I did it with the link:

1:02:09 from a, from a, from a, from above, from above.

1:02:11 But no, it's not how he does it.

1:02:14 He says: from above, from above, from— little break, above.

1:02:17 Putting that little break there makes that word even more stressed.

1:02:22 If we linked it into the word before,

1:02:25 it would sound a little bit more conversational.

1:02:27 But by putting a little lift there,

1:02:29 a little break in the sound, it brings more stress to that word.

1:02:33 Wow.

1:02:33 The enemies are coming from above.

1:02:37 Coming from above.

1:02:42 Let's listen to this whole conversation one more time You want to get personal.

1:02:47 Where were you born?

1:02:48 Huntsville, Alabama.

1:02:48 But technically, I don't remember that part.

1:02:51 First job?

1:02:51 Soldier.

1:02:51 Straight out of high school.

1:02:53 Left the ranks a full bird colonel.

1:02:55 Then?

1:02:55 Spy.

1:02:56 Where?

1:02:56 It was the cold war, we were everywhere.

1:02:58 Now?

1:02:58 Been riding a desk for the past six years,

1:03:00 trying to figure out where future enemies are coming from.

1:03:02 Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

1:03:08 Too tight?

1:03:10 Uhmmm A little?

1:03:11 No.

1:03:11 Leave it for now.

1:03:12 We’ll see.

1:03:13 'kay.

1:03:14 If it feels too tight later, I’ll let you know.

1:03:20 So, do you have a vision?

1:03:21 Mm-hmm.

1:03:22 What is it?

1:03:23 I want to take with your permission, I’d like to go to here.

1:03:28 What do you think David?

1:03:29 I don’t know.

1:03:29 That might be too much.

1:03:31 You should try it.

1:03:32 It’ll always grow.

1:03:33 I know, but in the meantime, what if I hate it?

1:03:35 Well, it won’t be too short.

1:03:37 I think it’ll be good because it’s going to have layers and movement.

1:03:41 Can you do one inch longer than that?

1:03:43 Okay, fine.

1:03:44 Okay, thank you.

1:03:45 Darn it.

1:03:46 Darn it (laugh).

1:03:47 I just don’t have the balls.

1:03:49 Well, but you could grow a set.

1:03:51 I know, I could, but I’m too busy feeding

1:03:56 a baby and building a business and all that.

1:04:01 Yep.

1:04:01 And now the analysis Too tight?

1:04:02 Too tight?

1:04:03 Tight?

1:04:03 Pitch going up at the end.

1:04:05 She was asking me a question.

1:04:09 Too tight?

1:04:10 Too tight?

1:04:11 Notice she had a clear stop T at the end of the word tight.

1:04:17 Tight?

1:04:17 Tight.

1:04:18 So, that sounds different than the word tie,

1:04:22 which has the same sounds only no T.

1:04:27 Tight.

1:04:28 Tie.

1:04:30 Tight.

1:04:31 Tight?

1:04:32 The word tight is a lot more abrupt because of this stop than tie,

1:04:38 which has more of a curve in the voice.

1:04:41 Too tight?

1:04:42 Too tight?

1:04:43 Umm...

1:04:43 A little?

1:04:44 Then she said “a little?” as in a little too tight?

1:04:49 A little?

1:04:50 Again, her voice went up in pitch at the end.

1:04:52 Umm...

1:04:53 A little?

1:04:55 A little?

1:04:56 Little is a really tough word.

1:04:58 The double T is a flap, so it sounds like the American D.

1:05:03 It might sound like the R in your language.

1:05:07 Little.

1:05:08 Little.

1:05:08 Little.

1:05:09 A little?

1:05:12 It also has a dark L, and when I say this word,

1:05:16 I don’t move the front top of my tongue away

1:05:19 from the roof of the mouth between the flap and the L.

1:05:25 Little.

1:05:25 I go from using the front of the tongue to the back,

1:05:28 but I don’t actually move the front of the tongue.

1:05:31 A little?

1:05:32 A little?

1:05:33 A little?

1:05:36 No.

1:05:36 Leave it for now.

1:05:37 We'll see.

1:05:37 'kay.

1:05:38 No.

1:05:39 Leave it for now.

1:05:40 Leave it for now.

1:05:41 A couple things to note.

1:05:43 How did I pronounce the word for?

1:05:46 For now.

1:05:47 With the schwa.

1:05:49 So, the schwa is absorbed by the R sound.

1:05:56 For.

1:05:56 For.

1:05:56 Leave it for.

1:05:57 Leave it for now.

1:05:58 Leave it for now.

1:05:59 Also, a stop T in it.

1:06:01 Less time to pronounce it.

1:06:03 No release.

1:06:04 It for.

1:06:05 It for.

1:06:06 It for.

1:06:06 Leave it for now.

1:06:07 Leave it for now.

1:06:09 Leave it.

1:06:11 Leave it.

1:06:12 One way that can help you connect these two words is

1:06:16 to maybe think of the V sound as beginning the word it.

1:06:20 Vit.

1:06:21 Leave it.

1:06:22 Leave it.

1:06:23 Leave it for now.

1:06:25 Leave it.

1:06:26 Leave it for now.

1:06:27 We'll see.

1:06:28 We'll see.

1:06:29 We'll see.

1:06:30 We'll see.

1:06:30 How did I pronounce we will?

1:06:33 We'll see.

1:06:35 The contraction.

1:06:37 We'll.

1:06:37 We'll.

1:06:38 We'll.

1:06:39 I made a schwa sound here, and then the dark L was the dominant sound.

1:06:44 We'll.

1:06:45 We'll, uhl,uhluhl.

1:06:46 Where the back of the tongue pulls back.

1:06:53 We'll.

1:06:54 We'll see.

1:06:55 We'll see.

1:06:56 I don’t lift the tip of my tongue to finish the dark L.

1:07:01 We'll, ul.

1:07:02 I can leave it down.

1:07:04 I'm just using the back of my tongue to make the dark L.

1:07:09 We'll see.

1:07:10 We'll see.

1:07:10 We'll see.

1:07:11 'kay.

1:07:14 My sister-in-law said a really quick, 'kay.

1:07:17 'kay, 'kay.

1:07:19 'kay.

1:07:20 This is short for the word okay.

1:07:23 You’ll hear it shortened to K a lot.

1:07:27 K.

1:07:28 K.

1:07:28 K.

1:07:29 'kay.

1:07:29 Now let me show you what makes exercises like these special in the academy.

1:07:29 You not only have the analysis but you have

1:07:29 a soundboard where you can play with listening and repeating.

1:07:29 As you do this you can really improve your skills in linking,

1:07:29 reductions, perfecting vowels and developing a feel of American English.

1:07:29 Each conversation is broken down into little phrases and you

1:07:29 can listen to them over and over doing the play it,

1:07:29 say it method which will really help you sound more natural.

1:07:29 Do you have a vision?

1:07:29 You can listen at a regular pace.

1:07:29 Do you have a vision?

1:07:29 And slow motion, this helps you figure out what exactly is being said,

1:07:29 what exactly you hear, which is so important for the flow of conversation.

1:07:29 So let’s just try this now.

1:07:30 I’m going to play this three times.

1:07:30 After each time, you repeat it back just like you hear it.

1:07:30 Do you have a vision?

1:07:30 I've found when my students work like this with the play it,

1:07:30 say it method that they’re able to make

1:07:30 corrections to themselves without me even saying anything.

1:07:30 Their ears and their mouth,

1:07:30 their body just starts working together to make corrections

1:07:30 in a way that makes them sound so natural.

1:07:30 Leave it for now.

1:07:30 So if this is something that looks interesting to you, I’d like to go to here.

1:07:30 As a training tool then head over

1:07:30 to RachelsEnglishAcademy.com What if I hate it?

1:07:30 Oh, I don’t think you’re going to hate it?

1:07:30 Repeating like this builds those pathways in your brain,

1:07:30 builds your understanding of the American sound and builds your American voice.

1:07:30 Now let’s jump back to that analysis.

1:07:30 If it feels too tight later, I'll let you know.

1:07:33 If it feels too tight later, I'll let you know.

1:07:37 If it feels.

1:07:38 The word feels was longer.

1:07:40 It had that up-down swell.

1:07:42 If it feels.

1:07:44 If it feels.

1:07:45 If it feels-— The word if was really short.

1:07:51 F-feels.

1:07:51 F-feels.

1:07:52 There was almost no vowel, just a very quick ---ih,

1:07:55 but if I had just said f-feels and just

1:07:59 made the F sound attaching it to the next word,

1:08:02 she would have known what I meant.

1:08:04 Another stop T here, because the next word begins with a consonant.

1:08:09 F-feels.

1:08:09 F-feels.

1:08:11 If it feels— too tight later— Too tight later.

1:08:14 Too tight later.

1:08:16 So, unlike the word T-O, which can often reduce, the word T-O-O never reduces.

1:08:24 It will have the -ooh as in boo vowel.

1:08:27 If it feels too tight later.

1:08:30 If it feels too tight later— What do you notice about tight?

1:08:34 Again, a stop T.

1:08:36 The next sound is a consonant.

1:08:38 Too tight later.

1:08:40 Later.

1:08:41 Later.

1:08:41 How did I pronounce that T?

1:08:45 Too tight later.

1:08:47 That T was again flap T.

1:08:51 Later.

1:08:52 Later.

1:08:53 Later.

1:08:54 Later I'll let you know.

1:08:55 I'll let you know.

1:08:57 The word 'I'll' reduced.

1:08:59 So it sounds like the word 'all'.

1:09:02 I'll let you know.

1:09:04 I'll let you know.

1:09:06 I'll let you know.

1:09:07 I think you're probably noticing the strong -ch sound instead of a T.

1:09:13 Let you.

1:09:14 Let you.

1:09:15 I'll let you know.

1:09:15 Let you know.

1:09:17 This often happens in American English when the T

1:09:20 sound is followed by the word you or your.

1:09:23 Let you know.

1:09:25 What else about the word you?

1:09:28 The -ooh vowel was reduced to the schwa.

1:09:32 Let you.

1:09:33 Let you.

1:09:36 I'll let you know.

1:09:37 I'll let you know.

1:09:38 This is a pretty common phrase.

1:09:40 I'll let you know.

1:09:41 Practice that a couple times.

1:09:43 I'll let you know.

1:09:44 I'll let you know.

1:09:45 I'll let you know.

1:09:48 So, do you have a vision?

1:09:50 Mm-hmm.

1:09:51 So.

1:09:52 I kind of drew that word out a little bit.

1:09:55 So, So.This is a diphthong.

1:10:01 The OH as in No diphthong.

1:10:03 OH.

1:10:04 So, make sure that your lips do move they will round more.

1:10:08 So.

1:10:08 For the second half of the diphthong.

1:10:13 So, Do you have a vision?

1:10:15 Do you have a vision?

1:10:17 Do you have a vision?

1:10:18 The -ooh vowel in do was very fast.

1:10:22 It could even be interpreted as a schwa.

1:10:26 Do you have?

1:10:27 Do you have?

1:10:27 Do you have?

1:10:28 Do you have?

1:10:28 a vision?

1:10:29 Also, the word 'you' is very fast.

1:10:32 Do you have a vision?

1:10:34 And it could have been the schwa,

1:10:36 but I think I actually am hearing a real -ooh vowel there although it's fast.

1:10:40 Do you have a vision?

1:10:43 Do you have a vision?

1:10:44 Have a.

1:10:45 Have a.

1:10:45 Here we have an ending consonant linking into a beginning vowel.

1:10:50 Remember, we're talking about sounds when we deal

1:10:53 with these rules of linking and other things, not letters.

1:10:58 So, even though the letter E is here, it's silent.

1:11:01 The final sound is the V sound.

1:11:04 Have a.

1:11:05 Have a.

1:11:06 Have a.

1:11:07 So, we can link that really nicely into the article -ah.

1:11:12 Have a vision?

1:11:14 Do you have a vision?

1:11:15 Vision.

1:11:15 Here the letter S makes the -zh sound.

1:11:21 Vision.

1:11:22 Vision.

1:11:23 Vision?

1:11:23 Do you have a vision?

1:11:25 Do you have a vision?

1:11:26 And my voice is going up in pitch at the end.

1:11:29 I'm asking her a yes-no question.

1:11:31 Do you have a vision?

1:11:32 Do you have a vision?

1:11:35 Mm-hmm.

1:11:37 Mm-hmm.

1:11:38 Mm-hmm.

1:11:39 This is a common response.

1:11:42 Yes.

1:11:42 Mm-hmm.

1:11:43 Mm-hmm.

1:11:44 Mm-hmm.

1:11:44 Do you have a response like that in your language?

1:11:47 That’s sort of just a grunt that doesn't even involve opening your mouth?

1:11:51 Mm-hmm.

1:11:52 Mm-hmm.

1:11:53 Mm-hmm.

1:11:54 That's a common one in American English.

1:11:57 Mm-hmm.

1:11:58 What is it?

1:11:59 I want to take with your permission.

1:12:02 What is it?

1:12:03 What is it?

1:12:04 How did we say that so quickly and link things together?

1:12:08 First of all, the T here comes between two vowel sounds.

1:12:12 So, I linked those words with a flap T.

1:12:16 What is it?

1:12:17 What is it?

1:12:18 What is it?

1:12:20 And also, the letter S makes the Z sound in this word,

1:12:24 and the Z did connect into that next word.

1:12:28 Zit.

1:12:28 Zit.

1:12:29 What is it?

1:12:31 What is it?

1:12:33 What is it?

1:12:34 So, we linked all three of these words

1:12:37 together by an ending consonant to beginning vowel link.

1:12:42 What is it?

1:12:43 What is it?

1:12:45 What is it?

1:12:48 Try that with me and follow the same

1:12:51 stress pattern where 'is' is the most stressed.

1:12:54 What is it?

1:12:54 What is it?

1:12:57 What is it?

1:12:59 What is it?

1:13:00 I want to take, with your permission.

1:13:03 I want to take.

1:13:04 I want to take.

1:13:05 So, you can probably notice that she is saying wanna, not want to.

1:13:10 I want to— I want to take.

1:13:13 So, she's combining these words, dropping the T sound.

1:13:18 Want to.

1:13:18 Want to.

1:13:19 With the schwa at the end.

1:13:21 I want to take.

1:13:23 I want to take.

1:13:24 I want to take with your permission.

1:13:29 With your permission.

1:13:31 She's hesitating here a little bit.

1:13:33 With your permission.

1:13:35 With your permission.

1:13:36 Because she knows she needs my permission to do this.

1:13:40 Your permission.

1:13:41 How does she pronounce the word 'your'?

1:13:43 Your permission.

1:13:45 It's reduced.

1:13:47 Schwa R.

1:13:49 Your.

1:13:50 Your.

1:13:51 Your— permission.

1:13:52 Your permission.

1:13:53 With your permission, I'd like to go to here.

1:13:57 What do you think, David?

1:13:58 I'd like to go to here.

1:14:00 Okay, a couple interesting things here.

1:14:02 I'd like to go to here.

1:14:05 So, she's saying I would like.

1:14:08 I'd.

1:14:08 She won't do this if I don’t give her permission,

1:14:12 but this is what she wants to do.

1:14:15 I'd like— So, she's using the contraction I would to I'd.

1:14:20 I'd.

1:14:20 I'd like— to go to here.

1:14:22 I'd like to go to here.

1:14:24 Okay.

1:14:25 The word to.

1:14:26 It appears twice.

1:14:27 Both times, she uses the schwa.

1:14:30 The first time it's a clear true T.

1:14:34 Like to.

1:14:35 I'd like to.

1:14:36 I'd like to.

1:14:37 T-T-T.

1:14:38 But the second time you barely hear it.

1:14:42 I'd like to go to here.

1:14:45 I'd like to go to here.

1:14:46 It's a light flap.

1:14:48 So, she made a true T here because the sound before was unvoiced,

1:14:53 an unvoiced consonant K.

1:14:55 K.

1:14:57 I'd like to go to here.

1:14:58 And because this sound is unvoiced,

1:15:01 she's going ahead and making the T sound unvoiced as well.

1:15:05 Like to.

1:15:06 Like to.

1:15:06 I'd like to.

1:15:08 So, it's a K sound.

1:15:10 She's stopping the air and she's not releasing the K.

1:15:15 Like to.

1:15:16 She's going straight from the stop of air into the true T sound.

1:15:20 Like to.

1:15:20 Like to.

1:15:21 I'd like to.

1:15:22 Like to.

1:15:22 Like to.

1:15:23 So, you might not even hear the K.

1:15:26 I'd like to.

1:15:27 I'd like to.

1:15:28 But the back of her tongue is moving up to the soft palette to make the K.

1:15:31 A native speaker will hear that as a K

1:15:35 sound even though the K isn't released before the T.

1:15:38 I'd like to go to here.

1:15:40 I'd like to go to here.

1:15:42 What do you think, David?

1:15:44 What do you think, David?

1:15:45 Okay, that was really unclear.

1:15:46 Very mumbly.

1:15:47 What do you think?

1:15:48 What do you think?

1:15:52 What do you think?

1:15:54 With a flap T here, dropping the D sound

1:15:58 and just making a flap to connect these two words,

1:16:02 but my flap was pretty sloppy.

1:16:05 What do you.

1:16:06 What do you.

1:16:07 What do you.

1:16:09 What do you think?

1:16:09 Not a clear flap against the roof of the mouth at all.

1:16:12 The word 'you' was reduced.

1:16:14 Instead of the -ooh vowel, I used the schwa.

1:16:17 What do you think?

1:16:18 That is a very common phrase.

1:16:20 What do you think?

1:16:21 What do you think?

1:16:24 What do you think?

1:16:25 This is how you ask somebody’s opinion.

1:16:27 What do you think?

1:16:28 What do you think, David?

1:16:30 What do you think, David?

1:16:31 I don't know.

1:16:32 That might be too much.

1:16:34 You should try it.

1:16:36 Okay.

1:16:36 Then I got really mumbly before that might be too much.

1:16:41 Listen to just that little bit again while I

1:16:43 tried to figure out what I wanted to say.

1:16:46 I don't know.

1:16:48 That might be too much.

1:16:51 I don’t know.

1:16:52 That might be too much.

1:16:53 Very unclear.

1:16:54 A native speaker would definitely understand aow as I don't know.

1:16:59 I don't know.

1:17:00 I don't know.

1:17:01 That might be too much.

1:17:03 But I basically didn't make a D sound.

1:17:05 I don't know.

1:17:07 I don't know.

1:17:09 I don't know.

1:17:09 That might be too much.

1:17:10 I don't know.

1:17:11 I don't know.

1:17:12 Would be a much clearer way to pronounce that.

1:17:15 I was mumbling.

1:17:16 I didn't want to do what she wanted to do.

1:17:19 I felt bad about it.

1:17:20 I was trying to figure out what to say about it.

1:17:24 I don't know.

1:17:26 I don't know.

1:17:26 I don't know.

1:17:27 I don't know.

1:17:28 A very unclear way to say I don't know, but Americans will certainly do that.

1:17:32 I don't know.

1:17:34 I don't know.

1:17:35 That might be too much.

1:17:36 And I'm continuing my mumble here.

1:17:39 That might be too much.

1:17:41 That might be too much.

1:17:42 That might be too much.

1:17:43 I'm really only saying an -ah or an -uh kind of vowel here.

1:17:48 That might be too much.

1:17:50 I'm not really saying the -th, and I am not even really making a T sound.

1:17:54 That might be too much.

1:17:56 Eh-Eh-Eh-Eh.

1:17:57 That might be too much.

1:17:59 That might— be too much.

1:18:00 That might be too much.

1:18:02 I am making a stop T at the end of might.

1:18:05 Might be.

1:18:05 That might be too much.

1:18:07 That might be too much.

1:18:08 That might be too much.

1:18:09 That might be too much.

1:18:10 You should try it.

1:18:11 You should try it.

1:18:13 You should try it.

1:18:14 Okay, what about the word should?

1:18:17 She's not really making the final D sound.

1:18:20 Now, the L in the word should is always silent.

1:18:23 You should try it.

1:18:26 It's not part of the sounds, but the D usually is or sometimes is,

1:18:31 but we often drop that in conversation,

1:18:33 especially when the next sound is a consonant.

1:18:37 You shuh-shuh-shuh.

1:18:38 Uh.

1:18:39 So, just the -uh vowel.

1:18:43 You shuh.

1:18:44 You shuh.

1:18:48 You should.

1:18:48 Try that.

1:18:49 You shuh.

1:18:49 You shuh.

1:18:50 You should try it.

1:18:51 You should— try it.

1:18:53 You should try it.

1:18:54 You should try it.

1:18:56 You should try it.

1:18:57 Now, so often, people make a -tr sound and make it a -chr sound.

1:19:04 Try.

1:19:05 But my sister-in-law actually didn't do that.

1:19:07 She made a pretty clear tr sound.

1:19:10 Try it.

1:19:10 Try it.

1:19:11 Try it.

1:19:12 You should try it.

1:19:13 You should try it.

1:19:16 Try it.

1:19:17 Vowel to vowel link here, and then a stop T.

1:19:23 Try it.

1:19:24 Try it.

1:19:25 So, she made everything there really smooth, really connected.

1:19:29 You should try it.

1:19:33 You should try it.

1:19:36 You should try it.

1:19:37 You should try it.

1:19:38 You should try it.

1:19:40 It’ll always grow.

1:19:41 It’ll.

1:19:42 It’ll.

1:19:42 This is just like the word little that we discussed earlier.

1:19:47 It’ll— It will.

1:19:48 And it's a flap that comes between the -ih

1:19:53 vowel and the schwa L or the dark L here,

1:19:58 but you don’t need to bring your tongue back down after the flap.

1:20:01 You can just put it up to the roof of the mouth

1:20:04 for the flap and then move the back of your tongue for the dark L.

1:20:08 It’ll.

1:20:08 It’ll.

1:20:09 It’ll always grow.

1:20:10 It’ll— always grow.

1:20:12 Always grow.

1:20:13 Always grow.

1:20:14 Notice she doesn't really make an L sound there.

1:20:19 It's more just a clear al, al.

1:20:22 Always.

1:20:23 Always— Always instead of always.

1:20:28 So, that's a shortcut you can use for that word.

1:20:32 Always.

1:20:33 Always.

1:20:33 It’ll always grow.

1:20:35 Always— It’ll always grow.

1:20:37 I know, but, I know, but.

1:20:40 I know, but.

1:20:42 Really stressing the word know, there.

1:20:46 I know, but.

1:20:49 I know, but.

1:20:51 Stop T at the end of but.

1:20:53 An abrupt end there.

1:20:55 I know, but in the meantime, what if I hate it?

1:20:58 In the meantime.

1:20:59 In the meantime.

1:21:00 This is a pretty common phrase.

1:21:02 Mean is very stressed there compared to the other words.

1:21:06 In the.

1:21:07 In the.

1:21:07 In the meantime— In the meantime.

1:21:11 In the meantime.

1:21:14 This means until then.

1:21:18 In the meantime.

1:21:20 Shortcut with a phrase like ‘in the’.

1:21:23 You have an N and the voiced -th sound.

1:21:28 In the meantime.

1:21:29 You can make the N with the top part

1:21:32 of the tongue touching the roof of the mouth,

1:21:35 even with the tip of the tongue out.

1:21:38 So the tip of the tongue can already be

1:21:41 making the -th shape with the tip through the teeth.

1:21:46 Nn the.

1:21:47 In the.

1:21:48 You can make the N with the part of the tongue that's

1:21:51 further back while the tip of your tongue prepares for the next sound.

1:21:54 This will help you make that more quickly.

1:21:57 In the.

1:21:58 In the meantime.

1:21:59 In the meantime, what if I hate it?

1:22:03 What if I hate it?

1:22:04 What if I hate it?

1:22:06 How did I say that so quickly and link those words together?

1:22:11 What if I hate it?

1:22:12 Well, there's only one word that was really stressed there,

1:22:14 that was really long, and that was the word 'hate'.

1:22:17 What if I hate it?

1:22:18 What if I hate it?

1:22:20 The rest of the words were very fast.

1:22:22 And we linked together the words what and if with the flap T.

1:22:27 What if.

1:22:27 What if.

1:22:28 What if I.

1:22:30 What if I— What if I.

1:22:32 The F linked right into the I diphthong.

1:22:37 What if I.

1:22:39 What if I— What if I hate it?

1:22:41 What if I hate it?

1:22:42 What if I hate it?

1:22:43 And again, we had a flap T linking hate and it.

1:22:48 Hate it.

1:22:49 Hate it.

1:22:50 Hate it.

1:22:51 Hate it?

1:22:53 And a stop T at the end of it.

1:22:56 What if I hate it?

1:22:58 What if I hate it?

1:23:00 I think you're probably starting to notice that we very rarely make true Ts.

1:23:05 Okay, maybe very rarely is an exaggeration, but more often than not,

1:23:11 a T is either a stop T or a flap T.

1:23:15 What if I hate it?

1:23:16 Well, it won't be too short.

1:23:18 I think it’ll be good because it's going to have layers and movement.

1:23:22 Well, it won't be too short.

1:23:24 It won't be.

1:23:25 It won't be.

1:23:26 What about those Ts again?

1:23:29 Well, it won't be— She is making her sentence more smooth.

1:23:34 She's linking words together more easily by making those stops.

1:23:38 Well, it won't be.

1:23:39 It won't be too short.

1:23:41 It won't be— too short.

1:23:45 Again, too with the OO vowel not reduced.

1:23:47 We don’t reduce that word.

1:23:51 Too short.

1:23:52 She's stressing the word too.

1:23:54 It won't be too short.

1:23:56 It's the main word, the main stressed word of that sentence.

1:24:01 Well, it won't be too short.

1:24:05 It won't be too short.

1:24:07 All of the words before are leading up to it,

1:24:10 and the word after it is falling away from it.

1:24:12 It won't be too short.

1:24:14 So, she's saying, it might be short, but it won't too short.

1:24:19 It won't be too short.

1:24:21 I think it’ll be good.

1:24:23 I think it’ll be good.

1:24:25 Again, the ‘it will’ contraction, it’ll.

1:24:27 It’ll.

1:24:28 With that flap it’ll.

1:24:31 It’ll be good.

1:24:31 I think it’ll be good.

1:24:33 I think it’ll be good.

1:24:35 Think and good.

1:24:37 Longer than I.

1:24:39 It’ll be.

1:24:40 I think it’ll be good.

1:24:43 I think it’ll be good— cuz it's going to have layers.

1:24:46 Cuz it's going to have.

1:24:48 cuz it's, it's.

1:24:49 cuz it's.

1:24:49 So, she changed the word because to just cuz.

1:24:55 Cuz.

1:24:56 Cuz it's, Cuz it's, cuz it's, cuz it's.

1:25:00 And she linked the Z into the next word, the vowel, it's.

1:25:03 Cuz it's, cuz it's, cuz it's.

1:25:06 Because it is.

1:25:08 Cuz it's.

1:25:09 That's how Americans will pronounce those three words very often.

1:25:14 Cuz it's, cuz it's.

1:25:16 Cuz it's— going to have layers and.

1:25:18 Going to have layers and.

1:25:20 You probably noticed 'going to' was pronounced 'gonna'.

1:25:26 It's going to have.

1:25:27 It's going to have.

1:25:28 It's going to have layers and.

1:25:30 Going to have layers and.

1:25:32 Okay, which word there is the most clear, the longest, the most stressed?

1:25:37 Going to have layers and-— Going to have layers and.

1:25:43 Definitely the word layers.

1:25:47 Layers and.

1:25:49 Layers and-— The next word, and, was reduced to just the N sound.

1:25:55 Layers and.

1:25:57 Layers and— And the Z sound connected into the word and.

1:26:02 S pronounced as a Z here.

1:26:04 It's going to have layers and movement.

1:26:07 Can you do one inch longer than that?

1:26:09 Movement.

1:26:10 Movement.

1:26:11 Here she does make a nice true T.

1:26:17 Movement.

1:26:17 Movement.

1:26:18 Can you do one inch longer than that?

1:26:21 Can you do one inch longer than that?

1:26:24 I'm really stressing the word one.

1:26:26 Can you do one inch longer than that?

1:26:29 I don’t really agree with her, so this is what I'm asking for as the compromise.

1:26:34 Can you do one inch longer than that?

1:26:37 What did you notice about the word can?

1:26:41 Can you?

1:26:42 That was reduced.

1:26:43 Can.

1:26:44 This is usually how we pronounce this word.

1:26:48 When it's a helping verb and it's usually a helping verb,

1:26:51 that means it's not the main verb in the sentence.

1:26:55 The main verb is do.

1:26:56 So, I'm going to reduce can.

1:26:59 Can.

1:26:59 Can.

1:27:00 Can you do one inch longer?

1:27:02 One inch longer?

1:27:04 Can you do one inch longer than that?

1:27:09 Longer than that.

1:27:10 Longer than that.

1:27:11 Longer than that?

1:27:13 What about the word than?

1:27:16 Reduced.

1:27:16 It had the schwa.

1:27:19 Longer than.

1:27:20 Longer than.

1:27:21 Longer than— that?

1:27:22 Longer than that.

1:27:24 And again, a stop T at the end of that.

1:27:28 Longer than that.

1:27:29 Longer than that?

1:27:31 Okay, fine.

1:27:32 Okay, thank you.

1:27:33 Darn it.

1:27:34 Okay, fine.

1:27:35 She's kind of saying it quietly.

1:27:37 She really didn't want to agree with me at all.

1:27:40 Okay, fine.

1:27:41 Okay, fine.

1:27:42 Okay, fine.

1:27:43 Okay, fine.

1:27:45 Pitch falling off.

1:27:48 She's a little disappointed.

1:27:52 Okay, fine.

1:27:53 Okay, thank you.

1:27:56 And I said, okay, thank you.

1:27:58 I reduced the word okay to just K.

1:28:01 K, thank you.

1:28:02 Okay, thank you.

1:28:04 I'm also speaking quietly here.

1:28:06 It was like painful for us to come up with something we agreed on here.

1:28:11 We both kind of gave up more than we wanted.

1:28:14 So, we both kind of mumbled our agreement.

1:28:17 Okay, fine.

1:28:18 Okay, thank you.

1:28:19 Darn it.

1:28:21 Darn it.

1:28:21 Darn it is like, oh man, I'm disappointed.

1:28:24 That's not how I wanted that to go.

1:28:26 Darn it.

1:28:28 Darn it.

1:28:29 She makes a stop T at the end of it.

1:28:31 That's because it's at the end of a thought, the end of a sentence.

1:28:35 Darn it.

1:28:36 Darn it.

1:28:37 (laughing) I repeat what she says.

1:28:40 Darn it.

1:28:41 Even though I'm not disappointed.

1:28:43 I just don’t have the balls.

1:28:44 Well, but you could grow a set.

1:28:46 I just don’t have the balls.

1:28:48 Okay, a couple of things.

1:28:50 The word just.

1:28:51 So often, we drop the T.

1:28:53 We do this when the next word begins with a consonant.

1:28:57 I just don’t.

1:28:58 I just don’t.

1:28:59 I just don’t-— I just don’t.

1:29:02 This helps up connect the word.

1:29:06 We drop the T when it comes between two consonants all the time.

1:29:12 I just don’t have.

1:29:13 I just don’t have— Don’t have.

1:29:15 Don’t have.

1:29:16 Don’t.

1:29:17 Very quick stop here.

1:29:19 So, it's not a dropped T, but it's sort of a weak stop.

1:29:24 I just don’t have.

1:29:25 I just don’t have.

1:29:26 I just don’t have— the balls.

1:29:28 I just don’t have the balls.

1:29:31 I'm stressing the words don’t and balls, and notice that the S is a Z there.

1:29:38 I just don’t have the balls.

1:29:41 Well, but you could grow a set.

1:29:44 Well, but you could grow a set.

1:29:46 But you could.

1:29:47 But you could.

1:29:49 Again, ending T.

1:29:50 The word you becomes a -ch.

1:29:53 But you.

1:29:55 But you.

1:29:56 But you— could grow a set.

1:29:57 And did you notice the L is silent in 'could'?

1:30:01 But you could grow a set.

1:30:03 Grow a set.

1:30:05 With a stop T.

1:30:08 Grow a set.

1:30:09 If you're unsure what these idioms mean,

1:30:12 check out the lesson that goes with this video,

1:30:15 Vocab, Idioms, and Phrasal Verbs.

1:30:19 I just don’t have the balls.

1:30:21 Well, but you could grow a set.

1:30:23 I know, I could, but I'm too busy feeding a baby and— I know, I could.

1:30:30 I know, I could.

1:30:32 So, these two mini phrases have that up-down shape.

1:30:37 I know, I could.

1:30:40 Again, the L in could is silent.

1:30:48 I know, I could— but I'm too busy.

1:30:51 But I'm too busy.

1:30:52 But I'm.

1:30:53 But I'm.

1:30:54 Connecting those two words with a flap T.

1:30:58 But I'm.

1:30:59 But I'm.

1:31:00 But I'm— too busy.

1:31:02 Too busy.

1:31:03 Again, the word too, not reduced.

1:31:07 It's got the pure -ooh vowel.

1:31:10 Too.

1:31:11 Too.

1:31:12 But I'm too busy.

1:31:14 But I'm too busy.

1:31:16 Did you notice the word busy has a letter S, but the S is pronounced as a Z?

1:31:21 Busy.

1:31:22 Busy.

1:31:22 Busy.

1:31:23 Also, the letter U represents the -ih sound here.

1:31:29 That doesn't happen too often.

1:31:33 Busy.

1:31:33 Busy.

1:31:34 Busy— feeding a baby and— Feeding a baby and.

1:31:39 Feeding a baby and.

1:31:41 Stressing the stressed syllable of feed.

1:31:45 Feeding a baby.

1:31:48 They both have first syllable stress.

1:31:53 Feeding a baby, all connected with the schwa for the word 'a'.

1:32:04 Feeding a baby and— Feeding a baby and.

1:32:08 Baby and.

1:32:09 The word and was reduced to just the schwa N sound.

1:32:14 So, it just kind of sounds like an N sound at the end of the word before.

1:32:19 Baby and.

1:32:19 Baby and— Feeding a baby and.

1:32:23 Feeding a baby and.

1:32:24 I'm too busy feeding a baby and building a business and all that.

1:32:29 Yep.

1:32:30 Building a business and all that.

1:32:32 So, just like feeding a baby.

1:32:36 Feeding a baby, Building has stress on the first syllable.

1:32:41 Building a business.

1:32:45 Building a business.

1:32:46 Business also has stress on the first syllable.

1:32:49 So, again, these two words were linked

1:32:52 together with the article a, pronounced shwa -uh.

1:32:56 Building a business.

1:32:59 Business.

1:33:00 Just like in the word busy,

1:33:02 the letter S here makes the Z sound and the letter U makes the -ih vowel.

1:33:08 Biz.

1:33:09 Busy.

1:33:10 Business.

1:33:12 Business Building a business and all that.

1:33:14 Yep.

1:33:15 Business and.

1:33:16 Again, reduce the word 'and' to just the schwa N sounds,

1:33:21 which just sounds like an N.

1:33:25 And all that.

1:33:26 And all that.

1:33:28 All that.

1:33:29 Stop T.

1:33:32 And all that.

1:33:33 Yep.

1:33:33 She agrees with me.

1:33:36 She doesn't like it, but she agrees.

1:33:39 Yep.

1:33:40 Yep.

1:33:40 Very abrupt.

1:33:42 And all that.

1:33:42 Yep.

1:33:42 Stop P, not releasing it.

1:33:45 Yep.

1:33:46 Yep.

1:33:46 This is my sister-in-law, who cuts everyone’s hair in the family.

1:33:51 She has very good ideas.

1:33:52 She's very good at it, but I tend to like my hair long,

1:33:56 and she wanted to go just a little shorter.

1:33:59 Let's listen to the whole dialogue again.

1:34:02 Too tight?

1:34:03 Umm… A little?

1:34:04 No.

1:34:04 Leave it for now.

1:34:05 We’ll see.

1:34:06 'kay.

1:34:07 If it feels too tight later, I’ll let you know.

1:34:10 So, do you have a vision?

1:34:12 Mm-hmm.

1:34:12 What is it?

1:34:13 I want to take, with your permission, I’d like to go to here.

1:34:18 What do you think David?

1:34:19 I don’t know.

1:34:20 That might be too much.

1:34:21 You should try it.

1:34:22 It’ll always grow.

1:34:23 I know, but in the meantime, what if I hate it?

1:34:26 Well, it won’t be too short.

1:34:28 I think it’ll be good because it’s going to have layers and movement.

1:34:32 Can you do one inch longer than that?

1:34:33 Okay, fine.

1:34:34 Okay, thank you.

1:34:35 Darn it.

1:34:36 I just don’t have the balls.

1:34:38 Well, but you could grow a set.

1:34:40 I know, I could, but I’m too busy feeding

1:34:43 a baby and building a business and all that.

1:34:47 Yep.

1:34:49 What did you do today?

1:34:50 Ah, Stony slept in.

1:34:52 And that was a miracle.

1:34:54 And you beat my dad at golf.

1:34:56 that has, has that happened before?

1:34:58 Probably not.

1:34:59 Dad says he's just gotten terrible.

1:35:01 Today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

1:35:03 He says that that's his new normal.

1:35:07 Maybe.

1:35:09 That's unfortunate.

1:35:11 That's too bad.

1:35:14 Now we’ll study how words reduced, linked together,

1:35:14 how sounds were dropped to improve your listening skills and American accent.

1:35:14 What did you do today?

1:35:16 There's one stressed word in this phrase.

1:35:18 Can you feel what it is?

1:35:21 Let's listen three times.

1:35:25 What you do today?

1:35:26 What did you do today?

1:35:29 It's always where the pitch change happens.

1:35:33 We have a peak of stress, a peak of melody on the word do.

1:35:41 What did you do today?

1:35:44 And everything either leads up to that or falls away from that.

1:35:48 What did you do today?

1:35:50 What did you, what did you, what did you, what did you.

1:35:56 These first three words said really quickly, what did often becomes wud,

1:36:02 we drop the T link and then just leave the D, What you do, what you.

1:36:09 What did you— Whadju.

1:36:11 So, we drop every sound except for the D what did

1:36:17 becomes wud but then d plus j can make a j sound,

1:36:23 jj, jj, jj, so what did you becomes whadju.

1:36:28 Let's write the whole thing out in IPA.

1:36:33 Whadju What did you do.

1:36:43 What did you do today?

1:36:44 Do today.

1:36:46 Do today.

1:36:47 So the word ‘today’, the first vowel is always the schwa, never make that to.

1:36:56 Always make that t.

1:36:57 But the first T can be a flap if it links into a word

1:37:02 that ends with a vowel or diphthong and that's what I'm doing here,

1:37:05 I'm making that a flap oops, let me write that a little bit more clearly.

1:37:11 A flap t, do today.

1:37:14 And then this is also a flap because it's a d between two consonants.

1:37:18 Flap T and flap D sound the same.

1:37:21 Do today.

1:37:30 Ah, Ah, thinking.

1:37:32 Sort of a mix between uh as in butter and a as in father.

1:37:40 Ah.

1:37:40 Ah, Ah, Stony slept in.

1:37:44 Stony slept in.

1:37:45 Two stress syllables there.

1:37:47 First, the first syllable of the proper noun.

1:37:50 Stony slept in.

1:37:52 Then, the second part of the phrasal verb.

1:37:57 And it's all smooth and connected.

1:38:04 Stony slept in.

1:38:05 So the word slept ends in the PT cluster.

1:38:09 A cluster that ends in t if the next word begins with a consonant,

1:38:14 we usually drop it if the next word begins

1:38:17 with a vowel or diphthong, we usually say it.

1:38:20 Let's try to listen really closely and see what David is doing.

1:38:29 Stoney slept in.

1:38:31 Oh man, I I don't even really feel like I hear it but slept in, slept in.

1:38:36 That's not sounding right to me,

1:38:38 so even though I'm trying to isolate a t sound, I don't really hear it.

1:38:44 I still think you should think of that as a true T.

1:38:47 Super light, slept in, slept in, slept in.

1:38:54 Slept in.

1:38:55 And that was— And that was.

1:38:57 Little break here, breaking up thought groups thinking about what

1:39:02 to say and the A vowel held out a little bit.

1:39:06 A as in bat followed by n, d is dropped.

1:39:10 And.

1:39:10 When we have A followed by N, it's not an but ae,

1:39:16 a little bit of a more relaxed sound going into the uh

1:39:21 as in butter or you could think of it as the schwa.

1:39:24 And.

1:39:31 And that was— So the N right into the th sound of that, no break.

1:39:37 Then we have a as in bat, stop T.

1:39:42 And then was.

1:39:43 I would definitely say that's reduced it's not uh

1:39:47 as and butter but it's the schwa, was, was, was.

1:39:52 And that was— a miracle.

1:39:57 A miracle.

1:39:58 A miracle.

1:39:59 Little two-word thought group the article.

1:40:02 A schwa, just links right in the word, a miracle.

1:40:08 So, no break there Miracle first syllable stress.

1:40:15 Miracle.

1:40:15 Miracle.

1:40:16 A miracle.

1:40:20 Now if you look this word up in IPA,

1:40:23 you'll see I as in sit vowel in the stressed syllable.

1:40:33 Mir-acle.

1:40:33 A miracle.

1:40:36 Miracle when the I as in sit vowel is followed by R, it is not I as in sit.

1:40:42 It's more like e as in she, so it's not me like in miss,

1:40:48 miss, miracle me but it's me, ee, ee meer.

1:40:52 Miracle.

1:40:53 Ending in a dark L don't lift your tongue tip for that.

1:40:56 Make that with the back part of the tongue, uhl, uhl, uhl, miracle.

1:41:02 A miracle.

1:41:05 And you beat my dad at golf.

1:41:07 Okay, then my sentence.

1:41:09 What are the stress syllables there?

1:41:12 Let's listen three times.

1:41:13 And you beat my dad at golf.

1:41:15 And you beat, and you beat.

1:41:21 Stop t, beat my dad at golf.

1:41:27 So, we have stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed.

1:41:36 [flap] And you beat my dad at golf.

1:41:42 And you beat my dad at golf.

1:41:44 And, again, D dropped.

1:41:45 And, and, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you.

1:41:51 Smooth connection.

1:41:51 And you— beat my dad at golf.

1:41:55 And you beat my dad at, dad at.

1:41:59 The word at reduced stop T and the vowel reduces to the schwa,

1:42:06 this sounds a lot like the word ‘it’ even though it's ‘at’.

1:42:14 Bad at, bad at golf.

1:42:17 bad at golf.

1:42:18 Golf.

1:42:18 This word is tricky.

1:42:20 It can be written with either the ah as in father or ah as in law vowel,

1:42:26 I think a is a little bit more common so we have G vowel LF.

1:42:33 So the L comes after the vowel in this syllable that means it's a dark L.

1:42:41 Golf.

1:42:42 And really it blends with that vowel doesn't it?

1:42:49 It's not golf but golf.

1:42:54 Golf.

1:42:54 So it can be a little bit more open for the ah vowel then a little bit more

1:43:00 closed the back of the tongue gets even closer

1:43:02 to the back of the throat for the dark l.

1:43:05 Golf.

1:43:06 But the tongue tip never lifts.

1:43:11 Golf.

1:43:13 And then finally the F.

1:43:18 Golf.

1:43:19 Golf.

1:43:24 that has— Stressing that and then moving up

1:43:28 because I'm asking a question that has stop T,

1:43:31 the ending sound in has is a Z but I change what I'm going to say.

1:43:37 So there's a little lift here a little break.

1:43:40 That has, that has, that has.

1:43:42 that has— That has, has that happened before?

1:43:46 That has, has that happened before?

1:43:49 So then I rather than making the statement that has never happened before,

1:43:55 I asked the question, ‘has that happened before?’ And haa, haa, has this stress,

1:44:02 we're going up because this is a yes no

1:44:05 question and yes no questions generally go up and pitch

1:44:08 which means our stressed syllables towards the end will

1:44:12 go down and up instead of up and down.

1:44:16 Has that happened before?

1:44:17 Has that, has that.

1:44:20 I would say the word has is reducing to the schwa, has, has, has.

1:44:29 So then it can kind of sound like the word his, his, his, his that, has that.

1:44:36 Stop T, not releasing it.

1:44:40 Has that happened, happened.

1:44:46 Has that happened— before?

1:44:47 Happened before?

1:44:48 And my intonation is just going up and I

1:44:50 really do get pretty high there at the end.

1:44:55 For?

1:44:56 For?

1:44:56 For?

1:44:57 Happened before?

1:44:58 That happened before?

1:45:02 Mmm, Mmm, another thinking sound we make, Mmm, just the M consonant, Mmm.

1:45:11 Mmm Probably not.

1:45:12 Probably not.

1:45:14 Two stressed syllables there.

1:45:16 Pro, probably not.

1:45:18 Stop T to N, probably.

1:45:22 It's really common to reduce this to probably so we drop that.

1:45:29 It's just two syllables probably.

1:45:32 Probably.

1:45:32 Probably not.

1:45:36 Dad says he's— Dad says he's.

1:45:39 Dad says he's.

1:45:41 So I'm stressing says dad says he's.

1:45:46 Now of course we say,

1:45:48 say but when we add an S the a diphthong changes to E, says.

1:45:55 And this letter S is a Z sound.

1:46:02 Says.

1:46:02 Dad says he's.

1:46:05 Dad says he's— And I do pronounce that H there.

1:46:07 I could have dropped it dad says he’s but I said dad says he's, he's, he's.

1:46:13 And this is short for he has,

1:46:16 he has gotten and that letter s is a z so this letter s is going to be a z.

1:46:28 Dad says he's— Dad says he's.

1:46:30 So the D here in Dad it's not released dad,

1:46:35 but we do vibrate the vocal cords for that.

1:46:42 Dad says he's.

1:46:44 Dad says he's— Just gotten— Just gotten.

1:46:48 Stressing just, just gotten, just gotten.

1:46:53 Even though that word is stressed, the t is still dropped.

1:46:58 St ending cluster linking into a consonant so, so common to drop that T.

1:47:07 Just gotten.

1:47:09 Just gotten— Let's look at the word gotten.

1:47:13 We have g consonant, a vowel, t schwa n.

1:47:17 When we have these sounds together, t schwa n,

1:47:22 we do a stop T got n and we go right

1:47:28 into the n so you can think of there as being no vowel here.

1:47:34 Gotten, got, gotten.

1:47:35 Not gotten.

1:47:36 That's not a very common pronunciation in American English but gotten, gotten.

1:47:43 Gotten— Terrible.

1:47:46 Terrible.

1:47:47 Three syllable word, first syllable stress, terrible.

1:47:51 And I'm giving that a really clean clear true t and I'm

1:47:57 even pausing just a bit before to let the stop air build up,

1:48:03 terrible, to let that t be even more exaggerated because this is

1:48:08 not a word that has a meaning that sort of in the middle.

1:48:13 It's extreme.

1:48:13 He's not just a little bit bad, but he's really, really bad now, he's terrible.

1:48:18 Which is why there's a little extra stop,

1:48:22 a little extra air in that t to stress it.

1:48:26 Terrible.

1:48:30 So for this word we have a true t starting a stressed syllable e as in bed r,

1:48:39 schwa and then b schwa dark l, ter.

1:48:43 So I want to talk about this e followed by r.

1:48:49 The r consonant changes some of our vowel

1:48:52 sounds when they're in the same syllable

1:48:54 together like they are here and r does change a so it's not quite te,

1:49:01 te, but it's te, ter, so not as much jaw drop,

1:49:06 not as much space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth,

1:49:10 a little bit more closed down.

1:49:12 Teeeer, ter, terrible.

1:49:13 And of course this is a dark l,

1:49:18 don't lift your tongue tip for that, bull, bull, bull.

1:49:25 No kind of vowel sound there just b dark l, bull, bull, terrible.

1:49:32 Terrible.

1:49:36 Today he was a little bit terrible.

1:49:37 Today he was a little bit terrible.

1:49:40 so we have today, quite a bit of stressed there.

1:49:44 Today he was a little bit.

1:49:47 Then these are more unstressed.

1:49:49 Today he was a little bit terrible.

1:49:55 Tiny bit of stress on li, little bit terrible,

1:49:58 stress on terrible again, a true t there starting our stressed syllable.

1:50:04 A little bit terrible, for him.

1:50:09 For him and then a little add-on for him

1:50:12 with one stressed syllable and the word for reduced.

1:50:16 So not for him but for, for, for him, for him, for him, for him.

1:50:27 For him, today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

1:50:30 Today, today so very very light true t here.

1:50:35 Earlier, I made it a flap T because the word was linking into a vowel,

1:50:40 here it's the beginning of his sentence really light true T

1:50:44 but again as always schwa in that first syllable ttt today.

1:50:51 today— today he was a little bit terrible, for him.

1:50:54 So if we listen to Just he was a little bit,

1:51:00 he was a little bit— You can see how that's all lower in pitch,

1:51:09 less clear, less vocal energy, that is unstressed.

1:51:12 He was up becomes he was a, he was a, he was a.

1:51:18 The E vowel linking smoothly into the w.

1:51:22 That's not was, that's was, was reduced.

1:51:26 And that ending s is a z sound, that z links right into the schwa,

1:51:30 he was a, he was a, he was a.

1:51:33 He was a little bit— He was a little bit,

1:51:36 he was a little bit, he was a little bit, little, little, little, little,

1:51:41 said quickly that's a tricky word we've got a flap t followed by schwa l.

1:51:50 Little, little, little, little, little.

1:51:52 Oops, I didn't write that as schwa did I?

1:51:55 Let's change that.

1:51:57 That should be written like this.

1:52:01 Little, little, little, little.

1:52:04 He was a little bit— The way I do this sequence,

1:52:09 flap t schwa l is I don't actually flap my tongue because I don't bring it down.

1:52:15 Li, this is a true sorry a light l

1:52:19 starting so you do lift your tongue tip there.

1:52:23 Li, so I lift the tongue I bring it down for the vowel

1:52:27 then I put the tongue tip back up for the T sound.

1:52:31 Little, but I don't release it.

1:52:34 I tend to leave the tongue tip up and then make the dark

1:52:39 l sound at the back of the tongue with the tongue tip up.

1:52:42 So if I say little my tongue starts up for the light

1:52:47 L and it ends up for the flap T dark L.

1:52:52 Little.

1:52:53 It's kind of confusing to explain because the flap

1:52:57 t is made with the front of the tongue

1:53:01 so it goes up but rather than flapping it down I do something with the back,

1:53:07 I bring the back of the tongue down and back a little bit for that dark l.

1:53:14 Little, little, a little bit.

1:53:17 a little bit.

1:53:18 It's tricky and you might want to just work on that sound by imitating it

1:53:23 and I know that we do have

1:53:25 that in the soundboards I believe in the consonants chapter.

1:53:28 Sorry the consonants course in, it's either the T chapter or the L chapter.

1:53:37 We have a soundboard with this sequence,

1:53:40 flap T dark L little, a little bit, a little bit.

1:53:46 A little bit.

1:53:48 terrible.

1:53:49 Now we have ending T beginning T you can think of it as a stop T true t

1:53:57 or a drop T true T little bit terrible

1:54:00 but we stop the air once and we release it once.

1:54:05 Bit te, bit terr, and that's the true T sound.

1:54:10 a little bit terrible.

1:54:13 a little bit terrible for him.

1:54:15 He says that that's his new normal.

1:54:17 He says that that's his new normal.

1:54:20 A couple stressed syllables there.

1:54:26 He says that that's his new normal.

1:54:37 He says that that's his new normal.

1:54:39 He says.

1:54:40 Again it looks like it should be says but it's say as in bed he says.

1:54:47 now I love this.

1:54:49 We have the same word twice in a row once it's contracted for that is.

1:54:56 But we have that that and the first one is reduced, that, he says that.

1:55:01 So we have the schwa and then that t is

1:55:05 a stop t because the next word begins with a consonant.

1:55:09 He says that, he says that.

1:55:12 He says that.

1:55:13 He says that— that's his new normal.

1:55:16 He says that that's.

1:55:18 So we have that that's, that that's.

1:55:20 The second time the vowel is not reduced it is the a as in that vowel.

1:55:27 He says that that's— He says that that's .The that's.

1:55:32 So it looks like same word same pronunciation but no.

1:55:37 One of them is functioning as a function

1:55:40 word and the other one is being stressed.

1:55:43 That that's.

1:55:44 He says that that's— his new normal.

1:55:49 He says that that's his, that’s his.

1:55:52 I'm dropping the H in his.

1:55:54 Now we're watching a tennis match here

1:55:57 and you can hear that racket hitting the ball.

1:55:59 I hope that doesn't mess you up too

1:56:01 much when you're working with this soundboard here.

1:56:03 That that's his, that that's his.

1:56:05 That that's his— New normal.

1:56:13 Uhhuhuh.

1:56:14 Those two up down swells of the intonation.

1:56:19 Those are our two stressed syllables.

1:56:26 New normal.

1:56:29 New normal.

1:56:30 Normal.

1:56:30 We just talked about how r changes the e as in bed.

1:56:34 It also changes ah as in law.

1:56:37 So the first syllable of normal would be written with these sounds,

1:56:41 the ah as in law vowel,

1:56:43 this is very much so changed by the r consonant so it's not law,

1:56:50 no normal but it's no,uhuhl.

1:56:53 Lips round more, tongue shifts back a little bit more

1:56:56 maybe even up a little bit getting in towards that r.

1:57:01 No- o, o, or nor, nor, this is in quarter.

1:57:09 Normal.

1:57:09 Horse, o, o, o, changed a vowel.

1:57:15 Normal.

1:57:18 And we end with schwa L dark L, do not lift your tongue tip for that.

1:57:27 Normal.

1:57:27 Uhl,uhl,uhl, uhl.

1:57:28 I'm just making that with the tongue tip down pressing

1:57:31 the back of the tongue down and back a little bit.

1:57:38 Uh,uh,uhl, normal.

1:57:40 Normal.

1:57:42 Maybe.

1:57:44 Maybe, maybe.

1:57:44 First syllable stress we're sort of giggling

1:57:47 it's just the pits getting older guys.

1:57:49 My dad at this point he was probably 73, 74.

1:57:53 For a while, he kept getting better at golf and now he's starting to get worse.

1:58:00 Maybe.

1:58:05 It's unfortunate.

1:58:06 That's too bad.

1:58:07 So then we both make a comment starting with that's.

1:58:12 That's unfortunate and that's too bad.

1:58:15 It's unfortunate.

1:58:16 That's too bad.

1:58:17 It's unfortunate.

1:58:18 That's too bad.

1:58:20 It's unfortunate.