What’s the second Sunday of every
May in the US? Mother’s day. Her birthday is the second weekend in May. That’s uh, Mother’s day honey. Today we’re going to take this scene and we’re
going to study it for every detail of the American Accent. When we do full analyses like
this, my students’ listening skills skyrocket. I’m Rachel, and I’ve been teaching the American
accent on YouTube for over 15 years. Visit RachelsEnglish.com/free to get my free course,
the Top 3 ways to master the American Accent. This is the scene we’ll study.
This first time through, there is no closed captioning.
How much can you understand? Now for the analysis. Also, what
TV show should I do this kind of an exercise with next? Let me
know in the comments below. Kids, just came in to remind
you to keep Saturday open. Kids, kids. He comes in, his pitch is a little bit
high. Kids, kids. To me his throat seems kind of narrow, that's how he gets that kind of sound
kids, kids, kids. We've got the scoop down and up up, that's what lets us know that he's going to
say more. That's the intonation that says I'm not done it's different than kids which is a little
bit more of a statement. This is a little bit more of a continuation kind of intonation. Kids.
Kids, Kids, just came in to remind
you to keep Saturday open. Oops we forgot the word in here didn't we let's
write that in. Just came in and that's got stress on it, just came in to remind you to keep Saturday
open. So some stress on keep, keep and then Sat, definitely stress on the day of the week, Saturday
open. So all of our stressed words are a little bit longer and have a change of pitch on their
stressed syllable. Sa, it goes up a little bit and then down, Sat, Saturday open. I actually should
have drawn the up down shape here because it's the first syllable that's stressed. But we want to
think about this pitch change as being very smooth and we want to think about connecting each word. Just came in to remind you to keep Saturday open. That smoothness and linking is an important part
of the American accent. So how do we get things so smooth? Let's look at our linking. Just came in to remind you— Just came in. Just came in. So all of that just
came as part of our rising intonation and notice the t is gone. Just came, just, just. I'm
going to write this with the schwa, just, just, uh uh uh uh uh said very fast, very quickly
and the t is dropped because it comes between two consonants and that's really common. Just,
first, last, all of these St cluster ending words linking into a consonant often has
the t gone. Just came, just came, just came. Just came in—
to remind you Just came in, just came in. So the word into is pronounced indu in regular English conversation
quite a bit in conversational English, that's the I as in Sit n and then in [flap] a D sound in
the schwa. So in to becomes inda, inda, inda, inda. Try that. Inda. just came into-- And it's very fast. Inda, inda. Just came into.
Just came in to. So have your peak of stress. just came in to— I actually want to change the way I wrote this stress. Just came in,
just came in to. Now that I'm really focusing on that I'm feeling it just came in, that the pitch
change goes up then down. In to, just came in to. Just came in to— remind you. In to remind. Then we have up
down shape of stress on mind In to remind. And again that is a stressed
syllable, the first syllable unstressed. Remind, remind. Probably I would write that with a schwa
but I could also see it being written with the ih vowel like in sit unstressed. Remind. Now
let's look at what's happening with the D. Remind you—
Remind you. So ending d and the word u. This is a special
case where we often get a sound that sounds like J which we write an IPA with these two
symbols, remind you ju ju ju. So d plus y, you're sometimes going to get this
J sound. This is also really common t plus y gets a CH like what you, what you
doing? Remind you, remind you, remind you. Remind you—
to keep Saturday open. Remind you to. You to. So again just like
in ‘in to’, the word to became du. That’s happening here as well. Mind you to.
Think of your tongue as just being a flap for that sound. Remind you to, remind you to.
We changed sounds into flaps we combine sounds, we make words very fast, this is part of that
important linking in American English. Remind you to, remind you to, remind you to. remind you to— Very smooth. Doesn't sound that much like remind
you to. Remind you to. Just one important syllable there and it's mine. Remind you to—
Keep Saturday open. Remind you to keep Sa. So keep, this is
a stop consonant and he doesn't say keep Saturday. We don't release the p and then
make the S, we just stop the air for the P, keep Saturday and then we go right into
the S sound. Keep Saturday, keep Saturday. Keep Saturday— So it's not key Saturday, it's not smooth. Keep Sa. But we have a little bit of a stop
there for the P, for the Stop quality of the P consonant. Keep Saturday. keep Saturday— Saturday. Satur, this T is a flap T also flap T
is so common and it's part of this smoothness in American English. It's different than Saturday,
Satur, Satur, which has that crisp stop and release. By turning that into a flap T we get a
smoother sound and we make a t a flap T between two vowels. Satur, Satur Saturday. Saturday— Keep Saturday open. You're going to want
to link right from the a diphthong into the O diphthong. Smooth, no break, Saturday
open. You can think of a y sound is helping you connect those two words. That's going
to give us the smoothness that we want. Keep Saturday open. Wow, we have only studied one sentence and we've already learned so much about linking
and reducing and changing sounds, all to get that smooth characteristic of American English. Keep Saturday open. What's Saturday? What’s Saturday? What Saturday? One peak of stress, it's on Sa,
everything else leads up to it smoothly, what's Saturday, and then falls away from it.
So smooth. Another flap T, Satur, Satur, don't put a real full vowel in here, it's just schwa R
and R takes over schwa, Satur. So it's from that flap right into the r sound and it can help you
to think about holding out the sounds before and after a flap T that can sort of help you focus on
smoothing that out. Satur, satur, what Saturday? What Saturday? I also notice we have ending s beginning s and he doesn't say what's Saturday? He doesn't give us
two S's but it's what Saturday, what Saturday. One S connecting these two words. What's Saturday? What's Saturday? What’s Saturday? It's your mother's birthday. So he repeats the exact same phrase the exact same way. What’s Saturday? Going up and peeking
on Sa, What Saturday? Again, flap T, again, schwa R. Saturday. Again, one S to link. What
Saturday? What Saturday? Try that. And both of them are making just a pure W sound, what’s,
there's none of this little H release that can sometimes happen. What’s. That's a little bit
old-fashioned, it's much more common now to just say whu, whu instead of whu, whu, what’s Saturday? What’s Saturday? It's your mother's birthday. It's your mother's birthday. So there's no break. The a from Saturday links right into
the i from it's. Saturday? It's your mother’s, one stress syllable there and then another
one on bir, birthday. And everything smooth, smooth pitch change, smooth links. What's Saturday? It's your mother's birthday. So don't put a break here if you're going to
be imitating this audio because he doesn't. What’s Saturday? It’s. Again you
might feel like you go through a y consonant to help you link Saturday it's. What's Saturday? It's your mother's birthday. It's your mother's. It's your. Do you hear how the
word your is not pronounced your but it's reduced, it's your. The vowel changes to the schwa
which we've already said R takes over the schwa so you can just think of there
as being two sounds Y and R, your, your. This is not a word that has a pitch change,
it's just a smooth little quick word that is part the whole line. It's your mother's birthday. It's your mother's birthday. We have two tricky sounds here. Two different
th's. The th in mother's is vv, voiced, the th in birthday is f unvoiced. These symbols I'm
using are the International Phonetic Alphabet and it's a way of using symbols to write sounds that's
different from the symbols you use to write words. It's your mother's birthday. So it's worth familiarizing yourself with the symbols and the sounds of
American English and I have some playlists on the International Phonetic Alphabet and
American English so you can look those up. It's your mother's birthday. A common replacement is to make a z muzes or a d mudes, try to just keep that th,th,th,th
as a th tongue tip against the backs of the teeth. Also birthday, it's pretty common to make that an
S try not to do that. F, f, f, tongue tip through the teeth. And keep in mind the word ‘birthday’,
we have first syllable stress and it's all R, it's the r vowel consonant combination so it's not
B it's nothing like that, it's straight to R, BR, so make sure your lips are having that R position,
BR right after the B. Birthday, birthday. Birthday. No. No. I love this, she holds it out. No. She's
got sort of an interesting intonation there. No. No.
Her birthday is the second weekend in May. Her. She holds out the word ‘her’ a little
bit but I just want to point out that it's the r sound that's being held. Her. Again,
it's the r vowel constant combination just think of it as a single R sound it's not
her but her, right from H and R. Her. Her— birthday is the second weekend in May. Her birthday is the second weekend in May. So
she says that pretty quickly but we still have our long syllables there. Birthday is the second
weekend in May. And then one more little up down shape. So again, birthday, no vowel, just an R
sound held out, birth, birthday, tongue tip has to come through for that unvoiced th. Birthday
is the, linking a vowel to vowel in this case, a diphthong to vowel, it's the a diphthong.
Birthday is. Linking into the I vowel for is and you might think of a why to help you connect
birthday is. Birthday is the. So is and the said quickly, no skip or breaks, just part of that same
line. Birthday is the. Try that. Birthday is the. birthday is the— second weekend in May. Second weekend in. Second, so we
have syllable stress on se. Second, second syllable very fast. K schwa ND, kund,
kund, kund. Not Cond or conned or Coned. Second, second weekend in May. Second weekend in May. Second weekend. I actually should have written
that with a little bit of a up down shape on week. Weekend, weekend. It's a little bit longer,
a little stressed, second weekend in May. Second weekend in May. The D in second is sometimes dropped especially when the next word begins with
a consonant. I don't really hear much of a d, you can think of it as being second weekend, you can,
I think of the N just linking directly into the W. Second weekend in May. Weekend in May. Again, so smooth n right into M no break. Weekend in May. weekend in May. Depending on the consonant combinations in your
own language, some of these links might be tricky but in American English we really want to practice
on our links vowel to vowel, vowel to consonant, consonant to consonant. In May. In May. In May. Linking gets us smoothness and smoothness
is the characteristic of American English. in May. That's Mother's Day honey. That’s uh. That’s uh. Okay, so we have up down
shape of stress for that. That’s uh, then we have the thinking vowel, in American English that's
the uh vowel like in butter like in us. That's uh. That's uh, Mother's Day honey. Mother's Day. So in that two-word phrase that
two-word concept, Mother's Day, we've got stress on the first syllable. Mother's Day honey. Mother's Day honey. In both of these cases the letter O makes the
uh vowel like an us like in butter. Mother's Day honey. Uh, uh. Mother's day honey. I don't think so.
Yeah, this girl cracks me up. Okay, I don't think so. One stressed word in that
forward phrase so everything is leading up to it or falling away from it. I don't think so. Let's
look at how we're linking together for smoothness. I don't think so. I don't think. N apostrophe T, this is an interesting contraction. We've got several
pronunciations of it in American English, they all have to do with changing the sounds for more
smoothness. And here, we're dropping the T sound all together. I don't think. The N is linking
right into that unvoiced th. Don't think. There's no stop, there's no separation, there's no tt,
true T release. So it's a nice smooth connection. I don't think so. I don't think so. A really, really, really light release of the K, I think as
it transitions down into the s for so. Now keep in mind with the O diphthong, you are going to want
a little bit of lip rounding, we don't want so, we want so, so, some relaxed rounding in the lips. I don't think so. I just don't think that this is the year. I just don't think this is the year. Okay, so let's look at our stress. We definitely have year
at the end. Year. I just don't think that this is a. This is his own opinion so he's stressing I
and the rest of the words, wow, so fast, a little sloppy, so many th’s in there, let's look at this. I just don't think that this is the year— The first thing, let's look at the St ending
of just, the next word begins with a consonant, now I've said in that case, it's very often
that we would drop the T. Let's listen. I just don't— I just don't. I just don't. Yep, T is dropped. Also, the vowel in just hardly
there, I would write that as a as a schwa. Just, just, just, just, just. So the whole word
‘just’ becomes just, just, just. So fast. I just don't— Let's look at the N apostrophe T contraction. I just don't— Up here I felt that she dropped it completely. What do we think is happening
here? It's followed by the same word, so the same exact initial sound. I just don't— Okay it's so fast it is hard to tell, but I'm
going to say I think I'm hearing a little tiny lift, don't think, don't think, and that
little tiny lift or break is another one of the ways we pronounce an apostrophe T, I
just don't think, don't think, don't think, so I'm going to write that as a little stop. Then we
have, well let's look at our K. Do we hear that? I just don't think that--- Not really. Think that. The n in the word think is actually the NG consonant
which is written in the International Phonetic Alphabet with this symbol. Think that, think
that, think that, think that, think that. I'm just really not hearing much of a K. I mean,
I'm just going to put that in parenthesis. I just don’t think that— I just don’t think that this is the-- Think that this is the, think that this is
the, think that this the. Think that this. So, stop T at the end of that, that this, that this,
that this. It's not t, but it's also not the this, the this, the this. There's just a little tiny
lift. The this, the, the, the, the. You probably noticed I'm not saying the, I'm not saying the a
vowel. The a vowel in that actually changes to the schwa. So many, so many sounds and words change
to have schwa in them. So many sounds change to the schwa in reductions, that this, that this is
the, that this is the, that this is the. So that this is the becomes that this is the, that this is
the, that this is the. You have to really simplify your jaw movement, your tongue movement. All of
these THs, that, this, the, they're all the voiced th and they're all beginning and unstressed word.
This is a case where sort of special. The tongue tip does not have to come through the teeth but it
can quickly press the backs of the teeth. That's how we can say these faster. That this is the,
that this is the, that this is the. Try that. That this is the— Notice there's not a lot of volume in my voice. That this is the.
There's almost no pitch change. That this is the, because they're all unstressed. I have more
volume, I have more pitch change on year. That this is the, that this is the year. In fact,
the four words that this is the take about as much time as the one word year. That this is the year. That this is the year— to be doing— To be doing. He does a tiny little pause here, holds out his NG
sound a little bit. To be doing, to be doing, to be doing. So the word ‘to’ pronounced with
a true t, tt and the schwa. Tt, tt, tt, to be, to be, to be, and those are both flap. To be doing— They don't have a big pitch change like year.
To be, to be, to be doing. Then we have that pitch change on do. To be do and again to be
doing all smoothly connected. To be doing. to be doing— The word doing has D consonant, u vowel and then the I as in Sit ng ending. Sometimes it's
hard for students to connect two vowel sounds like U and I and it helps to connect them by thinking
of a quick glide consonant in this case it would be w. Doing. That can really help students
smooth out those connections. Doing, doing. Doing— something big. To be doing something big. Something big,
something. All kind of leading up to just the one stress word big something big. I as
in sit vowel falling down in pitch at the end, unvoiced th. Something, something. Something big. Something big. It's not something, some. It's not stressed,
it's something, something. I would write that s schwa n. Some, some. Something big. Something big. To be doing something big. So we have two up down
shapes of stress there. To be doing something big and everything is connected so smoothly. to be doing something big— I love this show. It is funny, I do recommend
you check it out but for now let's listen to this whole conversation one more time. Kids, just came in to remind you to keep Saturday open.
What’s Saturday? What's Saturday? It's your mother's birthday.
No. Her birthday is the second weekend in May. That's uh, a Mother's day honey.
I don't think so. I just don't think that this is
the year to be doing something big. Now let's put in a little training for
you. You're going to hear each part of each phrase three times in a row, think
about the analysis that we've just done, you'll hear it three times. Each time you hear
it there will be a pause for you to repeat it. Kids, It will get easier, your mouth will start to relax
around these sounds, it's going to be amazing. So do, do this out loud, don't skip the training.
It's going to really help you learn how to simplify your mouth movements and link things
together. Now, at first it may be incredibly hard and frustrating, stick with it, do this training
part of the video twice today, twice tomorrow and for an entire week. It will get easier, your
mouth will start to relax around these sounds, it's going to be amazing. Kids, Just came in to-- remind you to— keep Saturday open. What's Saturday? It's your mother's birthday. No. Her birthday is the-- second weekend in May. That's uh, Mother's Day honey. I don't think so. I just don't think that this is the year-- to be doing something big. I love this show, it is funny. I do recommend you check it out. But for now let's
listen to this whole conversation one more time. Kids, just came in to remind
you to keep Saturday open. What’s Saturday? What's Saturday? It's your mother's birthday.
No. Her birthday is the second weekend in May. That's uh, a Mother's Day honey.
I don't think so. I just don't think that this is
the year to be doing something big. So much to learn in one scene. If you want
to practice working with audio training for a video like this, check out my free course
the top three ways to master the American accent at Rachels english.com/free.
Keep your learning going now with this video and don't forget to subscribe with
notifications on I love being your English teacher and your American accent coach. That's
it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English
