Rachel:
In today's video, we're going to go over how to speak English fast. And we're also going
to go over one mistake you want to make sure you avoid when you're trying to pick up your
pace speaking English. First, let's listen to a native speaker speaking
quickly. This is my friend Tom who you might recognize because he's been on this channel
before. Hi is an outstanding accent coach in my online school "Rachel's English Academy." Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
That sounds pretty natural doesn't it? Pretty American. To me it sounds completely conversational
and completely natural. But it is really fast. What is he doing? Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
He's speaking with reductions. He's takes I-am-going-to and pronounces it 'I'm goin'
to.' We actually have 3 reductions there and they
each show a very good example of how to speak fast in American English. So let's break it
down and study. Actually first, let's compare this sentence. What if he said the sentence
with no reductions at all then what would it sound like? Tom:
Hi Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
Wow, there's a big difference there. One's natural, sounds fast, very American. The other
one sounds completely unnatural. All of the sounds are American and the melody is American
but somehow it just doesn't work out to sound like a natural conversational Englsih. Tom:
Hi Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
Let's look at the very beginning. He takes 'I am' and says 'I'm' a contraction.
Tip #1: Use contractions. Americans use contractions when speaking English all the time. If you
never use a contraction, it would start to sound a little unnatural.
A contraction is a kind of reduction. And I guess I should define reductions here.
A reduction is when we change or drop a sound. So in the combination 'I am', we have the
I dipthong, the A vowel, the M consonant, I am. But when we make a contraction, we drop
the A vowel and it becomes 'I'm','I'm.' So that drop sound means this is a reduction. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
Notice he's not saying I'm. He's saying: I'm, I'm, I'm. He's saying it really quickly. You
can too. Practice that with me. I'm, I'm, I'm. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
There are so many contractions in American English. Take for example, you are that becomes
'you're'. But actually even that reduces. It's very common to pronounce that you're,
you're, you're. We change the vowel to the schwa and we make it super fast.
You're going to love this. You're, you're. You're doing so well. You're, you're. I think you're
right. You're, you're. So fast. Because there are so many contractions and
tricks to their pronunciation, I'm going to put together a playlist on how to speak English
fast. I'm going to put lots of videos in there that supplement what we're learning here today.
So I'm going put in videos on contractions including a really fun one that includes some
real-life English. Woman:
That's because she's a good teacher. Rachel:
That's because. Did you hear that? Another contraction. That is, that's.
Okay, let's go back to Tom's sentence. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
I'm goin' to. Going. An 'ing' verb. He changed the 'ng' ending sound at the end and made
it an in' instead. Goin' instead of going. So when we make this change it changes the
vowel too. The I vowel, when it's followed by 'ng' tends to sound more like EE. But when
it's followed just by 'n', then it does sound like a pure E. So, going ing, ing, ing sounds
like E plus ng. And 'goin', in, in, in sounds like the E vowel and the N consonant. And
I do feel like I'm able to make that ending faster. Going. goin'. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
We've changed a sound. An example of a reduction. So tip 1 was use contractions. Tip 2 expands
that, Use Reductions. We have so many of em' in American English and Americans use them
all the time when they speak. It is common to change the ing ending to an
in' ending. You'll hear other people do it. Did you hear that? Doin' instead of doing.
So we do it especially with really common words in casual conversations. If you do this
all the time, always change the ing ending to an in' consonant. It will probably start
to sound like a southern dialect. Nothing wrong with that if you live in the southern
part of the US and you want that dialect. But if you want a more standard American accent,
use this reduction a little sparingly. Let's go back to Tom's sentence. Wow! It is
a tiny sentence and he is showing us so many things that makes us speak faster when we
speak American English. We're going to learn one more tip on how to speak English fast before
we get into our mistake that I wanna make sure that you avoid. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
The word 'to'. How did he pronounce it? Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
I didn't hear 'tu'. And I didn't hear 'u', to. What did you hear? Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
Hmmm. Let's listen to the sentence when he's fully pronouncing everything. Tom:
Hi Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Rachel:
Now I did hear the true T and the U vowel. But both of those sounds changed when he was
speaking more casually. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
What's happening? 2 things. First, the true T, tu. He's changing that to a flap T. The
true T is a stop consonant. It has 2 parts. A stop and a release. The flap T is a quick
single flap of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. So I can make that more quickly
duh duh duh duh duh rather than tu, tu, tu, tu, tu which sorts of stops the momentum. In American
English it is very common to change the T to a flap T in certain situations. Those situations
are: when the T sound comes between two vowels or when the T sound comes after an R and before
a vowel. And I should say, when I say vowel in these rules, I do mean vowel or dipthong.
Let's listen to how Tom says it again. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
Okay now there it came after an N before a vowel. Okay sometimes with the word to, the
word today, the word tomorrow. In those 3 words probably together too. The beginning
T can become a flap T even if the sound before wasn't a vowel dipthong or an R. They can
do that when the sound before was voiced like in this case, the N. That sound is voiced
'n'. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
So he makes the T a flap T. He changes the vowel to the schwa. Very common reduction.
This word will almost never be pronounced to. It will usually be pronounced 'tu' with
a true T or 'tu' with a flap T. Now he did the flap T as we've already discussed and we talked
about we make a flap T when it comes between certain sounds. What does it mean comes between?
It's the beginning of the word. The letter T is the beginning of the word 'to'. But wait,
this brings us to tip 3 and that is linking. Linking will help you speak more quickly and
it is how Americans speak all the time. Let's listen to his sentence again. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
The N sound goes right into the flap T with no brake. In American English, the unit of
the word doesn't matter in spoken Englsih. We don't do anything to signal the end of
a word, the beginning of the next word. Within a single thought group all of the words, all
of the sounds link together smoothly transitioning from one sound to the next. Because of this, it
means the phrase like f'or getting my' sounds just like 'forgetting my.'
It's my fault for getting my hopes up. For getting my, for getting my. I keep forgetting
my homework. Forgetting my, forgetting my. For getting my sounds just like forgetting
my because the sounds are the same, the stress is the same and there's no differentiation
between word units in spoken English. The unit we use in spoken English is a thought
group. That is the words that make up a single thought that we articulate. Now that might
include brakes as we think of what to say and those brakes each make a new thought group.
But the important thing to know is linking. Within a thought group, everything links together
smoothly with no brakes. That means a T can become a flap T when it links 2 words together
and follows the rules. Another example linking the word at with the article A: at a, at a,
at a, at a. That becomes a flap T. That sound links the 2 words together.
I do have a playlist on linking. I go over the different kinds of links and how to practice
them to really smooth out your speech, click here or on the video description and actually
I'll add that to the playlist 'How to Speak Fast in American English.'
So we have the flap T. We talked about a true T. T, T. The stop and the release. We actually
have another way that we pronounce the T and that is as a stop T. That means that we make
the stop but we don't release. For example in the word 'thoughtful.' Thought-ful. You
didn't hear t t t buy you heard thought-ful. A quick brake. I'm exaggerating it there.
thoughtful, thoughtful. There it is at a regular spoken pace. Do you hear that little lift
between syllables. Thoughtful, thoughtful. It's not thoughful, thoughful. That little
lift between syllables is the stop, is the stop T.
And just so you know, there are 2 other ways you might hear the T sound pronounced. First,
totally dropped. We do this sometimes after N like in the word 'interview' or 'internet'
or 'center'. And the other thing that we do with the T is we can make it actually we often
make it a ch sound when it's followed by R like in the word 'train'. T is maybe the most
complicated sound as far as how much it changes. I will make sure that I link to a whole playlist
on all of these T pronunciations here and also on the video description. But this video
is not about T pronunciations. It's about how to speak English fast. Let's go back to
Tom's sentence. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
Okay so we've talked about tips for speaking English fast. Use contractions, use reductions,
use linking. I said there is one thing I wanted to tell you to make sure not to do. And that
one thing is cheat your stress syllables. Let's listen to his sentence again. What is
the stressed syllable? Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
Starbucks. It's very clear. It's longer. It has an up down shape in pitch. That is the
shape of stress. Starbucks. Now what would that sentence sound like if he had cheated
that. If he had also made that syllable really fast. Then it would sound something like:
I'm going to Starbucks. I'm going to Starbucks. I'm going to Starbucks. Listen to how he says it
again. Tom:
Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
And I need that. I need that longer syllable. That stressed syllable. It gives me my anchor.
And that's why we still understand each other. If everything was reduced and linked and said
extremely quickly. I wouldn't be able to understand anything. But it's these longer stressed syllables
that give me my anchor in these sentences, that help my mind organize when I'm hearing
that help me understand. And when you don't use reductions at all and everything is fully
pronounced then I lose my anchors. They're less clear. That's why it's really important
for people to understand you for you to use reductions. It seems like well that's not
a very clear pronunciation I shouldn't use it. But actually you should. Because it's
that contrast of really fast with the longer stressed syllable that helps us understand
you. It gives us the context, the structure of American English. Let's listen to the two
sentences in contrast one more time. Tom:
Hi Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
Did you notice how we were wearing different outfits? This is from a fun video series I
did with Tom a while back while we wore casual clothes when we were speaking natural American
English and then we wore very formal clothes when we we were speaking with no reductions
and only true T pronunciations. And I wanna want to say that's not a formal way of talking. It's
just an unnatural way of talking but we did this outfit change to add to the contrast. Tom:
Hi Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Hey Rach, I'm goin' to Starbucks. Rachel:
I don't want to tease you with just that one sentence. Let's go ahead and watch the full
lesson. You'll be able to study how we speak English fast. How we speak English really quickly
by using reductions, linking, contractions and things like the flap T. Tom:
Do you want to come along? You wanna come along? Rachel:
Do you. Do is reduced so much that we almost don't hear it. Just a light D sound. The vowel
in you isn't quite a pure u either. It's a little more relaxed heading towards the schwa.
do you, do you, do you. Do you wanna. Want to reduces to wanna. Do you wanna. Do you wanna. Tom:
Do you want to come along? You wanna come along?
Do you want to come along? You wanna come along? Rachel:
No thank you Tom. No thanks.
Thank you becomes thanks. One last syllable No thank you Tom.
No thanks. No thank you Tom.
No thanks. I have got too much I want to get done here.
I've got too much I wanna get done here. I have becomes I've. Got too. Just one T between
those two words. Got too. Got too. Want to becomes wanna. Wanna. Get. We use a stop T
sound here because the next sound is a consonant. Get done. Get done.
I have got too much I want to get done here. I've got too much I wanna get done here.
I have got too much I want to get done here. I've got too much I wanna get done here. Tom:
Okay. I will be back soon. OK. I'll be back soon. Rachel:
I will becomes I'll reduced to I'll Tom:
Okay. I will be back soon. OK. I'll be back soon.
Okay. I will be back soon. OK. I'll be back soon. Rachel:
Oh, I would love a coffee though. Oh, I'd like a coffee though. I would becomes I'd Oh, I would love a coffee though.
Oh, I'd like a coffee though. Oh, I would love a coffee though.
Oh, I'd like a coffee though. Tom:
Medium? Rachel:
That will be fine. Tom:
Medium? Rachel:
That'll be fine. That will becomes that'll. A two syllable
word with stress on the first syllable. The T at the end of that is a flap T because it
comes with two vowels. That'll. That'll. Tom:
Medium? Rachel:
That will be fine. Tom:
Medium? Rachel:
That'll be fine. Tom:
Medium? Rachel:
That will be fine. Tom:
Medium? Rachel:
That'll be fine. Tom:
Great! See you in a bit. Great. Seeya in a bit. Rachel:
Great with a stop T. This is because it's the end of a sentence. You is more relaxed
here. Not an u vowel but more of a schwa. See ya, see ya. And finally, bit. With a stop
T, bit, bit. Again, because it's coming at the end of a sentence. Tom:
Great! See you in a bit. Great. Seeya in a bit.
Great! See you in a bit. Great. Seeya in a bit. Rachel:
So many options for reductions and contractions in such a short conversation. I also have
a playlist of all four videos that Tom and I made in that video series I called it a
'Contractversation' you can check it out here or on the video description below. You've
got a lot to do to study how to speak English really fast. There are so many habits to make
your own. One thing that helps a lot is studying real English conversation and I'm excited
to tell you that this summer, we're going to do just that. We're going to learn English
with movies. We're going to take some of the summer's hottest blockbusters: Captain Marvel,
Avengers Endgame and we're going to take small scenes and study them. We're going to study T
pronunciations, reductions, stress. All of this great stuff. I'm also going to make a free
audio lesson that's downloadable to go with each video.
If you want to get in with those free audio lessons, sign up by clicking here or in the
video description below. I'm doing this because I don't want to bombard people with emails if
they don't want them. You'll only get the audio lessons that are free download with
the videos if you sign up. What! Are you serious!? Come on! Rachel:
That's one of the scenes we'll be studying. This all starts June 18, get ready to join
me, we're going to study English together all summer long.
That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English!
