How and why do Americans speak so quickly?
And if you’re studying English, how do you keep up?
Today, we’re studying English with TV, the series, ‘Friends’. It’s a scene from
their New Year’s Eve Party and we’re going to talk about all the tricks of spoken English
that make up the music of English. The linking between words, the stress and the melody.
You’ll understand how Americans speak so fast, you’ll improve your listening skills,
and you’ll be able to sound more natural speaking English. Here’s the scene: Monica
and Chandler are dating and Joey is the only one that knows. This scene is about a minute
long and we’re going to study everything about the pronunciation. Here’s the full
scene. What’s the matter?
We wanted to kiss at midnight, but nobody else is going to, so, you know.
Alright. I’ll take care of it. Oh no.
Joey! Huh muh muh muh...
Thirty-three, Thirty-two, Thirty-one Ross, Ross listen, who you kissing at midnight
huh? Rachel or Phoebe? What?
Well, you got to kiss someone. Can’t kiss your sister.
Oh who’s going to kiss my sister? Chandler.
Oh man really? Dude, dude who would you rather kiss your
sister, me or Chandler? That's a good point.
Yeah. Well, since I have that whole history with
Rachel, I guess Phoebe. Okay, great!
Right. Phoebs! Phoebs! Listen, Ross wants to kiss you
at midnight. It's so obvious. Why doesn't he just ask.
Rach, Rach, listen, I’m going to kiss you at midnight. What?
Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone, can’t kiss Ross, you got the history.
So? So, who would you rather have kissing you, me or Chandler?
Oh, good point. Yeah.
Three! Two! One! Happy New Year! Happy New Year.
Happy New Year. Did you catch how ‘or’ was pronounced
‘ur’? There are lots of changes like that in spoken English. Here’s the full analysis.
What’s the matter? So this first sentence isn’t too clear,
is it? What’s the matter? What’s the matter? What’s the said really quickly and everything
leads up to the stressed syllable ‘ma’, What’s the matter? And then comes down. So,
very connected, very smooth, a little bit breathy, ‘What’s the’ becomes ‘What’s
the’. What’s the,What’s the. Barely a W sound at all. And this is a actually a
word that can be shortened to ts. What’s, it’s, that’s and let’s are all sometimes
shortened to just the ts sound. Ts’the matter? What’s the matter? And he’s kind of doing that here, maybe a little bit of schwa. What’s the matter?
Huh,huh,huh. What’s the matter? But it’s very unclear isn’t it? Definitely not “what’s”
fully pronounced. The word ‘the’, this is unstressed word
that begins with the voiced th just like this that, these, those, those kind of all be pronounced
with different kind of th. So, rather than the tongue tip coming through the teeth, the
tongue tip presses the backs of the teeth, uhuhuh, and then pulls away, very quickly
to make that schwa. The word ‘the’ is this: the, the ,the, the. Said so quickly,
low in pitch, low in volume, not too clear because it’s unstressed. Then our stressed
syllable with the æ vowel, ma, ma, has that change of direction, the pitch goes up then
down and then a flap t into the schwa sharp r sound, (flap) on the way down. Ahu. All
one connected, utterance, it can actually just feel like one word. No brakes, with the one
stressed syllable ma. What’s the matter? We wanted to kiss at midnight. So we have a couple of stressed syllables there that
are a little bit longer. Ahuhauhhau, and that’s the way how American English works. We have
stressed syllables, they usually have a curve up and curve down. We wanted to kiss at midnight.
So, three of those and the rest of the syllables are a little bit lower in pitch, volume, now
here he sort of whispering a little bit, he’s not saying it to the whole room, he only wants
Joey to hear because the relationship is secret. We wanted to kiss at midnight. We wanted to kiss. We wanted. Do you hear wanted, wanted. That t is dropped. That’s
the most common pronunciation of that word. So, the ed ending here makes ih as in sit
d when nt is followed by a vowel, it’s really common to drop that t. The word ‘wanted’,
almost every time you hear an American say that, they will not say the T. Even if it’s
in a business meeting, even if it’s an important speech, even in those formal cases, we don’t
usually say wanted. We almost always say wan-id, wan-id. We wanted to kiss We wanted to kiss.I love when you hear that
on a loop, how you really start to hear the rhythm. Tadadadada. Tadadadada. Tadadadada.
So those unstressed syllables probably, you’re not making them short enough. That’s the
main thing I work with on my students when it comes to rhythm, shortening up unstressed
syllables. We wanted to, nid to, nid to, nid to. So id said really quickly then the word
to reduces, it's a very quick true T and then schwa. We wanted to.To, to. We wanted to kiss.
Uhuhuh. We wanted to kiss We wanted to kiss at midnight. At midnight. How was the word ‘at’ pronounced? I don’t hear at, do you? At. That’s the
vowel in that word fully pronounced. But I don’t hear a, I hear schwa and then a really
quick stop of air at midnight. That’s the stop T, at,at,at. So the word at, how do we
make it faster? Change to vowel, make that a stop T, at,at. It really does need to
be that fast. At midnight, at midnight. At midnight Notice the d in midnight is not released, it’s not mid, midnight, but midnight, mid-night.
So, the d very fast, the vocal cords vibrate but it’s not released. Midnight. Midnight. And again a stop T. So, the T pronunciation
is usually a stop t if it comes at the end of a thought group or if it’s followed by
a word that begins with a consonant. Midnight But nobody else is going to– But nobody else is going to. But nobody else.
So we have a little bit of stress, a little bit of that up down melody on no and then
a lot more on else but nobody else is going to But nobody else is going to– Going to, going also stressed, this one goes
down and up. Usually they go up and down but sometimes, down and up. Going to. Going to– Little lift there, but nobody, do you notice
that? Another stop t, next word begins with a consonant. But nobody else. Okay, we need
to talk about the dark L here. An L is a dark L if it comes after the vowel or diphthong.
So this is a one syllable word, the main sound here, the vowel is the eh as is bed. So the
L comes after that vowel so it’s a dark L. And for dark L, especially when the sound
is a consonant, we don’t lift the tongue tip. So that’s just made at the back of
the tongue, uhl, el, uhl. Tongue tip is down. If you lift your tongue tip here, else, else,
else. It’s an extra movement you don’t need. It's probably going to get in the way of making the dark sound. L, uhl,uhl, L, else. See if you can challenge yourself
to make that without lifting your tongue tip. You might need to slow it down, really think
about it, L, uhl,uhl. That dark sound is made at that back of the tongue pressing down and
back a little bit L, else. But nobody else–
But nobody else is going to, Nobody else is going to. Now here the word
to, not reduced, that is the full u vowel, here it was reduced. We usually don’t reduce
the word it if it’s the last word in a thought group and there is a little lift here so I
would say that’s why this word is not reduced. going to, So, you know. So, so, again a little down up stress so,
you know. So, you know. You know, you know, sort of a questioning intonation. Do you understand what I’m talking
about you know the word you, reduced. It’s not you know, but it’s jə, jə, said so
quickly, not a u vowel but a schwa. You know, you know. Alright. Alright. Alright, again, down up stress, alright. When we do this,
it can signal a couple of different things. It can signal a question, it can also signal
that there’s more to say. So he says ‘alright’, then he follows it with ‘I’ll take care
of it.’ So, intonation going up on our right to show, okay I understand, I’m going to
say more, I’m going to solve that problem for you.
Alright. Now the L in ‘Alright’ can be dropped.
Alright, alright. I think that’s what he’s doing here, you can think of it as in aw as
in law vowel, alright, alright and stop t. You don’t hear t. a true t release, that’s
because it’s the end of a thought group. Alright. I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care.
So all of those words are either leading up to or going away from the peak of stress on
the word care. And notice his pitch is going down here. He’s done. He doesn’t have
more to say, so statement intonation. The words I will in contraction often sound like
the word all. And that’s what’s happening here. I’ll take care of it. And again we don’t hear a t, a true t release,
I’ll take care of it, it, it ,it, it. Quiet abrupt stop. I’ll take care of it. Notice how everything links together really
smoothly, there are no breaks. Here we have take care, a word ending in a k sound, a word
beginning with a k sound they just link one k sound. Take care, take care, I’ll take
care of it. Now the word care written in IPA would be, let’s bring this over here. Would
be k consonant, eh as in bed, schwa r, and the r, well it takes over the schwa first
of all, so you don’t need to think of making an extra schwa sound. And the schwa r sound,
the r sound can change some vowels eh is one of them. So a pure eh would be eh, bed, k,
care, care, care, are, are. That’s not how we say it, we say caaa, So the jaw drops less,
caa-aa. It’s a little bit more of the beginning of the ei diphthong, care rather than care.
So less jaw drop, modified vowel there. Care of it. The ending r links right into the schwa
for of and the ending v of of links right into the e vowel of it so everything very
smooth. Care of it I’ll take care of it. I’ll take care of it. Okay, then Chandler starts making some sounds like, Uh, nonono, and Monica says Joey! High
intonation, going even higher up down for that peak of stress on that stressed syllable Jo, Joey!
Joey! Uh, no. Joey! Huh muh muh muh… Huh muh muh muh, okay, they don’t want him
to go tell people that Chandler and Monica want to kiss, Joey’s the only one that knows
that they are in a relationship. So, Joey’s going to solve the problem in a different
way. Uh, no. Joey!
Huh muh muh muh… Thirty-three, thirty-two, thirty-one!
Ross listen. Okay, so Ross is counting down starting in the
thirties, of course it’s crazy, we, most people don’t start counting down until ten.
But notice, when we have a compound number like this , Thirty-three, stress is on the
last one. thirty-two, thirty-one! So no matter how long your number is, Eight thousand nine
hundred and twenty two, the stress is always on the last digit. Another thing to notice here
is the t in the word thirty is a flap t. That’s because if I write it out, we have unvoiced
th, then we have the ur as in bird vowel r combination, a t and the e vowel. So, the
t is a flap t if it comes between two vowel sounds or if it comes after an r before a
vowel or diphthong like here. So, all of these are not thirty but thirdy, thirdy, [flap].
A flap of the tongue. That will help smooth that out, that will sound a little both natural,
thirty, thirty. We also want to make sure that we’re doing a little bit of stress
on the first syllable there so that the second syllable feels unstressed. Thirty, dada. Thirty-one.
So a little bit of stress on thir, no stress on ty and then the most stress on three, two
and one. Thirty-three, thirty-two, thirty-one!
Ross listen. Ross listen, Ross listen. So two stressed
syllables there. Ross. Listen. The name and also the first syllable of listen, that t
is silent, it’s not that he’s dropping the t, it’s just that in that word the official
full pronunciation doesn’t have a t. Listen. Ross listen. Who you kissing at midnight? Who you kissing at midnight?
Who you, so he drops the word are which makes the sentence more grammatically correct. That’s
okay,that happens sometimes. Who you kissing, so he’s stressing you. Its the peak of stress
for this sentence. Because he’s saying everybody’s going to kiss somebody, who are you kissing? Who you kissing at midnight? Who you kissing at midnight? A little bit
of stress on the way down on ki, kissing at midnight, also mid. The ing ending gets
changed to just the n ending, so the ending vowel there, ih as in sit, n unstressed, kissing,
kissing. Who you kissing at, so we have two unstressed syllables in a row, the unstressed
syllable of kissing the second syllable, also the word at which you all know already reduces,
the ah vowel changes to the schwa and we have a stop t, stop t because the next word begins
with a consonant. Kissing at, kissing at, kissing at midnight. kissing at midnight? And again, stop t there because it’s the
end of his thought group, he puts a little break, also again notice the d just like before,
not released, midnight, but midnight, at mid-night, midnight. Midnight huh? I didn’t write it in but he says huh? And
that intonation goes up. Questioning. Midnight huh? Rachel or Pheobe? Then he asks another question, Rachel or Phoebe?
But it’s not a yes no question so it goes down in pitch at the end. Rachel or Phoebe.
Now , the stressed syllable Ra, a little bit higher than for Phoe, Phoebe because it’s
closer to the beginning of the sentence. That’s often what happens. Our peaks of stress tend
to be higher towards the beginning of a sentence than towards the end. Rachel or Pheobe? So, Rachel or Pheobe? Two unstressed syllables
here and then one unstressed syllable at the end. Rachel or Pheobe? The word ‘or’ reduced, schwa r, it’s
not or, it’s ur. Rachel-ur, Rachel-ur. Now or absorbs the schwa like I said before, you
don’t make a separate schwa sound, it’s just ur,ur,ur, ur. A little unstressed r sound,
low in pitch, ur. Rachel or, Rachel or. Rachel or
So the L in Rachel, also a dark L but here it is followed by a vowel or diphthong, so
you can lift your tongue, Rachel or, [flap] to separate the feeling of those two syllables
but still make a dark sound. Rachel, uhl,uhl,uhl. That unstressed syllable should just be that
dark sound. Rachel, Rachel or, Rachel or, Rachel or Phoebe. Rachel or Pheobe? What? What? What? What? Question intonation, he’s like wait we’re kissing people? What? Stop
t because it’s the end of a thought group. What?
Well, you’ve got to kiss someone. Well, you’ve got to kiss someone. Well,
you’ve got to kiss someone. All of that going up towards kiss. Well, you’ve got
to kiss someone. And then falling away from it. The word ‘well’ very unclear. Well, you’ve got to kiss someone. Well, well, well. I would just write that
w schwa, well. And then it’s linked on to the next word well, well, well. Well you you’ve
got to kiss, well you you’ve got to kiss. Well you you’ve got to kiss– You got to, all going up in intonation, the
v sound here for you have, dropped, you got to, actually is it you or ya? Well you you’ve got to kiss– Definitely ya, ya. That reduction makes it
so that he can say it more quickly, it’s unstressed, we’re just trying to get to
that peak of stress, got to reduces to gotta and notice that is a flap t in there. Gotta,
[flap] gotta. Well you you’ve got to kiss– So you have got to becomes you gotta, you gotta. Simplifying that let’s us say it
more quickly and you may wonder why would we want to say that quickly becomes less clear.
That’s because in American English, clarity comes from contrast. So we don’t want every
syllable to be clear, that’s not how English works. English is a stress timed language
which means the clarity comes from contrast. Some very clear syllables, some less clear
syllables. That whole thing, that whole idea is what makes English clear to native listeners. Well you you’ve got to kiss– So learning these reductions and these simplifications
will help you sound a little bit more natural speaking English. It will help you be understood
more easily. I know it sounds crazy, speak less clear in some places to be better understood,
yet it’s true. Well, you you’ve got to kiss– You’ve gotta kiss. Here we have ending s beginning s, those words linked together with
one sound, the s, just like before when we had the k sound linking. You’ve got to kiss
someone. You’ve got to kiss someone– Can’t kiss your sister. Two stressed syllables there. Can’t kiss your sister. Can’t,
can’t. There are couple different ways to pronounce the n apostrophe t contraction here.
It’s with a little lift, a little bit of that stop feeling.Can’t kiss, can’t kiss.
Can’t kiss your sister. Can’t kiss your sister. Your. not fully pronounced, reduced. Just like you up here reduced to ya. Your down here
is reducing to yer, said quickly. your sister.
Well, who’s going to kiss my sister? Who's going to kiss my sister? Again well,
said very unclear, said very quickly, who’s going to kiss my sister. Okay here sis is
the peak of stress. We also have some stress on who. So these question words, who, what,
when, where, why, how, those all tend to be stressed when we’re asking a question. If
it’s part of a sentence then it tends to be unstressed, a statement. For example, I
don’t know .going to be there. That’s a statement. We’re not asking a question.
I don’t know who’s. Who’s will be unstressed there. Here, we’re asking a question so
that question word will be stressed. Who's going to kiss my sister? Again the word well, said unclearly, unstressed. Going to becomes gonna. Who’s a really weak
ending z linking in together. Who’s gonna, who’s gonna kiss my sister. Who's going to kiss my sister? Going to kiss my all said quickly and
we want that to be fast so we have a little bit of contrast with our stressed syllables
that have that pitch change, they’re a little louder, a little longer. Listen to this sentence
three times. Who's going to kiss my sister? If you’re going to match that phase, you really need to make sure you’re simplifying
your unstressed words. Gonna kiss my, gonna kiss my, gonna kiss my, gonna kiss my. You
can do it. Who's going to kiss my sister? Chandler. Chandler. Chandler. Chandler. One stressed
syllable and the second stressed syllable just falling away from it. Chandler. And he
drops the d sound there. Chandler. Chandler. Ow, man, really? Ow, man, two clear up down shapes of stress,
it’s because he slowed it down a little bit. Ow, man, really? And then that’s a
yes not question, the intonation is going up. Ow, man, really? The word man, make sure you’re not saying
man. That’s how it looks in the dictionary. If you look it up you’ll see m, a as in
bat n, but whenever a is followed by n, it changes a little bit. Ma uh, so make sure
you get an uh vowel in there, sort of like uh as in butter. Not man but man, ae, ae,
ae, man.. Ow, man, Ow, man, really? Du, dude.
Du, dude. Du, dude. Du, dude. You know maybe he said dude twice but I wrote it just the
first two sounds because it would connect with one d anyway wouldn’t it. Du, dude,
dude, dude. Du, dude.
Who would you rather have kiss your sister, me or Chandler?
Who would you rather have, who. Okay a question, starting with a question word that’s going
to have some stress. Who would you rather have. Who would you rather have kiss your sister, Who would you rather have kiss your sister.
So, some stress on kiss. Kiss your sister and some stress on sis. Would you rather have,
all said really quickly, simplified. Who would you rather have Who would you rather have. Do you hear that J sound? Would you, ju. Let’s talk about
that. The l in would, always silent. When we have a word that ends in a d followed by
you or your, sometimes, maybe half the time, native speakers will combine that to a j sound
which we would write in IPA like this: dʒ and that’s what he does here. Combines the
d and the y, would you, would you, would you jujuju to get that j sound. would you rather have
would you rather have kiss your sister, me or Chandler? me or Chandler? Me, going up in pitch, listing
two options often in a list. Every option will go up in pitch until the last one. Me
or Chandler? And then this one goes down. Me or Chandler? The word or again reduced. It’s not or,
it’s just ar r sound. ər, ər, ər Chandler. Again dropped d here. Chandler. So it’s
pretty common to drop the d after an n. N, Chandler. I can see saying the d after introducing
yourself and trying to be really clear but if you’re talking with friends and they
all already know your name, they’re probably going to make that shortcut, Chandler. Me or Chandler? That’s a good point. That’s a good point. So good point. Everything going up towards that peak of stress. Ts a good point. We have one stressed word and it doesn’t end with
t, a release but it’s point, point. A bit of a nasally stop there for the nt. Now remember
at the beginning how I said what’s, it’s, that’s and let’s can all be reduced to
just the ts sound, that’s what’s happening here. That just becomes just ts and links
on to the next word tsa,tsa,tsa, tsa good point, tsa good point. That’s a good point. Everything linking together smoothly, the
ending d not released, just vibrated in the vocal cords then right into the p. That’s a good point. Uh, well, Uh, well, Uh, well, Well being used a lot
isn’t it? Sort of a filler thinking word. More fully pronounced here. Uh, well. Uh, well, Since I have that whole history with Rachel, Since I have that whole history with Rachel,
Since I have the whole, a little bit stress on since. Since I have that whole, then everything
is going down until history with Rachel. Two more stressed syllables. Since I have that whole history with Rachel, Now, notice the word history. This is one
of those words like camera, family that can be pronounced as three syllables but is
usually pronounced as two. So history. How does Ross pronounce that? History History, history, history. Two syllables.
So his, ending in an s, the first syllable then try, tr cluster. Now a tr cluster often
gets change into a chr, that’s the most common pronunciation. Chry, chry, history,
history. So history becomes history. History– Since I have that whole, that whole, that
stop t, not released. Whole. I also want to talk about this L, dark L, don’t lift your
tongue tip. You probably learned, you lift your tongue tip for the L. Not the dark L.
A lot of our Ls are dark Ls. Whole, whole. So we have the o diphthong here but when it’s
followed by a dark L, it’s not pure, it’s not whole, whole but it’s whole. So the
dark L mixes with that diphthong a little bit. It’s really just one sound, not two,
not o but uhl, so lips round but the tongue shifts back a little bit, presses down in
the back, whole, whole, whole history. whole history whole history with Rachel, I guess Phoebe. Rachel, I guess Phoebe. Rachel, uhl,uhl, uhl.
Again, a quick dark L, it’s unstressed, don’t want to hold it out or make too much
of it, uhl, uhl, uhl very fast. Rachel, Rachel, I guess Phoebe. I guess Phoebe. Uhu. smoothly going up towards
our peak of stress. The stressed syllable of Phoe, name, pronounced Phoebe. First syllable
stress, F consonant, E vowel, second syllable, b consonant, e vowel. Phoebe. But it’s important
to notice in American English we don’t have jumps or breaks within a thought. The pitch
is always changing smoothly. I guess Phoebe. Uhuhuh, continuous sound . I guess Phoebe. Okay, great. Okay, great. Okay, second syllable stress,
okay, great. Both have that up down shape of stress and we end with a stop t not a released
t. Okay, great. Phoebes, Phoebes, Phoebes. Okay, her nickname Phoebes.
One syllable, Phoebes, Phoebes. Both stressed. Phebes, uhuh, up down shape Phoebes, Phoebes, Listen. Listen, listen. Again, up down shape, no t
in that word. Listen. Ross Ross, making that a little bit longer, really
stressing it, Ross. Ross Ross
Wants to kiss you Wants to kiss you, wants to kiss you. A little
bit of that up down shape on kiss. Want to, less important, less clear. Ross wants to. Ross wants to kiss you. The word to reduced, a very light true t,
then the schwa, wants to, wants to, wants to, wants to. Let me make that schwa a little
clear. Wants to, wants to. wants to
wants to kiss you at midnight. Kiss you at midnight. Kiss you at, so you
and then at, a valley coming down from the peak of stress on kiss. Kiss you at midnight.
And then another peak of stress on midnight and then again a stop t. kiss you at midnight. The word at, again not at but at. So the a
vowel changes to a schwa and the true t changes to a stop t. So both of those sounds change
from what you may have learned. You may have learned this word is pronounced at. In fact
much of the time it’s at or a flap t if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong.
Here, next word begins with a consonant, so that’s a stop t. At midnight. At midnight. It maybe overwhelming seeing these changes
in American English but there is not an infinite number. There is a finite of reductions that
we do, and the T pronunciations, they are a little bit crazy but there are rules. So
the more you study, this kind of conversation, the more you pick up on these things that
are natural in American English. The more you learn, the more you can practice it and
the more you can hear it and start noticing and your listening comprehension improves. At midnight. It’s so obvious. It’s so obvious. Again, another place where
it’s, that’s, what’s, let’s. We don’t hear that vowel. It’s really just so obvious.
TS and of course those words link with a single s. So obvious. So obvious. So obvious. Linking together smoothly,
peak of stress, obvious on our first syllable there which is stressed. So obvious.
Why doesn’t he just ask? Why doesn’t he just ask? So again a question,
so the question word stressed. Why doesn’t he just ask? Now we have a couple of things
here happening with our pronunciation. Let’s look first at the n apostrophe t contraction.
I said before we have a couple of different pronunciations for that, how is it pronounced. Why doesn’t he just ask? Why doesn’t he, doesn’t he, I would say
that t is totally dropped and the h is also totally dropped. So the word he, him, his,
it’s pretty common also her to drop the h in those unstressed words. So here, the
word he is just the e vowel. N apostrophe t contraction, it’s pretty common to drop
that t if the next word is a vowel. So we’ve dropped the h. That means he is just a vowel,
so it makes sense to drop that t and link together smoothly with the n, doesn’t he,
doesn’t he, doesn’t he. Why doesn’t he Why doesn’t he just ask? Why doesn’t he just ask? Just, very light
true t, just ask, just ask and a peak of stress on a vowel. just ask?
Rach, Rach, Rach, Rach, again just like Phoebs, Phoebs.
Rach, Rach, up down shape of stress. Rach, Rach,
Listen. Listen. Again, up down shape of stress. So
Rach, that’s one syllable. Listen, that’s two syllables but it’s still the same feel.
The unstressed syllable comes in as we fall away in the peak of stress. Rach, Rach, listen
uhuhuh. So same feeling even though we have an unstressed syllable here. And again the
T in listen never pronounced. Rach, Rach, listen.
I’m going to kiss you at midnight. Now let’s listen to this next phrase several
times. I want you to listen. Do you hear a g in going? I’m going to kiss you at midnight. I’m going to kiss you at midnight. So he’s
stressing the two people, me and you and he does a lot of reductions. You probably know
that going to but when the word I’m comes before sometimes reduce it, we reduce it even
more. So it can become, I’munna, I’munna, I’munna. The m just links into the word
and we drop the g. So I am goI’m going to ing to becomes I’mmuna, I’munna, I’munna.
Or we can even drop the I diphthong and just say munna, munna, munna. We do have a video
on that so you can look up Rachel’s English. But here he doesn’t drop the I diphthong
so instead of I am going to, he says I’munna, I’munna, I’munna,I’munna, I’munna.
No g sound. I’m going to
I’m going to kiss you at midnight. I’m going to kiss you at midnight. Kiss
you. So rather than stressing kiss, he’s stressing you because again, he’s working
out all of th people so it’s the people that are stressed, I, you. How do you think
at midnight is going to be pronounced? I’m going to kiss you at midnight. at midnight. You guessed it, schwa, a stop
t. Ət,ət,ət midnight and then stress on the first syllable, stop t at the end. ət
midnight. at midnight.
What? What? What? She didn’t know she was kissing
anyone. Upward intonation, a light release of the true t. What? What?
Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone. Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone. Again,
well hardly pronounced, wu, could have right that w schwa wu. Well
Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone. Everyone's got to kiss someone. So the first
syllable of everyone is stressed and he makes it go down up. Everyone's got to kiss someone.
And our peak of stress is on the e vowel for the word kiss. Everyone’s got to. The weak
ending z linking right into the g sound, everything very smooth, got to becomes gotta, Flap t,
everyone’s gotta kiss someone and again kiss and someone link together with a single
s. Well, everyone’s got to kiss someone.
Can’t kiss Ross. Can’t kiss Ross. Can’t kiss. Do you hear
that little lift, that little break that between can’t and kiss? That’s the stop t, can’t
kiss, can’t kiss, can’t kiss Ross. can’t kiss Ross. Can’t and kiss going up towards our peak
of stress on Ross. Ross, so up down shape and a little bit up at the end to show there’s
more to say about that. There’s more to say about why you can’t kiss Ross. It’s
because of the history. can’t kiss Ross. You got the history. You got the history. I left our the word ‘the’,
didn’t I? You got the history. Biggest peak of stress on the ih vowel there. Now let’s
listen, does he say history, three syllables or does he say history, two syllables. You got the history. History, history. I would
again say two syllables just like Ross. History. So again, we really don’t say the schwa
there, we don’t really say that middle syllable. History. History. So? S consonant, O diphthong, going up, questioning
intonation. Why does that matter? So?
So, who would you rather have kissing you? So?So? Also going up, he has more to say,
he’s going to answer that, so? Now look here we have a question word and a question
mark so this is a question not a statement. We know this word who. This is probably one
of our stressed syllables, let’s listen. So, who would you rather have kissing you? Who would you rather have kissing you? Who
would you rather have kissing you? Definitely we have some of our length there. Would you
rather have, all said quickly. Again would you, we have an ending d, the word you. Now
before when we heard that, we got a j sound, let’s see if we hear that again. Who would you rather have kissing you? Who would you rather have, Who would you rather
have, would you rather have, would you rather have, would you rather have. I do hear a light
j sound connecting those two words, now all four of these words are said really quickly,
would you rather have, would you rather have, would you rather have. But I do hear that
J, do you? Who would you rather have Who would you rather have kissing you? Me or Chandler? Me or Chandler? Me, me, going up in pitch.
Me or Chandler. Chan, our peak of stress on that a vowel again . No d, Chanler. And again,
or is reduced. Or, or ,or Chandler. Me or Chandler? Me or Chandler? Everything links together smoothly, some words
said really fast, some words reduced but some words stressed that longer stressed syllable
and most importantly, that shape of stress, a change in intonation either a scoop up or
a scoop down. That’s the character of American English. Me or Chandler? Oh, good point. Oh, good point. Oh,oh, same pattern as the
stressed syllable, pitch goes up and then down, oh. Oh, Oh, good point. Good point, good point, good point. Good,
going up towards our peak of stress, point, and then a change of direction, good point.
The d, not released, quick vibration of the vocal cords but then linking right into the
p and a stop at the end. Not point but point. Point. good point. Yeah. Yeah.Yeah. Kind of quiet but still that up
down shape of stress. Yeah. Three, two, one, Three, okay so now people are really counting
down. Three, three, up down shape of intonation, three, two, one. Three, two, one, Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Stress on ha and new. Happy
New Year! And year just sort of comes in as the pitch goes down. Happy New Year! Happy New Year. Happy New Year. So they’re all falling that
same intonation, Happy New Year. Happy New Year. So if you’re somewhere this New Year’s
Eve and you’re at a party and people are speaking English, Happy New Year, have that
up down shape of stress. Happy New Year and of course, you want to speed it up a little
bit, Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Uhuh. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. And Happy New Year to you. Now let’s listen
to that whole conversation one more time while you look up the marked up text. Notice what
you hear. I just love this kind of video. Come back
in two weeks for another analysis video from this same episode of Friends. I also have
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