This small scene shows you everything you need to know about American English pronunciation and
how to understand fast English. I’m Rachel, and I’ve been teaching the American accent and
improving your listening skills for over 15 years. Check out RachelsEnglish.com to learn
more and to sign up for my free course. To understand fast English, you have to know
about reductions and simplifying certain words, what a stressed syllable should sound
like, linking, and so on. We’ll study all of this in a short scene from the TV
show “Little America” from Apple Plus, a series about the immigrant
experience in America. First, we’ll watch the scene, then we’ll
do an in-depth analysis. Here’s the scene. There’s going to be no closed captioning for it
this first time through. How much of it do you understand? All of it? Most of it? some of it? or
a little of it? Let me know in the comments. Now, let’s go word by word, phrase by phrase, to
figure out how to understand fast English. That's your mom 's signature? So this is a yes no question and the
intonation is going up at the end. Signature. So we have two stressed syllables
in this phrase we have mom's and our stressed syllables always have a pitch change so it's
going mom’s, down and up and we can really hear that change of pitch. Let's listen
to Just the word mom’s in slow motion. Mom's-- Then we have a second stress syllable in
signature. So again a little bit down and then up for our stressed syllable in a yes
no question. That's your mom's signature? That's your mom's signature? That's and your both said really
quickly, those are unstressed words. that's your-- So see if you can do that really simplifying
your mouth movements. Your would be written in IPA with the Y consonant schwa R and the
schwa R ending really just becomes an R ending, R takes over the schwa, so it's almost just
like a word with no vowel. Your, your, your. We’ve just gotten our first reduction,
your becomes yer. So fast. You’re going to hear this a lot in this conversation. Now
that you know it and you’re studying it, your ear is going to pick up
on it more in conversation, and your listening comprehension, your ability
to understand fast English, is going to improve. One thing that will get the American
accent even more into your ear and body is repetitious training with audio. I
can offer you that in my free mini-course, Top 3 Ways to Master the American Accent. Visit Rachel’senglish.com/free
to start your course today. And the word that's is that's that's
that's that's that's. So fast, the tongue tip doesn't need to come through the
teeth. It just touches the backs of the teeth, tha, tha, tha, tha, that's that's that's that's. that's-- your mom's-- To make it really fast and simple. That's your, that's your, that's your mom's. So the
one word moms is longer than the two words that's your. That's your mom's. It's
almost twice as long as those two words. Mom's-- Signature. Looking at the word signature, it's interesting
because the word sign is in it and the word sign has a silent G. But in the word signature
we do have a G and then an N signature, and the letter T there makes the CH
sound. Signature, ture, ture, signature? Signature? Mm. So instead of saying yes, one thing that
we can say is Mmhm but she's shortening that to just Mm, mm. This is not usual it's not
very respectful because it's not really a full answer. Mm, Mm. But to say hmm, hmm, that would
be fine that wouldn't be considered rude. Yes is probably even better but hmm is a fine way
to say yes but Mm is just a little bit rude, this girl is not really interested in what
this woman is trying to get her to do. Mm. That looks a lot like your handwriting. Okay so just like up here when we had that's
your and they were both unstressed and short now we have that looks and they're
both unstressed and pretty short. That looks-- I would say the t is dropped
even and again with this th, when the th is unvoiced, sorry is voiced but
it's in an unstressed word like that or the, it's really common to make that actually
all the time we would make that without the tongue tip actually coming through because
that takes too long when the word is unstressed, we want to say it as quickly as possible. So
rather than that full th sound, it's thththth, the tongue just touches the backs of the
teeth which are very slightly parted tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, tha, that look, that
looks, that looks, that looks, that looks. That looks-- In order to get those words out quickly.
Now while that is unclear on its own in the context of the full sentence
with that contrast, it's very clear. That looks-- a lot like your handwriting. So what are the stress longer
words or syllables in this phrase? That’s looks a lot like your handwriting. That looks a lot. So lot is our most stress word,
that has the most pitch change. That looks a lot like your handwriting and then another
up down shape of stress on the word hand, it's less stressed, it's closer to the end
of the sentence and often those stressed syllables will feel less stressed,
it looks a lot like your handwriting. That looks a lot like your handwriting. Remember the phrase a lot. Always write
that with a space and the first sound is the schwa. So it's not a lot but it's uh uh,
a lot, a lot, a lot. And it will always link in which is why some people write it with
no space because it feels like one word. Because of how we link and connect but it is
two words. A lot, a lot. And this is going to be a stop t because the next word begins with
a consonant. Looks a lot, looks a lot, a lot. A lot. One of the most common misspellings in
English, because the two words go together. We don’t put breaks between words in spoken American
English most of the time; there's no way to know by listening if it’s one word or two, because all
of your words should smoothly link together. It really helps to break things up into
these little mini phrases to help you practice that smoothness looks a lot to help
you really focus on your stressed syllable, looks a lot and also to help you simplify
your mouth movements. Looks a lot. Looks a lot-- looks a lot like your handwriting. Like your handwriting. Like your
handwriting. So all of this, if we listen to just the first half of the
phrase, the pitch is higher in general. The second half of the phrase the pitch is
lower and this is normal. In spoken English, generally the pitch and the energy of the
voice is higher towards the beginning and it tends to fall towards the end with
some of these up down shapes for stress. I like your handwriting. Like your handwriting, like your handwriting.
Notice the your reduction again not your or your but your, your, your, your handwriting,
your handwriting. The D is dropped here fairly common to drop a d after an n. Handwriting.
And of course wr is just one single sound, the r consonant and the T in writing, writing,
writing, writing is a flap T because it comes between two vowels so it's not writing but
it's writing, [flap], writing, writing. like your handwriting. Yeah, because we're related. Okay, she's making me laugh here a little
bit with her um, the way she says related. It's like she knows it's a lie she knows it's
not very convincing and she's not saying the word very quickly even though it's the stress word
here. Yeah, because we're related. And they both both yeah and related have that more extreme
pitch change, yeah, because we're related. Yeah, because we're related. And that's again just what we do on stressed
syllables. Her pitch is higher now and our pitch is higher and changes more
when we're wanting to add stress or emotion or excitement so here I think
because she knows she's lying she's just trying to cover with like sort of a happy
attitude. Yeah, because we're related. Yeah, because we're related. Because we're related, because were related. She sort of cuts off her stressed syllable.
It's not even relay that I hear but it's more like relu, relu. It's almost
like the word just stops abruptly. Yeah, because we're related. I still hear a flap T here though.
Because we're related [flap]. So you’re learning about T pronunciations
now. We have something called a flap T like in related, [flap], and sometimes
we drop T like in 'I don’t know.’, don’t know. We also have a Stop T and a True
T, so there are four different pronunciations of this sound. I’ll link to a playlist on T
pronunciations in the video description. More clearly pronounced it would be related with
schwa in the first syllable and the ed ending, that's always an i as in sit D or you can think
of it as schwa d because it's unstressed but it's always pronounced that way after a t
or a d. Related or in this case, related. Because were related. Because we are. We see the
contraction we are becomes were and how are these two words pronounced? Because were-- Super unclear flat low in pitch, low in
energy, the word because is reduced to k schwa z. The word were, wer, wer, wer,
I would write w schwa r, wer, wer, wer. Because were-- So they're flat, we don't have the pitch change
that we have in a stress word. They're either flat or going up or coming down but unstressed
words never have a pitch change and they're said so quickly more quietly, less energy and
volume. Because were, because were, because were. Because we are - cuzwr. When I tell my
students, pronounce that ‘cuzwr’. They’re like, hold on though! That’s totally unclear, no one
will be able to understand me. Which is actually true. If we only ever said unstressed words,
no one would understand us. But we don’t do that. The unstressed and the stressed together,
that is what makes clear English. Watch this, I took a few unstressed words together, and played
just that for native speakers. They had no idea what was being said. But when I played them the
whole sentence, right away they understood it. it seems crazy to change words like this, to use
reductions, but it’s the contrast of clear and unclear that makes clear English. Watch this
clip: it has my friend, my husband, and my parents in it. I played them a few unstressed
words in a row, and they had no idea. So here we are at my parent’s house out on the
back deck. I am playing part of a sentence a couple of unclear unstressed words in a row.
Let's see if my friends and family can guess what I'm playing. This is the clip they're
going to hear do you know what's being said? Put your guess in the comments right now what is being said. Let's see if my parents
and my friends could figure it out. This first one I think is a little
bit easier but I'm not sure. Okay.
Okay here it is. Do it again? No. Okay great this is what I was hoping would happen. It sounds like. Can you guys tell what it is? Should I turn it up? Yeah. Okay here's I'm going to
turn the volume all the way. Jonathan. You think it's Jonathan? What do you think? Hit me. Don’t know.
Oh anything. You think don’t know, you think anything,
you think Jonathan. One more time. Okay, here's the last time. Jonathan. Not a thing. Their guesses: anything, Jonathan, not a thing,
don’t know. None of those are right. Really, they have no idea what this native
speaker is saying and I played it for them several times now I'm going
to play them the whole sentence. You don't have to face the
horrible pressures of this holiday. You don't have to. You don't have to face. Wow. Do you totally understand it without
hesitation when you hear in a sentence? You don't have to face the horrible pressures of
this holiday. Because it puts it in a context. In order to do that again you're
going to need to simplify your mouth movements. Because we’re,
because we’re because we're related. Because we’re-- Related. Look I don't know how long we're going to play this game or what it's going to take
to make you care about your future. Okay, so now we have a really long thought
group lots of words in a row with no break and at the end she says future. So the
scoop down and up we said earlier that that's the intonation we do for yes no
questions but we also do it sometimes for a few other cases in this case to show
that we're going to keep going. She's not done with her thought, she has more to
say so the voice going up cues that future, future. And just like in signature the letter
t here with u makes the CH sound future. Future. So this whole long thought group, no breaks. let's look at our stress
words that are a little bit longer. Look, I don't know how long we're going to play this game or what it's going to take
to make you care about your future. Look, look, look. Little bit of up down and
actually I would say this one is just ever so slightly separated look and then we have I don't
know how long we're going to play this game. Look, I don't know how long
we're going to play this game. Oh, wow so connected. We have stress
on I don't know how long we're going to. Then that whole rest of the phrase
is just coming down in pitch. Then we have play another up down shape play this
game. So we have two stress words there: I and play and everything else is just coming
down from or leading up to those stressed words. I don't know how long we're going to-- So don't know how long we're going to
becomes don't know how long we're going to. I don't know how long we're going to-- So, don't know how long don't know how long don't, don't. So definitely no T sound there the T gets
dropped don't don't don't don't know don't know. I don't know how long we're going to-- So the word don't just becomes d schwa.
Connected to the word no don't know, don't know, don't know, don't know, don't know. How long we’re. how long we’re
how long we’re how long we’re. I can actually do that without moving my lips and also not moving my jaw it's just
the tongue doing some work there. How long we’re, how long we’re, how
long we’re. Very unclear on its own right? Totally but it’s part of the whole thing, it makes sense. And I'm sure you know going to
so common to pronounce that. Gonna, gonna, gonna. I don't know how long we’re going to-- Gonna, gonna, gonna. Really unclear, I would probably even write both of those syllables with the schwa. Go-na. Gonna-- I don't know how long we're going to-- If everything we said was that
fast and that low in volume, it'd be incredibly hard to understand but
by bringing in these shapes of stress, the longer clearer stressed words that contrast
is actually what makes spoken English clear. I don't know how long we're going to-- play this game. We're going to, we're going to, going
to. That's starting to go up a little bit towards the peak of stress on play. Going
to play this game or, play this game or, play this game or Again this is a voiced th, in an unstressed
word this this this this this this. You don't need to bring your tongue tip through this
game this game this game. Definitely not this game. That would be stressed, sometimes
the word game will be stressed but not here. Play this game, play this game. She's
really stressing the verb. Play this game. Play this game. or what it's going to take. Or what it's going to take. Couple more up down
shapes of stress there or what it's going to take to make you care about your future. We've already
said future has that down up shape of stress. Or what it's going to take Or what it's going to take, Or what it's
going to take. So, or what it's going to, all linking together so smoothly, the or
is reduced. It's just or what or what or what it's or what it's or what it's. That's
a flap T which I sometimes write with the d symbol linking those two words together. What
it's or what it's or what it's or what it's. Or what it's going to take Again going to reduces to gonna,
take, now we have a stress word that begins with a true T. Take, take,
now what about this t? Let's listen. Or what’s it going to make-- Tt, tt, tt, really quick true
T schwa. Take to, true t schwa. So it's not to but it's to,
to. So fast take to take to. Take to make-- You care about your future. Make you care about your future.
Make you, make you, make you. Again, so fast a little bit of that up down
shape a little bit more length on care, so care if you look it up in the dictionary
you'll see the e as in bed vowel, schwa R but schwa R does change this vowel it's not a pure e
but it's a little bit more closed than that care, care about. And the r links right into
the schwa of about uh, uh, uh. Care about, care about, care about. Everything
linked together smoothly. Care about. care about-- care about your future. Care about your future. Care about, no T
sounds there it's a stop t, care about, about, about, about. That little abrupt stop is the stop T and again the reduction of
your, your. Your, so fast your future. Your future. Oh my God this talk again? Oh my God. Oh my God. Up down shape of stress on O. Oh my God. And the rest is a little bit mumbled a little unstressed and you can see she really
doesn't move her lips much at all. Oh my god. Oh my god let's talk again? So it's a great example to be able to
see when things are less clear like our unstressed words there's much less lip
movement, there's much more simplicity than on our stress words where you'll see more
jaw drop more lip rounding this kind of thing. Oh my God this talk again? Oh my God this talk again? The, scoop
up change of pitch, stress on this this, talk again? Again, little bit of
up down on again. So the reason why we're going up is this is a
yes no question. This talk again? This talk again? Talk with a true T and you probably know
the L is silent there. This talk again? The word again, that first sound is always
the schwa, it's not a but uh again? Again? Talk again? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Up down shape of stress
quite a bit of pitch change. Yeah. Yeah. There are colleges that-- There are colleges that. She gets cut off
because the girl is laughing she doesn't like that but in these four words, what do you feel
is stressed is longer? has a change in pitch? There are colleges that-- There are colleges that. Coll,
our most up down shape of stress, our longest syllable. They're a little
bit. There are, there are, there are, but really those are more unstressed feeling
leading up to our stress syllable. There are colleges that. There are colleges that. And
then the word that also it's just coming down from that peak of stress stop t at the
end, not released. There are colleges that. There are colleges that. And everything links together quite smoothly doesn't it? We have a lot of
linking in American English. There are colleges that. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Those are both stressed. Don't laugh. What do you think about the
n apostrophe T pronunciation there? Don't laugh. Don't laugh. Don't, it's not totally
connected so I would say I feel a stop T there we have several different ways an
apostrophe T can be pronounced. Don't laugh and this is with a little tiny lift
to signify the stop t. Don't laugh. N’T contractions. How Americans pronounce these
is really interesting. I have a video on that, which I’ll link to in the video description. The word laugh begins with a light l, in
IPA it would be written with the a vowel and an F at the end. Laugh. Don't laugh.
For this vowel, you do need jaw drop. Don't laugh. There's maybe a half inch
between the teeth there. La, ah, ah, so we do need jaw drop
to get that vowel out, laugh. Don't laugh. There are scholarships you can apply for. There are scholarships you can apply
for. If you slow it down I think you really start to feel the connection and
the melody more. There are scholarships you can apply for. So second syllable of
apply, first syllable of scholarships, and everything else unstressed. No change of
pitch just part of the line. More simple mouth movements probably less volume and faster.
There are scholarships you can apply for. There are becomes there’re, there’re,
there’re. The r reduction just schwa R. Now the word before there ends in
schwa R so it's sort of just like a little re-emphasis of the r consonant there
are, there are, there are scholarships. There are scholarships-- So we have schol and then two unstressed
syllables or ships in stressed words there are still unstressed syllables
if it's a multi- syllable word. Schol-archips , arships you can, arships
you can. So all of these are unstressed syllables. Even though some of those unstressed
syllables are part of stressed words. And we have a reduction in here. Can becomes
cun, you can you can you can you can. Scholarships you can-- Apply for. Apply for. The word for falling down in pitch
here, it's not reduced, now really often we will reduce the word for to, for but we don't
do that at the end of a sentence. At the end of a sentence it's not going to be reduced into
something like for but it is still unstressed, for, just coming down from the peak
of stress. For, you can apply for. You can apply for. What? What? What? What? Not very clear but
we do still feel an up down shape of stress. Stop t at the end she sort of has
that vocal fry uh quality in her voice, she's not putting a lot of energy into it. What? What? You're going to let me your
Social Security number? You're going to lend me your. So we have some
up down shape of stress here on our verb. You're going to lend me your. Now, we're going up at the
end because this is a yes no question. Social, social security number? So both of all three
of these words that are going up towards the end have a little dip down and then then up
for our stress syllable rather than scoop up and fall down. So this is the more normal
stress because most sentences in English tend to go down towards the end. But if they're
going up then towards the end you'll have down up down up instead of up down. Now we have
some reductions here let's check them out. You're going to let me your
Social Security number? You are going to. You're going to, you're
going to, you're going to. I don't need to really move my mouth at all for that. Your
reduction going to becomes gonna, gonna, gonna, gonna. You can write that with the
uh as in butter or the schwa if the first syllable also feels really unstressed. You're
going to, you're going to, you're going to. You're going to lend me your-- Lend me your. No d right? Do you notice that?
Lend me your? Remember I said sometimes we drop the D after n? That is happening here. Lend me
your, lend me your, lend me your. Another your reduction. So we see here the example that you
are the contraction, and your, to show possession, two different words, same reduction. Your,
your, your. You're going to lend me your. You're going to lend me your-- Social Security number? Social Security number? All
moving towards going up. Social, c-I-a-l. There we've got Sial, the sh
sound, schwa L. Social, social. Security, flap T because it comes between two vowel sounds here. Security
number? All going up and pitch. Social security number? You have to get this signed by your mom. Okay, statement. Going down in pitch, the word
have is stressed. Have to get this. Signed by your mom. The peaks of stress are a little bit
lower across the sentence as we're moving down. You have to get this sign by your mom. Let's look at our reductions. We have you
have, but not pronounced that clearly are they? You have to get this sign by your mom. You have, you have. So the H is actually
dropped. You have, you have, you have. So we have scwha, y schwa, y, y, y linking right
into the a vowel of have. You have, you have. You have-- The V I don't really hear. I do know have to
when we link these two words together that we make that V and F. Have to, have to. But
the f is pretty weak too. But I would still think of it as an F. You have to, you have to.
There's not a lot of volume or energy to that F. You have to-- And the word to, again with that schwa, you have to, you have to, you
have to. Not super clear is it? You have-- You have to get this sign by your mom. Get this signed. Okay, so get this, a little
teeny tiny lift separation there shows us it's a stop t. T is a stop T when the next
sound is a consonant. Get this, get this, get this, get this, get this signed. Did you
notice that it connects with one S sound. This signed. When one word ends in the same
sound that the next word begins with, that's just a simple little link with one
sound. This signed, this signed, this signed. Get the signed-- by your mom. Signed by your mom. Okay, we have an ed
ending here. We already talked about the ed ending when it comes after a t or d sound.
Here it comes after a voiced consonant n so the E ending makes a D sound. So we have
the S consonant the I diphthong. Signed. Signed by your mom. Now, we've already studied a couple
places where when we have nd, the d gets dropped and guess what?
It happens here. So actually the Ed ending we don't even hear it. It's like
it's not there. Signed by, signed by. ED endings, another crazy topic in
American English. I have a 3-video series on that, and I will link to those videos
in the video description. Signed by your mom. It's pretty crazy and confusing right? But this
is just one of the ways that the Ed ending is pronounced it is sometimes dropped. Then it
sounds like present tense of course we know what it means from the context of the sentence but
we do not actually hear the Ed ending. Signed by. Signed by-- your mom. Your mom. Of course we have another your
reduction. Your, your, your, your mom. Your mom-- or I'll just suspend you. Or I’ll have to suspend you. So
again stress on have and again, the H is dropped. So sometimes even a stressed
word will have a dropped sound. Suspend, and then a little bit of stress on our second
syllable there. Or I will. How is that pronounced? Or I’ll suspend you. Or I’ll, or I’ll, or I’ll. Schwa R.
And then the word I’ll sounds sort of like the word all when it's reduced and said
quickly. Or I’ll, or I’ll, or I’ll, or I’ll. Or I’ll-- Or I’ll suspend you. Or I’ll have. Now again we have have
to remember that becomes have to, the V gets changed into an F in
have when the next word is to, and that's a pretty common word combination.
Have to, have to, have to, have to. or I'll have to, Or I’ll have to suspend you. To, to. So the word to said so quickly with
that schwa. To suspend you. To suspend you. To suspend you. Now here we have n and d, we know that
we can sometimes drop the D after an N because we've already seen it twice
here, suspend you. I do think I hear a super light release of that D so I'm
not going to cross it out, suspend you. Suspend you. Let's listen to this whole
conversation one more time. That's your mom's signature? Mm. That looks a lot like your handwriting. Yeah, because we’re related. Look, I don't know how long we're going to play this game or what it's going to take
to make you care about your future. Oh my God, this talk again? Yeah. There are colleges that, don't laugh. There are scholarships you can apply for. What? You’re going to lend me
your Social Security number? You have to get this signed by your
mom or I'll just suspend you. The students in my Academy find that, when they
do these lessons and work with the audio for each lesson, their listening comprehension of
fast English really improves. Join my students today at RachelsEnglishAcademy, I’d love to
have you as a student. Keep your learning going now with this video, and don’t forget
to subscribe with notifications on. I love being your English teacher. That’s it and
thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
