Hi. My name's Ronnie, and I have a bottle
of water. What? So, sometimes when I go to a restaurant and I order water, people don't understand me. I'm in Canada, I'm speaking English, and I said: "Water", and they look at me strange. And I go: -"Oh, you know? Water?" -"Oh, water. Yes, water." -"No, no. It's water."
It's a t, right? W-a-t-e-r. This, in Canada, we call a bottle of water. And I go: "Oh,
that's really crazy because it's a bottle of water." Now, I get called out all the time on having
an accent. Everyone has an accent. You have an accent, depending on where you're from.
Everyone has an accent. So, first of all, I hate people who go: -"Oh, I don't got an
accent." -"Oh, mister, you have an accent. Okay?" Everyone has an accent, and I'm going
to teach you how to improve yours or damaged English-I don't know-to speak with an American/Canadian
accent. Oh my god. Where's this going? So, I'm going to teach you a trick, and the
trick is about the "t". I am very excited about this because I've been thinking about
this for, oh, maybe ten years. Why do Canadians and Americans say "d"? It's a "t". I found
the reason, and I'm going to teach you. Let's have some water, shall we? We have three... four. I'm good at counting,
again. We have four rules. Okay? So, the "t" pronunciation. Sometimes, as I told you,
we actually say the "t" like a "d". So, this is the rule. Rule number one: If it's between...
If the "t" is between two vowel sounds. So, check this out. This "i" is a vowel, and "y"-sneaky
bugger-sometimes is a vowel, but it's a vowel sound. So, we don't say: "ability" in Canadian
and American English; we say: "abilidy". That's really strange, people. Canadians, Americans,
maybe you were drunk or cold when you were doing this. I'm not too sure,
but just nonsensical, really. We don't say: "computer", as we should; we
say: "compuder". Hey, look at that computer, eh? So Canadian to say "eh" at the end. So,
again, between two vowels-"u" and "e" are vowels-we're going to pronounce it like: "compuder".
This is crazy. The next one, as I said in the beginning:
"water". "a", "e" are vowels, and it's going to be said like: "wader". When I was in Jamaica,
they said: "wata", and I was like: "Yes! Good. Got it." Again, so what I've done to help
you-you're welcome-is I've just underlined the vowel. So, "a", "e"; "e", "e"; "er", "er",
"er", "er". And again, this one, watch out: "i" and "y". "y" is a vowel sound. So, all of these guys, magically, you're going
to go from speaking your language to speaking Canadian and American English with the crazy
accent, because we say: "header". The thing that keeps you warm... Canada's cold in the
winter. We don't say: "heater"; we say: "header". And this is even more confusing now, because
it looks like "header", but it's actually this pronunciation: "heeder". Turn on the
heater, eh? It's cold. This word, if you say it... Not "better" in
my books. If you say it with a Canadian/American pronunciation; crazy way; we say: "bedder".
Then we say: "madder". And then, even though we went to "university", we say: "universidy".
Eh? You following? I don't know why it's crazy. Just say the "t" or write the "d". The other rule with the "t" sounding like
a "d" is if it's between a vowel and an "l" or an "r". So, as I said in the beginning...
I can't even say it. "Bottle". It's not a bottle, Ronnie. So, if it's between an "o"
and an "l", it's going to be said like a "d", so we say: "boddle". This is my vowel "a",
and this is an "l". We don't say: "battle"; we say: "baddle".
Into battle, soldiers. One of Ronnie's favourite words: "dirty". So, we don't say "dirty" because
we have an "r" and a vowel sound. So, this is the example of a vowel and an "l"; this
is the example of a vowel and an "r". Okay? So, a vowel and "l"; a vowel and "r". With
our numbers, again, we have a vowel and an "r", so these ones are going to sound like
a "d". So, we're going to say: "dirdy", "fordy", and "thirdy". Have you turned thirty yet? As a joke, we
like to say... Or some people like to say: "It's my dirty 30." We won't go into detail
with that. About that. I will let your imaginations run wild on that one. And just make sure you
say: "dirdy" because no one is going to understand you if you say "dirty". You're a dirty, wee
cow. Next up. There are some cases-three of them-when
we don't even say the "t". Maybe this is easier. No, it's not easier. So, we do two things.
First of all, we could change it to a "d" and then we just completely take it out because
we don't it. We don't want that "t"; that pesky "t". So, if your "t" comes after an
"n", it's going to be silent. This is mental. So, we don't say: "interview"; we say: "in'erview".
I got a job interview. That was from... rednecks represent. So, we say: "in'erview". We don't say: "interstate"; we say: "in'erstate".
In case you don't know, an interstate in America is a highway. We do not call them interstates
in Canada; we call them highways. That's fun. So, interstate is only in America. America.
Welcome to America. We also have the word "international". So,
if you're an international person, we're going to take out the "t" and we're going to say...
"international" becomes "in'ernational". There are many of these. As I said: "want", we say:
"wan'ed". So, all of these, we take out the "t". This is a fun one. You'll hear people say:
-"I don' know. I don' know." -"What?" -"Don't know." So, we take out the "t"; we say: "don'
know". This is another reason why "can't" is confusing. When we say: "cannot"... "Can",
"can't". -"Did you say the 't'?" -"No." -"Oh. Why didn't you say the 't'? Now I don't know
if it's positive or negative. What are you doing?" So, we say: "don' know. I don' know." We don't say: "printer"; we say: "prin'er".
We don't say: "enter"; we say: "en'er". The number "twenty" we don't say; we say "twen'y".
So, check out our numbers: "twenty", "forty", "thirty". Yeah, I don't know how we count
here. Don't count; math is crazy. Rule number three, and this one's crazy as
well. We're going to change two things. First of all, we are not going to say the "t" if
it is with an "n" and between some vowels; and we're going to actually take out some
vowel sounds. So, for this one, we're going to remove two sounds. As an example, we don't
say: "curtain", which it looks like; we actually say: "cur'in". A curtain is a cover for your
window. So, people might say: "Close the cur'in", which we said it looks like: "Close the curtain." You're going to go climb up a "mountain"?
No. You're going to climb up a "mou'in". These vowels, we're going to take out the "t" and
the "a", and it's going to sound like "mou'in", "cur'in". Another example of the "a" is we
don't say: "fountain"; we say: "fou'in". It's an example with the "e": We don't say: "written"-I
do-but we actually say: "wri'in", so we take out the "t" and the "e", and we change it
to an "in". We don't say: "forgotten"; we say: "forgo'in". I've forgotten how to say
the "t". I've forgotten to say the "t". This word is crazy; I always spell it wrong.
I always spell it: "sentance", but the pronunciation, quickly, is: "sentence". My brain goes: "sentance";
but Americans and Canadians say: "sen'ince". There's a phrase that people say about English
is that we eat our words or we mumble. This is why, when you guys listen to English, you
think that we're very hungry and we're eating our words, because we don't say everything.
[Mumbles] -"Make a sentence." -"What?" -"Sentence." -"Oh." So, this one: "sen'ince". Again, the
"t" and the "e", we're going to put to "in", so we're going to say: "sen'ince". The last one, and maybe the most delicious
for us, because we're eating all of these, is the "t" at the end of the word - we don't
say it. Sorry, we don't say it. We don't say it. We don't say it. We don't say it. So,
if your "t" is at the end of the word in English pronunciation, it actually has a fancy name;
it's called a stopped sound. So, a stopped sound just means we don't say the "t". So, we look at this and we say: "hot". And
then you come to Canada and America, and people say: "ho'". What? "I'm ho'." So, we're going
to take out the "t"; we're going to say: "ho'". For this one, something you wear on your head,
we're going to say: "ha'", "ha'". Something on the floor is called a "mat" or also a person's
name. There are many people, many men named Matthew; it gets shortened to "Matt", but
we don't say "Matt"; we say: "Ma'". "Ma', ma'"; maybe he's a goat. This word: If somebody has a lot of weight,
we don't say: "fat"; we say: "fa'". A group or a parcel of land is called a "lo'"; not
a "lot". There's a pesky animal, it's a rodent, and it's called a "ra'"; not a "rat". So,
all of these ones... Here's another example. We don't say: "foot"; we say: "foo'". Foot,
foot, foot. It sounds like we're not saying the "t". I've said this before: "want", "wanna". We
don't say: "want"; we say: "wan'. I wan'". "I want" - we don't say the "t". "Si' down.
Si' down." We don't say: "Sit down"; we say: "Si' down". And don't smoke it; it's "pot".
So, when we say the word "pot", we don't say the "t". English; craziness. Now, if you're studying English in another
country-Australia, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, anywhere that's not Canada or America-you
don't have to worry about this, but it will help you perfect your American accent. So,
if you want to practice speakin' like an American, all you have to do is watch out for these
four rules; between two vowel sounds, or between a vowel and "l" or "r", we change to a "d".
This is the most popular one, I think. After the... Or the most noticeable, in my brain.
After an "n", we don't say the "t". A "t" with an "n", we change it to "in"; we don't
say the "t". And, again, we don't say the "t" at the end of the word. So, I'm out of
here.
