Aww yeah! I'm Ethan, your RealLife English Fluency Coach, and I'm so excited about today's lesson we
have a special opportunity because one of my greatest inspirations as an English teacher,
Rachel from Rachel's English, is going to give us a special and exclusive lesson on native English.
And quickly before I bring Rachel on I want to tell you that if you are new
here every week we help you to understand fast native speech without getting lost,
without missing the jokes and without subtitles.
Rainvee says that her pronunciation is getting better day by day.
So without any further ado here is the incomparable Rachel.
Thank you Ethan for having me on your channel. I'm really excited to share
a lesson with you on the reductions of him and them.
A reduction is a word where a sound changes or is dropped, and English is full of them!
Did you hear the one I just did? Instead of saying and I said "in English is full of 'em"
That's a reduction, we changed some sounds, the word him can be pronounced without the h
then it sounds like em. "I need to thank him for his help"
Dropping the h in function words like him, he, his and her, for example, happens pretty frequently.
This may be something you haven't noticed before but when you start
listening for it you'll notice it a lot. I like to use a search engine called Euglish
to find examples in spoken English, let's go there now to look at some sentences with this reduction.
"I asked him what was it like" - asked him, no h. "But we tracked him down we found him." - tracked
him down, found him, no h. Let's hear a few more examples.
"Laughed at him" Can you try that
with me now? "Laughed at him"
No
H and link those two words together with a flat T.
A simple flap of the tongue, if you don't know much about a flap T come on over to my
channel I have a bunch of videos on the different pronunciations of the sounds of American English.
Now let's study the reduction of "them." One of the ways Americans pronounce this is with no th,
we change the vowel as well so them becomes em. Low in pitch said quickly it actually sounds
just like the hin reduction. Let's listen to some sentences.
"Help him, help him." Try that: help him.
"Get them all, get them, get them"
"Paint thinner on them" - "on them" Okay, here are a few more:
So him and them sound the same when they're reduced. Schwa M said quickly,
linked on to the word before.
Now let's take the phrase "believe him" and also the phrase "believe them."
Listen to how they sound the same. For this I went to getyarn.io. You can plug in a phrase
and hear clips from TV and movies. I like it because they loop each clip three times,
so you can really pay attention to the reduction you're hearing.
So these are all the "believe him" and also some of the
"believe them," but they all sound the same.
Let's do one more: "want them" and "want him."
Now here you'll notice in all of these examples the T in "want" is dropped.
Yeah that's another thing about T pronunciations in some cases we drop the T and we don't make
that sound at all. It can happen after an N like in the word "internet" and it
happens a lot with the word "want" when the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong.
And in these two reductions since we drop the first consonant
they do start with a vowel. "Want him" becomes "wan-em." "Want them" becomes "wan-em."
Try a couple of these with me. I'll say the phrase then you say it and we'll repeat it
three times in a row. I say it, then you say it. Do try this out loud. Make sure you have
a smooth connection between the words. Him and them should be shorter. Ready?
"Wan-em" "Thank-em"
"saw 'em" And one more: "tell em"
Is it a problem that they sound the same? No, don't worry about that. We'll know by the context.
If him is referring to a man or them is referring to two or more people.
Studying reductions in American English can increase your listening comprehension and can
help you sound more natural speaking English. Thank you so much for studying with me.
I hope that so far you've been enjoying Rachel's innovative approach to English pronunciation,
which can greatly help you to speak English more clearly and confidently.
You know, from the time when I first started teaching English
Rachel has been a huge influence for me. I used to use her lessons all the time with my students,
and not only that, but she has also been an inspiration for how we teach connected
speech in our course and our videos here on learn English with TV Series.
So as you can imagine I am thrilled to announce an exclusive promotion that
Rachel has for our community for her innovative Rachel's English Academy.
Would you mind sharing some more about that with our audience Rachel?
Ethan, thank you so much for letting me talk about my Academy with your students.
My obsession, my passion is teaching American English pronunciation and helping people like you,
yes just like you, develop a natural and confident speaking voice in English.
Over 15 courses are included in the Academy and they all focus
on using your mind for training your body to speak English effortlessly.
You learn the details with your mind but it's like the gym for your voice,
the transformation is incredible. Listen to what my student Sophie had to say.
It's like- it's like learning how to swim, you know, before this Academy I only learned
uh the theories, you know, how to move arms, how to move your legs but I never dive into the water.
But since I started to study in this Academy I feel like my body's
learning, I'm learning in the water, I'm actually doing it
and I love that aspect. I think the results
is quite quick, my family, friends already saw some difference and I'm really glad.
So dive in with me it's not enough to know about the them reduction but you've got to train it into
your own voice and your own body with the hundreds of sound words we have in the Academy like this.
This really helps you focus in on the rhythm. Jump on in and see for yourself. For all of you learn
English with TV Series fans out there, to help you get in I'm offering a discount that does expire.
It's for %15 OFF your first month and it's TV15. We do have a 30 day money back guarantee
if you don't love it. We have live classes where I work with students,
we have a really supportive online group where you can post practice videos and get teacher feedback.
I cannot wait to have you as a student. Sign up now: RachelsEnglishacademy.com with the code TV15.
Hurry and do it now so you don't miss the discount.
I hope that you have enjoyed today's very special lesson with Rachel and that it has opened your
eyes and your ears to how we natives really speak. This could just be the beginning for you.
Do you want to understand your favorite series, movies, podcasts and even more?
Do you want to be able to speak clearly so that people understand you
effortlessly? Then do not miss this special opportunity
that Rachel is giving exclusively to the learn English with TV Series community.
You can learn more and sign up by clicking the link down in the description below.
Now it's time to go beyond the classroom and live your English. Aww yeah!!