In the US, summer is for sand, sun, and blockbuster movies.
And this summer, we're going to use those movies to learn English and study how to sound American.
Every video this summer is going to be a Study English with Movies video.
We'll pull scenes from the summer's hottest movies, as well as favorite movies from years past.
It's amazing what we can discover by studying even a small bit of English dialogue.
We'll study how to understand movies, what makes Americans sound American,
and of course, any interesting vocabulary phrasal verbs or idioms that come up in the scenes we study.
I call this kind of exercise a Ben Franklin exercise.
First, we'll watch the scene.
Then we'll do an in-depth analysis of what we hear together.
This is going to be so much fun! Be sure to tell your friends and spread the word
that all summer long, every Tuesday, we're studying English with movies here at Rachel's English.
If you're new to my channel click subscribe and don't forget the notification button.
Let's get started. First, the scene.
If you find this recording, don't feel bad about this.
Part of the journey is the end.
Just for the record, being adrift in space with zero promise of rescue is more fun than it sounds.
Food and water ran out four days ago.
Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning.
That will be it.
When I drift off I will dream about you.
It's always you.
Now, the analysis.
If you find this recording--
How was the word 'if' pronounced? Do you hear 'if'?
I hear ffyou-- ffyou-- I hear the F sound right with the Y sound, ffyou-- ffyou-- It sounds like the word 'few'
because it's the F consonant and the JU diphthong. The IH vowel is dropped and the consonant is linked in.
If you find this recording--
What are the stressed words in this thought group? Listen again.
If you find this recording--
I hear 'find' and 'record'
as the two most stressed syllables. If and you, said really quickly. Ffyou-- ffyou-- ffyou--
If you find this recording--
This and the first syllable of 'recording' which is unstressed, has the IH vowel, re-- don't say: rii--,
re-- re-- re--. This re-- This re-- This re-- This re--
These are two more unstressed syllables, lower in pitch, said quickly before the stressed syllable, cor--, recording.
Recording-- recording-- recording--
Whoa! Different day, different outfit, important announcement.
Did you know that with this video, I made a free audio lesson that you can download?
In fact, I'm doing this for each one of the youtube videos I'm making this summer,
all 11 of the Learn English with Movies videos.
So follow this link, or find the link in the video description to get your FREE downloadable audio lesson.
It's where you're going to train all of the things that you've learned about pronunciation in this video.
Back to the lesson.
So we have the stressed word, find, our verb, what happens to the D here? Let's listen.
If you find this--
It's dropped. Sometimes, we drop T and D, or any consonant between two other consonants, in this case,
I definitely hear him doing it. The sound before is an N consonant, the sound after is the voiced TH,
and he drops that D. Find this, find this. Can you do that with no D, smoothly linked together? Find this. Find this.
That makes it a little easier to link the words.
If you find this--
If you find this recording--
If you look up the pronunciation of the word 'recording' you'll see that the vowel in the stressed syllable is the AW
as in law vowel. But when this vowel is followed by R, it's not pure, it's not AW, but it's
oh, oh, it's more closed, the lips round more, the tongue pulls back a little bit more. The R influences this vowel.
Recor-- recording.
Recording-- recording-- recording-- Don't feel bad about this.
Don't feel bad about this.
Hey guys! I'm out for a walk, listening to an audiobook, and I thought this is the perfect time
to tell you about Audible, who's sponsoring this video. It's a great resource
for native speakers speaking American English.
The thing I love about Audible is their huge selection. Everyone can find something.
If you work in economics, you can find an audio book about economics.
As you listen, you'll be hearing the specialized words that are specific to conversations you'll be having.
You can hear them pronounced over and over by native speakers.
And you can also hear them use the kinds of phrases you'll need to describe topics in economics
or whatever topic specifically you have conversations about.
They also have audible originals, which are exclusive audiobooks you can't get anywhere else
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Because they're kindly sponsoring this video, you can get your first audio book for free,
plus two audible originals when you try audible for 30 days. Visit audible.com/rachelsenglish
or text rachelsenglish, all one word, to 500-500.
On my walk, I'm listening to The Great Gatsby read by Jake Gyllenhaal,
an American classic, I love Jake Gyllenhaal's voice, great neutral American accent.
When you find a good title, put it in the comments here, I'm always looking for recommendations.
So again, you can check out audible.com/rachelsenglish or text rachelsenglish, all one word, to 500-500
if you live here in the US. Okay, let's get back to our movie Ben Franklin speech analysis.
Don't feel bad about this.
Don't feel bad about this. All right, the second part of the sentence, this whole thought group is lower in energy,
it's not as loud and especially towards the end, it gets a little bit of the popcorn quality of the voice,
where there's not as much air engaging the vocal cords.
Don't feel bad about this.
In fact, let's just listen to the last three words. Bad about this.
Bad about this.
Do you hear how low on energy that is? Bad about this.
It's partly because this character is running out of energy, he's run out of food and water,
so he's really feeling tired, but it's also a natural part of American English speech
that we have this popcorn quality in the voice sometimes towards the end of a phrase.
Bad about this.
Don't feel bad about this.
And our stressed words are 'don't'...
Don't feel bad about this.
Don't and bad are the two most stressed syllables there.
Feel, even though it is a content word, is less stressed than the other two words.
Don't feel bad about this.
Now, let's look at our N apostrophe T contraction. How is that pronounced?
Don't feel-- Don't feel-- Don't feel--
We have a couple different ways that we pronounce N apostrophe T contractions.
In this case, what he did is he dropped the T sound completely.
Remember, we do sometimes drop the T after N, we drop the T between two consonants,
so it does follow those rules. Now we don't always pronounce N apostrophe T this way, but in this case,
this is how we did it. So it goes right from N to F. Don't feel-- don't feel-- don't feel-- don't feel--
Don't feel-- don't feel-- don't feel--
It's just part of how we connect and make our speech very smooth.
Sometimes, things like a T will get dropped or become a stop. In this case, totally dropped.
There are lots of things that we do with American English that you'll notice
go towards the goal of very smooth and connected sounding.
Don't feel-- don't feel-- don't feel bad about this.
Bad about-- bad about--
We have an ending consonant, it links them to the beginning vowel, the schwa of about.
Bad about-- about, about, about, about, bad about.
Now, the T in about is a stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.
Again, this is the voiced TH and we do that, we make a T a stop T, sometimes at the end of a thought group
but also very often when the next word begins with a consonant. So it's not dropped.
It's not: abou this, abou this, that would be dropped. It's: about this, about this.
Do you feel that there's a tiny lift, a little tiny break between the two words?
About this. Even though the energy of the voice keeps going forward, there's this little lift
and that signifies the T. It's a stop consonant so that quick stop is the stop T.
It's not released that would be this: about this-- about this--
We would never do that. That's too choppy. Too much effort. We connect with a stop T. About this.
Bad about this-- bad about this-- bad about this--
Part of the journey is the end.
What do you hear as the most stressed syllables in that thought group?
Part of the journey is the end.
I hear three more stressed syllables. Part--, jour--, the stressed syllable of journey, and, end.
The other words, unstressed, flatter in pitch, and we do have a reduction.
Of the--
How is the word 'of' pronounced? Part of the--
Part of the journey--
Part of the-- Part of the-- So the word 'of' is reduced, the V sound, which is written with the letter F, is dropped,
it's just the schwa. Part of the-- part of the-- part of the-- Very smoothly linked together.
Now, how is this T pronounced?
Part of the journey--
part of the journey--
Part of the-- part of the-- It's a flap T. The tongue just flaps once against the roof of the mouth.
It's just like the D sound in American English, between two vowels. So a T is a flap T
when it comes between two vowel or diphthongs, or if it comes after an R, and before a vowel or diphthong.
So here, it comes after the R consonant, and before the vowel schwa, that's a flap T, and we use that flap T
to link the two words together. Part of the--
Part of the journey--
part of the journey--
Part of the journey is the end.
Then we have more stress, a little more length on jour--, the journey is the--,
then we have three unstressed syllables, the unstressed syllable of journey, ney is the--
and then 'is' and 'the'. Now, the vowel in the word 'the' here is different
than the vowel in the word 'the' here, why is that?
Part of the journey is the end.
Can you hear it? It's subtle because they're unstressed words, they're said quickly.
But the rule is when the word 'the' becomes a word that starts with a consonant, it has the schwa.
When it's before a word, that starts with a vowel or diphthong, it's the EE vowel.
The end, the end, the end.
See if you can hear that in the phrase "is the end".
Is the end-- is the end-- is the end--
Now, Americans, I've noticed, are not very good at following this rule, it's not that common
to have a schwa sound before a vowel, but here, he does follow the rule, he does make an EE vowel. The end--
Is the end-- is the end-- is the end--
Just for the record, being adrift in space with zero promise of--
Now, he has a much longer thought group.
Again, the vocal energy is low, and I found actually, that it was a little hard for me to understand what he was
saying because of that. With his vocal energy low, he has less inflection,
less pitch changes between stressed and unstressed, and those pitch changes
are part of what makes English clear.
So because his character is very tired, very worn out, very low on energy,
he's not doing as much inflection and that does make it harder to understand.
So keep that in mind when you're practicing English that you don't want it to feel monotone,
all more or less on the same tone. You definitely want pitch changes,
higher pitch for your stressed syllables. How does he pronounce this string of four words?
Just for the record--
Just for the record-- just for the record-- just for the record--
Just for the record-- just for the record--
A little bit of stress on record, record, the stressed syllable there.
Now, let's look, just for a minute we have the word record and we have the word 'recording' up here
those are related, aren't they? So in the word 'record', it's the first syllable that's stressed.
That has the EH as in bed vowel. Re-- record, and then the unstressed syllable has the schwa.
Re-co-rrr-- record.
Now, in the other word 'recording', with the ING ending, the stress is changed, and now the first syllable
is unstressed and that's the IH vowel. Re-- re-- re-- And then the stressed syllable has the AW vowel,
which we've already said is modified by R, recording.
So the stress changes, which does change the vowels as well, in the two different forms of this word,
the two different words using this root.
Just for the record--
Okay, what about the unstressed words in this forward fragment?
Just for the record--
Pretty unclear on their own. Just for the-- just for the-- just for the-- just for the--
The word 'just', to me, it sounds like rather than a jj sound, it's just a weak CH sound,
just-- I think I would write that with the schwa, actually, let me write this in IPA.
A weak CH sound, which would be written in IPA like this, ch, then a schwa, quickly, and then an S sound.
The T is dropped because it comes to between two consonants, so it's just CH sound, schwa S.
Just, just, just, just, just, just, just. Pretty unclear, really mumbly, the word 'for' is reduced, it's not for, but it's fer,
fer, said really quickly. This is how we almost always pronounce this word. And then the word 'the',
no reductions, but said very quickly.
Now, with a word like 'the' that's unstressed, said really quickly that begins with a voiced TH,
we don't need to bring the tongue tip through the teeth there. The tongue tip can press behind the closed teeth,
so it's not the roof of the mouth, it is still behind the teeth, but the tip isn't coming all the way through.
Just for the-- just for the-- just for the-- Just for the record--
Just for the record--
Just for the record, being adrift in space with zero--
And now, he does continue, there's no stop there, even though grammatically, it's written with a comma,
so the D sound goes right into the next sound with no release, and the next sound is the B in the word 'being'.
Being adrift in space with zero--
And he takes a break after zero, as he catches his breath, or thinks of what to say.
Being adrift in space with zero-- What are his longer, more stressed syllables there?
Being adrift in space with zero--
Um, so so we have three syllables that have a little bit of length there in that sentence fragment.
Being, unstressed, said very quickly, unclear, linking right in to the first syllable of 'adrift' which is unaccented,
it's the schwa sound. Being a, being a, being a. When you practice like this, think about how to simplify your mouth
movements in these strings of unstressed syllables. So here, before our first stress syllable, we have be-ing-a,
three syllables. So practice those, being a, being a, being a, being a, using as little mouth movement as possible.
And then link into the next syllable, the stressed syllable. Being adrift, being adrift. What about the word 'in'?
Being adrift in space--
I barely even hear it. I mean, I wrote it because I know grammatically, that is the word that's there,
but it's said so quickly that I barely hear it. I don't hear a clear IH vowel, I don't hear a clear N, but I know it's there.
Adrift in space. Said so quickly, reduced so much.
Being adrift in space--
Being adrift in space with zero--
With zero-- So 'with', we have W consonant, IH vowel, unvoiced TH, linking right into the next word, the Z sound,
I don't hear the TH. I think that with the word with, I wouldn't say as a rule, you should drop this TH,
but I do think every once in a while, as we study native speakers, I do notice that I'm not hearing it.
With zero-- with zero promise-- And this is a case where I think he's dropping it, when I imitate him dropping it,
it sounds fine. So think about that. You don't have to struggle with the TH so much. It should be simple,
it should be quick, sometimes, it can even be dropped. I would say don't drop it if the next word begins with a
vowel or diphthong, think about dropping it if the next word begins with a consonant. Try it, see what that's like.
With zero-- with zero-- with zero--
The word 'zero' ends in the OH diphthong, don't cheat that. Some of my students will say something like zero,
oh, oh, and they'll make a single sound. It is a diphthong, that's two sounds. Ohhww-
first, some jaw drop, then some lip rounding.
Zero, zero, zero promise of--
Promise of-- And then another little break. Promise of, promise of, promise of.
All linked together, stress on the first syllable, pro-- and then the next two syllables just fall into line
as the voice comes down in pitch. Promise of-- And the ending S sound links into, I would write that as a schwa,
he doesn't drop the V sound here, I do still hear it. Promise of--
Promise of-- promise of--
promise of rescue is more fun than it sounds.
What about in this thought group? What are the most stressed syllables? What stands out to you the most?
Rescue is more fun than it sounds.
That's what I hear, those three syllables, the most stressed. Rescue, so the unstressed syllable,
and the word 'is', and the word 'more'. Cue is more-- cue is more-- cue is more--
Flatter in pitch, less clear, more simple mouth movements. Rescue is more-- rescue is more fun--
And then a little bit more of that inflection, a little bit more up-down shape, length on the word 'fun'.
The word 'than', fully pronounced, has the AA as in bat vowel.
It's not fully pronounced here, how is it pronounced?
Fun than it sounds--
Than it sounds-- than it sounds-- than, than, than, than. It's almost like there isn't a vowel so
that would be the schwa. The AH vowel gets reduced to the schwa. Now when the schwa is followed by N,
also M, also R, also L, it gets overpowered by that consonant, then you don't need to try to make
a vowel sound, just go ahead and make the consonant sound. So it's TH right into N, then, then, then.
Then it-- then it-- then it-- Then it sounds-- then it sounds--
So 'then' and 'it' unstressed, reduced, said more simply, linked together, than it, than it, than it sounds--
before our stressed syllable. And we do have a stop T here because the next word begins with a consonant,
the S sound.
Fun than it sounds--
Food and water ran out--
Food and water ran out-- What's our stress? Food and water ran out--
Food and water ran out--
A little bit of length on those as well. Stop T at the end.
And, reduced. Very common to pronounce it as just the schwa N, which as you've learned here,
N takes over schwa, it's more like just an N sound.
Sometimes I tell my students to think of it as the word 'in' said very quickly, it sounds a lot like that.
Food and water, food and water.
Food and water-- Food and water-- Food and water--
And that's a very common way to pronounce that word, and when the word 'and' links two nouns together like
this, it's how we usually do it: food and water, food and water. And then if it comes a little chain,
noun linking into this quick little function word, linking into noun, food and water,
remember, we always want smoothness and connected sound in American English.
Water, the T here is a flap T because it comes between two vowel sounds. Water, water.
Food and water-- Food and water-- Food and water ran out.
I also want to talk about the ending of water in the beginning of ran.
Both an R consonant, and that word does, those two words do link together with a single R sound.
So we never have to make the consonant twice when one word, or a sound twice when one word ends
in that sound, or the next sort begins in that sound.
Water ran-- we'll use that single consonant sound there to link.
Water ran out-- Water ran out--
Water ran out four days ago.
Three words in this thought group. What's the most stressed word there?
Four days ago.
I hear it as 'days', the voice is really smoother, we have no skips in pitch, we have no jumps, we have no brakes.
Four days ago. So the voice slowly scoops up in pitch towards the peak of days, and then falls down in pitch.
Four days ago.
Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning.
Then we have: oxygen will run out tomorrow morning.
I'll put a little length on 'out' as well.
Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning.
What about the word 'will'?
Oxygen will run out--
The first two sounds are dropped so it's like an apostrophe LL,
we wouldn't write it that way, but we would definitely pronounce it that way, and that's what he's doing.
Oxygen'll-- oxygen'll-- So we can think of it as just adding a schwa L, or just a single dark L sound. Oxygen'll--
uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl. Oxygen'll-- Try that. Oxygen'll-- Oxygen'll-
Oxygen'll run out--
Oxygen'll run out tomorrow morning--
Here, we have an ending T, beginning T, linked together with a single sound.
Now, the T is usually a stop T when it comes before a consonant, but when it comes before a T,
we just combine those into a single true T.
So we have the word 'tomorrow'. Tomorrow. Please don't pronounce that too--
tomorrow, it's the schwa, te, te, first syllable is said really quickly, and the vowel is not the OO vowel.
To-- to-- tomorrow, tomorrow. Tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning.
That will be it.
Okay, now this sentence. That will be it. So unclear. I wrote that because I'm pretty sure that's what
he's saying. It makes sense from the context, from the sounds I hear,
but the only words that I definitely really hear are 'be' and 'it'.
That will be it.
There's sort of like an H sound, an AA sound. That will be it. That will be it.
Okay, so I'm guessing that it's 'that will' but those words are super mumbly, super reduced.
Again, he's showing here his exhaustion level. This guy is wiped out. He has not had food or water in four days.
That will be it. That will be it.
That will be it.
Normally, someone would say that more like: That'll be it. That'll be it.
But here, it's coming out as: how be it. How be it.
Stop T because the T comes at the end of the thought.
That will be it.
When I drift off, I will dream about you.
Let's just take the first four words there.
Three of them are stressed. Three of them are longer. When I drift off--
I is the only one that I think is less stressed, lower in pitch, quicker. When I drift off--
When I drift off--
Really smooth, again, no skips or jumps, no breaks in sound, everything linked together.
Ending N into the AI diphthong, linking into the D, the T consonant of the FT cluster links into the
beginning vowel of the word 'off'. Drift off-- drift-tatatatat-- drift off--
When I drift off--
When I drift off, I will dream about you.
Now here, the word 'I' is not reduced, is not unstressed, I should say, it's long. I will dream about you.
I-- and it's not usual to do that, it's like, no, he's thinking, he's emphasizing, it's emotional.
I will dream about you. That's a big deal. He's talking about when he dies.
So that's why the word 'I' has more stress than it would in just a normal conversational context.
I will dream about you.
What other words are stressed there?
I will dream about you.
Dream about you.
I, dream, you. Most stressed words there. Will and about, lower in pitch, said a little bit more quickly.
I will dream about you. About you--
We do have a stop T there. Next word begins with a consonant, the Y consonant.
I will dream about you.
Actually, when a word that ends in T is followed by 'you', we have a couple options: it can be a stop T like here,
about you, but you'll also hear, about you. You'll also hear that T turn into a CH when it's followed by the word you.
I will dream about you.
It's always you.
Breathy. Lower in pitch. Also a little more introspective, he is talking to somebody, but you know, he's
thinking some pretty big thoughts, having some pretty major feelings about the end of his life.
How was the word 'it's' pronounced?
It's always you.
Just like at the beginning with the word 'if', when the vowel was dropped and the consonant was linked in,
that's what we have here. The vowel's dropped, and it's just the TS cluster.
It's always-- it's always-- it's always-- it's always-- Linking into the next word.
It's always you.
And we have stress on al-- T's always you-- And stress on 'you' as well. It's always you. Smoothly linked together.
It's always you.
So much interesting stuff to study about pronunciation in this monologue of this character.
Let's listen to the whole thing one more time.
If you find this recording, don't feel bad about this.
Part of the journey is the end.
Just for the record, being adrift in space with zero promise of rescue is more fun than it sounds.
Food and water ran out four days ago.
Oxygen will run out tomorrow morning. That will be it.
When I drift off I will dream about you. It's always you.
We're going to be doing a lot more of this kind of analysis together.
What movie scenes would you like to see analyzed like this? Let me know in the comments.
And if you want to see all my Ben Franklin videos, click here. You'll also find the link in the video description.
That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English!