What's up, guys? Welcome back to learn English with TV series.
Now, today we have a very special lesson for you, where we are going to analyze the speech of the
hilarious and charming actress Jennifer Lawrence. Now this is going to be very helpful for you
in improving your comprehension and even improving your American accent, if that's a goal of yours.
Now, Jennifer Lawrence is from Kentucky. This is a state in an area of the usa called the South.
Now the South is a very big area and as such, it has a very big variety of different accents,
but they're all pretty similar to each other. Now these accidents can be difficult even for
Americans to understand sometimes. Now even if you don't plan on traveling the South,
this can be really useful for you because if you travel you can really meet Southerners anywhere,
and it's also highly represented on a variety of television series.
Now I'm from Colorado, which is in the West of the United States and it has more of a
standard American accent. So today you'll be able to compare my standard American accent
with that of Jennifer Lawrence and some other Southerners with different examples.
All right, but before we get into today's lesson, I want to let you know that if you are new here
every single week we make fun lessons, just like this one so that you can understand fast speaking
natives. Without getting lost, without missing the jokes and without subtitles. Just like Mikhail,
who says that our lessons have helped him to understand a variety of different accents
in English. And you can too, it's really simple: just hit that Subscribe button and the Bell below,
so you don't miss any of our new lessons. Now, let's jump into this lesson where
we're going to break down the accent of Jennifer Lawrence. Aww yeah!!
So as you will hear in some of the different examples today,
this accent can have more of a Southern influence than some other American accents. Now, one
characteristic of the Southern accent is called the drawl. Now this refers to how Southerners can
have kind of slower speech, but also how they will draw out more the different vowel sounds
and also how they sometimes soften their R's. So let's take a look at this with Jennifer Lawrence.
Now if you are at all familiar with this accent already you probably will notice
Jennifer Lawrence does not actually have a very strong Southern accent.
She grew up in Kentucky, but actually when she was a teenager she moved to Los Angeles,
so she's really had it softened. Now if we look at this interview with her
family we'll see that they do actually still maintain a very strong Kentucky accent. So
we can see where she comes from. Now later we will also see her imitating her mom by donning
this thicker Kentucky accent. So first let's take a look at this interview with her family.
And as I said, she still maintains certain elements of her Southern accent which is what
we're really going to focus on in this lesson. So as I was saying before in this interview we can
get many great examples of that Southern drawl. Now one of the characteristics of this is the
gliding vowels. Now that is how single vowels will actually become diphthongs. Now diphthong
is when you have two vowels together, that occupy a single syllable. So for example you can hear
it in words such as meal, which becomes meal. And also yep which is another way to say yes,
so instead of saying yep, they would say in the South yep. So they wouldn't say pet like
that in the South, they would say pet. And then here we'll see an example where
Jennifer Lawrence is actually making fun of her mom, as I told you about earlier.
So for example here with the word not we can see that Southern draw where not becomes not.
So she didn't say not, she said it more like not.
Now let's take a look at some other examples of Jennifer Lawrence with the drawl.
So we can kind of hear an extension there with the word ton, let's listen to that again.
And then again we have an example here of how not becomes not. Let's listen to that one more time.
So did you notice how she said man here? She didn't really say it like I would say it in
my standard American accent, man. Let's take a look again at how she said that.
Now have you seen the movie Inglorious Basterds? Maybe you already caught the lesson that we made
with this fantastic film. So in this movie Brad Pitt's character has an accent from the
Appalachian Mountains. Now this is an accent that you could encounter in Eastern Kentucky.
And we'll see in this clip how he pronounces some things very differently than I would. So
for example I would say the word well as just one syllable, but let's take a look at how Brad Pitt's
character in this movie would say this word well. So you might have seen he doesn't say well he
says it like well. Let's listen to that again. Now this is similar to how Jennifer Lawrence
would say this name. I would say it as Gail but let's see how she would say it.
Another famous actor that comes from Kentucky is Johnny Depp. Now let's take a look at this
interview and pay special attention to the drawl that he has on some of his vowels.
So let's see how he says boxes.
Then he also says this word differently than I would. I would say diary but he says it as:
And now let's look at another example from the movie Mean Girls.
So I would say day and rifle, but this kid says it as day and rifle.
Now another characteristic of Southern accents is called twang. Now this is the
kind of increase in nasality which can make consonants sound harder. So let's compare how
I would say going anywhere to how Jennifer says it in this interview.
Now let's look at another interview where we can see this nasal sound.
So I would say it as regulations. Let's take a look again at how Jennifer said this.
I would say children, let's listen again to how Jennifer said that.
Now another Kentucky native that you might have encountered is Melissa McBride,
who is most famous for her role in The Walking Dead. Now let's listen to how she says season one.
So we can hear more nasality in her ends
and also how she really dragged out that uh sound in one. So I would say season one...
And and then how she says body here.
I would say body but Melissa drags out that ah sound.
Here we have an excellent example of twang when Jennifer
says supportive. I would say supportive but Jennifer says...
Some other very common elements of sound morphing in this accent are the following: so first off we
have how get can become git, so it changes from an e to an i sound. And how on changes from just an
o sound on to own. And that kind of w sound you'll also find much more common in the vowels
in that Southern accent. And then we also have how can't the word cannot can't can become caint. So
let's look again at how Jennifer Lawrence would say can't. I would say can't and she says...
So Jennifer actually says it like can't with an a sound, and actually this is probably
where the not so grammatically correct ain't comes from. Maybe you've heard that before it can mean
is not or have not and we're going to look at that a little bit more later in the lesson.
Okay so finally I want to show you a clip with George Clooney. Now believe it or not he is also
from Kentucky. Now in this film Oh Brother Where Art Thou? we can see him putting on a very strong
Southern accent. Now he probably picked this up from his childhood
because in his normal speech he doesn't really use this accent anymore.
So did you hear how he said this word boys?
So I would just say boys but he drew it out a lot more he said it like this.
And then we also have another great example with how he says can. So we
had kant with Jennifer Lawrence that she says it like can't let's look at how he says can.
So he draws out that a again he says can. And then another really great
thing in this movie is that we can hear some very typical Southern folk music.
Now it can be extremely frustrating when natives don't speak how you're expecting them to. How
you probably learned that we speak in school. Now we don't really speak anything like that
and that's why in our 3-Part Masterclass we are going to teach you the 3 Principles of being able
to understand natives no matter how fast we speak. So first off is vocabulary, second off
is understanding pronunciation, like we're doing in this lesson. And then third another element
that we're looking at a little bit in today's lesson is cultural context. So we'll teach you
to master all three of those things in our 3-Part Masterclass, which is 100% FREE, and you can sign
up by clicking up here or down the description below. And I look forward to meeting you inside!
Okay so another very common element that you will see Southerners doing is shortening that
ing to simply an in' sound, so it goes from being ing to simply in'. Now while this
is present in all accents of English, virtually all accents of English anyway,
you will find it especially present in the South.
So let's take a look at a couple examples of this.
So in this clip from The Big Bang Theory we can see Sheldon imitating
a Southern accent. Now his character I believe also comes from the South,
so he probably grew up with this accent and we can see that he does quite a good impersonation of it.
So we could see how that dipping, the word skinny dipping, became simply dippin. Okay
let's return to Inglorious Basterds. Let's take a look at how Brad Pitt says whacking in this clip.
So instead of saying bush whacking he says bushwacken.
All right so let's continue with another common element of that Southern accent and
one thing that happens very commonly is that the I sound which you'll find in the standard
American accent will often morph to an ah sound. So for example we can see this in the pronoun I.
So if I'm saying for example I am going to go to the store,
maybe someone from the South would say ah instead of I ah. So they said I'm gonna go to the store.
Similarly my can become ma, and tired -like I'm tired I need to go to bed- can become
tad. So as you can probably notice a lot of this
accent just has to do maybe with opening those valves a bit more.
So in this clip let's listen to how he says my name is.
Now here we can see another example of the eye becoming a long
a sound. So I would say one thing but let's take a look at how he says it.
So as you could hear this sounds very different than what you are probably used to encountering
with the I sound. Let's take a look at these examples again both fast and slow.
And then in that clip from Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
we can hear that George Clooney says I'm in a kind of interesting way. Let's take a look.
So did you catch that? He didn't say I'm he said um.
All right so another common characteristic of sound morphing in this accent is that the long
o sound can actually become more fronted, so for example a word like goose the animal goose,
can become like gus. So that's more towards the front of the mouth.
Let's take a look at how Jennifer Lawrence says the word gold in this clip.
So gold actually sounds like gold. Let's listen again.
Now here when Melissa says black hole it almost sounds like she's actually saying black hull.
Now I would say probably one of the hardest things that I've always had to teach my
students is the short I sound in English. Now usually learners want to say this as
e but actually most Americans will say it as i. It's a very short sound and actually on our
other channel we have a lesson which explains a little bit about the difference between this e
sound and if sound, which I highly recommend you check out because you'll laugh a ton with it.
But we'll take a look here at how the word guitar changes from how I would say it in
a standard American accent: guitar, to how Clooney would say it here. Let's take a look.
So he actually changed that if sounding guitar to an e sound.
So instead of saying guitar he says guitar.
Okay so we're going to wrap up this lesson by looking at some vocabulary that is very
typical and common in the South of the United States. Now the first one we'll
look at maybe you've encountered before this is the contraction of you and all.
Now you all is how some people say the plural of the second person you. So if you're referring to
a group of people you could say you all or I might actually say more you just you by itself to refer
to a group of people or to a single person, or you guys. But in the South they will especially say
y'all, which is an attraction of you and all. So let's take a look at some examples.
So next we're going to look at the word yonder. Now you probably already know
that you can say something is here and something is there,
but what do you say if you want to say that something is further than there?
Now this word actually exists like it might exist in your own language, but it's not so common
nowadays. So that word is yonder. Now let's take a look at some examples of how you could use this.
Now we previously talked about the word ain't, so let me just give you a few more comments on this
word. So although it is considered grammatically incorrect it can be very common in different
dialects of English and it is especially common to hear in the Southern United States. So ain't can
mean am not are not or is not and also have not or has not. Let's take a look at some examples.
And then in this interview we'll see Jennifer Lawrence use the word a hoot. Let's take a look.
So a hoot is used to say that something or someone is funny or entertaining.
Now this is especially common in the South although I think
you could probably also find it used in other parts of the United States.
Now let's have Jennifer teach us a couple more common words from Kentucky.
So I hope you have had a hoot learning English with Jennifer Lawrence today,
and if you enjoyed this lesson be sure to give us a like below to let us know that you want
more of the style of accent analysis, and if there's any other celebrities that you would
love for us to make a lesson like this with, then please let me know down in the comments below,
alright? Now it's time to go beyond the classroom and live your English! Aw yeah!!