You told me you want to study English with movies. And a lot of you suggested a Will Smith movie,
“The Pursuit of Happyness”. By the way, the title of this film is intentionally
misspelled. If you’re going to write this word, you definitely want to use an I.
We’ll do a full pronunciation study of his job interview.
So if you’re going to have a job interview in English anytime soon, this could be great for you.
We’ll study reductions, linking, stress. All the things that make up the character
of spoken American English. You’ll be surprised what you’ll learn.
As always, if you like this video or you learn something new,
please give it a thumbs up and subscribe and don’t forget to click that notification bell.
Let’s watch the clips we’ll study together.
Chris, what would you say if a guy walked in for an interview without a shirt on?
And I hired him. What would you say?
He must've on some really nice pants.
(laughing)
Chris
You really pulled it off in there. Thank you very much Mr. Twistle.
Hey, now you can call me Jay. Will talk to you soon.
And now the analysis.
Chris,
Chris, He’s saying his name and that’s got a big up-down shape of stress. So that’s the shape of a
stressed syllable in American English. Chris
We don’t have flat pitches for our stressed syllables. They
have change in direction. Usually, it goes up and then down every once in a while it goes
down and comes back up. But what’s important, it’s not flat. Chris, Chris, Chris. Chris.
Chris
And the CH letters there are making a K sound. CH in American English can be the
SH sounds like in chef or Chicago, it can be K sounds like Chris
or choir and of course it can be a CH sound like in choose
Chris
What would you say
What would you say. Then he puts a little break. So, when we have little breaks, that means the
words aren’t linking together, there’s a little pause but aside from that break everything does
link together and we call that a thought group. So he puts a break after Chris. He puts a break after
say. So these four words linked together smoothly and we don’t want a feeling of choppiness.
Words within a thought group should be very smooth and the melody should be smooth as well,
no jumps or skips in the melody. So let’s listen to the melody of this phrase.
What would you say--
What would you say. What would you say. So would unstressed but what, some of that length and
the up-down shape, you also has some of the up-down shape and then I think say actually
goes the opposite way, starts going back up. So when we make the melody of our voice go up at
the end of a phrase that means that we’re going to continue. It’s a signal that we have more to say.
What, what would. What would. The T here is a stop T unreleased, it’s not T, what would,
what would but what would, what would. It’s also not dropped. It’s not wha would,
wha would. We have that little skip that little lift. What would.
What would--
The D sound in you also not released. It’s not would you but would you.
Right from that vibration of the vocal cords of the D
into the Y consonant. Now the letter L in would isn’t pronounced. What would.
What would
What would you say,
What would you say. Smoothly connected, no skips and if you’re practicing just those first two
words what and would, make sure you’re feeling a difference there. What is stressed, would is
unstressed, it shouldn’t feel the same. It’s not what, would but it’s what would, what would.
What would
What would you say if a guy walked in for an interview without a shirt on.
And now he finishes his thought group.
if a guy walked in for an interview without a shirt on.
Really this is a question isn’t it? He’s saying what, what would you say. His intonation does
go down at the end. So sometimes people think for questions, intonation always goes up. But
that’s now actually true. Definitely for yes no questions it’s true but questions that cannot be
answered by yes or no usually the pitch goes down at the end which is what happens here.
if a guy walked in for an interview without a shirt on.
So let’s just look at this thought group again. We have a lot of words but no breaks.
It’s not if a guy walked in. But it’s if a guy walked in. Ahhuauh. Smooth connection.
if a guy walked in
Let’s listen to it, see if you can identify. What are our longer syllables with a change in pitch?
if a guy walked in
If a guy walked in. if a guy walked, a little bit on guy but really the peak of stress there
is walked. If and a, they’re just sort of part of the melody going up. If a,
if a, if a, if a. It’s not if a but they’re said quickly, they’re unstressed. If a guy walked in.
if a guy walked in
Walked. This is another word with a silent L just like would. Now the ED ending in the word walked is
pronounced as a T. And we have three different pronunciations for the ED ending. I do have a
playlist on those ED endings so you can click here or see the link in the video description.
Walked in
Walked in, walked in.
The T is just now released by itself. It’s released into the next word in.
Walked in, walked in. So it’s not quite as strong, it’s subtle but this kind of linking is important.
Because within thought groups we want to sounds to flow continuously.
Walked in
For an interview without a shirt on.
Walked in for an interview, an interview, more stress there without a shirt on.
So walked in and stress, I’m sorry, and shirt are our most stressed syllables there. After walked,
we have some unstressed syllables in, for, an and they’re not fully pronounced like that,
are they? In for an, in for an, in for an, in for an, in for an. Can you
understand that I’m saying those three words? In for an. And they’re all linked together,
the word for reduces. For, for. You can almost think of it as not having any vowel at all. It’s
the schwa R sound. And the R links right into the schwa for our article an. For an for an,
for an. In for an, in for an, in for an. Really unclear. And that’s what we want in
our unstressed syllables. We have walked and interview. But in for an becomes in for an.
in for an. in for an. We need that contrast of clear and less clear. Now you may have noticed
in the word interview he dropped the T sound. That’s really common. T after N especially in the
word part inter. Interview, internet, international. Really really common to drop the T.
Walked in for an interview without a shirt on
A little bit of stress on out. Without, without, without a, without (flap).
What’s happening to that T? That becomes a flap T. I write that with the letter D. Because it sounds
like the D between vowels in American English. But it’s coming between two vowel diphthong
sounds. We have the OU diphthong in the word out. And we have the schwa and so a T
between those two sounds is just (flap) going to flap against the tongue. Without a, without a.
Without a --
And there’s no break between interview and without either. Interview with, view
with. Keep that sound going continuously, no choppiness.
Interview without a
Interview without a shirt on.
Without a shirt on. Now what’s happening with this T? Shirt on. (flap). It’s another flap T, why? It
doesn’t come between two vowel of diphthong sounds because this is an R. Well the rules for flap T
include after an R before a vowel or diphthong. So like in the word party, that’s a flap T,
it comes after an R before a vowel or diphthong. In the phrase shirt on. Shirt (flap) on.Flap T.
without a shirt on.
Let’s listen just to without a shirt on in slow motion so you can really focus in on those flaps,
You’re not hearing ttt, that true T.
without a shirt on.
And I hired him.
Okay and he has one more thought group here. Everything links together. And I
hired him. Everything is going up towards the peak of stress on our verb. And I,
and I is just on the way to that peak of stress. And I hired him. One line, smoothly connected.
And I hired him.
We have a couple reductions. We have and,
D is dropped. And I, and I. And that N consonant links right into the I diphthong. And I hired him.
And I hired him.
Hired him. Hired him. Can you tell that there’s no H there. He’s not saying hired him.
He’s saying hired him. Dropping the H, it’s pretty common to drop the H in the word him,
her, his, he. Definitely something that we do. And then we just link it
on the word before. So here the ED ending makes a D sound. Hired him. Hired him.
Hired him.
What would you say?
We have a four word thought group here. One word is the most stressed. Let’s listen to it three
times. You tell me where your body wants to move, where do you feel the most stress is. If you were
going to move your head once or move your hand once on the stress. Where would your body do that?
What would you say?
What would you say? Ahuhauh. I definitely hear that you is our one stress word,
what and would lead up to it and then say falls away from it.
What would you say?
What. Stop T again not released. I should say with the Wh words, there is a pronunciation that
has an escape of air before what, what, white, why. Have you ever noticed that?
It’s not very common anymore and he doesn’t do that escape of air. It’s just a clean W sound.
What would---
What would, What would. Now we have a word ending in D, the next word is you, something
interesting happening with the pronunciation. Listen three times and see if you can hear it.
What would you--
What would you, dyou, dyou, do you hear that? It’s a really clear J sound. Ju, ju. When a word
ends in a D and the next word is you or your, it’s not uncommon to hear it turn it into a J,
I think it sorts of helps smoothly link the two words together. We’d love smoothness in
American English. What would you say? And then the voice falls down in pitch, everything connected.
What would you--
What would you say?
He must’ve had on some really nice pants.
He must’ve had on some. So in this thought group we have a first word stressed.
He must’ve had on some. And then we have a bunch of words that are less stressed,
flatter in pitch than our last three words stressed, longer. Really nice pants.
He must’ve had on some really nice pants.
Make sure everything is connected and smooth but also make sure you have rhythmic
contrast. Speed up these words, make them less clear, we need that. He must’ve had on some.
Do you notice must’ve. What’s happening there? The word have is being reduced all the way down
to a single sound. The schwa, must’ve. Must’ve had on some. The D flaps as it links had and on.
Must’ve had on some
He must’ve had on some--
And the word some. Not really fully pronounced. I would write that with a schwa instead of
the UH as in butter sound. Some, some. He must’ve had on some. He must’ve had on some.
He must’ve had on some---
And then our last three words clearer, longer, up-down shape of stress.
Really nice pants.
Really nice pants. The word pants. The vowel there is a little tricky, it’s the AH vowel
as in bat but when it’s followed by N like it is here, we make a sound in between. It’s like the UH
as in butter vowel, back of the tongue relaxes. So it’s not ah, pa, pants. But it’s pae, [aeʌ]
things relaxed and it changes the sound. Pae, pants. Pants, pants not pants.
Pants.
(laughing)
Chris..
Chris. Chris. Again, just like in the beginning we have a name a proper noun,
stressed word, a single syllable so it has that up-down shape. Chris. Chris.
Chris.
You really pulled it off in there.
You really pulled it off in there. So we have a little bit of stress on really. You really
pulled it. But most of on off in there. Most of it on off. Pull off. This is a phrasal verb.
You really pulled it off in there.
And it has a couple of different meanings. In this case it means to succeed at something,
to achieve something. He had an interview
and they loved him. He succeeded at that interview, he really pulled it off.
You really pulled it off in there.
The ed ending in pulled is just the D sound and that links right into the e vowel,
for smoothness. Pulled it, pulled it. You really pulled it off. Now we have a T
between vowels. Let’s listen for that.
It off--
It off, it off (flap). Yup, definitely a flap.
You know we don’t have many rules in American English pronunciation that people follow but flap
T, we follow that pretty well. Between two vowels or diphthong sounds or after an R before a vowel
or diphthong sound we flap it. Pulled it off. It off, it off, it off. Pulled it off in there.
Pulled it off in there.
If it helps you to link more smoothly, think of the ending consonant as beginning the next
word. So rather than thinking off in, you can think off-in. Off in, off in, off in there.
off in there.
Thank you very much Mr. Twistle.
So he stresses the word much and thank you, not very clear as in thank you very much Mr.
Twistle. And then of course, stress on the name as well. But this is a nice way to show the contrast
between the stress word much and the unstressed word thank you. So if all he had said was thank
you, it probably would have been more clear. Thank you, thank you. But instead he wanted to stress
much. So thank you became less clear. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much--
It’s important that we don’t have that stress feel for every word. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. That stop sounding natural
in American English. We have to have that contrast of the more clear and the less clear.
Thank you very much--
Thank you very much Mr. Twistle.
So we have a peak of stress on much. Much Mr. then Mr. becomes a little valley
Mr. Twistle before our next peak of stress.
Much Mr. Twistle.
Hey, now you can call me Jay.
He says hey, hey. Just a little utterance. Not very clear, not very loud.
Hey. Now you can call me Jay. And we have the stress on the first word and the last word there.
The words in between, less clear, part of that valley. Hey, now you can call me.
And we even have a reduction. How do you think this word is pronounced? You might think oh, I
know that word. It’s can. But actually most of the time it’s not pronounced that way. Let’s listen.
Now you can call me Jay.
You can call me. You call me. I’m going to give a little bit of up down on call but can,
what is happening to it? We reduced that and we have just the schwa instead of the ah vowel.
Now schwa mixes with an, we kind of loose it all together. So it’s really just can, can, can
like there’s no vowel at all. Now you can, now you can. And he even doesn’t
make those consonant sounds very clear does he? That word is so fast. It almost gets lost.
You can call me--
Jay.
You can call me Jay. So a lot of rhythmic contrast there. You can so short. Call, a little longer.
Jay, even longer. Me, also short. We love that contrast in American English.
You can call me Jay.
Alright.
Alright. Alright. Not very clear, he nods his head. Alright. I would still write
that with an up-down shape of stress but it’s not very clear, it’s sort of mumbled
Alright.
Stop T at the end and probably no L sound. Just a,a,a. Alright, alright.
Alright.
We’ll talk to you soon.
We’ll talk to you soon. Two peaks of stress there. We’ll talk to you soon. And the other words less
clear. We will, will becomes we’ll, we’ll. I would write that W schwa L. Not very clear. We’ll,
we’ll, we’ll. We’ll talk. We’ll talk. Talk, another word with the silent L. We’ll talk.
We’ll talk--
We’ll talk to you soon.
We’ll talk to you. To and you, lower in pitch. Part of that valley and they’re not pronounced
to you so fully pronounced we have to but reduced it becomes to with the schwa. To.
You, fully pronounced has the U vowel as well but can reduce the schwa like it does here.
So to you becomes to you, to you, to you. You can relax your mouth a lot more to say
it that quickly. Try it. To you. To you. Talk to you. Talk to you soon. Important reductions.
We’ll talk to you soon. Talk to you soon is way that you can end a
phone conversation or a meeting with somebody and in this case, they will talk soon because they’re
going to follow up on the job interview. But you can even say it when you’re not necessarily
going to talk to that person soon. For example, yesterday I was talking to my aunt on the phone.
We only talk like once a year maybe but when we hung up I said “Talk to you soon.”
We’ll talk to you soon.
Let’s listen to this scene one more time.
I love studying English movies like this. Don’t you?
Put your suggestion for the next movie or even the next
scene in the comments. Until then, keep your learning going now with this video
and don’t forget to subscribe. I make new videos on the English language every Tuesday
and I love to see you back here. That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.