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Alright, let's get started.
He said, "Let's get out of this town"
So she put a little brake here. So, we'll call that two separate thought groups.
So in this first three-word thought group, what word has the most stress?
He said, "Let's"
Let's-- has much more stress, more volume, the up-down shape. Da da da. It's longer.
So that's the same as it would be in spoken English. He said, "Let's"-- He said, "Let's"--
The three words are smoothly connected, there are no breaks between them
the sound just flows right through that phrase.
He said, "Let's"
He said, "Let's get out of this town..."
Now we have two T's in the phrase, in the words, get and the word out. And she pronounces them differently.
So a T is usually a flap T which sounds sort of like an American D.
Outta, outta, outta, if it comes between two vowels or diphthongs, so they both do.
Get out of-- get out of-- dadadada--
So in spoken English, it would be really common to make both of those a flap T,
but she doesn't do that with the first. The first, she makes a stop T, the second T is a flap T,
smoothly linking those. Get out of-- The word 'of' is reduced, it's just the schwa.
Out of-- out of--
Get out of--
Now, the word 'get' is pronounced, how?
Get out of--
Get, get, get, get, get.
That's a stop T. You might think: I don't hear a T. That would sound like this: get, but a stop T: get, get,
is different from no T at all.
No T at all would sound like this: geh, geh, the voice would go down in pitch, it would be a little bit longer,
the stop T is an abrupt stop, and that is what signifies the T. Get, get, get.
We don't hear a T sound, but because there's an abrupt stop, our minds as native speakers, hear that as a T.
Get, get, out of, get out of.
So she puts a break there by making that stop T, and then she reattached
the phrase on the OW diphthong rather than linking with a flap T.
Get out of--
Get out of this town.
Out of this town. And then the rest of the words link together really smoothly.
Out of this town. The two most stressed words there. They're longer, they're stressed.
Out of this town.
Out of thi s town.
Out of this town.
So 'of' and 'this', of this-- of this-- of this-- lower in pitch, have an unstressed feeling.
Out of this town.
The word 'town' has the OW diphthong, and the N consonant.
I have noticed this combination can be tricky for non-native speakers, especially my students from China,
tend to say town.
And they nasalized the vowel and don't make an N, but that's not what we do in American English.
Tow-- ow-- The OW diphthong is not nasalized at all, and then the tongue comes up for the N.
Town. Town. Town.
So make sure your tongue is making contact with the roof of the mouth, the tongue tip does lift, that's the N.
If you feel like your tongue tip isn't lifting, then you're probably nasalizing the vowel or the diphthong here.
Town, town. We do not want that. Town. Town. Nnnn. N consonant at the end.
Town.
Town. Drive out of the city.
What do you hear as the most stressed words in this next phrase?
Drive out of the city.
Drive.
Drive out of the city.
Drive and 'ci' the stressed syllable of city, have the most stress.
Da-da-da-da-da-da. They're longer.
That rhythmic contrast of long and short is important in singing, but also in spoken English.
All of these words linked together really smoothly, there are no breaks, drive out of the city--
dduuuhhhh-- smooth connection, the V sound right into the OW diphthong of 'out'.
That is a flap T again.
Out of, out of, out of, out of the, out of the.
And the schwa vowel just links right into the word 'the'. Of the, of the. Out of the, out of the.
Drive out of the city.
City.
What's happening with this T? It is a flap T, isn't it? City. Da-da-da-da-da.
The tongue flaps against the roof of mouth, that's because it comes between two vowels: city.
City.
City. Away from the crowds.
Away from the crowds.
The stress of how it's sung is exactly like the stress of how it would be spoken.
Away. Stress on 'way', from the crowds, stress on 'crowds'. Away from the crowds. Away from the crowds.
So the first syllable of 'away', we see the letter A, but it's just the schwa.
Uh, uh, uh.
Away. Away from the-- They're not that clearly pronounced, are they?
Away from the crowds.
From the-- from the-- from the--
She reduces the vowel, we would do this in spoken English, too.
It's the schwa: from, from, from, from the, from the.
And all of these words in this phrase link together really smoothly.
From the--
from the crowds. I thought heaven can't help me now.
I thought heaven-- A little bit of length on 'thought', da-da, I thought--
but then more stress, more volume in the voice, heaven can't help me now, in those three syllables.
I thought heaven can't help me now.
What about the T in 'thought'? Do you hear that released?
Tttt..
I thought--
No. There's no release. It's a stop T.
I thought-- I thought--
I thought--
A T is a Stop T when the next word begins with a consonant as it does here.
Sometimes, the beginning H is silenced, like in the word 'hour'.
But in the word 'heaven', it's not silent. We do say that H, that's a consonant sound.
So the T before is a stop T.
I thought heaven--
I thought heaven can't help me now.
What about the T in 'can't'? Do you hear tttt, a released T?
Can't help me--
No. T is not released that often, actually, a true T, it's not all that common.
And in N apostrophe T contractions, there are a couple of different ways that T will be pronounced.
Sometimes, it's totally dropped, and sometimes, it's a stop, and it's a stop here.
Can't help-- can't help-- can't help--
It's not: can't help-- and it's also not: can't help-- but it's: can't help--
Little tiny lifts in the voice there. That stop signifies the T to Americans.
Can't help--
She is using a little bit more breath on the two h's, and if we exaggerate the first sound,
the first consonant of a word that brings a little bit more stress, a little bit more drama to it,
heaven, help--
Heaven can't help--
Heaven can't help me now.
Help me now.
Help.
What happens to that P? Help. Right? It's released. Help. But just like T, P is also a stop consonant.
So the lips come together. They close. That cuts off the air. Help. And then they open, and some air escapes.
That's called the release.
But, it's common in American English when the next word begins with a consonant
like it does here to skip the release.
So you would close your lips for the P, help me,
but then when you open them, you go right into the next word rather than releasing that air first.
So she's also making that a stop consonant.
The L in the word 'help' is a dark L because it comes after the vowel in that syllable.
Help. Help.
You actually don't need to lift your tongue tip for that.
You've probably learned that to make an L, you lift your tongue tip.
Uhl. But that's only for a light L.
For a dark L, we usually don't lift our tongue tip.
And in fact, if you do, it makes it sound too forward in the mouth and it doesn't sound quite right.
Help, hel, hel, help.
We don't want that. We want hel hel help.
And to make that uhl, dark L sound, we don't lift the tongue tip.
We'd leave the tongue tip down and with the back of the tongue, we press down and back a little bit.
Uhl.
Hel-- help. Help me. Help me now.
Help me now.
Help me now. Nothing lasts forever.
We're really learning a lot about consonants in this, aren't we?
And the way she sings them is exactly like how we do them in spoken English, too.
Let's look at the next phrase. Because again, something interesting is happening with some ending consonants.
Nothing lasts forever.
Nothing lasts forever. So first of all, our stress more volume,
a little bit more length.
Nothing lasts forever.
The middle syllable of 'forever' is what's stressed.
Let's talk about the NG ending here. Nothing. What do you hear?
Nothing--
So it's a little bit different. The NG sound gets changed to an N sound. Nothin. Nothin.
It's fairly common to do that with ING ending words, especially in sung English.
You don't want to do it all the time and spoken English, because then it would start to sound
a bit like a regional accent, but definitely, everyone does it some in American English.
Nothing--
Nothing lasts forever.
Lasts.
STS cluster and then an F right next to it. So we have four consonants in a row. How does she pronounce it?
Nothing lasts forever.
Well, it's definitely not: lasts forever, lasts forever.
I think what she's doing is dropping these two. I think you can get away with that. Lasts forever.
Nothing lasts forever.
Everyone would know that you had said 'lasts' even though you didn't say that.
It's just the way that we would sometimes shorten a word.
It's not uncommon to drop a consonant like T between two other consonants,
and here we have T and S between S and F, and it's just natural to drop them and link it into the next word.
Lasts forever. Nothing lasts forever.
Natural and spoken English, as well as sung English.
Nothing lasts forever.
The word 'forever' you see the letter O, you might want to say 'for'
but that's not how it's pronounced it's pronounced: fer-- forever, forever.
So I would write that with the schwa: for-- eh-- and then the stressed syllable is next.
So that syllable is not stressed, it's not: for, its: fur, fur, forever-- forever--
Forever.
Forever. But this is gonna take me down.
But this is gonna take me down. Okay, lots of stress on 'take',
much more up-down shape there, higher pitch, some stress on 'this' but: this-- more volume, more intensity.
Take me down.
But this is gonna take me down.
Let's look at the T in 'but', what happens here?
But this--
But this-- but this-- but this-- It's not but.
It's but, but, but, but.
Said really quickly, it's an unstressed word,
I'd write that with a stop T. But, but, but this, but this,
but this is gonna--
'Gonna', of course, short for 'going to' and all of these words linked together really smoothly.
This is gonna take me down.
No breaks.
In American English, things link together really smoothly.
Now, we have the word 'down', just like 'town'.
It's the OW diphthong, and the N consonant.
I know a lot of my students say something like: down, with a nasalized diphthong, we don't want that.
Dow-- no nasal quality at all. Dow-- and then the N sound. Dow--nnn-- Dow--nnn-- Down. Down.
Down.
Down. He's so tall and handsome as hell. Now, let's listen to just the words: Down.
He's so--
Down. He's so--
Do you notice there's no H in 'he's'?
Down. He's so-- He's so-- He's so-- Just the EE vowel.
That's a fairly common reduction. We drop the H in some of these function words like he, his, him/her,
that are really common.
So she's dropped to the H there. This happens in spoken English, too.
Down. He's so--
The apostrophe S in 'he's' is a light week Z sound, but when it links into an S, which is stronger,
then the S tends to just take over that Z.
So you can think that Z is not actually there. It's the EE vowel and then S. He's so-- He's so-- He's so tall.
He's so tall.
Tall. Higher pitch. That word is stressed. He's so-- He's so tall.
He's so tall.
Tall.
Also down here, hell and well, these are all Dark Ls.
They all come at the end of the word.
And you don't need to lift your tongue tip for that. Tall, hell, well. Uhl, uhl, uhl.
That ending sound, that dark sound does not require tongue lift. Uhl.
And if you do lift your tongue, there is a chance you will mess up the dark sound.
He's so tall.
He's so tall and handsome as hell.
And-- that word is reduced. Nnnn-- you could write that schwa N, there's no D sound.
And handsome. And handsome.
And handsome.
What about the D in handsome? Not there. Handsome. Handsome.
And handsome as hell.
Hell with a little bit of extra breath in that H, just to bring a little bit more stress and drama to that word.
And handsome as hell. The word 'as', not pronounced with the AH vowel. That's reduced. 'As' becomes: as, as.
You could think of it as the schwa, or the IH as in sit vowel. Handsome as-- handsome as-- handsome as hell.
Handsome as hell.
Handsome as hell. He's so bad but he does it so well.
Here, the second time I am hearing the H on he's,
he's so-- again, there's no Z sound, just linked together with an S sound. He's so-- he's so-- he's so-- he's so bad.
He's so bad.
He's so bad but he does it so well.
Bad, with some stress.
A little bit more breathy there, higher pitch, longer.
He's so bad but he does it-- 'But he does' becomes: but he-- but he-- What? That's so weird!
It sounds like B-U-D-D-Y, buddy,
and that's because she drops the H in 'he' so we have an ending EE vowel
and now, the T comes between two vowels so that's a flap T.
But he-- but he-- but he--
But he-- but he-- but he does it so well.
This is perfectly natural and spoken English as well.
But he-- but he does it so well.
Some stress on 'does' and also a lot on 'well'. She does some interesting things with the notes there,
that is a stressed word.
But he does it so well.
All links together really smoothly,ending Z sound in 'does' links right into the IH vowel.
Does it-- does it-- now, what about this T?
Does it so--
Does it so-- does it so--
Do you hear tttt?
It's not there. It's a stop T, does it so-- does it so--
That's because the next word begins with a consonant, the S sound.
Does it so well.
Does it so well. I can see the end as it begins--
I can see the end as it begins--
Very clear with the stress there as far as the intonation, the pitch of the song, the melody.
I can see the end as it begins.
'Begin', two-syllable word with second syllable stress.
I can see the--
Now, the vowel in 'the' is pronounced 'the' instead of 'the' because the next word begins with a vowel.
So the rule is: if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, make it 'the'.
If the next sort of begins with a consonant, make it 'the'.
I can see the end--
I can see the end-- I can see the-- I can, I can, I can.
Nice 'can' reduction just like in spoken English. Can, can, can.
When it's a helping verb, that is not the main verb, the main verb is 'see'.
Then it's going to be reduced. It's not can, its can, I can see, I can see the end.
I can see the end--
I can see the end as it begins.
Now, here, 'as it', she doesn't reduce the vowel.
It is the AA in bat vowel, and the Z sound. The Z sound links right into the next vowel IH. As it-- as it--
What do you think is gonna happen with this T? The next word begins with a consonant.
As it begins--
As it-- as it be-- as it-- There's no ttttt. That's a stop T.
As it begins--
Let's talk about the word 'begin'. So the pronunciation has the IH as in sit vowel.
Be-- be-- begin-- begin-- But in sung English,
and sometimes in spoken English, you will hear people change this vowel a little bit.
She doesn't say bih-- begin, she says bee-- begin.
Begins--
So she says more of an EE as in she vowel,
that's not what you'll see when you look up this word in a dictionary.
Though it does happen, in sung and spoken English too.
But just so you know, if you're speaking, you should probably try to go with the IH vowel.
Bih-- bih-- begin, begin.
What's really the most important thing about this word is that the first syllable is very short,
and the second syllable is a longer, so that we have a sense of the stress.
Bih-- bih-- begin--
Begin--
begin-- My one condition is...
My one condition is...
So we have some stress on all of these words. One, my one condition is.
My one condition is...
Condition, three syllable word with middle syllable stress. So the first syllable is not
cone-- or anything with more of a vowel. We see the letter O but it's the schwa. Con-- con-- condition.
So just like this word 'can', which reduces to can, this syllable also reduces to: can, the same sounds.
Con-- condition. Condition.
T in the TION here, makes the SH sound.
Condition.
Condition--
Condition is-- Say you'll remember me--
Okay, the chorus. What's... What are our most stressed syllables in this first phrase?
Say you'll remember me--
Say-- Say you'll remember me--
The stressed syllables, the longer syllables, you will, you'll, becomes you'll, you'll,
I would write that with the schwa, it's reduced.
Say you'll--
And again, this is a dark L.
You'll, you'll.
You do not want to lift your tongue tip for this.
You'll, lalalala-- If you lift your tongue tip, it's probably going to interfere with the dark sound.
You'll, you'll, Say you'll-- Say you'll remember me--
Say you'll remember me--
Also note, it's not remember, ree, ree, it's rih, rih, with the IH as in sit vowel.
Rih-- rih--remember-- remember-- EH as in bed vowel in the stressed syllable.
Remember, remember me--
Remember me--
Remember me-- Standing in a nice dress--
Standing in a nice dress--
Nice, the most stressed word there.
The ING ending is again, turned into an N ending, standin' not standing.
Standin' in a-- standin' in a--
And and they all link together really smoothly. The letter A is just the schwa.
Standin' in a nice--
Standing in a nice dress--
Lots of Ns in this phrase.
Standing in a nice--
The vowel in 'stand' is AA as in bat, but when that's followed by N like it is here, it changes, it's not pure.
That would be stand, and that's not how we say it, we say stand.
Uh uh. There's more of an UH vowel in the middle because the back of the tongue relaxes
before the front of the tongue goes up for the N.
Sta-- standin-- standin' in a nice dress--
The letters CE here, the S sound, which goes right into the next sound, the consonant cluster.
Standing in a nice dress--
DR, now this can be pronounced JR.
Jr-- jr-- dress.
Instead of dd-- dress, dress.
The JR sound is actually more common, and that's what she does here. Nice dress. Nice dress.
Jjjj-- instead of ddd---
Nice dress--
nice dress-- Starin' at the sunset, babe--
Starin' at the sunset--
Okay, again, the ING ending is turned into an IN ending.
Starin-- starin--
Now, we have at. Is that pronounced with a full vowel? Or is the vowel reduced?
Starin' at the sunset, babe--
She does fully pronounce it. Starin' at-- at the--
that is a stop T though because the next word begins with a consonant. Starin' at the sunset.
Starin' at the sunset.
Sunset is a compound word and in compound words, it's the first word that's stressed.
So in this case, Sun-- sunset-- Okay, we have another ending T here.
What do you think? Are we gonna hear a tttt-- released T?
Sunset.
Sunset. No, we did not hear a released T, that was a stop T.
Sunset, babe.
So the next word begins with a consonant, also this, the rule is if the T is at the end of a thought group,
then it will also be a stop T. Now, an exception to this would be if it's in a cluster like in the word 'connect'.
Then in clusters, it's often pronounced.
But when it's not in a cluster, like here, and it's at the end of a sentence, end of a thought group,
very common to make that a stop T,
sung English, and spoken English.
Sunset.
babe... Red lips and rosy cheeks...
Red lips and rosy cheeks... Our descriptor words, are a little bit more stressed.
Red lips and rosy cheeks...
A little bit of length on 'cheeks' as well, the word 'and' reduced, D is dropped, and, and, and.
Red lips and rosy-- and, and.
Red lips and rosy cheeks...
Red lips. So the D sound is not released. It's not red lips. Red lips. But it's red lips.
So the tongue goes up, the D sound is made with the vocal cords.
Red.
But then rather than releasing air, she just goes right into the next sound, the L consonant.
This is true of spoken English too, if the D is followed by a word that begins the consonant, it's not red lips,
it's not released like that.
Red lips, red lips. There's just a really subtle D sound before the next word.
Red lips--
Red lips and rosy cheeks...
The letter s in Rosie is a Z sound. Rosy cheeks. Zzzzz. Rosy cheeks.
Rosy cheeks.
Rosy cheeks. Say you'll see me again...
Say you'll see me again...
Okay, now here's the first time she does something that's really different than spoken English.
So we have: Say you'll see me again... And that is not the way that we would stress that word.
She's just doing that for effect in her song. It's not a-gain, it's again, it's again, with second syllable stress.
The first syllable is just a very fast schwa in spoken English. Uh, uh, uh, again, again.
Say you'll see me again...
And she even... She changes the vowel, she makes it more like: ah, ah, again, ah.
But in spoken English, it's the schwa. Uh, uh, uh.
Again...
You'll see me-- you'll see me--
Again, don't need to lift the tongue tip here, this is a dark L, it's not you'll, it's yuhl, yuhl, reduced.
You'll, you'll--
Say you'll,
Say you'll see me again even if it's just in your---
Even if it's just in your---
Even-- stress there.
Even if it's just in your--- And then held out, building up to the title of the song.
even if it's just in your---
Even if it's just--
So the stress here is the same as it would be in spoken English, stressed on the stressed vowel EE,
then we have three unstressed syllables in a row.
Even if it's -- even if it's-- even if it's just in---
Now the T in 'just' is not dropped, it's part of a cluster.
But the reason why it's not dropped is because the next word begins with a vowel.
If the next word began with a consonant, like in the phrase: just my, just my, just my.
Then we drop that T because it comes between two consonants.
But in the word 'just' when the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, you probably will hear that T.
Just in-- ttt-- Just in--
Even if it's just in---
Even if it's just in your--
And 'your' is not reduced.
Your-- now, normally in spoken English, we wouldn't stress that so much.
We would just go right into the next phrase, the next word.
'Your' is a function word, it's not that important. Just in your wildest dreams.
Just in your-- just in your-- your-- your-- your-- your wildest dreams.
But for the song, this word is building up to the next thing, it is not reduced, it is fully pronounced, it is longer.
Just in your wildest dreams...
Then we have the title of the song,
Wildest Dreams, and I love how the music matches the music of spoken English.
So the stressed syllable in wildest, is the first syllable and that one is so much longer, wildest dreams.
So the syllables are not of equal length, and this is true in spoken English as well.
And maybe we hear it even better in sung English
because the stressed syllables can be even longer like it is here.
Wildest dreams...
Wildest. Long-short. Wildest. The L here, also again a dark L because it comes after the vowel in the syllable.
So the vowel, in this case, a diphthong, the AI as in buy,
wil-- uhl-- that is the dark sound, that does not made the tongue tip up, that's different.
That's lll lalala, this is uhll-- uhll-- wildest.
So your tongue tip stays down until you need it to go up for the D.
Wildest--
wildest--
Now to sing the dark L sound, uhlll---
it's not a sound to hold out, it's not a particularly pretty sound when we isolate it,
so you wouldn't say wildest, you wouldn't hold that out, you would put it in at the very end,
you would put your length of the syllable in the diphthong or the vowel.
Wiiii-- And I don't even really hear much of the dark sound, she's sort of skips out a little bit. Wildest.
Very subtle and quick at the end, but it's certainly not wildest.
Wildest--
wildest--
Now what about the T in wildest?
Wildest dreams...
It's part of an ending ST cluster. Now, up here with 'just',
we said when that cluster is followed by a word that begins the vowel or diphthong, you say the T.
If it's followed by a word that begins with the consonant, or in this case, a consonant cluster, you drop the T.
And that's exactly what she does. This is true in spoken English too.
And again, remember the DR cluster can be JR. Dreams, dreams, rather than
dreams, ddddd, dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams.
A light J sound, I think that's what she does. I think it's a little bit easier.
Wildest dreams.
Wildest dreams...
Then just a vowel expression, we hear that a lot in music.
Ahh, ooh, etc.
Aahh... Wildest dreams...
And then again, on the repeat of wildest dreams,
T is dropped, words link together with the S, the JR cluster 'dreams' just like the first time.
Wildest dreams aahh...
Okay, so this is a pretty long video. We did the first verse and we did the chorus.
Just like when I do a scene from a movie, I don't do the whole movie.
I don't think I'm going to do the whole analysis here because that could end up being a two hour long video.
So we'll stop here, but I want to challenge you, if you enjoy this, and you want to know the rest of the song,
you can do your own analysis.
Here's what you should do. Download the song, buy it somewhere,
open it in a program that allows you to look at the details of the song, like the volume.
I use Audacity for this, and this allows you to go to different places in the song, play them over and over...
Say you'll remember me...
And that kind of thing.
When you listen to something on a loop like that, it helps you identify
what exactly is happening and it helps you focus in on the details.
And then you can write your own Ben Franklin analysis of what you hear happening.
The stress, put your curve up and down for the stress, dropped sounds, reductions.
Pay attention, write them down. You know a lot. You can do this.
Here's an idea. If you do one, take a picture of one of your pages of your analysis,
post it to Instagram, and use #rachelenglish so I can check it out.
Now the important question:
what song would you like to be the next analysis song?
Put it in the comments. Below but if someone has already put your song, then just like that comment.
The one with the most likes lets me most easily see the most popular request.
Working on this video is making me think about the melody of English.
How we speak but it's almost like a song,
and it's reminding me of a video I made a long time ago where I talked about the shape, the vocal shape,
the melody of a stressed syllable.
I want to make sure you see that if you haven't already, so you can click on it right here.
Also, please subscribe with notifications if you haven't already.
I make a new video every Tuesday, and I'd love to have you join me every week.
That's it guys, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.