Today, you're studying fast English by looking at the reductions , the linking, the stress, patterns,
that native speakers do when speaking American English.
We're using the scene Book Smart.
When you study American English this way, and not the way you learned it in school, or
maybe the way you learned it from a book,
your listening comprehension and your ability to sound natural speaking English
is going to improve dramatically.
We're doing an in-depth analysis, studying the rhythmic contrast that gives American English its character.
And we're going to do an audio training section at the end
so that you can fully understand and start building that habit of speaking natural English.
We don't want them to feel insecure.
We're doing this all summer. We started in June, and we're going through August.
Stick with me every Tuesday. They're all great scenes and there's going to be so much to learn
that can transform the way you understand and speak English.
And as always, if you like this video or you learned something , please like and subscribe with notifications.
You're going to watch the clip, then we're going to do a full pronunciation analysis together.
This is going to help so much with your listening comprehension
when it comes to watching English movies in TV.
But there's going to be a training section.
You're going to take what you've just learned and practice repeating it, doing a reduction, flapping a T,
just like you learned in the analysis.
Okay here's the scene.
Our class’s official policy is to not discuss where anyone is attending next year.
We don’t want them to feel insecure.
Very thoughtful.
Anyway, I need to go over the end of the year budget numbers we have.
Oh. Gosh. Really? Like now?
What, I mean, why don’t you do it with Nick? You know? Please?
And now, the analysis.
Our class’s official policy is to not discuss where anyone is attending next year.
We don’t want them to feel insecure.
So this is a very long opening thought group.
She does a little pause here before the last two words,
and so that has its own separate thought group. Feel insecure, feel insecure, with feel and cure being longer.
But in the opening phrase is just very long, it will help to know your anchors, your stressed words,
to help you figure out how to organize the rhythm.
Our class’s official policy is to not discuss where anyone is attending next year.
We don’t want them to feel insecure.
Our class’s official policy is to not discuss where anyone is attending next year.
We don’t want them to feel insecure.
Our class’s official policy is to not discuss where anyone is attending next year.
We don’t want them to feel insecure.
Let’s break it up into smaller chunks.
Our class’s official policy—
So I would say AH, IH, and AW here are our most stressed syllables. Our class’s—
the word our is not fully pronounced, it's pronounced: ar, ar, ar, our class’s.
Our class’s, our class’s, our class’s.
So rather than thinking our, it's more like ar, ar, said very quickly. Our class’s— our class’s—
Now here, we have a noun that ends in an S and the possessive: class’s.
So we have K, L, AH, class,
and the apostrophe S will add another syllable, IH as in Sit, Z.
Our class’s uh--
and that Z will link right into the schwa of official because everything links together in a thought group.
We don't want any breaks or separation between words.
This smoothness is important in American English.
It can be really tough if you come from a language where each word needs to feel more separate.
Our class’s official policy.
Practice the sentence and move your arm in a circle and let the top of the circle be that peak, that peak of pitch.
Our class's official policy.
Don't make this an OH sound, it's a schwa. Uh, uh.
Basically no jaw drop, lips are parted,
just a relaxed jaw. Uh uh uh Official, official, it's not official, oh oh oh, uh uh uh official.
And the letter C here makes the SH sound. Official, cial, cial.
This letter I just tells us to make the C an SH, so there's no pronunciation itself of this letter.
And then the letter A is again just a schwa. Schwa L, a little quick dark sound. Official uhl uhl uhl.
So the schwa and L combined, you don't need to try to make a separate schwa sound, and then an L.
This is actually going to be a dark L. What does that mean?
That means it comes after the vowel or diphthong in the syllable,
and if the next word begins with a consonant, you do not need to lift your tongue tip.
Official uhl, you just make that dark sound with your tongue tip down, uhl, policy, and go right into the P.
Do not lift your tongue tip. That will definitely make the sound feel more forward.
We want it to feel more in the back. Uhl. That dark sound is made by
pressing down and back a little bit the back of the tongue. Uhl, uhl, official.
Official, official, official policy.
Official policy.
Now here, for this L, you can lift your tongue tip. But for this L, do not lift your tongue tip.
Official policy. Our class's official policy. Uhhhhh. Feel that rhythm.
Our class’s official policy—
Our class’s official policy is to not discuss where anyone is attending.
Is to not discuss where anyone is attending.
So we have that uh feeling of stress on: is to not discuss where any, a little bit there on the EH vowel.
Letter A, but the vowel is EH. Where anyone is attending.
So rather than drawing it as an up down shape, which is the normal shape of stress, I’m drawing it as a scoop up,
because her pitch is on the way up. And when we're making the intonation of the sentence go up,
then the scoop of the voice will be down up, attending.
Is to not discuss where anyone is attending—
So even though I’ve broken it up into two pieces here while we discuss the stress,
it's actually not a break, is it?
Policy is, policy is,
continues right on with no break in sound.
This is all part of the same thought group.
policy is to--
Policy is to not-- did you notice the word to?
Policy is to to, to, that was a true T and a schwa. To, to, to, just like here in official,
oh, it's not oh, it's uh, uh, official. And here, to, it's not to, it's to, to, a schwa, it's a reduction here.
Here, in official, it's actually just the regular pronunciation of the word.
Here, the word to, it's a reduction from the OO vowel to the schwa. To, to. Policy is to.
Why do we do that? Why do we change the vowel? It lets us say it more quickly.
And we want to say it really quickly. We want these words to be flatter, lower in pitch,
so that there's contrast with the up down shape, longer stressed syllable. Policy is to.
So actually, in the word policy, it's three syllables with first syllable stress,
so the second two syllables are also unstressed. So we have four unstressed syllables here in a row.
Li-cy is to-- policy is to-- policy is to--
And we definitely want it to feel different than our stressed syllables. Policy is to not—
Policy is to not—
Policy is to not discuss—
Not discuss, not discuss, do you notice there's no release of that T?
That T is a stop T because the next word begins with the consonant, the D consonant, not discuss.
Not discuss--
where anyone is attending.
Not discuss where anyone, where anyone. As I said there's just a little bit of an up down shape on EH,
but really, where anyone is uh. This is all flatter and lower in pitch.
The first syllable of attending, also a schwa. The schwa creeps up everywhere in American English.
Not discuss where anyone is attending
Where anyone is a, where anyone is atten--, this double T here is a true T because it starts a stressed syllable.
T will always be a true T when it starts a stressed syllable,
unless it's part of the TR cluster, then it might sound more like CH.
Where anyone is attending
Where anyone is attending next year
Attending next year, next year, this is all on the way up
because she's about to say why.
So she's pairing these two phrases together by making one go up.
Attending next year. And then the next one will go down in pitch.
Attending next year
Now something is interesting. It's happening here with the T in next.
Next year.
It's not a ttt sound it's more of a CH sound, next, ch, ch, ch, so the letter X makes KS in this word
and the T is combining with the Y. The Y is influencing the T. The Y in year changes it to a CH.
next year.
Have you ever noticed this? In a phrase like: what are you doing?
It's fairly common to drop R in a nice, casual reduction, and say: what cha, what cha doing?
What ch ch ch-- that's taking the ending T of what and the y of you and making it into a CH.
You'll definitely notice that if you pay attention to casual conversational English.
Next year. Ch ch ch ch. Not: next year, next year, but: next year.
next year.
we don't want them to--
We don't want them to— so then in the last part of this thought group, we really just have the one swell of pitch,
the one stressed syllable. We don't want them to.
We don't want them to. So the energy is building up towards that and then falling away from it.
We don't want them to.
We have a stop T in want, it's not want them, but want them, them.
Oh are you noticing that reduction? I'm not saying them, am I?
I'm changing the EH vowel to the schwa,
the schwa comes up yet again. Want them, want them to.
To, that's another schwa. Want them to, want them to, want them to, to, to, to, them to, them to, them to.
We don't want them to--
And as far as the T in don't, I’m not really hearing it. We don't want, don't www--
Right from N into W. So N apostrophe T contractions can be pronounced three ways:
with a true T, don't want, with a stop T, don't want, or with no T, don't want.
And I’m hearing this one as a dropped T altogether, no T whatsoever. Don't want, we don't want.
We don't want--
to feel insecure.
Feel insecure. We already talked about the up down shape, the stress, the rhythm of this, the melody as well.
Duuuhhhh--- feel inse-- that L is going to link right into the IH vowel of insecure.
We want to connect them. Feel inse—
So this is a dark L, you do want to make a dark sound after the EE vowel.
Otherwise, it would be feel. We want feeuhll, uhl. We definitely want that to be a part of it.
But you can lift your tongue tip here because the next word begins with a vowel.
Feel insecure. But make sure you make that dark sound first. Slow it down if you need to.
Feel insecure, cure, cure. And the pitch goes down.
Feel insecure--
Very thoughtful.
So the principal responds: very thoughtful.
What do you think are those up down shape? Those most stressed syllables?
Very thoughtful.
Very thoughtful. So each word is two syllables, and in each word, it's the first syllable that's stressed.
Uuuhhhh. Very thoughtful. This is a stop T because the next sound is a consonant.
Very th—yth, yth, connected, no break in sound between the EE and the unvoiced TH.
For this sound, your tongue tip does have to lightly come through the teeth. Very thoughtful.
Very thoughtful.
Now this L is another dark L.
It comes at the end of the word, so we know it's at the end of the vowel in the syllable.
And because he's not going on, because there's no next sound, no vowel or diphthong,
you can just avoid lifting your tongue tip.
Thoughtful. Uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl.
It's just a really quick dark sound. If you lift your tongue tip, it's going to bring the sound more forward.
We actually want this sound to be further back in the mouth. Uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl, thoughtful.
Thoughtful.
Anyway, I need to go over the end of the year budget numbers we have.
Okay so what are her longer syllables?
Anyway, I need to go over the end of the year budget numbers we have.
Anyway-- a little bit there on that stressed syllable, that first syllable.
Remember, that is the EH vowel like in bed, even though it's the letter A. Anyway. Anyway.
Anyway. Anyway. Anyway, I need to go over the end of the year budget numbers we have.
Okay, need is very obvious. She holds that out even longer than
what would be the most normal conversational English.
I need to go over. I need to, I need to go over. Really stressing that, holding out the vowel
makes it clear this is important to her.
I need to go--
Look, we have another word to, what do you think, will it reduce? Will we again have a schwa?
I need to go. To, to, yes, we do.
We reduce that vowel. I need to go.
I need to go--
over the end of the year budget numbers we have.
I need to go over the end of the— I really feel like that's our next stressed syllable.
Again, it's the EH vowel. So, to go over the, all less stressed, flatter in pitch.
To go over the, to go over the, to go over the, to go over the.
To go over the--
If we said everything that way, it would be incredibly unclear.
I need to go over the, I need to go over the end of the year numbers we have.
I need to go over the end of the year budget numbers we have.
Come on, that's impossible. That's why we have the contrast. We bring out our longer stressed syllables.
I need to go over the, I need, and that's what's important in American English conversation, in spoken English,
is that we have the contrast of the long and the short. So it may feel very odd to take a phrase like: to go over the,
and pronounce it: to go over the, to go over the, to go over the, but we actually want that.
The contrast is more clear than if every word was clear. Believe it or not.
That's how important the contrast is in American English.
The word the here is the EE vowel because the next word begins with a vowel,
otherwise, it would be: the, the, the.
So the rule is, if the next word begins with a vowel or a diphthong, we make this the EE vowel.
However I have noticed that in practice, Americans don't follow this rule all that well, but she did here.
I need to go over the end—
I need to go over the end of the year budget numbers we have.
End of the year budget numbers we have.
Budge, have, also having more length. And the other words, more simplified. End of the year.
All three of these are flatter in pitch.
The end of the year budget numbers we have.
End of the— So I think we can just reduce this word of completely to the schwa.
Sounds like that's what she's doing. She's not putting a V sound at the end.
End of the. Now here, it is a schwa, because the next word begins with the consonant, the Y consonant.
End of the year. End of the. The D links right into the schwa, the schwa links right into the TH,
the schwa here links right into the J consonant. So everything links together smoothly.
End of the year budget. End of the year budget.
The end of the year budget.
Now if you have a hard time with the word year,
I know some people have a hard time comparing that with the word ear.
I do have a video on that here on YouTube. So just Google Rachel’s English year, ear,
and I’m sure you'll find it.
The end of the year, the end of the year, the end of the year budget numbers we have.
So our final four words: budget numbers we have, begin with a stressed syllable, and end with a stressed syllable.
And all the syllables in between are flatter in pitch.
dget numbers we-- dget numbers we-- dget numbers we—dget, dget, dget.
Stop T there, not released because the next word begins with the consonant.
Dget numbers we-- dget numbers we-- dget numbers we have. Budget numbers we have.
Budget numbers we have.
Can you imitate that when you're doing it? Really think about you have,
you know, your anchor at the beginning, your anchor at the end, and other syllables in between
are all said really quickly and simply.
Now this is the end of her phrase, and her volume has really gone down, hasn't it?
Budget numbers we have.
Some of her vocal energy is gone. Compare it to: I need.
I need--
Budget numbers we have.
So the overall phrasing of American English is louder,
higher in pitch, a little bit more vocal energy at the beginning,
and then all of that diminishes as we go towards the end of a phrase.
So pay attention to that when you're practicing the phrasing. In the audio that goes with it,
I’m going to break up in one of the sections longer phrases like this into smaller phrases to practice with.
So if it's one towards the end of a phrase, make sure that you're imitating the volume and the pitch as well,
not just the rhythm. Stress really has to do with all of the vocal qualities.
And in order to have the correct stress and feeling of overall sentence,
then it needs to come down towards the end.
Budget numbers we have.
Oh. Gosh.
Oh. Gosh. Sort of fun to imitate that when people do totally different things with their voice.
Oh. Gosh. And he really draws that out gosh, there with the AH as in father vowel.
Oh. Gosh.
Really?
Really? Really? High pitch. Really? So if you look this word up in the dictionary, you'll see
two different pronunciations: re-uh-lly, three syllables, and rea-lly, two syllables.
Definitely the two syllable pronunciation is way more common. Rea-lly, but you know what?
This first vowel, you'll often hear it as the IH vowel instead more relaxed, really, really, instead of really, really,
and that's what he does, he does the IH vowel.
So if you're pronouncing this word as three syllables, stop now.
Really, or really. Really, really. It's more natural, more Americans would do that. Two syllables.
Really?
Like now?
Like now? So he's just so defeated. This is the last thing he feels like doing. Like now? Like now?
The word like, said so quickly. Like, Like, Like, Like, Like.
I wouldn't even really understand it if it was by itself. But in the context of the whole sentence, I get it.
Like now? Like now? Pitch goes up, it's a question.
Like now?
What, I mean, why don’t you do it with Nick?
What-- So he kind of just makes a really quick reduction of what, and then an H sound
while he's thinking about what to say, how can he avoid doing this?
What-- What--
What, I mean, why don’t you do it with Nick?
Now let's just listen to the phrase: I mean, why don’t you do it with Nick?
And just listen to how unclear some of those words are.
What, I mean, why don’t you do it with Nick?
Really mumbled, but we do want that contrast between less clear and more clear, stressed syllables.
What, I mean, why don’t you do it with Nick?
I mean, this is so mumbled.
I mean--
I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean. It's like a vowel: uh uh uh uh, and then M, N, maybe.
Uh uh uh uh. I guess I’ll write it like this. Uhm uhm uhm uhm. Very unclear.
That doesn't have to be that unclear, for the record.
I mean rhythmic contrast is important, but it's not like every time you hear this phrase, it's going to be like that.
I mean, why-- I mean, why--
I mean, why don’t you do it with Nick?
And then he has a longer stressed syllable: Why don’t you do it with Nick?
And then nick is the peak of stress, the energy sort of goes towards that.
I mean, why don’t you do it with Nick?
Goes down in pitch. Don't you do it with.
All that flat, low gliding together, less clear.
Why don’t you do it with Nick?
And we have another case where the T is blending with the Y to make a CH.
Why don't you? Why don't? Don't you, don't you, don't you?
Why don’t you do, why don’t you do, why don’t you do.
DON, I mean, even this part of the word, said really quickly.
Why don’t you, n’t you, n’t you, it's almost like there's no vowel there.
Why don’t you, why don’t you, why don’t you, why don’t you.
Why don’t you do--
it with Nick?
Why don’t you do it with, do it, do it. Linking together, we have an ending OO vowel.
When that's linking into another vowel or diphthong, you can think of going through the glide consonant W. Do it.
That might help you link them more smoothly.
We have a stop T at the end of it. Do it with, do it with, do it with, do it with Nick?
Do it with Nick? Do it with Nick? Do it with Nick?
You know? Please?
You know? Please? You know? You know? What's happening to the word you?
It's not you, you know, you know, it's reduced to the schwa.
You know? Please?
Please?
Okay, let's listen to this whole conversation one more time.
Our class’s official policy is to not discuss where anyone is attending next year.
We don’t want them to feel insecure.
Very thoughtful.
Anyway, I need to go over the end of the year budget numbers we have.
Oh. Gosh. Really? Like now?
What, I mean, why don’t you do it with Nick? You know? Please?
Now for the fun part, you’ll look at the notes we took together
and you’ll hear a part of the conversation on a loop three times. Then there’s a space for you to repeat.
For example, you’ll hear this:
Maybe so, sir.
Then you’ll repeat it: maybe so, sir. Try to imitate everything about this exactly.
So when you see this, then you’ll repeat it. Maybe so, sir.
That’s from Top Gun: Maverick which was the first movie we studied in this summer series.
You’ll also have the opportunity to listen and repeat in slow motion.
This will be important for you if you’re more of a beginner, or if you’re having a hard time
focusing on linking or the melody.
Maybe you’ll want to do it both ways, but the important thing is here is your opportunity
to take what you learned and put it into your body and your own habit.
That’s what’s going to transform your speaking.
You might do well to work with the audio section of this video every day for a week.
Imitating the rhythm and the simplifications will get easier each time you do it.
If you can’t keep up with the native speaker, do the slow-motion imitation.
Okay, here’s our audio training section.
Don't forget to come back and do this audio again tomorrow and the next day.
You want to build habits here so you don't need to think about it so much when you're speaking in conversation.
You can focus on the words and not the expression or pronunciation.
Don't forget this is part of a series all summer long, 13 videos, 13 scenes for movies check out each one,
learn something new each time.
I make new videos on the English language every Tuesday and I'd love to have you back here again
please subscribe with notifications and continue your studies right now with this video
and if you love this video share it with a friend.
That's it guys and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.