Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Do you want to speak with an American English accent? Let's talk about it.
Have you ever wanted to sound just like Tom Cruise or Ellen DeGeneres or me? Well, the
only thing that I have in common with Tom Cruise and Ellen DeGeneres is that we speak
with a standard American accent. Today, you're going to learn what makes the standard American
accent different from other English accents and how you can start to speak like an American
yourself. To help you never forget what you're going to learn today, I've created a free
PDF worksheet with all of the American English pronunciation points, sample sentences, and
you can answer a Vanessa's Challenge question at the end of the worksheets. Click on the
link in the description to download the free PDF today.
In today's lesson, you'll see three of my most popular American English videos that
I made many years ago, but they are revived for you today. The first 20 minutes will be
an American English speaking practice where you can practice pronunciation and speaking
out loud, like an American. And the final 10 minutes of this lesson will be some bonus
idioms that only Americans use, and you can too. All right, let's get started.
Have you ever been watching an American movie and thought, "Oh, it would be great if I could
sound like Tom Cruise." Or maybe you've watched one of my videos already and thought, "Mmm,
I would love to sound like Vanessa." Well, today I'm going to give you some tips to help
you make your pronunciation sound more like an American. And by American, I mean the United
States of America. There are a couple things that we need to
talk about first though. What in the world is an American accent? Because a lot of people
in the US have different styles of speaking. Here, I'm going to be explaining how to sound
like the most general American accent, which is that of news reporters or Hollywood. When
you think about Tom Cruise, this is the accent that I'm talking about. I'm not talking about
a New York accent, a Southern accent, a California accent. I'm talking about standard American
English. Of course, if you want to sound more American,
you need to use American expressions instead of British or Australian expressions. So if
you would like to know some differences between these expressions, make sure you check out
the playlist that I'll link here and in the description.
And finally, the best way to improve your pronunciation to sound more American, or if
you want to sound more British or Australian, is to shadow. And this means you're imitating
word for word everything that that person is saying. You're repeating directly after
the speaker. I have a couple videos where I explain the shadowing technique, so be sure
to click there or in the description to check out those videos.
But it's also great to be able to break down the sounds of a language. And that's what
I'm going to do today is talk about four important concepts that you need to include in your
speaking if you want to sound more American. Are you ready? The first way that you can
sound more American is to change your T sounds to D sounds when they're between two vowels.
Let's listen to a sentence that uses a lot of these.
Dan: In New York City, he wore an exciting sweater
because that always made him satisfied. In New York City, he wore an exciting sweater
because that always made him satisfied. Vanessa:
City. Exciting. Sweater. Here, we have a T between two vowel sounds like I mentioned,
and it's changing to a D. It's not a t- sound. It is d-. This also happens between words.
So you heard "that always, that always." This isn't always done, but it's often done when
native speakers are talking quickly. We link together words by making the final T change
into a D. That always. Oh, so this can be used in a lot of different
situations. A couple years ago, I had a British friend who I always teased because whenever
I asked him to speak in an American accent, the only thing he would say is "water bottle,
water bottle, water bottle," again, and again and again. And it was so funny because it
really is the perfect example of an American accent. It uses the T changing to a D. Water
bottle, and it also uses one more concept that we're going to talk about a little bit
later in this video. So now I want to give you a chance to practice
this pronunciation, T changing to a D. We're going to listen to that clip one more time
of that sample sentence. And then there's going to be a pause. I want you to read that
sentence and try to imitate, try to shadow that pronunciation. Are you ready to use your
speaking muscles? Let's do it. Dan:
In New York City, he wore an exciting sweater because that always made him satisfied.
(silence) Vanessa:
The second way to sound more American when you speak is to use the colored R. What in
the world is that? Well, it's in the middle of the word. When there is an R plus a consonant,
a consonant is any letter that's not A E I O U. So it might be R S, R D. Any word that
has an R plus a consonant. It's going to sound like, er, er. Let's listen to a sample sentence
that uses this a lot. Dan:
The first word that you learned is the one you heard the most. The first word that you
learned is the one you heard the most. Vanessa:
Did you notice something in this sentence? There are a lot of different vowel sounds
that change to sound like one sound, er. In the word "first," there is an I. In the word
"word," there is an O. In the word "heard" and "learned" there's E A, but they all sound
like er, er. This is the colored R, and it's really typical in American English. Er. Heard.
Let's listen to that clip again. And the same as before, I want you to try to imitate and
shadow that pronunciation style. Test your pronunciation muscles. Try to sound like an
angry dog. First, word, learned. It sounds a little crazy when you're practicing. But
of course, when you're speaking with other people, you can tone it down, but it's good
to exaggerate when you're practicing pronunciation because you're getting your muscles prepared.
And then when they're already ready to use those sounds, it will feel more natural. Your
muscles will know where to go, and then you can kind of tone it down and not sound so
crazy when you're speaking with other people. So when you're practicing, don't worry about
exaggerating. The first word that I learned. Take it easy, try it yourself. And let's listen
and pause. And it's your turn to speak. Dan:
The first word that you learned is the one you heard the most.
(silence) Vanessa:
My next tip for sounding American is to include an E-R at the end of your words. Er. This
is really typical in American English. So before I explain it any further, let's listen
to a sentence that includes this a couple times.
Dan: In the letter he wrote, remember to water
the flowers. In the letter he wrote, remember to water the flowers.
Vanessa: When my British friend was saying "water bottle,"
this was the second American sound that he was using. The E-R at the end of the word,
er. Water. Don't forget to water the flowers. Remember to water the flowers. And this is
going to really test your R pronunciation. We used it in the previous tip and now we're
using it, er, again. You really need to make sure your R's are strong and powerful. Remember
to water the flowers. All right, let's listen to that clip one more time. And then we're
going to pause and I want you to say it out loud.
Dan: In the letter he wrote, remember to water
the flowers. (silence)
Vanessa: My fourth and final tip is a specific contrast
with British English. It is the ending A-R-Y. Again, we're talking about R, because R is
essential in English and it's essential in a lot of different languages. I think oftentimes
the R is the most challenging sound in other languages because it's so integral. Well,
in this case, A-R-Y at the end of words is going to indicate that in American English
we're going to pronounce the full word library, secretary, military. Do you hear that ending?
Ary, ary, ary. Library. Whew! We're going to say the full word. Let's listen to a quick
sentence that uses a couple of these examples. Dan:
At the library, the secretary read a book about the military. At the library, the secretary
read a book about the military. Vanessa:
In American English, you're going to pronounce each of the final letters, A-R-Y. Military.
In British English, they often cut out the A, so instead of military, it would be military.
Military. That A is just gone. But in American English, each of those letters are pronounced.
Military. Ary. So let's listen to this clip one more time. And then I want to pause and
let you have a chance to repeat the sentence yourself.
Dan: At the library, the secretary read a book
about the military. (silence)
Vanessa: So how did you do with these American English
pronunciation sentences? Did you challenge your pronunciation? Do you think that you
can sound more American after watching this video? I hope that these tips are useful to
you, and let me know in the comments below. Are there any other words that you can use
to sound more American using these four tips? Let me know, and I hope that you enjoyed this
lesson. I'll see you the next time. Have you ever wondered, is the American accent
really different from the British accent? The answer is oh, yes, definitely. Last year
I made this video that has now over a million and a half views. It's called Four Secrets
to the American English Accent. And in this video, we talked about the four essential
elements of the American English accent. But today I think it's time to go beyond those
basics and dig a little deeper. Are you ready? We're going to be practicing
four more secrets to the American English accent, and after each section, I want you
to try to imitate and shadow exactly with my voice. That means that you need to practice,
and it's a great way to improve your pronunciation. Let's get started.
The first secret to an American English accent is the stopped T. Hmm. This is super common.
It's when there is a T at the end of a word, but we don't exactly say it. Let me give you
a quick example. How about the word "right?" Did you hear "righ-t?" Nope. Instead, when
I said that final T my tongue was stopped at the top of my mouth. That's why we call
it a stopped T. Right. Right. Let's look at a sample sentence.
I thought he wouldn't appreciate the plant. There's a lot of words here that end in T,
or have a T close to the end. Listen carefully again. Do you hear any of those T's?
I thought he wouldn't appreciate the plant. For each of those T's, my tongue is stopped
at the top of my mouth. Let's look at another sample sentence.
I bought some meat and took it outside. Almost each of these words that end in T have
a stopped T. Let's listen one more time. I bought some meat and took it outside.
The word "outside" has a T in the middle, but because this word is kind of two words
put together, out and side, we're going to have a stopped T here in the middle. This
is a little bit of an exception. All right, let's go back to that original sentence, and
I want you to try to say it out loud with me. Now that you've heard a lot of different
examples, I want you to speak out loud, use those pronunciation muscles and speak. Are
you ready? I thought he wouldn't appreciate the plant.
I thought. Is your tongue stopped at the top of your mouth? I hope so.
I thought he wouldn't appreciate the plant. You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to
pause and I want you to say the sentence all by yourself. No matter where you are, I'll
be listening. So make sure you speak out loud. Go ahead.
(silence) Great work.
All right. Let's go on to the second secret of having an American English accent. Number
two is the glottal T. Oh, we're talking about the letter T again. I've gotten a lot of comments
about how to pronounce the word "sentence." Sentence, or sentence? Ooh, I say "sentence."
And I've gotten so many comments of people saying, "Vanessa, why do you pronounce it
like that? How did you say that?" Well, this is a lovely concept called the glottal T.
Glottal, glottis, is kind of a scientific term for something in your throat. I don't
think I can scientifically explain it, but listen to these words and see if you can hear
my throat stopping the T in the middle of the word. Listen carefully.
The winner of the international Winter Olympics has gotten an important award on the internet.
There's a lot of T's in the middle of words. Let's break down the sentence a little bit.
There are two different ways to have the glottal T. The first one is with an N-T. So for example,
the words "international," "winter," "internet," "sentence." In these words, the T is just
gone. So here we have an N-T, usually plus a vowel. And you're going to say "sentence."
You can say sentence with a T. It's fine, but you're going to hear native speakers,
when we're speaking quickly, you're going to hear us completely cut out that T. Sentence.
Winter. International. Internet. The other way to use the glottal T is with
words that have a T in the middle, not necessarily an N-T, but have a t in the middle. Sometimes
the double T, sometimes it's not. For example the words, "button," "gotten," "eaten," "important."
Do you notice that my throat is stopping that T sound in the middle of the word? Listen
again, "button," "eaten," "gotten," "important." Here, my throat is doing some important work
here to make that glottal T sound exactly the way it should.
Before we practice that sample sentence, sentence again, I want to share what I found when I
was doing a little bit of research about where this glottal T came from. I found on Wikipedia
that it was first mentioned in Scotland in the 1800's and a dialect worker who was doing
some research about different dialects said, "It's considered a lazy habit and may have
been in the dialect for hundreds of years." So it's possible that Americans got this glottal
T from Scotland, possibly. I don't know, but in any case, it is kind of considered a lazy
habit, but Americans have picked up a lot of that in our natural way of speaking.
Okay, let's go back to that sample sentence. And I'm going to say it a couple times. Please
say it with me because I'm going to pause and you're going to have to say it all by
yourself. So let's practice together. The winner of the international Winter Olympics
has gotten an important award on the internet. Let's say it one more time.
The winner of the international Winter Olympics has gotten an important award on the internet.
Okay. I'm going to pause and I want you to try to say this glottal T all by yourself.
Go ahead. (silence)
Great work. All right. Let's go on to the third secret of having an American English
accent. Number three, contractions with "will." There are two ways to pronounce contractions
with "will." There is a clear way, and then there's a relaxed way. Let's look at a quick
example. Let's take the words "you will." If we want to make a contraction with this,
we could say Y-O-U apostrophe L-L. How can we pronounce this? Well, you could say it
in a clear way. You'll. Do you hear the full word? You, you'll. Yeah, yeah. I'm saying
you and then, l-. Just the L-L at the end. But what if we want to say this in a relaxed,
maybe lazy way? Well, instead you can say you'll, you'll. You're only saying kind of
like, Y-U-L-L. You'll, you'll. Let's look at another example. This is kind
of a crazy sentence, but it uses this concept a lot. First, I'm going to say in the clear
way, and then we're going to say it in the relaxed way.
He'll go if you'll go and they'll go if we'll go.
In each of these contractions, you heard that full pronoun. He, you, they, we. But let's
look at it when it's relaxed and this is going to help you sound a little bit more natural,
like in American English speaker. He'll go if you'll go and they'll go if we'll
go. In all of these, there's an l- sound. He'll
go if you'll go and they'll go if we'll go. I didn't say we'll go. I just said the first
letter, W, plus U-L-L. We'll, we'll. Let's go through each of the contractions that use
"will" so that you can hear this in a natural way and in a sentence.
You'll. You'll get the car. He'll. He'll get the car. She'll. She'll get the car. We'll.
We'll get the car. They'll. They'll get the car. Let's say that sample sentence one more
time together. I want you to speak out loud and then you'll have a chance to say it by
yourself. He'll go if we'll go and they'll go if you'll
go. He'll go if we'll go and they'll go if you'll go.
Now, it's your turn to say it by yourself. Go ahead.
(silence) Excellent work. Let's go on to the fourth
and final secret of having an American English accent. Number four is linking the S plus
a vowel. Listen to this sentence. How's it going? How's it going?
What about this sentence? There are cars in the sun. There are cars in the sun.
Both of these sentences have an S and then a vowel. What happens here? In each of these
words, the S becomes a Z. How's it going? There are cars in the sun." Common words that
we use this with are "it," how's it going? And also "in," there are cars in the sun.
That's probably the most common ways that you're going to see this. So let's take a
look at a couple sentences. He's in the office. He's in the office. He's
in the office. She goes in the theater. She goes in the theater.
When he complains, it gets on my nerves. When he complains, it gets on my nerves.
Do you see how, when we link here, it helps you to speak a little more quickly. And when
you link it together with a Z, it sounds so natural. Don't go to the cliffs. It's too
dangerous. If we have a pause here, you could just say an S don't go to the cliffs. It's
too dangerous. But if you say this quickly, and that's kind of our key here, then you're
going to link it together with Z. Don't go to the cliffs, it's too dangerous. Cliffs,
it's too dangerous. All right, let's say together those two original sentences, please say it
with me, use those pronunciation muscles, and then I'm going to pause so that you can
have a chance to say it all by yourself. How's it going? How's it going?
There are cars in the sun. There are cars in the sun.
Okay? Now it's your turn. Say it all by yourself. You got this.
(silence). Great work. That was a lot of pronunciation
practice. But before we go, let's do a quick review. If you'd like to say these sentences
out loud with me, please do that. That's the best way to improve your pronunciation and
also just to remember these concepts. I thought he wouldn't appreciate the plant.
The winner of the international Winter Olympics has gotten an important award on the internet.
He'll go if we'll go and they'll go if you'll go.
How's it going? There are cars in the sun.
And now I have a question for you. In the comments, let me know what is something that's
really important to you? I want you to use this word "important" because in the middle
we have that glottal T. Import- and then at the end we have a stopped T. Important. There's
no T that we actually speak at the end. So if you can say your sample sentence that you
write in the comments out loud, that will be beautiful practice. You can read each other's
sentences as well to see what kind of things are important to people all around the world.
You might be wondering, what in the world is an American idiom? Well, these idioms might
be understood by people in the UK, but they're most often used by Americans. And if you said
one of these to someone from the US they would instantly understand what you meant, and they
wouldn't feel weird at all like you were using an expression that they hadn't heard very
often. For each of these idioms, I'm going to tell you a little story, and I want you
to guess what you think the idiom means based on the context.
So for our first idiom, I want to tell you a quick story about last week. One of my friends
who has a small baby, we were going to get together. And in the morning when we were
about to get together, she called me and said, "Hey, Vanessa, I'm sorry. I've got to take
a rain check because my baby is not feeling too well, so I want to just relax at home
and maybe we can get together next week." What do you think this idiom, "take a rain
check" means? Take a rain check. Think about it for a moment.
In this context, we were going to get together, but we needed to change some plans because
her baby wasn't feeling well. That's exactly what this idiom means. Change your plans.
We need to delay or just push back our plans because something happened. Maybe you just
are feeling tired or you're feeling sick, so you need to change your plans. You could
say, "I need to take a rain check," or "let's take a rain check and do our event next week."
Let's take a rain check. It's easy to remember this expression if you
can remember the base word rain. Let's imagine you're trying to have some kind of event outside.
Maybe you're trying to get married outside like I was, and it rains like it was on my
wedding. Well, you can't have the event outside. You have to go inside. So you need to change
your plans because of the weather. So this is kind of the origin of the expression, but
we can use it in any situation where you're changing plans.
The second American idiom is "to shoot the breeze." Let me tell you a quick story so
you can guess the meaning. In a couple days, I'm getting together with a childhood friend
who I haven't seen for a while. And when I told my husband that I was going to get together
with her, he said, "What are you going to do? You haven't seen her for a long time."
And I said, "Hmm, I don't know. Shoot the breeze. Just sit together, we'll figure out
something." What do you think from this quick story that
"shoot the breeze" means? Well, we can imagine the word "breeze" means a small wind. We can
imagine a breeze coming out of your mouth when you're talking. So, shooting the breeze
means just to chit chat together, to talk about daily life, nothing too deep or important,
just to chat. So I said, "I'm going to just shoot the breeze with her." I'm not going
to take a gun and shoot the wind. That would be a pretty crazy activity together. But instead
we just talked. So there was wind coming out of our mouths, breeze. And this means we didn't
really talk about anything serious or substantial, just chit chat, just chatted.
The third American idiom is "to plead the fifth." Let me tell you a quick story so you
can guess what it means. Let's imagine that your friend comes over to your house. And
he says, "Oh man, I just went on a date with Sarah yesterday. It was so great." And then
you say, "Oh, did you kiss her?" And he might say, "I plead the fifth." What does this mean?
Why did he say "I plead the fifth?" Well, the word "plead" means I beg, "Please, please,
I'm begging." And "the fifth," what in the world is the fifth? Why not the fourth? The
10th? Why is there a number here? Well, this is referencing the Constitution of the United
States. In the constitution, the Fifth Amendment says you don't need to say anything that is
going to incriminate you in court. But when your friend was talking to you about kissing
a girl on a date, was he worried about going to court or going to jail? No.
So let's talk about the original meaning of this expression, the political meaning and
then we'll talk about how it got interpreted in daily conversation. Well, let's imagine
that you're driving really fast and a policeman pulls you over and you roll down your window.
And he says, "Excuse me, have you been drinking alcohol? Have you been smoking weed? Have
you been doing drugs?" You could say, "I plead the fifth." And this means, you know that
it's the law. You don't have to say anything to him that could make you get in trouble
with the court later. If he's going to take you to court, you're going to say it in the
court. You're not going to say it in this informal area in your car. You want to make
sure that there's a lawyer. You want to make sure that it is done the right way. So you
could say, "I plead the fifth," because that Fifth Amendment of the constitution says you
don't need to answer his questions. You don't need to say that.
In daily life, we often use this when we don't want to answer a question. So you asked your
friend, "Did you kiss her?" And he said, "I plead the fifth." This means he doesn't want
to answer your question. He doesn't say "Legally, I don't have to answer your question." No,
this is just colloquially. He's saying, "I don't want to answer your question."
But there is a subtle meaning here. When you use this in daily conversation, it means "I
don't want to tell you, but your answer is correct." So he said, "Did you kiss her?"
And he said, "I plead the fifth." Really, it means "Yes, but I don't want to tell you."
So if you use this expression, you're not really hiding the truth. You're telling them
what they already know, but you just don't want to say it.
So let me give you one other quick situation. The other day I was sneakily eating a piece
of chocolate in the kitchen. And Dan, my husband, walked into the kitchen and said, "Did you
eat the last piece of chocolate?" Well, I had eaten the last piece of chocolate and
I said, "I plead the fifth." And this means I don't want to tell you, but it's true. I
did eat the last piece of chocolate. So even though I didn't say "I ate the last piece,"
yes, you are correct. It is implied when you use this expression. If you use it with a
police officer, he's going to be suspicious because you're not answering his question,
but this is the legal situation, so it's okay to use it. It doesn't mean "Yes, I was drinking
alcohol. Yes, I was smoking. Yes. I was doing drugs." No, it doesn't imply that in the legal
situation, but in the colloquial situation, it does. It implies, "Yes, I did that thing
that you're accusing me of, but I don't want to say it."
The fourth American idiom is "to give props to someone." Let me tell you a quick story.
Let's imagine that you want to study abroad in the US and you'd like to get your Master's
degree at Harvard. Well, your goal is to get your Master's degree, but you think, "Why
not? I'm going to try to apply to Harvard because they have a great reputation." So
you try to get into Harvard and you don't make it. Then your friend asks you, "Hey,
how did it go? Did you get a reply? Did you make it into Harvard?" And you probably say,
"Mm, no, I didn't make it." They would say to you, "Well, I give you props for trying."
What does this mean? I give you props for trying. This expression, "props," means proper
respect, but it's just been shortened over time. And if you ask most Americans, "What
does props mean?" They probably wouldn't be able to tell you. I just looked it up online
because I was curious. But we can imagine from this full expression,
"I'm giving you my proper respect for trying to get into Harvard. Even though you didn't
make it, you tried hard. I give you my respect." Well, we can shorten this expression to say,
"I give you props for trying to get into Harvard." I give you props for something that you did.
So when you want to show that someone didn't succeed, but you still are respecting them
because they tried, this is a great expression to use.
And you know what? You can even give yourself props. So let's imagine that you see a lost
foreign traveler in your city, and you want to try to speak English with them, but you
feel a little nervous, but you do it anyway. You go to them, they ask you some questions.
You didn't understand everything, but you tried your best. You could say, "Well, I give
myself props for trying. I give myself props for approaching them and trying to speak English."
You did it, maybe it wasn't perfect, but you tried. So you can use this as encouragement
for yourself. So now it's your turn. I want to know. Have
you ever needed to plead the fifth? Did you ever need to take a rain check or maybe give
props to someone? Who do you like to shoot the breeze with? Let me know in the comments
below. Try to use these expressions and expand your vocabulary.
Congratulations on practicing your American English pronunciation and vocabulary. Don't
forget to download the free PDF worksheet so that you never forget what you've learned
today, and you can start speaking confidently and with an American accent. Click on the
link in the description to download it now. Well, thanks so much for learning English
with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye. The next step is to download the free PDF
worksheet for this lesson. With this free PDF, you will master today's lesson and never
forget what you have learned. You can be a confident English speaker. Don't forget to
subscribe to my YouTube channel for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.