This is the story of Neil Armstrong, and the thing I love about this,

he's in an interview and he speaks very thoughtfully, very intentionally. We're going to go in-depth,

studying how he expresses himself, and we're also going to study how the melody of a sentence can

change the meaning. When you study scene the way we're going to in this video, you'll be

able to understand American movies and TV effortlessly without subtitles.

Does anyone have anything else?

We're going to be doing this all summer, June 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 speak and understand English.

And as always, if you liked this video or you learn 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. Ok, here's the scene.

I don't know what space exploration will uncover, but

I don't think it will be exploration just for the sake of exploration.

Does anyone have anything else?

Yeah. You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Do you think it will have an effect?

I think it would be unreasonable to assume that it wouldn't have some effect.

And now, the analysis.

I don't know what space exploration will uncover, but I don't think it will be

exploration just for the sake of exploration.

So he has a pretty long sentence here, but he breaks it up into a lot of smaller thought groups. The first one

is after the word what, he pauses, let's look at these first four words.

I don't know what,

It's a little bit unclear, isn't it? It certainly doesn't sound like: I don't know what.

I don't know what,

I don't know what. Uhhh. It's just one big phrase with one peak. I don't know what. Uhhh.

And everything glides together really smoothly. I don't know.

So the T is dropped, and these two words connect with a single N sound. K of course is silent in this word. I don't know what.

I don't know what,

And the OH diphthong in don't, OH

changes here to the UH, that's somewhat common in the phrase: I don't know, becomes: don't know.

I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

I don't know,

So I would actually write this: doh know, with stress on know. I don't know. I don't know.

And because of the AI diphthong before, this D is just a flap, dadadadada.

I don't know what. I don't know what.

I don't know what,

What, the vowel on what, what, what, what, what, what. To me, he's darkened it a little bit. It's not quite uh,

uh, uh, it's almost a little bit like push.

What..

I don't know what, what, uhuhuh.

Definitely he does a stop T at the end there, because it's a T at the end of a thought group,

and he does pronounce the word what, without that wh sound in front.

So WH words can be pronounced with the pure W, or with a what, escape of air before.

He does not do that escape of air.

What, what, what.

What..

I don't know what.

I don't know what.

space exploration will.

Space exploration will,

and then a little bit of a pause here as he continues to think about how to articulate his answer.

So let's look at these three words and is there just one peak of stress like I don't know what?

Or do we have more than one feeling of an up-down shape?

Space exploration will,

Space exploration. I feel two stressed syllables there.

Space exploration will.

Space and ay, the AY diphthong here in exploration, TION is the SH, shwa N ending.

Tion tion tion, space exploration. We have an ending S in space, and ending S sound,

and it links right into the beginning vowel of the next word, EH, space eh, seh, seh, sexploration.

Space exploration,

So there's no break in sound there. Everything connects really smoothly.

Space exploration..

will.

Exploration will. Will, And then he holds this out a little bit while he's thinking.

Will, doesn't reduce the vowel. Sometimes, we do, sometimes, we might say: space exploration will,

will, will, but he doesn't do that, he keeps the IH vowel. Space exploration will.

Space exploration will,

uncover but.

Uncover but, he does a little break here, he makes a stop T, he does not connect it to the AI diphthong,

that would be: but I, but I, and that would be pretty common to connect, but he is breaking this up a lot,

and so he breaks it up here. He is speaking slowly, intentionally. Uncover but.

Uncover but,

What's our stressed syllable there?

Uncover but,

Uncover but.

Just one, and it's uncov, uncover. So we have the letter O but it's the UH as in butter vowel.

There's no lip rounding for that. Uncover. Cover. Just like in the word love, ove, ove, cove, cover, uncover but.

Stop T.

Uncover but,

I don't think it will be.

I don't think it'll be, and then he holds out the EE vowel a little bit here at the end of 'be', while he's thinking.

I don't think it will be.

I don't think it will be.

I don't think it will be. Don't and be both have that uhhhhh, up-down shape.

And then we have, we have a really beautiful rhythm here. Dadadadada, dadadadadada,

I is shorter, think it will, shorter, actually 'it will' is contracted, it's not it will, but it's it'll, it'll,

so I would write that with the IH vowel, flap T, schwa L. It'll, It'll,It'll, It'll, It'll, It'll, It'll, It'll,

just like the word little, but without the L. It'll, It'll, It'll. I don't think it'll.

I don't think it'll.

I don't think it'll be.

I don't think it'll be.

Now here, ourN apostrophe T in don't.

The word don't just pronounced quite differently than it was the first time he said it.

We actually have a stop. So we do feel that as a T. I don't think. I don't think.

It's not dropped. That would be: I don't think, I don't think,

but it's: I don't think-- up that little break of air, that little stop, is the stop T.

Now what about this sound? Is it the OH diphthong? Or is it the UH vowel like in don't know?

I don't think.

I don't think. I don't, don't, don't, don't. Oh, oh, oh, oh.

I definitely hear that as the Oh diphthong. Not reduced. So the first time he said it, the diphthong changed,

and the T was dropped. Here, the diphthong doesn't change, and the T is a stop T.

I don't think.

Notice here the stress was, the peak of stress was on the word know,

so it makes sense that some of those sounds changed, that that word was reduced a little bit.

Here, it's stressed, so it makes sense that we wouldn't reduce the vowel,

or the diphthong, rather and that we would leave the T on as a stop T.

I don't think it'll be.

I don't think it'll be.

And these three unstressed words said so quickly. Let's hear just those words.

Think it'll,

be.

Think it'll be. Think it'll be.

Really different than the word be, which is longer, more stressed.

Think it'll be.

exploration just.

Exploration.

This is a three syllable word, again with, sorry, four syllable word, with stress on the third syllable.

Exploration.

Now this unstressed syllable is actually supposed to be a schwa R.

Explora, he does a little bit more of a vowel. Explore, plore, plore.

And I think that's because it's related to the other form of the word,

so we have the verb: to explore,

and then we have the noun: exploration.

Verb, noun. So in the verb Explore, the IPA would be Ek, the letter X makes the KS sounds here,

Explore,

and in the noun, exploration, actually the opening vowel is a little bit more open, it's EH,

although honestly, if you said the verb

explore with the EH vowel, that would sound very natural and normal too.

Then we have another unstressed syllable. Splo-- with the schwa, stressed syllable,

Oops. We make that over here.

AY, and then unstressed, tion. So the noun, exploration.

Has a schwa here, I hear him doing more of an unstressed AA plus R, that's okay.

Exploration.

So he's seeing more of exploration, explore, explore, explore, exploration.

Exploration,

He is speaking more slowly and more intentionally I think than what is normal conversational English.

And even though that pronunciation isn't what you'll see in the dictionary,

it makes a lot of sense because of the verb.

Exploration--

Notice how on this stressed syllable, he nods his head. It's not uncommon as you study speakers to see

that they do a physical gesture sometimes on a stressed syllable.

When you're practicing with the audio later in this video, do that too. Do your head like he does.

Exploration,

just for the sake of exploration.

Just for the sake, some up down stress there. Sake of exploration. And again,

stress on that third syllable.

Just for the sake of exploration,

You're going to get really comfortable with the word exploration, aren't you?

He says it's three times in this opening phrase.

Now, between our stressed words exploration, and sake, we have three unstressed words, and then also,

the unstressed syllable here, tion just for the, and I want to look at this. He really holds out the S

while he's still thinking being thoughtful, speaking slowly, even so, he drops the T.

Just for the sake,

And that's because it's just so common to drop the T when the next word begins with a consonant.

Just for the, for the,

and it's not for, is it? It's fer, fer, fer, schwa R. Fer, just fer the.

Just for the,

sake of exploration.

Just for the sake of exploration.

Now we have another unstressed syllable here 'of', an unstressed word.

Schwa V, you can drop that V, but I definitely hear him saying it.

Sake of exploration.

It's weak, and it's subtle, but I don't sense that it's: sake uh.

I sense that its: sake of, sake of exploration.

Sake of exploration,

So we have after the stressed syllables sake, we have three unstressed syllables in a row.

Of explo-- of explo-- of explo-- of explo--

And you got to try to keep your mouth really relaxed,

keep your movements released simple, and minimal in these unstressed syllables.

Of explo-- of exploration.

Of exploration,

Of exploration. And then let your mouth come more to life in the stressed syllable,

more jaw drop therefore the AY diphthong, explo-- explo-- exploration, exploration.

Of exploration,

Does anyone have anything else?

Yeah.

So one of the men interviewing him asks the panel a question.

What is the shape of stress here? What are the most stressed syllables?

Does anyone have anything else?

Does anyone have anything else?

Does anyone have anything else?

Does anyone, anyone, have anything else?

I hear those as being the most stressed syllables, and the pitch goes up because it's a yes/no question.

Let's look at how he pronounces this first word does.

Does anyone,

In IPA, that would be written with the D, UH as in butter and Z.

But he drops the first two sounds. Does anyone, Does anyone, Does anyone.

And just links the Z into the EH as in bed vowel, which is the first sound of the word anyone,

Does anyone, Does anyone, Does anyone?

Does anyone,

It's not uncommon to do that. Have you ever heard anyone take 'does that' and change it to 'zzaat?'

I have heard people do that. It's like they drop the first two sounds of does,

the first sound of that, and in IPA it becomes: zzaat, zzaat, zzaat, zzaat.

Does that mean you're going to be late? Does that , Does that , Does that?

It's funny how we make these reductions, isn't it? So here he's taking the word does,

he's reduced it to the Z sound, and he's attached it to the word that comes after anyone.

Does anyone? Does anyone?

Does anyone,

have anything else?

Everything just links together so smoothly, doesn't it?

Does anyone have anything else?

Does anyone have anything else?

I want to talk about the word else. In IPA, it's written EH as in bed, LS,

else, so the L is a dark L because it comes after the vowel in the syllable. This is a one syllable word.

El? So we make that dark sound with the back of the tongue and I'm not lifting my tongue tip.

Ell, uhl, uhl, uhl, uhl, uhlse.

So don't lift your tongue tip for that L, it will get in the way, it's an extra movement,

it will probably make the dark sound less clear.

So you do the EH vowel, then you take the back of your tongue, you pull it back and down a little bit, uhl, uhl,

ell-- and that's it, don't lift your tongue tip, go right into the S.

Else?

Yeah.

And then we hear really quietly: yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Up-down shape. Not much of vocal energy. Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Okay, one thought group. Every word linked together. No stops. What are our peaks of stress?

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Okay, now I have to talk about this. When I first wrote the transcript for this, I used this word.

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

Then when I listened to it again, I thought it sounded more like this:

You know, I was sorry to hear about your daughter.

And now that I'm listening to it a third time, I think it sounds like Neil again.

And it's just, it's crazy to me that I'm having a hard time telling the difference here.