Friends. They're talking about  New Year's Eve and making a pact.

I say this year, no dates, we make  a pact, just the six of us, dinner.

We're going to study that conversation, actually,  four conversations, to learn some vocabulary  

words, idioms, but more importantly, to study the  rhythm of American English. How do Americans speak  

so fast? And why do they speak so fast? We'll  study reductions and you'll get fast English.  

Also, we'll have fun talking about the culture  of New Year's in the United States as we go.

I make new videos every Tuesday to help  you speak faster and more natural English,  

you'll even be watching TV without subtitles. If  you like this video, or you learn something new,  

please give it a thumbs up and subscribe with  notifications. I'd love to see you back here.

For the next four weeks, we're taking four  scenes, all from the same Friends episode,  

season 1 episode 10, all about their New Year's  eve pact. We're going to do an in-depth analysis  

of the pronunciation. Studying this way  is critical to understanding Americans  

and being easily understood yourself.  Here's the scene we'll study today.

Hey, do you guys know what  you're doing for New Year's? 

Wait, what? What is wrong with New Year's? Well, nothing for you. You have Paolo,  

you don't have to face the horrible pressures of  this holiday. Desperate scramble to find anything  

with lips just so you can have somebody to kiss  when the ball drops, man, I'm talking loud. 

Well, for your information, Paolo is  going to be in Rome this New Year so  

I'll be just as pathetic as the rest of you. It's just that I'm sick of being a victim  

of this Dick Clark holiday. I say this year, no  dates, we make a pact. Just the six of us, dinner. 

You know, I was hoping for  a little more enthusiasm.

Next up is our in-depth analysis. When  we study like this, you can really start  

to see the give and take. Stressed and  unstressed, and the linking between words.  

These are the things that make up the  character, the feel of American English.  

But also, they're the very things that  make understanding English so hard  

if what you've learned is that each  word is separate and fully pronounced.

Hey, do you guys know what  you're doing for New Year's? 

We start with the word hey. But it's said  pretty quickly, it sort of has an abrupt stop.  

Hey. Hey. Hey. So it still has that up down  shape, but it doesn't go hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. 

Hey

So this word can be a greeting word, when you  see someone on the street that you know. Hey,  

how are you doing? Or you walk into  work and you see a co-worker there.  

Hey, how are you doing today? This is not being  used as a greeting here. They're already there.  

She probably greeted them when they walked in.  Here, it's being used a little bit differently,  

it's just to get their attention to announce  that she's about to say something. Hey. Hey. 

Hey,. Hey, do you guys know what  you're doing for New Year's? 

Then she asks her question. Do you guys  know what you're doing for New Year's? So  

more stress on you, do you guys know what  you're doing, also doing, for New Year's,  

and then the event, New Year's, compound word,  first word will get more stress, New Year's,  

like eyeball or basketball. It's the first  word of a compound word that is more stressed.

Do you guys know what you're doing for New Year's?  

And it's all extremely smooth. It's not do you  guys know what, but do you guys know what, do you  

guys know what. Knowing your stressed syllable can  help you smooth things out. There's no stopping,  

no breaks you just smoothly glide your energy  towards that stressed word. Do you guys know  

what you're doing. Do you guys know what you're  doing. See if you can imitate it that smoothly.  

It might feel unclear to you, but this  is what's natural in American English.

do you guys know what you're doing.

I would put a little bit of length on know  as well. Do you guys know what you're doing  

for New Year's? Know what you're, know what  you're. Do you know what's happening here? Do  

you hear that? It's not what you're,  but it's what you're, what you're--

do you guys know what you're doing--

When a word ends in a T and the next word  begins with Y, most commonly you or your,  

it's pretty common to make that final  T a CH instead. So it's not what  

you're, but what you're, what  you're, what you're, what you're.

And the word 'you're' reduces. It's not you're but  it's said very quickly: you're, you're, you're,  

you're. You can't make that quickly enough.  What you're, what you're, what you're doing.

What you're doing,

for New Year's?

And then we have another reduction: for New  Year's, for New Year's, it's not for, but: fur,  

fur, fur. And when we reduce it like we want to,  

we want to make sure that it glides really  smoothly, connects with no break into the  

next word. So it's not for New Year's,  but for New Year's, for New Year's,  

uuh. As if it's just another syllable in the  same word. For New Year's. For New Year's.

For New Year's?

It's so different speaking this way.  Most of my students have learned  

to make words separate, clearer, do you  guys know what you're doing for New Year's?  

But that's not at all how Americans speak, we  glide it together so smoothly. No breaks in sound.

Do you guys know what you're doing for New Year's?

New Year's is short for New Year's Eve, the  night before New Year's Day, when we celebrate.  

If we were going to talk about New  Year's Day, we would probably say  

all of that, if you hear just New Year's,  that means the night before New Year's day.

New Year's--

Gee! What?

Oh my gosh, guys. I almost forgot. I want to  let you know that in January, right here on this  

channel, I'm doing a 30 Day Vocabulary Challenge.  A new video every day for 30 days, we're learning  

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the download, please follow the link in the video  description, or click the link right here in the  

card. Let's supercharge your vocabulary  in January. And now back to the analysis.

Gee! What? Big, up down shapes of stress there.  Gee! What? Her pitch is a little bit higher.  

She's surprised that question got this reaction.

Gee! What? 

The exclamation 'Gee!' the letter  G there makes the Jjj-- J sound.  

It's not gee, gee, with a  hard G, but jjj--- gee! Gee!

Gee!

What?

Gee! What? Really light release of the true T  there. It's not what, but what, super light.

What?

What is wrong with New Year's?

What is wrong with New Year's? And then she  starts laughing towards the end of her phrase.

What is wrong with New Year's? 

What, wrong, new, our three most stressed  words there. What is, I would say here the  

stress is going up, what is wrong with New  Year's? And then on new, it starts coming  

down. What is wrong with New Year's? Notice how  these two words link together? What is, what is,  

they link very smoothly with the flap T. When  a word ends in a vowel or diphthong plus T, and  

the next word begins a vowel or diphthong, that's  going to be a flap T to link: what is, what is.

What is

wrong with New Year's?

In the word wrong, the W is silent,  

and actually, in the word what, the H  is silent. Now, there is a pronunciation  

where there is a little escape of air. What,  what, but that's not very common anymore.

Now really we just do a clean W sound: what, what,  what is wrong? What is wrong with New Year's?

What is wrong with New Year's?

The word with, this word is unstressed. What  is wrong with New Year's? And the unvoiced TH  

here said so quickly, I almost don't even hear it.  With New Year's? With New Year's? With New Year's?  

It's almost as if it's dropped to help link  those words smoothly, and to help make this word  

'with' said very quickly, because it's unstressed,  and we want that contrast with the longer  

stressed words. Again, everything  links together very smoothly.

What is wrong with New Year's?

Well, nothing for you. You  have Paulo. You don't have  

to face the horrible pressures of this holiday.

Now he has a really long thought group here. I  would write it with several different periods  

to break it up into different sentences, when  he says it, he really doesn't take any breaks. He  

says the whole thing connected smoothly until he  gets to the end of holiday where he puts a break.

Well, nothing for you. You have Paulo. You don't have to face the horrible pressures of this holiday.

Well, nothing for you. Well, said very quickly  and the word 'for' how was that pronounced?

Well, nothing for you. 

Nothing for, nothing for, it's  reduced, again, it's not for,  

it's for, and that's said quickly, it's  unstressed, it's lower in pitch. Nothing  

for, both of these syllables unstressed, coming  down from that peak of stress in 'noth--'

Now this is the letter O, it makes the UH  vowel like in love, butter, stuff. Nuh--nuh--  

nothing for, nothing for.

Nothing for,

you.

Nothing for you. You, stressing you, kind  of an up down, and then up again, you,  

that really brings those changes of pitch, really  brings stress to that word. Nothing for you.

Nothing for you,

You have Paolo.

You have Paolo. You have Paolo.

The peak of stress there, the stressed  syllable of her boyfriend's name Paolo,  

and then it falls down in pitch afterwards.  You and have, both go up towards that.  

You have, you have, you have. Do you notice  he's dropping the H there. That's a common  

reduction in the word have. You have, you  have, you have, you have, you have Paulo.

You have Paolo.

Linking and reductions. Such an important  part to sounding natural speaking English.  

You have Paolo. You have Paolo. You have Paolo.

You don't have to face the horrible pressures--

You don't have to face the horrible pressures-- Some stress on face, the adjective, horrible,  

and the noun, pressures. Both of  those have first syllable stress.

You don't have to face the horrible pressures.  

You don't have to-- now we have four words there  before our stressed word face. What do you think  

are they pronounced? You don't have to, you don't  have to. No, I doubt it. That's too clear isn't  

it? These are unstressed words. Let's listen  to how just those four words are pronounced.

You don't have to--

You don't have to-- you don't have to--  you don't have to-- you don't have to-- 

It's very different, isn't it? Linking together  very smoothly. You don't, I would say the T  

there is dropped, N apostrophe T. We have a  couple different pronunciations. It can be  

don't, with the true T, that's the least common.  It can be: don't have, don't have, with a stop T,  

that's common, but it can also be don't have,  don't have, with no T, that's also pretty common.  

Here, he's dropped the T completely, you don't  have to, don't have, the N goes right into the  

AA vowel of have, because guess what? He  also dropped the H just like he did here.

You don't have to--  

You don't have to-- You don't have to-- You don't have to--

The V very very week, the T certainly not a true T

You don't have to-- And it's a very week flap T then schwa for the word to.

So I'm going to say it slowly so we can hear it but of course it isn't the right pace.

don't have to-- don't have to--

but it's said much more quickly. Don't have to-- don't have to-- don't have to-- 

You don't have to-- You don't have to-- You don't have to--

You don't have to--

If everything was said that way,  Americans wouldn't be able to  

understand English, but it's funny, we can  say half of our words that way, but when  

we have our stressed syllables and our stress  words in there too, we understand everything.

You don't have to--

face the horrible pressures of--

Face, on the other hand, is quite clear.

Face the horrible,

Face the horrible, face the, face the, much  clearer than what we've just heard you don't have  

to. The word the, it's unstressed, it's a quick  little word linking these two stressed syllables.  

The the the the the. When we have  an unstressed word like this,  

where it begins with a voiced TH, the, this,  these, those, you don't have to bring the tongue  

tip through. The tongue tip can touch the backs  of the teeth, you don't want it at the roof of  

the mouth coming down, because that's going to  sound like a D, duh, but just touching the backs  

of the teeth, the the the the, straight ahead  in the back, the the the, face the horrible.

Face the horrible,

So the word horrible has first syllable  stress. I would pronounce it with the AW  

as in law, followed by R. That's the most common  pronunciation. When this vowel is followed by R,  

it's not pure, but it becomes ho-oh-oh-- horrible,  a little bit more lip rounding, and the tongue  

shifts back a little bit more. He's pronouncing  it with a vowel more like the AH vowel like in  

father, har har har horrible, horrible, but this  one's more common. Hor hor hor horrible, horrible.

Horrible,