字幕表 動画を再生する 英語字幕をプリント Some people might say Americans butcher the pronunciation of English. We certainly do our own thing with it. Today we're going to study part of a scene from Friends to see: what are all the things that Americans do with spoken English? How does Rachel Greene speak so fast? It's all about rhythm and simplification. Studying spoken English this way helps my students a ton with their English listening comprehension and also helps them speak English that's more smooth, natural, and easier to understand. Also, fresh off the press, click here or in the video description to get a free cheat sheet, the sounds of American English, it's a great reference tool and even I use it quite a bit. This is the scene we'll use for our analysis. Rachel has just found out that Chandler and Monica are dating, and she really wants to tell Joey. Oh, Joey. I have such a problem. Oh, well, your timing couldn't be better. I am putting out fires all over the place today. Okay, okay. Joey? I have got to tell you something. What? What? What is it, what is it? Oh my God. It's so huge. But you just have to promise me – you can't tell anyone. Oh no, no, no. I don't want to know. Now let's do that analysis together. Oh, Joey. There's a little bit of stress in her voice here. Oh. A little bit of that up-down shape, Oh, Joey, and then we have that very clear up-down curve for a stressed syllable so the first syllable 'Jo' is what's stressed. The second syllable which is just the e vowel, Joey, ee, it just comes on the way down doesn't have it's own separate shape or feel, it's just falling away from that stressed syllable so it's really smooth. Joey. Oh, Joey. I have such a problem. Normally, we would say problem. Really clear first syllable stress and a very short second syllable but she's bringing a lot of stress and energy to this word, 'problem'. And she really holds on to that second syllable so it also feels stressed. I have such a problem. Problem. So, it would be really common for um, to just be like the e in Joey and just come down away from that stressed syllable pro, problem. But here it's got its own separate shape for stress and emphasis. problem. Problem. The letter o makes the ah as in father vowel here and the e is the schwa, problem, lem, lem. But she does put a little bit more of a vowel in there because of holding it out. So I think we can think of that as the u vowel like in butter. Probleem. Problem. The other words definitely less stressed than our noun here, I have such a, I have such a. But there is some on the word such, “I have such a”. And notice the ch sound links right into the schwa, a nice smooth ending consonant to beginning vowel link such a, such a, such a. I have such a. I have such a-- So I in have said really quickly. I have, I have, I have, I have. You don't want to make more of it that. We want the contrast of the short words, the short syllables with the long words and long syllables. I have, I have, I have, I have such. I have such a. One down shape of stress in those four words. I have such a. I have such a. I have such a problem. I have such a problem. I have such a problem. Oh, well-- Oh, well. Both of those are going up. Up, well. The word well not pronounced too clearly. Well, well, well, well, uhuhuhl. A little bit of a w maybe a schwa or an f feel with a dark l well well. But it's short, it's not stressed. Oh, well-- Your timing couldn't be better. So let's just look at this part of his phrase and I want you to think about what are the stressed syllables like we had such and problem in this first sentence. Where do you find you want to move a little bit? Maybe move your head a little bit. What do you think are the most stressed syllables with that peak of stress? Your timing couldn't be better. I feel it. Your timing couldn't be better. On this first syllable of time, your timing, the first syllable of timing, your timing couldn't be better. But it's all smooth, we don't have any skips or break, everything's either leading up to a stressed syllable or coming away from it. So the word your, that's not reduced. Said your, your, your. Very fast, simplify as much as you can. Your, your, your, your timing. Now here we have a stressed syllable it begins with a t, that is a true t. A lot of our t's in English change to other sounds but this is a true t, your timing. And as I say that, do you hear the melody of my voice? Ahh, ahh, your timing, your timing. With that up down shape of stress for the stressed syllable. Your timing-- couldn't be better. I want to pop in for a huge thanks to all my supporters here on YouTube, everyone who has joined my channel, they get special badges to make their comments pop, early release of videos when available, access to members-only posts and videos, and the top tier gets a free monthly audio lesson. Thank you! Click JOIN to learn more. Couldn't be, couldn't be. So the word l in the word could is silent, the vowel there is the same vowel that we have in push, book, here it's spelled as 'ou'. In push, it's spelled with just the u, and in book it's spelled with 'oo'. But it's the same sound on all of these words, uh, uh. Could, could, couldn't be. couldn't be-- couldn't be better. Let's listen to just “couldn't be better.” You tell me what you think you're hearing with this n't contraction. Are you hearing tt, a true t? couldn't be better. N't contractions, we have three possibilities there. We have the least common true t, couldn't, couldn't be. That's not what we hear. Then we couldn't be. Couldn't be with a little break, a little stop of air, that's the stop t. That's fairly common. Couldn't be. But actually, what I'm hearing is the third pronunciation which is no t at all, t dropped right from n smoothly into b with no break. Couldn't be, couldn't be. couldn't be better. So keep that in mind when you're looking at n apostrophe t words, the least common pronunciation by far is a true t. couldn't be better. couldn't be better. Ahuhuh. Two up-down shapes of stress, the tt here is a flap t, the tongue just flaps against the roof of the mouth [flap], better, better. couldn't be better. Some students find it tricky to go from flap t into the schwa r which is the ending of this word, better. So the tongue bounces against the roof of the then the tip pulls back a little bit so it's not touching anything. Be-tter. I always encourage students to hold out the sound before and after a flap t to help them focus on that clean quick movement holding out that errr, r schwa combination, errr will also help you focus in on that sound. Be-tter. Better. couldn't be better. I am putting out fires. I am putting out fires. So it's very common to speak with the contraction 'I'm' but here he is stressing I so he doesn't make that a contraction. I am. I am-- I am putting out fires all over the place. I am putting out fires. So we have an idiom here. We have stress on the stressed syllable of pudding. Put now fires all over the place. First syllable of over also stress. I am putting out fires all over the place. So the flap t just like in better. This sounds like the d between vowels in American English so this word actually sounds just like this word “pudding” which is a dessert. Because d between vowels sounds the same as t between vowels, we call that a flap t, now he doesn't say pudding with the ing ending, he actually switches the ing to an in ending puttin, puttin. I am putting out-- And when we do that, it changes actually the t pronunciation if you can believe it. Changing the ending actually changes how we pronounce the middle consonant I'm not getting into all the details that has to do with the sounds in between but basically it turns into a flap t into a stop t. Puttin, puttin. So I'm going to go ahead and erase flap t because I don't want to confuse anybody when you're going back looking at it. So putting ing ending we're going to make that a flap t. But if we make that an in ending then we change it to a stop t, putting, putting. I am putting out. I am putting out-- I am putting out fires all over the place. Actually I would say we have some stress on out as well. Putting out, another stop t. Fires all over. Why is this a stop t? Well, the t is a stop t, the general rule is when it's followed by a consonant so here it is followed by a consonant so we're going to make that a stop t, putting out fires, putting out fires. Now, the ending z sound of fires links into the next word. This is the ah as in law vowel and it's really common to link ending consonants into beginning vowels so it almost sounds like the ending consonant begins to the next word. So you could think of the as zall, zall, zall, zall, zall. Fires all, fires all over. putting out fires all over the place. And that's how we get that really smooth character of American English. Fires all over the place. fires all over the place. Here again we have an ending consonant and beginning vowel. Vowel or diphthong in this case the o as in no diphthong so we want to take the l, lover, lover, allover, all over the place. all over the place. all over the place today. all over the place today. Then again a little bit more stress on the second syllable of today. A few things, the most stress here really is in the vowel or the diphthong o and you can see he moves his head on that all over. Sometimes Americans will add a physical gesture to our most stressed syllable for emphasis. That's a good clue that that's the syllable that you want to put your energy towards. all over the place-- all over the place today. All over the place today. I want to talk to a second about the last word. People see to when they want to say to. But this is always tt with a schwa, don't make the u vowel make it much faster to, to, today. And this t can be a trues t or a flap it, he is making it a true t. So this word is today. Not today but today, today, today. all over the place-- all over the place today. The syllable er plus the words the in place, they're unstressed, they're said more quickly. For the place, for the place, for the place. So you need to take some of the clarity out, some of your voice out some of the energy out in order to be able to make them that quickly so we have that important contrast of stressed and unstressed. Now the word 'the'. I'm going to give you a trick, a tip for a word like the that starts with the voiced th and is unstressed. We have the, this, these those, that, quite a few common words that follow this pattern of unstressed and beginning with a voiced th. For those words, you don't actually have to bring your tongue tip all the way through the teeth. The, you don't have to make