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  • 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 meyou 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 stressedThe 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 thatWe 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. Wellwell, well, well, uhuhuhl. A little bit of a w  

  • maybe a schwa or an f feel with a darkwell 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 betterOn 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 youryour, 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.

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  • 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 justcouldn'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 intowith 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, betterSo 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 wordpuddingwhich 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. Puttinputtin. 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, zallzall, 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 placethey're unstressed, they're said more quickly.  

  • For the place, for the place, for the placeSo 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, thatquite a few common words that follow  

  • this pattern of unstressed and beginning withvoiced 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