those movies to learn English and study how to sound American.

Every video this summer is going to be a study English with movies video.

We'll pull scenes from the summer's hottest movies, as well as favorite movies from years past.

It's amazing what we can discover by studying even a small bit of English dialogue.

We'll study how to understand movies,

what makes Americans sound American, and of course, any interesting vocabulary phrasal

verbs or idioms that come up in the scenes we study.

I call this kind of exercise a Ben Franklin Exercise.

First, we'll watch the scene. Then we'll do an in-depth analysis

of what we hear together. This is going to be so much fun! Be sure to tell your friends

and spread the word that all summer long, every tuesday, we're studying English with

movies here at Rachel's English.

If you're new to my channel click subscribe and don't forget the notification button.

Let's get started. First, the scene.

You want to get personal.

Where were you born?

Huntsville, Alabama. But technically, I don't remember that part.

>> First job? >> Soldier. Straight out of high school.

>> Left the ranks a full bird colonel. >> Then?

>> Spy. >> Where?

>> It was the Cold War, we were everywhere. >> Now?

Been riding a desk for the past six years, trying to figure out where future enemies

are coming from. Never occurred to me they would be coming from above.

Now the analysis.

You want to get personal.

I love this sentence because there's such

contrast between the stressed and unstressed syllables and words. He really stresses the

word 'you' at the beginning.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal. And in the stressed syllable of 'per', the first syllable is also

stressed, but the three words 'want to get' are all much lower in pitch, much less clear,

flatter than the 'you', up-down shape, higher pitch of the stressed word 'you'.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

Listen to just 'want to get'.

Want to get--

Want to get-- want to get-- want to get-- Much less clear than 'you'. Now listen to

the word 'you' with 'want to get' together, stressed and then unstressed.

You want to get--

A big difference there in the quality of those stressed versus unstressed syllables. We have

a reduction. 'want to' becomes 'wanna'.

Want to get-- want to get-- want to get--

And the word 'get' has a Stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.

Get, get, get, get, want to get, want to get.

Want to get-- want to get-- want to get personal.

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Okay, let's get back to the analysis.

You want to get personal.

Then the unstressed syllables, son--, al--, both said really quickly, those both have

the schwa, and in both of these cases, they're followed by a syllabic consonant, that means

the consonant takes over the schwa. We don't make a separate vowel sound. So we go right

from S into N. Sn, sn, sn-- person, person. And then right from N into L, without making

any kind of vowel sound. Nal, nal, nal, nal.

Now, this is a Dark L, which does have a vowel-like quality.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

You want to get personal.

Whoa! Different day, different outfit, important announcement. Did you know that with this

video, I made a free audio lesson that you can download? In fact, I'm doing this for

each one of the youtube videos I'm making this summer, all 11 of the learn English with

movies videos. So follow this link, or find the link in the video description to get your

free downloadable audio lesson. It's where you're going to train all of the things that

you've learned about pronunciation in this video. Back to the lesson.

Now, here is how Americans make the L in this case. It's a Dark L, it's at the end of a

thought group, it doesn't link into anything. We make that without lifting the tongue tip.

Can you do that too? We make the Dark L with the back part of the tongue. Uhl, uhl. Back

part of the tongue presses down a little bit, uhl, uhl, while the tongue tip stays forward.

I find that most of my students are so heavily trained in lifting their tongue tip, that it's

a very difficult habit to break. I want to challenge you to do this. Per-so-nal--

uhl-- your tongue is lifted for the N, bring it back down, nal-- uhl-- and use the back

of the tongue to make the dark sound for the Dark L.

Personal.

Where were you born?

She's speaking quickly here without much emotion, very straight faced. Where were you born?

Where and born, both are stressed words there.

Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Where were you born? They both have that up-down shape, were you--

on the other hand, are much flatter, much faster. Were you, were you, were you.

The word 'born' this would be written with the AW as in law vowel, followed by R. When these

two sounds come together in the same syllable, like here, the AW as in law vowel is not pure.

It's not AW but it's owh. My lips round more, the tongue pulls back a little bit, born,

born. Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Where were you born?

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

So this is a longer thought group. He says: Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't

remember that part. No brakes. If it's no brakes, then that means it's one thought group.

So I've written in here with Huntsville Alabama, on this slide, and on the next slide, is the

second half of the thought group, but he didn't actually put a break there.

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

The stress of these multi-syllable words, we have huntsville, first syllable stress,

Alabama, so the most stressed syllable is bam--, and the first level has a little secondary

stress, so I would put the primary stress marker there, secondary stress marker there.

The other two A's are schwas. Actually, just a few weeks ago on the channel, I made a video

of how to go over the pronunciation of the 50 states and their capitals, we talked about

the four A's in this word. Click here or in the video description to check out that video

that goes over the pronunciation of the 50 states.

Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville, Alabama

Huntsville, Alabama but technically, I don't remember that part.

But technically, I don't remember that part. Our stressed syllables, very clear, but tech--

but technically, I don't remember that part. Those have higher pitch, they have the up-down

shape, that curve. The rest is a little bit flatter. It's either leading up to a peak,

or falling away from a peak.

But tech-- but, but--

But technically, I don't remember that part.

But technically, I don't remember that part.

But technically, I don't remember that part.

Now we have an ending T, and a beginning T. Those will combine into a single sound, one

true T, but technically, but technically.

But technically, but technically, but technically.

He's pronouncing this word as three syllables, first syllable stress, tech-- and the ch here

makes a hard K sound. Tech-nic-- the C here makes a hard K sound. Tech-nic-lly-- and then

he's not pronouncing this at all, just an LY ending then. Tech-nic-lly-- technically.

Technically.

Technically, I don't remember that part.

And all of these words linked together really smoothly. Technically, I don't re--

Okay what's happening with the N apostrophe T contraction? We have lots of different ways

we pronounce that. And in this particular case, I think I'm actually hearing the whole

thing dropped. Doh remember-- doh, doh. So we have the D consonant, oh diphthong, and

then I hear that linking right on to the next sound, which is the R.

I don't remember that part.

I don't remember that part.

I don't remember that part.

Now, it doesn't sound like 'do' because 'do' has different sounds. It has the D consonant,

and the oo vowel. So the fact that we have this oh diphthong, that's how we know it's

the negative. Doh-- don't remember. Don't remember. But I actually, I definitely don't

hear the T. For a second, I listened to it on a loop, I was asking myself: do I hear

a light quick N? I don't think I really do. I think it's just dropped. Don't remember.

Don't remember. Don't remember. Don't remember. Doh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Just the OH diphthong

right into the R. Isn't it crazy? We can pronounce this contraction without the N apostrophe

T at all, without the part that makes it a negative. But I still hear it as that word

because of the OH diphthong.

I don't remember that part.

I don't remember that part.

I don't remember that part.

Are you pronouncing this word? Remember? Try to pronounce it with the schwa. Remember, re-re-re,

remember

remember,

I want you to listen to just the last three words. Remember that part.

Remember that part.

Kind of mumbly, it's at the end of the thought group, it's losing the vocal energy, and when

I'm listening to the word 'that', which would have a Stop T in most cases because it's followed

by the P here, I actually think I am also not hearing that. That part, that part, that

part, that part, that part. I think he drops it. TH, quick AA vowel, and then right into

the P. That part, that part, that part, that part.

The ending T, he's also not really pronouncing that too clearly. I would still write that

as a Stop T, I don't think it's dropped, that would sound like par-- and I don't hear that.

I hear: part, part, and that more abrupt end is the Stop T. But let's listen to these last

three words on a loop again and think about how you have to simplify everything in your

mouth to be able to say this this quickly and this unclearly. It's a little bit mumbled.

This is pretty common for how words come out at the end of a thought group.

They're definitely less clear.

Remember that part.

First job?

First job? First job? Two stressed words. They're both a little bit longer. First job?

And pitch goes up at the end because she's asking the question. She wants to know what

was his first job. Notice how we're pronouncing the T here. This T is dropped because it comes

between two consonants. That's really common to do that when we have an ending cluster

like the ST cluster in 'first' or 'just' or 'must'. When it's followed by a word that

begins with a consonant, you'll hear that T dropped. That helps to link the two words

together more smoothly. So right from the S into the J sound. First job. Also note we

have the letter O here. I know my students see that and they want to do some lip rounding.

No lip rounding in this sound. It's the AH as in father vowel. It is not job, actually,

this reminds me of Tom who's a Rachel's English teacher. His name is the same, single syllable

has the letter O. It makes the AH as in father vowel. And even so, almost all of his students

say something like: Tom, Tom, instead of Tom, ah-ah, with no lip rounding, even though he

reminds them it's not an OH sound, it's the AH vowel.

We see the letter O, we have such a strong association. But in English, one of the challenges

is to break your association between what you see on the page, and the actual natural

American pronunciation. Because as you can see, we change things quite a bit.

We drop sounds, vowels are not what we think they are, so the vowel in 'job' and in the word

'Tom' is the AH as in father vowel. Oh--

First job?

First job?

>> First job? >> Soldier.

Soldier. Soldier. Two-syllable word, first syllable stress, soldier.

DI here is pronounced as a J sound, which we would write in IPA: dj-- soldier, soldier.