Study the American accent as I discuss my husband’s day with him. Your listening skills will improve as you go in-depth with this analysis of American English pronunciation.
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One of the hardest things about studying English is understanding conversation.
I think people are ready to start building their own tacos here.
Well, I’m going to go ahead and start.
How long have you been in Philly?
I have a kind of lesson that will make English conversation easier to understand AND it will make you sound more natural, relaxed, and confident speaking English. It’s not rocket science but it does take a little dedication, time and repetition. Stick with me, you’ll get everything you need.
I’m Rachel and I’ve been teaching the American accent and English listening skills to non-native speakers for over 15 years. Check out Rachelsenglish.com to learn more about improving your spoken English.
The format of the lesson is this. First, we’ll watch a little bit of conversation. This is just normal, everyday American English conversation. I’m with my husband, I’m 8 months pregnant, I haven’t been doing much but he just went golfing with my Dad. After we watch the conversation, we’ll go deep on what we’re hearing and how to train your ears to hear English differently so you can keep up with the fast pace of native conversation. Then, we have the training component with repetition to seal it into your body and ears. Now, this lesson is part of my course “Top 3 Ways to Master the American Accent”. So to get the training that goes with it for free, be sure to go to RachelsEnglish.com/free. It will give you all the audio lessons that go with this video This course will absolutely take your spoken English skills to the next level. So let’s get into it. Here is the scene.
What did you do today?
Ah, Stony slept in. And that was a miracle.
And you beat my dad at golf. that has, has that happened before?
Probably not.
Dad says he’s just gotten terrible.
Today he was a little bit terrible, for him.
He says that that’s his new normal.
Maybe.
That’s unfortunate.
That’s too bad.
Now we’ll study how words reduced, linked together, how sounds were dropped to improve your listening skills and American accent.
What did you do today?
There’s one stressed word in this phrase. Can you feel what it is? Let’s listen three times.
What you do today?
What did you do today? It’s always where the pitch change happens. We have a peak of stress, a peak of melody on the word do. What did you do today? And everything either leads up to that or falls away from that.
What did you do today?
What did you, what did you, what did you, what did you. These first three words said really quickly, what did often becomes wud, we drop the T link and then just leave the D, What you do, what you.
What did you–
Whadju. So, we drop every sound except for the D what did becomes wud but then d plus j can make a j sound, jj, jj, jj, so what did you becomes whadju. Let’s write the whole thing out in IPA.
Whadju
What did you do.
What did you do today?
Do today. Do today. So the word ‘today’, the first vowel is always the schwa, never make that to. Always make that t. But the first T can be a flap if it links into a word that ends with a vowel or diphthong and that’s what I’m doing here, I’m making that a flap oops, let me write that a little bit more clearly. A flap t, do today. And then this is also a flap because it’s a d between two consonants. Flap T and flap D sound the same.
Do today.
Ah,
Ah, thinking. Sort of a mix between uh as in butter and a as in father. Ah.
Ah,
Ah, Stony slept in.
Stony slept in. Two stress syllables there. First, the first syllable of the proper noun. Stony slept in. Then, the second part of the phrasal verb. And it’s all smooth and connected.
Stony slept in.
So the word slept ends in the PT cluster. A cluster that ends in t if the next word begins with a consonant, we usually drop it if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, we usually say it. Let’s try to listen really closely and see what David is doing.
Stoney slept in.
Oh man, I I don’t even really feel like I hear it but slept in, slept in.
That’s not sounding right to me, so even though I’m trying to isolate a t sound, I don’t really hear it. I still think you should think of that as a true T. Super light, slept in, slept in, slept in.
Slept in.
And that was–
And that was. Little break here, breaking up thought groups thinking about what to say and the A vowel held out a little bit. A as in bat followed by n, d is dropped. And. When we have A followed by N, it’s not an but ae, a little bit of a more relaxed sound going into the uh as in butter or you could think of it as the schwa. And.
And that was–
So the N right into the th sound of that, no break. Then we have a as in bat, stop T. And then was. I would definitely say that’s reduced it’s not uh as and butter but it’s the schwa, was, was, was .
And that was–
a miracle.
A miracle. A miracle. Little two-word thought group the article. A schwa, just links right in the word, a miracle. So, no break there Miracle first syllable stress. Miracle. Miracle.
A miracle.
Now if you look this word up in IPA, you’ll see I as in sit vowel in the stressed syllable. Mir-acle.
A miracle.
Miracle when the I as in sit vowel is followed by R, it is not I as in sit. It’s more like e as in she, so it’s not me like in miss, miss, miracle me but it’s me, ee, ee meer. Miracle. Ending in a dark L don’t lift your tongue tip for that. Make that with the back part of the tongue, uhl, uhl, uhl, miracle.
A miracle.
And you beat my dad at golf.
Okay, then my sentence. What are the stress syllables there? Let’s listen three times.
And you beat my dad at golf.
And you beat, and you beat. Stop t, beat my dad at golf. So, we have stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed. [flap]
And you beat my dad at golf.
And you beat my dad at golf.
And, again, D dropped. And, and, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you. Smooth connection.
And you–
beat my dad at golf.
And you beat my dad at, dad at. The word at reduced stop T and the vowel reduces to the schwa, this sounds a lot like the word ‘it’ even though it’s ‘at’. Bad at, bad at golf.
bad at golf.
Golf. This word is tricky. It can be written with either the ah as in father or ah as in law vowel, I think a is a little bit more common so we have G vowel LF. So the L comes after the vowel in this syllable that means it’s a dark L. Golf. And really it blends with that vowel doesn’t it? It’s not golf but golf.
Golf.
So it can be a little bit more open for the ah vowel then a little bit more closed the back of the tongue gets even closer to the back of the throat for the dark l.
Golf. But the tongue tip never lifts.
Golf. And then finally the F. Golf.
Golf.
that has–
Stressing that and then moving up because I’m asking a question that has stop T, the ending sound in has is a Z but I change what I’m going to say. So there’s a little lift here a little break. That has, that has, that has.
that has–
That has, has that happened before?
That has, has that happened before? So then I rather than making the statement that has never happened before, I asked the question, ‘has that happened before?’ And haa, haa, has this stress, we’re going up because this is a yes no question and yes no questions generally go up and pitch which means our stressed syllables towards the end will go down and up instead of up and down.
Has that happened before?
Has that, has that. I would say the word has is reducing to the schwa, has, has, has. So then it can kind of sound like the word his, his, his, his that, has that. Stop T, not releasing it. Has that happened, happened.
Has that happened–
before?
Happened before? And my intonation is just going up and I really do get pretty high there at the end. For? For? For? Happened before?
That happened before?
Mmm,
Mmm, another thinking sound we make, Mmm, just the M consonant, Mmm.
Mmm
Probably not.
Probably not. Two stressed syllables there. Pro, probably not. Stop T to N, probably. It’s really common to reduce this to probably so we drop that. It’s just two syllables probably. Probably.
Probably not.
Dad says he’s–
Dad says he’s. Dad says he’s. So I’m stressing says dad says he’s. Now of course we say, say but when we add an S the a diphthong changes to E, says. And this letter S is a Z sound. Says. Dad says he’s.
Dad says he’s–
And I do pronounce that H there. I could have dropped it dad says he’s but I said dad says he’s, he’s, he’s. And this is short for he has, he has gotten and that letter s is a z so this letter s is going to be a z.
Dad says he’s–
Dad says he’s. So the D here in Dad it’s not released dad, but we do vibrate the vocal cords for that. Dad says he’s.
Dad says he’s–
Just gotten–
Just gotten. Stressing just, just gotten, just gotten. Even though that word is stressed, the t is still dropped. St ending cluster linking into a consonant so, so common to drop that T. Just gotten.
Just gotten–
Let’s look at the word gotten. We have g consonant, a vowel, t schwa n. When we have these sounds together, t schwa n, we do a stop T got n and we go right into the n so you can think of there as being no vowel here. Gotten, got, gotten. Not gotten. That’s not a very common pronunciation in American English but gotten, gotten.
Gotten–
Terrible.
Terrible. Three syllable word, first syllable stress, terrible. And I’m giving that a really clean clear true t and I’m even pausing just a bit before to let the stop air build up, terrible, to let that t be even more exaggerated because this is not a word that has a meaning that sort of in the middle. It’s extreme. He’s not just a little bit bad, but he’s really, really bad now, he’s terrible. Which is why there’s a little extra stop, a little extra air in that t to stress it.
Terrible.
So for this word we have a true t starting a stressed syllable e as in bed r, schwa and then b schwa dark l, ter. So I want to talk about this e followed by r. The r consonant changes some of our vowel sounds when they’re in the same syllable together like they are here and r does change a so it’s not quite te, te, but it’s te, ter, so not as much jaw drop, not as much space between the tongue and the roof of the mouth, a little bit more closed down. Teeeer, ter, terrible. And of course this is a dark l, don’t lift your tongue tip for that, bull, bull, bull. No kind of vowel sound there just b dark l, bull, bull, terrible.
Terrible.
Today he was a little bit terrible.
Today he was a little bit terrible. so we have today, quite a bit of stressed there. Today he was a little bit. Then these are more unstressed.
Today he was a little bit terrible.
Tiny bit of stress on li, little bit terrible, stress on terrible again, a true t there starting our stressed syllable.
A little bit terrible,
for him.
For him and then a little add-on for him with one stressed syllable and the word for reduced. So not for him but for, for, for him, for him, for him, for him.
For him,
today he was a little bit terrible, for him.
Today, today so very very light true t here. Earlier, I made it a flap T because the word was linking into a vowel, here it’s the beginning of his sentence really light true T but again as always schwa in that first syllable ttt today.
today —
today he was a little bit terrible, for him.
So if we listen to Just he was a little bit,
he was a little bit–
You can see how that’s all lower in pitch, less clear, less vocal energy, that is unstressed. He was up becomes he was a, he was a, he was a. The E vowel linking smoothly into the w. That’s not was, that’s was, was reduced. And that ending s is a z sound, that z links right into the schwa, he was a, he was a, he was a.
He was a little bit–
He was a little bit, he was a little bit, he was a little bit, little, little, little, little, said quickly that’s a tricky word we’ve got a flap t followed by schwa l. Little, little, little, little, little. Oops, I didn’t write that as schwa did I? Let’s change that. That should be written like this. Little, little, little, little.
He was a little bit–
The way I do this sequence, flap t schwa l is I don’t actually flap my tongue because I don’t bring it down. Li, this is a true sorry a light l starting so you do lift your tongue tip there. Li, so I lift the tongue I bring it down for the vowel then I put the tongue tip back up for the T sound. Little, but I don’t release it. I tend to leave the tongue tip up and then make the dark l sound at the back of the tongue with the tongue tip up. So if I say little my tongue starts up for the light L and it ends up for the flap T dark L. Little. It’s kind of confusing to explain because the flap t is made with the front of the tongue so it goes up but rather than flapping it down I do something with the back, I bring the back of the tongue down and back a little bit for that dark l. Little, little, a little bit.
a little bit.
It’s tricky and you might want to just work on that sound by imitating it and I know that we do have that in the soundboards I believe in the consonants chapter. Sorry the consonants course in, it’s either the T chapter or the L chapter. We have a soundboard with this sequence, flap T dark L little, a little bit, a little bit.
A little bit.
terrible.
Now we have ending T beginning T you can think of it as a stop T true t or a drop T true T little bit terrible but we stop the air once and we release it once. Bit te, bit terr, and that’s the true T sound.
a little bit terrible.
a little bit terrible for him.
He says that that’s his new normal.
He says that that’s his new normal. A couple stressed syllables there. He says that that’s his new normal.
He says that that’s his new normal.
He says. Again it looks like it should be says but it’s say as in bed he says. now I love this. We have the same word twice in a row once it’s contracted for that is. But we have that that and the first one is reduced, that, he says that. So we have the schwa and then that t is a stop t because the next word begins with a consonant. He says that, he says that. He says that.
He says that–
that’s his new normal.
He says that that’s. So we have that that’s, that that’s. The second time the vowel is not reduced it is the a as in that vowel.
He says that that’s–
He says that that’s .The that’s. So it looks like same word same pronunciation but no. One of them is functioning as a function word and the other one is being stressed. That that’s.
He says that that’s–
his new normal.
He says that that’s his, that’s his. I’m dropping the H in his. Now we’re watching a tennis match here and you can hear that racket hitting the ball. I hope that doesn’t mess you up too much when you’re working with this soundboard here. That that’s his, that that’s his.
That that’s his–
New normal.
Uhhuhuh. Those two up down swells of the intonation. Those are our two stressed syllables. New normal.
New normal.
Normal. We just talked about how r changes the e as in bed. It also changes ah as in law. So the first syllable of normal would be written with these sounds, the ah as in law vowel, this is very much so changed by the r consonant so it’s not law, no normal but it’s no,uhuhl. Lips round more, tongue shifts back a little bit more maybe even up a little bit getting in towards that r. No- o, o, or nor, nor, this is in quarter. Normal. Horse, o, o, o, changed a vowel.
Normal.
And we end with schwa L dark L, do not lift your tongue tip for that. Normal. Uhl,uhl,uhl, uhl.
I’m just making that with the tongue tip down pressing the back of the tongue down and back a little bit. Uh,uh,uhl, normal.
Normal.
Maybe.
Maybe, maybe. First syllable stress we’re sort of giggling it’s just the pits getting older guys. My dad at this point he was probably 73, 74. For a while, he kept getting better at golf and now he’s starting to get worse.
Maybe.
It’s unfortunate.
That’s too bad.
So then we both make a comment starting with that’s. That’s unfortunate and that’s too bad.
It’s unfortunate.
That’s too bad.
It’s unfortunate.
That’s too bad.
It’s unfortunate.
That’s too bad.
So David does the reduction where he just uses the ts sound and links it into the next word. The th and the a vowel totally dropped it’s unfortunate. We do this quite a bit, ts can mean it’s. It can mean lets like if I was to say let’s go, let’s go, that would be let’s go and that’s. It can also mean what’s like if I was going to say what’s up, what’s up. So all of these can be reduced to just the ts sound and that’s what he’s doing. It’s unfortunate.
It’s unfortunate.
Sun, sun, sun. So it’s linking right into the vowel. It’s unfortunate. Stress on the second syllable it’s unfortunate. Stop t. It’s unfortunate.
It’s unfortunate.
That’s too bad.
And then I don’t really reduce it. That’s, that’s, that’s, that’s. It’s not super stressed or anything but I’m not really changing or dropping any of the sounds. that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s. I definitely do reduce this to just ts sometimes but I’m not here that’s, that’s, that’s, that’s too bad. T-o-o never reduces, it’s always a true t and the u vowel to, to, that’s too bad.
That’s too bad.
And that is my stressed word, everything leads up to it. That’s too bad, and then falls away from it. Bad, bad, bad, the ending d there not bad, d, not released but I do make the sound with the vocal cords, bad.
That’s too bad.
Let’s listen to this whole conversation one more time.
What did you do today?
Ah, Stony slept in. And that was a miracle.
And you beat my dad at golf. that has, has that happened before?
Probably not.
Dad says he’s just gotten terrible.
Today he was a little bit terrible, for him.
He says that that’s his new normal.
Maybe.
That’s unfortunate.
That’s too bad.
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