Subtitles section Play video Print subtitles When you make a pact, do you keep it? Today we're learning English with TV. Thanks to the series, Friends. It's December and a New Year's Eve pact has been made. You're going to break the pact. She's going to break the pact. No. No. No. No. No. No. Does she? We're going to do an in-depth analysis of this scene from Friends to study the rhythm, linking, and reductions. All the things that make American English sound American. You're going to improve your listening comprehension and learn an idiom, a different way to use the word 'snap'. I make new videos every Tuesday to help you speak faster and more natural English, you'll even be able to watch TV without subtitles. If you like this video or you learned something new, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe with notifications, I'd love to see you back here. Last week, we studied a clip where they made a pact for New Year's. I say this year, no dates. We make a pact, just the six of us, dinner. In today's scene, that pact starts to fall apart. First, we'll watch the scene, then we'll do an in-depth analysis. I just want to be with him all the time. You know? Day and night, and night and day, and special occasions. Wait a minute. Wait, I see where this is going. You're going to ask him the New Year's, aren't you? You're going to break the pact. She's going to break the pact. No. No. No. No. No. No. Yeah, could I just? Yeah, 'cause I already asked Janice. Come on! This was a pact! This was your pact! I snapped, okay? I couldn't handle the pressure and I snapped. Yep, but Janice, that was like the worst breakup in history. I'm not saying it was a good idea. I'm saying I snapped. In a moment, we'll do the analysis. First, I want to make sure you know in January, on this channel, there will be a 30-day challenge, learn 105 vocabulary words with me to start your 2021. One video every day for 30 days starting the first Tuesday in January. Click here or in the video description to get on my special student list, to follow the series, and blow up your vocabulary this January. Now, let's do that analysis. I just want to be with him all the time. What do you think is the most stressed word in that sentence? I just want to be with him all the time. I'm feeling the most stressed word to be 'all'. I just want to be with him all the time. Now we do have some other words that have some stress. I would say I, she's stressing herself and this is her boyfriend she's talking about. I just want to be with him, be with him, a little bit of stress there, all the time, and some stress on time, but I think all has the most. I just want to be with him. Let's look at these words, all of the words leading up to our peak of stress for the sentence, all. Let's just listen to those words together. I just want to be with him.. I just want to be with him, I just want to be with him, I just want to be with him. Said pretty quickly and everything links together, doesn't it? Let's talk about that linking, that's so natural in American English. I just want to-- just want to-- She drops the T in just, it's very common when we have an ending cluster like ST or CT and the next word begins with a consonant, it's very common to drop that T, and that's what she does here, the S right into the W. Now she doesn't say 'want to' she says that very common reduction 'wanna'. Now if you're wondering what vowels should I put in there, you have a couple options. I would say UH as in butter, wuh, wuh, wanna, would be the best choice for that first syllable. I just want to-- and then the final syllable should be the schwa. I just want to, I just want to. I just want to, be with him. Be with him, be with him, be with him. So for the word with, that's the unvoiced TH and the word him, it's very common to drop the H there. Be with him. Be with him. But I do hear that she is saying the H, it's just unstressed, it's said quickly. For this unvoiced TH, you can actually see her tongue tip does come through, it's a little bit grainy but we can see the tongue. Be with him.. all the time. All the time, all the time. So the word all, we have a dark L there. You don't need to lift your tongue tip, it's not: all, all. But all, uhl, uhl. That sound is made with the tongue tip down and the back part of the tongue pressing down and back. All, uhl, uhl. Then just go into your TH sound for the word 'the'. Do not lift your tongue tip. All the, the, the, the. An unstressed word like this that begins with the voiced TH, you don't need to bring your tongue tip through like you did for the unvoiced TH. Unvoiced TH have to bring your tongue tip through, voiced TH, you don't necessarily have to. And if it's an unstressed word like the, then you can get away with not bringing the tip all the way through, but just touching the tongue to the backs of the teeth. The, the, the, the. The tongue might show through the cracks a little bit, but you don't have to make the effort to put the tongue tip through. That takes a little bit more time than we want for this unstressed word, so make sure it's not dd-- with the tongue tip at the roof of the mouth coming down but: the, the, the, the, the, the tongue poking straight forward and coming back. The, the, the, the, all the, all the, all the, all the, all the, all the time. All the time. And the word 'time' starts with the true T, then we have the AI diphthong, and the M consonant. Time, time, time. Time. You know? You know? You know? You know? You know? This can be said really quickly and unclearly, like she does. The word 'you' reduces to: ye, ye, ye, ye. You know? You know? You know? Pitch goes up, it's a yes no question, even though she's not expecting anyone to answer it. You know? You know? You know? See how quickly and sloppily you can make that, it's not: You know? Way less mouth movement than that. You know? You know? Try to simplify your mouth movements. You know? Day and night. Two stressed words with an unstressed word in between. Day and night. Stop T at the end, that's because it's the end of the thought group, the word 'and' is not pronounced, and, with a full AA vowel, N, D sound. How is it pronounced? Day and night. And, and, and, and, and very quickly, the D is dropped. I don't think the vowel reduces. It's not nn, nn. day and-- day and night, but it's day and, and, and, and, and, day and night, and, and, and. Day and night, and night and day. Now here she does reduce the vowel in the word 'and' so she doesn't say an-- but she says nn, nn, nn, nn, nn. And I would write that schwa N, and night and day. Now here she does do again a more clear pronunciation. The D is dropped but it is the AA vowel, so there are a couple different ways you can reduce the word and, you can reduce it by dropping the D, which she does here, and here, or you can reduce it by dropping the D and reducing the vowel, which is what she does in the middle one. And night and day, And night and day, and night and day. So more reduced the first time, less reduced the second time in this sentence fragment. And she does do another stop T here, she doesn't link them together with a flapped T. And night and day. And night and day... and special occasions. Special occasions. And, and, and, and, again said quickly but without the vowel reduction. That would be: and, and, but she says: and, and, and, and, and. So a lot of examples here of the and reduction, and most of the time you will hear the vowel reduced but not always of course. And special occasions. And special, first syllable stress there. And special occasions. So the word occasions, in IPA, that first syllable is a schwa. She gives it more of an OH pronunciation, that's not the pronunciation of the word but this does sometimes happen with beginning syllables, when they're vowels, and they're unstressed, sometimes Americans will over pronounce them a little bit, like in this case occasions, it's not occasions, it's occasions, occasions. Occasions. I've noticed this also with the word effect. The first syllable unstressed is the IH vowel but sometimes Americans will say effect, switching out the vowel sound. So the pronunciation, the only pronunciation listed in the dictionary is IH here and schwa here, but sometimes native speakers do switch that out. Anyway, the important thing to know is that she says occasions but it's actually occasions with the schwa. Occasions.. Special, CI here makes the SH sound. Special. Now here we have a dark L but it links into a vowel, so you can lift your tongue tip there to help link them together. Special occasions. And here the letter S along with the letter I makes the zsh-- sound like in measure. Special occasions. Special occasions. Wait a minute. Wait. Wait a minute. Wait. Wait a minute. Wait. Both times they have that up down shape of stress. Wait a minute. Wait and the words a in a minute come in here on the downward shape of the stress. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. The T in wait is a flap T linking the word wait into the schwa. Wait a, Wait a, Wait a-- Wait a minute. Stop T because the next word begins with a consonant. Wait a minute. Wait, I-- Wait a minute. Wait, I-- Wait, I-- He also does a flap T linking the T into the AI diphthong. And just like he did in last week's video he's running his sentences together with no breaks. Wait, I-- Wait, I-- Wait, I-- So both of those words have that stress feeling with that up down shape. Wait, I-- Wait, I-- Wait, I-- see where this is going. And again, we have some of the up down shape on 'see'. Wait, I see where this is going. And then some up down shape on the stress syllable of going. I see, I see where this is, where this is, where this is, where this, is where this is. These three words, a little bit flatter and they really link together, don't they? Where this is, where this is, where this is, where this is. The word this begins with that voiced TH, this, but because it's in an unstressed word, we're not going to bring the tongue tip through, we're not going to make that much of that sound. It can just quickly touch the backs of the teeth where this, where this, where this, where this, where this, where this, where this, where this, where this is, where this is, where this is going. Simplifying that mouth movement will let us say it more quickly. Where this, the R sound right into the TH, the S sound of this linking right into the vowel, IH of is. This is, this is, this is, this is, this is. Where this is-- I see where this is going. You're going to-- Again, no break between sentences, he just keeps right on going, linking words together, energy of the voice going forward. I see where this is going. You're going to-- ask him to New Years, aren't you? You're going to ask him to New Years, You're going to ask him-- A little bit on 'you're'. You're going to ask them to New Year's, compound word, the most stress will happen on the first word, new, New Year's. You're going to ask him to New Years-- And actually, this should have an apostrophe here. It's short for New Year's eve, the night before New Year's day. So you are going to ask him to New Year's, becomes: You're going to ask him to New Years, You are becomes you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, just the Y sound and then the R sound: you're, you're, you're going to, going to, going to, of course becomes gonna, such a common reduction. You're going to ask him-- and that schwa links right into the a vowel very smoothly. Gonna ask him-- Now what's happening here with ask and him? Ask him-- Ask him-- ask him-- ask him-- ask him-- The H is dropped, the K links lightly into the him reduction. You can think of that as being an IH vowel M or schwa M, doesn't matter. It's said very quickly. Ask him-- ask him-- ask him to-- ask him to-- ask him to-- What happens to the word to? Ask him to-- It also gets a reduction. That T becomes a flap T. Ask him to-- rarararrarara-- And the vowel of OO reduces to the schwa. Ask him to-- ask him to-- Ask him to-- New Years, aren't you? Aren't you. How does he pronounce that? Aren't you? Aren't you? Aren't you? Aren't you? What? He's getting is CH? Yes. That happens with the NT contraction, or really any word that ends in T when the next word is you or your, that can become a CH. Aren't you? Aren't, aren't, we can write that with the AH as in father vowel like in car, the AW, R combination. Car, rrrrr-- aren't you? Then the CH sound, ch--, and the schwa. Aren't you? Aren't you? Aren't you? Stress on the first syllable there, on the first vowel R, are-- aren't you? Aren't you? And You know The Z sound of New Year's? You can link that into the vowel. New Year's, aren't you? New Year's, aren't you? New Year's, aren't you? To help smooth that out. New Year's, aren't you? You're going to break the pact. She's going to break the pact. Again, two syllables, no break whatsoever, this is part of Chandler's character. No breaks, no stopping when speaking. Let's look at the first sentence. You're going to break the pact. You're going to, you're going to, so the vowel reduces, but it still has a stressed feel. You're, you're, when I write that reduction, I write it with schwa R, but when it's stressed, it has a feel like the UR as in bird vowel R. You're, you're, you're going to break the pact. Three stressed words there, going to of course becomes gonna. Listen to that audio three times, think about how smooth that is. You're going to break the pact. And the word 'the' remember that voiced TH on an unstressed word. You don't need to try to bring your tongue tip through, but try to keep it away from the roof of the mouth, we don't want it to go up and release, that will sound like a D, dd-- try to make it: the, the, the, the, the, lightly touching the backs of the teeth, and the teeth can be slightly parted. The, the, the, the, break the pact. Break the pact. Break the, break the. Notice it's not break the. That K is not released, it's a stop consonant so he puts his tongue into position for the K, back of the tongue against the soft palate, break the. But then rather than releasing the air, he releases right into the next sound. Break the, break the, break the, break the pact. Now pact. We have an ending cluster. He does not put a break, so it links into the next word, that is a consonant, that T gets dropped. Break the pact. Pact she-- pact she-- pact she-- So he completely drops the T. Break the pact. She-- She's gonna break the pact. She's going to break the pact. She's going to break-- again, a stop K not released. Break the pact. Now let's see here, it's the end of a thought group, he's not linking in. Does he make a T sound there? She's going to break the pact. I don't hear it. Pact is all I hear. Break the pact. I don't even really hear a release. So that's a little unusual, it should be pact, most commonly I would say, when it's at the end of a thought group. But he's just dropped the T, and so he drops it here too. And of course again 'going to' much more natural in spoken English to say 'gonna' I wouldn't ever recommend writing the word gonna, even if it's in something casual like a text. Definitely people do it but I would say when you're writing, just write 'going to' because there are definitely cases where writing 'gonna' like in a more formal situation would be really frowned upon. For example, in a cover letter for a job, you would never want to write gonna. But in the job interview, it would be perfectly fine to say 'gonna' as part of your spoken answer. She's going to break the pact. No. No. No. No. No. No. Okay so then she says no many times in a row. N consonant, OH diphthong linking into N consonant, OH diphthong. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No Yeah, could I just? Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Quick up down shape. Yeah. Yeah, could I just? Could I just? Could I just? Stress there, I would say on I, remember the L there is silent. Could, could, could, could, could I-- D links into the AI diphthong, make everything smoothly connected. Could I just-- what happens to the T here? Could I, just? Absolutely dropped, no T at all. So You know That we drop the T in an ending cluster like CT or ST when the next word begins with the consonant, but we've just here now seen two examples of native speakers dropping the T there even at the end of a thought group. So it does happen. Could I, just? Yeah, because I already asked Janice. Yeah. Yeah. Holds that out a little bit. Yeah, 'cause I already asked Janice. And then two up down shapes of stress there. Because I-- that gets reduced, doesn't it? Yeah, 'cause I already asked Janice. 'Cause I, 'cause I, 'cause I, 'cause I, 'cause I. K schwa Z. The Z linking into the AI diphthong. Cause I, cause I , cause I , cause I. Keep it flat, keep it simple. Cause I, cause I, cause I, cause I already-- 'Cause I already, Already, already. So it's pretty common to drop the L in already. I do it too. Already, already, I would say he's doing the AH as in father sound right into the R. Already. Already. 'Cause I already, ' The word 'already' has second syllable stress but he gave it first syllable stress here. I already-- and i've noticed I do that too sometimes. It's not listed in the dictionary as one of the pronunciations but it definitely happens sometimes when we're really stressing that word that we change the stress to the first syllable. Cause I already asked Janice. Cause I already. Cause I already asked Janice. The ending E vowel links right into the AA vowel of asked. Now let's look at this word asked, we have a bunch of consonants in a row: S, K, T, the ED ending here makes T, and then we have the jj- J sound of Janice. Now we know that we drop the T sometimes between other consonants. Let's see what's happening here. I already asked Janice. I already asked Janice. I already asked Janice. I'm hearing both the T and the K as dropped. So basically, it's the AA vowel S consonant linking right into the J consonant. I already asked Janice. I already asked Janice. Janice, the name, we have the AA as in bat vowel followed by N, and when that happens it's not pure, it's not an, aa-- an, but it's Jauh-- aauh-- So you can think of that being the UH as in butter vowel, or the schwa in between as the tongue relaxes. Jan-- Janice, Janice. Unstressed syllable, IH as in sit, and the S consonant. Janice. Janice. Come on! This was a pact! Come on! Come on! Phrasal verb. The peak of stress there is on on. Come on! And the M links right into that vowel. Come on! The vowel in 'on' can be written with either AW as in law, or AH as in father. Come on! Come on! Come on! I would say he is doing the AH as in father vow-- the AW as in Law vowel. Come on! Come on! Come on! This was a pact! This was a pact! Stress on this, this was a-- and I would say it's a scoop up and down. This was a pact! Going up to that up down shape of stress on pact. Now he really clearly pronounces the CT cluster, he puts a little bit of extra energy in his P, he does a hand gesture on the word pact, he's really stressing that word. This was a, was, and a, said quickly. The Z links into the schwa. Was a, was a, was a, was a. This was a, this was a, this was a. This was a pact! This was a pact! This was your pact! I snapped. This was your pact! This was, was, was reduction. This was your pact! And then his ending consonants get lost because Chandler starts talking. Let's talk about the word your. This was your pact. Your pact! So he doesn't reduce it, he doesn't say: Your pact! He says: Your-- AW as in law vowel plus R. The R changes this vowel a little bit, it's not pure, it's not law, yaw-- yar-- but it's yo, oh, or-- lips round more. Tongue shifts back a little bit more. This was your pact! This was your pact. I snapped, okay? I snapped, okay? I snapped, okay? Pitch going up, he's going to say a little bit more. Snapped. The ED ending here is a T sound, so we have an ending PT cluster. The next word begins with a vowel, so we do hear that T lightly released into the OH diphthong. Snapped oh-- d oh-- d oh-- d oh-- okay? I snapped, okay? Really, really light T sound. I'm wondering if you can even hear it. I hear it super subtly. It doesn't sound dropped to me. But it's very subtle. I snapped, okay? Snapped. It has a couple of different meanings, idiomatically. Um it can mean to go crazy like: she snapped and started yelling at everybody. But in this case, it's more like to snap under pressure, to try not to do something, but oh my gosh there's too much pressure so you do do it. So he was feeling all of the pressure of the New Year's eve holiday. Even though he had these dinner plans with his friends, in his head, it just got built up into this thing where you should have a date, and it built up, and it built up, and it weighed on him, and he didn't want to do it, but he snapped, and he did do it, he did invite a date to New Year's eve. I snapped, okay? I couldn't handle the pressure and I snapped. Snapped, okay? I couldn't-- Again the two sentences linking right together. Okay links right into I, okay, I couldn't, and then he has up down shape of stress on couldn't. Couldn't handle the pressure. I couldn't handle the pressure-- and I snapped. Couldn't handle the pressure and I snapped. And I snapped. More up down shape of stress. And here we do clearly hear that PT cluster being released at the end of the thought group. I couldn't handle the pressure and I snapped. I couldn't handle-- couldn't han-- so the N apostrophe T there, there are a couple different pronunciations. I think he's dropping the T. Couldn't-- the D and the N, he doesn't bring the D down, he doesn't bring the tongue down for the D, he puts it up for the D and then makes the N. Couldn't han- And then that releases right into the hh consonant. Couldn't han, han, han, that's just like Jan-- Janice. AH vowel plus N, not pure. UH as in butter kind of sound as the tongue relaxes in the back. Aauh-- handle-- I couldn't handle-- the pressure. Handle the, dle the, dle the, dle the, the two unstressed syllables simply, quickly, that's a dark L. You don't need to lift your tongue tip for that. That would take too much time. Handle, uhl. Just make that dark sound. It's like a vowel. Handle the, the, the. Then the tongue tip through the teeth for that, not through the teeth, sorry, touching the backs of the teeth for that voiced unstressed TH. You don't need to bring the tongue tip all the way through. Handle the pressure. Double S there makes the SH sound. Pressure and I-- Handle the pressure and I-- Pressure and I-- Now here we do have the and reduction where the vowel changes. Pressure and-- The R links right into the schwa, the N consonant links right into the AI diphthong, pressure and I snapped. Pressure and I snapped. Yeah-- Yeah-- Yeah-- Yeah-- Yeah-- Yeah-- Quick up down shape, drop abruptly cut off, isn't it? It's not yeah, but: yep yep yep. She stops the air in her throat. Yeah-- but Janice-- But Janice-- but Janice-- Her pitch is high. She's very surprised. But Janice, three syllable, mini phrase there, stop T in But: but Janice. And then the peak of stress on the stress syllable of her name: but Janice. But Janice-- That, that was like the worst breakup in history. That, that, that, that, that both of those words that with a stop T. That, that, that, that, that was, was, not was, was, was, was, was like the worst breakup in history. Let's look at the word worst. We have an ending cluster here. Next word begins with a consonant. What do you think she does naturally to link those words together? That, that was like the worst breakup in history. I was expecting it to be dropped, but it wasn't. I do hear a true T release. She surprises me there. Okay, so she's really stressing the word worst. So maybe that's why they both got pronounced: worst breakup, worst breakup. It would be very natural to drop it. Worst breakup, wors breakup. But I am hearing the T. Worst breakup. Worst breakup. Worst breakup. Worst, W consonant and then the UR as in bird, vowel R combination. Worst, worst. Worst-- The worst breakup in, breakup in, breakup in, breakup in. Link those words together P into EE vowel. P in, p in, p in, break up in, break up in, break up in history. Now the word 'history' can have two pronunciations. She gives it the three syllable pronunciation. History. She's really stressing that word. Worst breakup in history. I mean that's an exaggeration, of course. So she's bringing a little bit more stress to those words. She is exaggerating what she's saying. You might also hear sometimes history as two syllables. But here, she does history. History. Three syllables. Worst breakup in history. I'm not saying it was a good idea. I'm saying I snapped. I'm not saying it was a good idea. Stress on i'm. I'm not saying it was a good idea. Stress on good, an idea going up, he's going to finish his thought. I'm not saying it was a good idea. I'm not saying it was a good idea. I'm saying I snapped. Good idea. I'm saying I snapped. And then all of those go up to our peak of stress on the word snapped. And again, PT cluster released and we hear the T. I'm saying I snapped. I'm not, not, not, that's going to be a stop T because the next begins with a consonant. And the M links right into the N, no break, I'm not saying it was a-- linking together smoothly. NG constant into IH. Stop T, just a quick lift, saying it was, it was, it was, the word was, is not pronounced was, it's pronounced was, faster than that, and the Z links into the schwa. So much linking and smoothness. I'm not saying it was a, I'm not saying it was a. I'm not saying it was a-- good idea. I'm saying I snapped. Good idea. I'm saying I snapped. And then a hand gesture on that last and stressed word. But everything links together really smoothly. Good idea. I'm saying I snapped. Let's listen to this whole conversation one more time. I just want to be with him all the time. You know? Day and night, and night and day, and special occasions. Wait a minute. Wait, I see where this is going. You're going to ask him the New Year's, aren't you? You're going to break the pact. She's going to break the pact. No. No. No. No. No. No. Yeah, could I just? Yeah, 'cause I already asked Janice. Come on! This was a pact! This was your pact! I snapped, okay? I couldn't handle the pressure and I snapped. Yeah, but Janice, that was like the worst breakup in history. I'm not saying it was a good idea. I'm saying I snapped. Phoebe and Chandler have broken the pact. Next week, we'll study this clip. Tell me something. What does the phrase 'no date pact' mean to you? Look, I'm sorry, okay? It's just that Chandler, has somebody, and Phoebe has somebody, I thought I'd asked fun Bobby! Fun Bobby? Your ex-boyfriend, fun Bobby? Yeah! Okay, so on our no date evening, three of you now are gonna have dates. Uh, four. Four? Five. Five. Sorry! Paolo's catching an earlier flight. Okay, so I'm gonna be the only one standing there alone when the ball drops? Oh, come on! We'll have, we'll have a big party and no one will know who's with whom. Who's with whom. It looks like Ross is the only one without a date, so they decide to throw a big party instead and it even ends with a countdown. We'll study this scene in two weeks. In 20 seconds, it'll be midnight. And the moment of joy is upon us. Looks like that no date pact thing worked out? Happy New Year! You know? I just thought I'd throw this out here, I'm no math whiz but I do believe there are three girls and three guys right here. Oh, I don't feel like kissing anyone tonight. I can't kiss anyone. So I'm kissing everyone? No. No. No. You can't kiss Ross, that's your brother. Oh yeah. Well perfect, perfect. So now everybody's gonna kiss but me? All right, somebody kiss me. Somebody kiss me! It's midnight! Somebody kiss me! It's midnight! So stick with me. All of December, we're learning English with TV. We're going to follow the pact and watch how it falls apart, and you're going to improve your listening comprehension along the way. If you love this kind of analysis video, I have over 150 that aren't on my YouTube channel, in my online school Rachel's English Academy. There's also audio that goes with each lesson to help you train your imitation skills, and really change your habits, this kind of training will transform your voice and your confidence. To sign up, visit rachelsenglishacademy.com While you're waiting for next week's video to drop, check out more of the videos on my YouTube channel, including this one. And don't forget to subscribe with notifications. I make new videos on the English language every Tuesday. And I don't want you to miss any in this awesome December 2020 series, where we study four scenes from the Friends New Year's episode of season one. Okay guys, that's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
B1 pact vowel snapped janice stress tongue How to Speak Fast English with the TV Show Friends! | Fast English Training Lesson 24 2 Summer posted on 2020/12/08 More Share Save Report Video vocabulary