Study English | American English Pronunciation | What Makes American English SO FAST?

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There are two main tricks how Americans speak so fast. Linking and reductions.
Let's study a scene from the TV series 'Friends'
to look at these two important characteristics of spoken American English. You'll improve your
listening skills and sound more natural speaking English when you link and reduce this way.
This is the scene that we'll study. It's about 35 seconds long.
The New Year's Eve party has just ended and they're all talking about their New Year's
resolutions. Are you making any this year? If so, let me know in the comments below.
Blair forgot her glasses. Man. She's going to be needing these to keep an eye on her boyfriend. Who
from what I hear needs to keep his stapler in his desk drawer if you know what I'm talking about.
Hey Rach, maybe your resolution should be to, um, gossip less.
Wha-? I don't gossip.
(laughing)
Wha? Maybe sometimes I find out things or I something and I pass that information on.
You know, kind of like a public service?
It doesn't mean I'm a gossip. I mean, would you call Ted Koppel a gossip?
Well, if Ted Keppel talked about his coworker's botched boob jobs, yeah, I would.
How do they do that? I mean at the beginning of this clip,
Rachel is speaking so fast, how do people still understand her?
It has to do with pulling out the stressed words. Let's take a look at the analysis.
Blair forgot her glasses.
The first thing I like to do is to study what are our most stressed syllables that
gives us our anchor for the sentence. So, listen to this sentence three times
and see if you can figure out what you think are the most stressed syllables.
Blair forgot her glasses.
Blair forgot her glasses. I hear two stressed syllables. The name,
Blair forgot her glasses and then also the first syllable of glasses.
So, we have a stressed word that has more than one syllable, it's just the stressed syllable
that feels stressed. The unstressed syllables even if a stressed word are not stressed. So, Blair
forgot her, forgot and her, a little bit less clear, said more quickly to give us that contrast
with our stressed syllables that are a little bit longer and have that up down shape of stress.
Now, one of the things that happens in unstressed words is sometimes we
have reductions. And that means the sound changes or is dropped. Here, we do have that.
The word 'her'. How is that pronounced? Let's listen again.
Blair forgot her glasses.
Forgot her, forgot her, forgot her, her, her, her.
The h is dropped isn't it? That's a pretty common way to pronounce her. Also he, his,
him, those can all be pronounced without the h. Forgot her. Now this t, t is not a true t is it?
The rule for t pronunciations is when it's between two vowels or diphthong sounds like it is here,
it becomes a flap T which sounds like D between vowels in American English.
So, forgot her, forgot her, forgot her [flap], forgot her. Those two words link with a flap.
Forgot her--
Now, don't try to say forgot. For, I know you see f-o-r but its actually fur, fur.
That is written with the schwa R. in phonetics in IPA
and the schwa gets absorb by the R so it's like the vowel drops out. Fur, forget, forgot, forget,
forgot. Very fast first syllable with no vowel, forgot. Blair forgot her glasses.
Blair forgot her glasses.
Man. She's going to really be needing these.
So, this next thought group very fast and she speaks so
quickly with her reductions. Now a native speaker has no problem
understanding what she's saying because of the anchors she gives us, the stressed syllables.
So let's just listen to the first few words, see if you can feel the one stressed syllable here.
Man. She's going to really.
Man. She's going to really. So, peak of stress I would say for there, she's. Man.
She's going to really then we have four unstressed syllables said so quickly, going to becomes gonna
and really, we don't have any reductions of changes there but it's just said
very quickly. And it's flat. There's not a lot of energy and volume in the voice,
not length, no up down shape. Gonna really, gonna really, gonna really, gonna really,
gonna really, gonna really. I can do that without moving my lips or my jaw at all,
it's all tongue. And by simplifying those mouth movements that helps me get that out more quickly.
Man. She's going to really, Man. She's going to really, gonna really, gonna really, gonna really,
gonna really. See if you can match that speed and simplify like crazy to get there.
Man. She's going to really--
Man. She's going to really be needing these--
Be needing these. Be needing these. Then we have two more stressed syllables, be needing these.
They both have the e vowel, needing these. Do you notice needing becomes needin , needin. So the ng
ending gets changed to just the ih as in sit n, needin. Needin, be needin these. Uhuhuhuh.
Do you hear that up down shape? That's the feeling of stress. Be needing these, Uhuhuhuh.
be needing these--
And those syllables are definitely way more clearer than
gonna really, gonna really, gonna really be, gonna really be.
Man. She's going to really--
Man. She's going to really be needing these to keep an eye on that boyfriend.
To keep an eye on that boyfriend. So, we have a little bit more stress here. To keep an eye.
I would say a little bit on eye. To keep an eye on that boyfriend. And then quite a bit on boy.
So those are our stressed words. Those are the only syllables with length and more clarity,
the rest of the syllables really mumbly. And if that was all we did,
was speak in unstressed syllables, nobody would ever understand anyone. But by
having that mixed in with stressed syllables, we understand perfectly.
To keep an eye on that boyfriend.
Actually, if you go to my video “Rachel's English, Native speakers can't understand this”, it's
really funny, I actually play parts of sentences from Friends that would just be unstressed words
and my friends and family cannot figure out what is being said but when I play the whole sentence,
they understand. So that just goes to show how unclear these unstressed words are by themselves.
Even a native speaker can't understand them but in the context on the whole sentence,
then we understand them. So you really have to keep that in mind when you're trying to
speed up and simplify your unstressed syllables, they are not going to be clear and that's okay.
Man. She's going to really be needing these to keep an eye on that boyfriend.
Needing these to. Now, the word to, I barely hear it. Extremely light true T
and a schwa but it's so fast. I almost don't hear that word. Needing these to keep an eye, keep an
eye, keep an eye, keep an eye. And everything links together smoothly. The ending p into the
schwa, ən, ən, ən, ən. The ending n into the eh as in bed vowel, sorry the ai as in buy diphthong.
to keep an eye on that boyfriend.
To keep an eye on that, to keep an eye on that. So fast,
a little bit of a peek on eye but those words said so quickly. To keep an eye on that,
to keep an eye on that, to keep an eye on that. And you have to simplify to say those words
that quickly. We have a stop T in the word that, t, because the next word begins with
a consonant so it's not that but that, that, that, that boyfriend.
to keep an eye on that boyfriend.
Boyfriend. And a really light d, release of that d.
Boyfriend.
Who, from what I hear
Who, up down shape of stress. Who, from what I hear.
From what, lower in pitch, flatter, from what I hear. And then another peak of stress on I.
Who, from what I hear--
From what, from. So, we don't have a full uh as in butter vowel there I would say it's a schwa.
From, from, from. From what I hear. What I, do you hear how that T is a flap T because it's
linking to a vowel or diphthong sounds together, the uh as in butter and the I
diphthong, that helps us move through that word and that sound more quickly
rather than a stop and a release, it's just a flap. What I, What I, What I.
From what I hear. We really like our words linked together in American English.
from what I hear--
What I hear. And I would say we have a little bit of a curve back up here. Hear. So that's signaling
she's going to say more, this change of direction of pitch shows us stress. So, stress is usually
up and then down but sometimes it's down The word hear, written in IPA, h consonant,
I vowel, schwa r. But a couple of things. The r absorbs the schwa so it's just the single r sound.
And this r sound changes the i vowel, it's not I, hit, I, hear, hear, hear. But it's hear,
hear. It's a lot more like the E vowel. The R changes I into e. Hear.
I hear--
I hear, needs to keep his stapler--
Needs to keep his stapler. Okay, so she is giving some good juicy gossip here so she's
slowing down a little bit. Needs to keep his, doesn't drop the h in his, doesn't
even reduce the vowel in to which is a little bit unusual. That's a true t and the uh vowel.
So she's being extra clear here because of how good this gossip is. Needs to keep his stapler.
Really stressing that. Stapler, a lot of pitch change, going pretty high there.
Need to keep his stapler--
In his desk drawer
In his desk drawer. Drawer. Up down shape of stress and then going up a little bit at
the end to show a little bit more she wants to say about it. And again, really clear,
Doesn't drop the h in his, everything a little bit longer, a little bit more clearer
because she thinks, wow, this is so important, so juicy, I'm so excited to share this gossip.
In his desk drawer--
If you know what I'm talking about.
If you know what I'm talking about. Okay, she gets a little bit more playful.
If you know what I'm talking. And we have one big peak of stress on talking. So talking
becomes talkin. She changes the ng sound to just an in sound. Ih as in sit, n unstressed syllable,
talkin, talkin. Now, the l in talking dropped. Not dropped but not pronounced, it's silent.
If you know what I'm talking about.
If you know what I'm. Said a little bit more quickly than that. If you know becomes if jə know,
if jə know, not you but jə. Jə, jə, If jə know what I'm, If jə know what I'm,
If jə know what I'm. What [flap] I'm.
Again, we're linking those words with a flap t that's what we do when a word ends in a vowel
or diphthong plus t and then the next word is a vowel or diphthong. Link that smoothly
with a single flap, t, really feeding into that characteristic of smoothness for American English.
If you know what I'm talking about.
If you know what I'm talking about. About, about, about.
Stop T, not released. That's usually what we do with T's at the end of a thought group.
If you know what I'm talking about.
So on the first slide, she was speaking so fast. Here, she's slowing down a little bit,
we still have contrast. We still have the clear up down shape on some syllables
but definitely not all of them. The other syllables are just flatter. They don't have uhuuh
or uhuh changes in pitch the same way that those stressed syllables do.
Needs to keep his stapler in his desk drawer--
Keep his stapler in his desk drawer. Okay, this is a sexual inuendo which means
we use a phrase that has a normal, plain innocent meaning in English but we use it
to mean something sexual. So, of course, stapler here being penis and desk drawer
being pants. In other words, she's heard Blair's boyfriend is sleeping around.
Who needs to keep this stapler in his desk drawer--
If you know what I'm talking about.
Hey Rach,
Hey Rach, hey Rach, hey Rach. Hey said quickly, going up towards that peak of stress on Rach. Hey
Rach, hey Rach, hey Rach.
Hey Rach,
Maybe your resolution should be to, um,
Maybe your resolution should be to, um. So we have a couple of stressed syllables there. Your,
because they're all making resolutions there. Maybe your resolution should be to.
Maybe your resolution should be to, um,
Actually, she doesn't reduce to, she actually says tu instead of to. Maybe your resolution should be
to, um. She's thinking about how to say this. It's a little bit of a touchy subject. Nobody
wants to be a gossip and here, she's basically telling Rachel that Rachel is a gossip.
Maybe your resolution should be to, um,
Maybe your resolution. Do you notice that those words are link together with a single r
sound. There's no reiteration of the r or any lift or break. This is what we do
to help link in American English, if one word ends with a sound, the next word begins in it,
we link that single consonant sound. Maybe your resolution should be. Smooth linking no breaks.
Resolution should, those are all lower in pitch and flatter
but ther're not rushed quite as much as Rachel was rushing her speech at the beginning of this scene.
Maybe your resolution should be to, um,
Should be to, um, Should be should. The L in should is silent
and the d is not released if the next word begins with a consonant so it's not should be,
should be but it's should be, should be. Do you hear how I hold that d in my vocal cords? I'm
exaggerating it there but I don't release it, I just go right into the b sound then.
So that d would be very quick, very subtle before going on the b consonant.
should be to, um,
Gossip less.
Gossip less. Gossip less. Do you hear how we have that peak of stress on our first syllable there.
Gossip less. And then the two other syllables just come in as the pitch falls away but it's
smooth, we don't have a jump of a skip. Uh. Uhuuh. Gossip less, all smoothly connected.
Gossip less.
Wha-?
Wha-? She cuts off the word what, she can't believe she's being accused of this.
Wha-?
I don't gossip.
I don't gossip. So, pretty high intonation. I don't
gossip. So, don't and go both stressed, the one is in up down shape and the next,
down up, she can't believe it. I don't gossip. And makes her intonation goes up.
I don't gossip.
The n apostrophe t contraction here pronounced as a quick stop. I don't gossip. Don't
go, don't go, don't don't. So the n apostrophe t contraction has a couple different pronunciations.
Usually, when it's followed by a consonant, that's what we do, do a quick lift break,
little tiny separation and that stop signifies the t.
I don't gossip.
Gossip. And she releases that p sound. She kind of holds on to her g a little bit more to,
she's really stressing that word. She can't believe she's being accused of this.
Gossip.
And everyone reacts with a sort of a chuckle.
Wha?
And again, wha? What without really a t.
Wha? wha? what. You could think of that as a stop, maybe signifying a stop t. Wha? Wha?
Wha?
Maybe sometimes,
Maybe sometimes. So we have two stressed syllables there. Maybe sometimes. And then
she makes her intonation go up a little bit, she's going up towards another peak of stress.
Maybe sometimes,
I find out things
I find out things. I find out things. So find and things also stressed but things has a
down up intonation because she's going to keep going, she's going to keep defending herself.
I find out things
Out things, out, stop t there because the next word begins with a consonant. Now,
nothing here is reduced, it's all more clear, we do have unstressed syllables
but they are just a little bit longer and clearer that when she was gossiping at the beginning.
I find out things--
Or I hear something
Or I hear something. Or I, really being clear hear, I think each of those has a little bit of
a stressed syllable feeling. Or I hear something. Definitely more on the word hear. And don't forget
that vowel is going to sound more like e because it's followed by r. Hear.
Or I hear
Or I hear something and I pass that information on.
Hear something and she goes right back up for
another little peak of stress on some. Hear something and I pass that information on.
hear something and I pass that information on.
Pass, some up down shape on that vowel. And I pass that information.
A little bit on our stressed syllable, information. In, pass that information on,
on. Change in direction, definitely has stress longer but again, she made her
intonation go up at the end. Just like she did here. She's not done talking. She's not
giving it a statement, I'm done intonation because she's going to continue to defend herself.
pass that information on.
Here, something and I pass. So we have three unstressed syllables here that are
definitely said more quickly. Something and I pass, [flap].
Here, something and I pass.
And the word and is reduced. We drop that d. We just almost never say that d.
So she doesn't reduce the vowel. It's still ae. ae . A vowel after n changes. I'm sorry a vowel
before n changes it's not an,an but ae, ae. Sort of like a relaxed a with an uh, ae, ae,
and, and. And I pass that information on.
And I pass that information on.
Information. You see, f-o-r, don't say for,
say infur, schwa r, just an r sound there, information.
And the tion ending in this word is the sh schwa n syllable, tion, tion. Information on.
Information on--
Information on. Actually, she does a little bit of a breaking away from on the n.
She doesn't say information on, information on. She breaks it away a little bit from that n. When
we separate something and we don't really make it link in, that gives it a little bit more stress.
Information on--
You know,
You know, you know, you know. A little quick phrase, one feeling, you know
going up in intonation, no is our stressed word, the word you reduces, it's no you,
it's jə, jə. Said so quickly, jə, jə, jə, jə, jə know, jə know. Linked on to that word.
You know,
Kind of like a public service.
Kind of like a public service. A little bit of stress on kind.
Kind of like a public service. And the stress on ser and again.
It's the up down kind, she wants to keep going. She wants to keep convincing them.
Kind of like a public service.
The word of, schwa v said very quickly. It's pretty common to drop that v, kind of like,
kind of like but I do hear her making it quickly. kind of like, kind of like,
kind of like. kind of like a, kind of like a.
So, of like a, just said quickly, linked together before our stressed syllable pu.
Kind of like a--
Kind of like a public service.
Public service [flap]. Do you hear that two stressed words in a row? Each has
first syllable stress. So it's, sorry let me say that again.
Each has first syllable stress. So we have a stressed syllable
and an unstressed syllable. A stressed syllable and an unstressed syllable. And those should
feel different. Stressed should feel different than unstressed. Public-service. Public service.
Public service.
Doesn't mean I'm a gossip.
Doesn't mean I'm a gossip. So we have good stress here. Doesn't mean. Doesn't mean I'm a gossip.
And then she goes up at the end. Both of those have a up down shape of stress. Again,
she really stresses gossip by kind of holding on to that g a little bit. Doesn't mean I'm a gossip.
We have an n apostrophe t contraction here. Let's look at how it's pronounced.
Doesn't mean I'm a gossip.
Doesn't mean, doesn't mean. I would say that t is totally dropped.
Doesn't mean, now notice the s in doesn't is pronounced as a z, doez,zz,zz. Doesn't mean I'm a,
doesn't mean I'm a. Mean I'm a, flatter we don't have that up down, down up intonation change,
they're also said more quickly but they're all linked together really smoothly aren't they.
Doesn't mean I'm a gossip.
I mean, would you call Ted Koppel a gossip?
I mean, would you call Ted Koppel a gossip? So this is a yes no question
and that's why the intonation goes up at the end. Gossip? So go, our first syllable there,
definitely stressed. Would you call, our verb has stress. Call Ted Koppel a
gossip? Everything else said pretty quickly. The words I mean, very unclear.
I mean, would you call--
I mean, would you. I mean, would you, I mean, would you, I mean, would you,
I mean, would you. Not clear at all right? So the word would. L is always silent . When we
have a word that ends with a d followed by you or your. It's fairly common, maybe half the time
to not hear a d but instead for the d to combine with the y to get a j sound. Would you,
wouldjujuju, Would you. That's written in IPA with these two symbols together,
jujuju. Would you, would you, would you, would you. I mean would you, I mean would you,
I mean would you. You have to say those words that quickly to get the contrast. Call, I mean would
you call. Those words have a really different feel. And in order to say those words quickly,
you have to really simplify, you have to make them short of course, You're going to do that by
making your intonation more flat. Simplify mouth movements. I mean would you, I mean would you.
You can't look at the black and white of the words and think I need to say these four words
because you would never say them more quickly. So just imitate what you hear right now. I
mean would you, I mean would you, I mean would you, I mean would you.
And try that, play with that, simplifying.
I mean would you--
I mean would you call Ted Koppel a gossip?
Would you call Ted Koppel. The word call has a dark L. Don't lift your tongue tip for that.
Call, uhl, uhl, uhl,uhl. Making that with the back part of my tongue pressing down a
little bit. Call uhl,uhl,uhl,uhl. But the tip stays down. The back presses down the back,
pressed a little bit. That's how we get that sound. Call Ted Koppel. So, a proper noun,
no matter how many names we have for someone, we might be calling someone by their first,
their middle, their last. Stress is always on the last name. So, in this case, Koppel,
it's a two syllable word, with first syllable stress. So Ted is less stressed than Koppel.
would you call Ted Koppel--
Ted Koppel. Ted Koppel.
Again, dark L here. Make a dark sound. Koppel, uhl,uhl, uhl, uhl. Koppel . Koppel.
Now, when a dark L is followed by a vowel like here and it's followed by the schwa, I sometimes
lift my tongue tip to give a little bit of a feeling of clarity that I'm going to another
syllable here. Ted Koppel a. But make that dark sound first. Really quick dark sound or you just
very lightly lift your tongue tip to link into the schwa. Koppel a, Koppel a. Ted Koppel a gossip?
Ted Koppel a gossip?
Now, we've seen and heard the word gossip over and over but I just want to point out
in case you're not hearing it you see the letter o, it is the a vowel like in father. Gossip.
Gossip?
Well, if
Well, if, well, if. The word well, not to clear is it? Well, if?
I think I would write that w schwa l, well, well, well, well. We use the word well quite
a bit in spoken English and it's often reduced well, well, well. Not said very clearly. So
she does a tiny little break here but well and if linked together. Well if, well if, well if.
Well, if
Ted Koppel talked about his coworker's
Ted Koppel talked about his coworker's. Can you feel the stress there? Koppel
talked about his coworker's. Again the stressed syllable of the last word of the name.
Ted Koppel talked about his--
Ted Koppel talked about his. Ted Koppel talked. So
up down shape of stress on o,also here on our stressed syllable on talked, now the ed
ending here adds just another sound, the t sound. Ted Koppel talked about his coworker's.
Coworker is someone you work with. Stress on the first syllable there. Coworkers.
Ted Koppel talked about his coworker's--
Ted Koppel talked about his. I love these true t's, they're so clean and crisp. Ted. Talked. Ted
Koppel talked about his, about his. Now, what's happening here? This isn't a clear true t is it?
Ted Koppel talked about his.
Talked about his. It's because the h is dropped here. Now the t comes between two
vowels and diphthong sounds and we make that a flap t which sounds like the d
between vowels in American English. Talked about his, talked about his.
Talked about his--
Talked about his coworker's botched boob job.
Coworker's botched boob job. Two more stressed syllables there, an adjective. Botched
boob job. Boob job, that's when women makes their breast bigger.
coworker's botched boob job--
A botched boob job. Botched means something got messed up. Something wasn't
executed well, something went wrong. If you're going to have a boob job,
you definitely don't want anything to go wrong.
botched boob job--
Botched. Again, the ed ending makes a t. So the rule for ed endings we have three
different pronunciations. if the sound before is unvoiced like here, ch,ch, then it's a true t,
actually the rules are pretty clear. Ah, we, and as I said, there are three clear cases
and I have a series of videos on that. You can look up ed endings, Rachel's English and get
all of the rules and how we end up using them in real life conversational spoken English.
Botched--
botched boob job, yeah, I would.
Yeah, yeah, yeah I would. The d, would, we hear it in the vocal cords but it's not released
and again the L is always silent in that word.
yeah, I would.
So Monica, we have some reductions,
we have out unstressed words contrasting with our stressed syllables, everything links together
smoothly. Some t's changed. We have a dark L here in Koppel. You don't lift your tongue tip for
that. All these different things, the linking that make up the characteristics of American English.
Botch. A great vocabulary word. Here are some more sentences.
They didn't gather all the evidence; they really botched the investigation.
Or
We ordered delivery and half the things we ordered weren't in the bag. They really botched out order.
Now, let's listen to that conversation one more time
while we look up at the marked up texts. Notice what you hear.
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