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It's that time of year where we take a Friends Christmas episode and we do a
full pronunciation analysis of the scene. What are
the characteristics of American English? Today they're talking about how much to
tip somebody for the holidays. Here's the scene that we'll study together.
Hey.
Hey, how much did you guys tip the super this year?
Yeah, we were going to give fifty but if you guys gave more, we don't want to look bad.
Oh, actually, this year, we just made them homemade cookies.
And twenty-five it is.
You gave them cookies?
Money is so impersonal. Cookies says someone really cares.
Alright we're broke but cookies do say that.
And now let's do the full analysis.
Be sure to download my Sounds of American English Cheat Sheet,
it's free. It's an illustrated reference guide for you for all the American English
sounds including the phonetic symbols you need to know. Link here and in the video description.
Hey.
Hey, how much did you guys tip the super this year?
If you weren't sure what is a common greeting in American English, this clip will definitely
show you that. We have the word 'hey' four times in a row at the beginning
of this scene. This is a much common way to greet a friend than hello or hi.
Hey.
Hey. Hey. Hey. So the first one a little bit longer, hey. Hey, the second one shorter,
they both have that up down shape of stress. Hey, then another one. Hey.
Hey.
So these were all another way of saying hello. Now this is just sort of, this is less about hello.
Joey has already said hello, it's more getting the attention I'm about to ask you something,
hey. And this one is really short. Hey, how much, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, how much.
Hey, how much--
Just very quick and then the pitch goes up for our question word how.
Hey, how much--
Also, the pronunciation of the word hey. We do say the H in this word, we don't always say
beginning H's but in this word we do. The H consonant and the a diphthong hey, hey, hey.
Hey.
Hey, how much did you guys tip the super this year?
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Hey, how much did you guys tip the super this year?
How much did you guys. So, we have a couple stressed syllables here.
How, up down, how much did you guys.
Hey, how much did you guys--
tip the super this year?
How much did you guys tip the super. Then we have two more stressed syllables here as we
go down. Tip the, and for that shape of stress, pitch just goes up a little bit,
just a little curve, tip the, and it's a little longer than the other syllables.
Tip the super. Su, first syllable stress, that's the one with the slight up down shape.
Hey, how much did you guys tip the super this year?
This year. And then he makes his intonation go up at the end. Now, let's look at the words that aren't
stressed. We have how, stressed. Now, usually when we're asking a question, the question word how,
what, when, where, why is stressed. If we're making a statement with the question word, then
it's not stressed. For example, “I don't know how much it cost.” I don't know how, how, how. There,
it's unstressed but if I'm saying how much does it cost, asking a question then it is stressed.
Hey, how much did you guys--
So, we gave that length on how and then much, did, you, guys. Those three words all said more
quickly and really linking together smoothly, not much time is given to those less important words.
Hey, how much did you guys--
And we're also coming down in pitch. So, we started higher with hey or sorry with how. How much did
you guys, and then all of that pitch is starting to fall down a little bit. That's the general
trend of sentences in American English, they start higher in pitch and then they head down. And then
we have little lifts and bumps up as we go for stressed syllables like tip and su in super.
Hey, how much did you guys tip the super this year?
So now that you know, you don't need to put much effort, time and energy into much,
did, you, guys. Now that you know that, hopefully, it will make it easier for you
to simplify and imitate this phrase. How much did you guys. How much did you guys.
Hey, how much did you guys--
Now, he's linking the words 'did you' in one of the ways we can do this did you. So, the d and the
y are combining to make a j sound, jj, jj which we write in the phonetic alphabet with these symbols.
Did you
So it's not did you but we simplify that did you, did you, did you
did you guys--
tip the super this year?
Tip the super this year? [flap]. So smoothly connected,
we don't have any gaps or breaks between words. Everything flows together smoothly.
Tip the super this year?
We have the word 'the'. Starts with a voiced th. The, the, the. We have the word 'this',
starts with the voiced th. Th, th, this. Now, when we have an unstressed word,
these are both unstressed and it begins with a voiced th. One thing that Americans tend
to do is not bring the tongue tip through so this is a shortcut. The, the, the, the . Instead,
the tongue touches the backs of the teeth rather than coming all the way through the teeth. The,
the, the, this, this, this. It helps to say those words more quickly. Also the word 'year'. I just
want to point out if you look it up in IPA, it will say Y consonant, ih as in sit vowel schwa
and the r consonant. Now, schwa R, this ending changes the ih vowel into something
more like an ee vowel. So it's not ye, year, but ye ye ye, year, year.
super this year?
The word 'super' is short here for superintendent and that's the person
who lives at the building and is in charge of the building. Takes
care of maintenance if you have an issue with your apartment, you call the super.
super this year?
Yeah, we were going to give fifty but if you guys gave more, we don't want to look bad.
So now, Chandler comes in with a fairly long thought group. What is a thought group? That
is a chunk of words that does not have a break in speech. So if he would pause,
that would break it up into more than one thought group but there
are no pauses. He links everything together, therefore it makes this one thought group.
Yeah, we were going to give fifty but if you guys gave more, we don't want to look bad.
Yeah, we were going to give fifty. So we have some stress here, yeah, we were going to give
fifty. And then we have some stress on the dollar amount, let's just start with that.
Yeah, we were going to give fifty--
So, just like up here we did did you, did you do to make those two words link together a
little bit more smoothly. We take going to and we make that gonna and you've probably
noticed that. That's extremely common in spoken English and it doesn't even have to be casual
conversation. You will hear that reduction gonna in speeches, in you know, the business boardroom,
it's just that common. Now, you don't want to write it, but saying it, it happens all the time.
Yeah, we were going to give--
We were going to becomes we were gonna, we were gonna, we were gonna. So, we and were
both said pretty quickly too. We and then were, I think we can get by thinking of this as just
schwa R, were, were, were. So fast. Were gonna, were gonna, were gonna, were gonna, were gonna.
English is full of this contrast of stressed longer syllables with and up down shape versus
unstressed very short syllables, were, were, were gonna, were gonna, were gonna, were gonna.
Yeah, we were going to give--
Fifty.
Let's just write out the word fifty so that we can study the word itself. So, we have give,
ending in a V, then we have fifty beginning with and F, So, in this particular link, when we have
an ending consonant and a beginning consonant that are paired. So F and V go together because
they take the same mouth position. V, F, V, F. I alternate between V and F, the only thing I change
is engaging my vocal cords V for that extra voiced sound versus not F, that's unvoiced, that's the F.
So when we have an ending voiced consonant linking into a beginning unvoiced consonant that is its
pair, we drop the ending consonant usually give fifty. So you don't have to worry about making a V,
just link g into fifty smoothly and it'll sound perfect. Give fifty, give fifty, give fifty.
to give fifty--
Fifty. So I'm not hearing tt, a true t, fifty. But it's more like a soft D. Fifty, fifty, fifty.
Fifty.
Fifty. So not tt, a sharp true t release.
Fifty.
But if you guys gave more--
Alright, let's look at the rest of the sentence now. The rest of that thought
group and pull out our stressed longer syllables.
But if you guys gave more--
But if you guys gave more. I'm feeling that on you but and if said so quickly. But
if you, but if you, but if you. Do you feel how you is a little bit longer. But if you.
But if you--
guys gave more--
But if you guys gave more, gave more, gave more,
gave more. We can feel that intonation change, it's got that up down shape.
But if you guys gave more--
We don't want to look bad, we. We don't want to look bad. Alright, so but if these two words link
together with a flap t, why? We make a t a flap t if it comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds,
here it comes between the uh vowel and the e vowel, so rather than t, making that a true t,
it's just a flap of the tongue which sounds like the American D between vowels, but if [flap], but
if, but if, but if, but if, but if, but if, but if you, but if you, but if you. Now,
we have an F linking into the word you, it's going to sound sort of like the word few
because of how we link things together and that's okay we want that,
we want that smoothness. But if you, but if you, but if you.
But if you--
guys gave more--
But if you guys gave more. Guys gave, guys gave, guys gave. They're a little bit flatter
because they're feeling unstressed here. The more important word is more. He wants
to compare so more has that stress not guys gave.
But if you guys gave more--
We don't want to look bad. We don't want to. Alright, so just like gonna
was for going to, wanna is what we say for want to, wanna, wanna,
wanna. And that's ending in the schwa. Gonna, wanna, gotta, all of those are ending in an
unstressed schwa sound so it's not wanna ah but it's uh, uh, wanna, wanna, uh, uh , uh.
We don't want to--
Now let's look at our n apostrophe t here in don't.
We're probably not going to hear a tt, a true t.
We don't want to--
Don't want to, don't want to, totally dropped. So we have a couple different
pronunciations for n apostrophe t. One of them is no t and that's what he's doing.
The N links right into the w. don't wanna, don't wanna, don't wanna, don't wanna.
We don't want to--
look bad.
Look bad, look bad. So clearly, two different pitches there. Look is higher, look bad.
look bad.
The oo there is not ooh but it's uh like in push. Look, look, look bad
look bad.
And the d, we make this with our vocal cords, we don't du, do a stop and a release. We just bad,
make this subtle sound in the vocal cords with the tongue in position for the d. Bad, bad, look bad
look bad.
The K, this is a stop consonant which means there's a stop and a release. We
often drop the release when it's followed by another consonant and that's what he does,
he doesn't say look bad, look, kk, kk, kk. He doesn't release that, it's just look bad, look,
little stop of air and ten right into the word bad. Look bad.
look bad.
Oh, actually, this year, we just made them homemade cookies.
Oh, oh. Very quick kind of quiet oh, oh. Still a little bit of an up down shape, oh.
Oh,
Oh, actually, this year, we just made them homemade cookies.
Actually this year. So stress on ah, actually and then more stress on this,
this year. So in other years maybe they have given him cash but not this year. Actually this year.
actually, this year--
we just made them homemade cookies.
We just made them homemade cookies. Then we have some more stress, we just made them homemade
cookies. So that's a nice pattern. Stressed, unstressed, [flap].
we just made them homemade cookies.
Now we have some reductions here, some sounds changing, let's look at that.
Oh, actually, this year, we just made them homemade cookies.
The word actually. This can be four syllables, actually, but most people will say three. That's
what she has done, actually. So that's a vowel in our stressed syllable ah. I'll go ahead and
write out the full pronunciation in IPA. Æk, that's this right here is the mark for
a stressed syllable. So the first syllable is stressed Æk ʃəli, actually, actually.
Actually, --
this year—
Then, this year. Now I've noticed with this particular combination,
s going into a y sound that sometimes it sounds lika an sh. This year,
this year. And I feel like I'm hearing that a little bit from her.
this year—
This year
So don't stress it, don't make it really heavy but just a light sh
sounds there to link. This year, this year, this year.
this year—
we just made him homemade cookies.
So let's listen to the rest of the sentence again.
this year we just made him homemade cookies.
You know now that I'm listening a little bit more closely to just this section,
I don't really feel stress on made. I think it's we, home, cook. Let's listen to that again.
year we just made him homemade cookies.
We just made him homemade cookies. So just made him. These three words are flatter,
said more quickly and we do have some reductions in there. Just. We drop that t, it's really
common when you have a consonant cluster with t like s-t, c-t. It's then followed by another
consonant to drop that t. So rather than just made, it's just made, just made, just made.
Him, it's also common in the words him, her, his, he for example to drop the h. We make that
a reduction and we just link ih as in sit M into the sound before so it's the d here so the d flaps
into that made them, made them, made them, just made them, just made them, just made them. So we
make those three words more quickly. I know this sounds confusing, why are we dropping these sounds.
We do it to meet the overall goal of smoothness and connection between words in American English.
And, if this feels like a lot, I do want you to know that there are rules for this. The t
between consonants, that's a rule. That happens regularly. Dropping the h in this function word,
that's a rule. That happens regularly. These are all rules that you can know, study and learn so that it
doesn't feel random. You start to get a sense for how Americans link and smooth out their speech.
we just made him homemade cookies.
We just made him homemade cookies. Homemade cookies. So two more stressed syllables. Homemade,
this is a compound word but notice, we have an m followed by an m. We link those with on single
m sound. Homemade. Now, we have an ending d consonant, just like on the last slide,
we don't release that. It's not made cookies but made, tongue in position for the D vocal
cords vibrate but no escape of air at the end. We go right from that d sound into the k sound, the
first sound of cookies here again, oo doesn't make ooh, it makes uh like in push k cookies, cookies.
homemade cookies.
And twenty-five it is. I'm just going to write out twenty-five so we can study that a little bit.
And twenty-five it is.
And twenty-five it is. So the most stressed syllable there is the dollar
amount. Twe, and twe. So the and reduction, we dropped the d and we just link that in on the way
up to our peak of stress and twenty-five it is. Twenty-five. There are two t's in the word twenty
but that second t is pretty much never pronounced. It's dropped so this is another rule. After an n,
we sometimes drop the t. It sometimes happens almost all the time in the word twenty.
And twenty-five it is.
Twenty-five. And twenty-five it is. Now let's look at it and is. That is not pronounced it is
but rather it is, it is, it is. Linking together with the flap T which is like d between vowels
in American English. It is, it is, it is [flap]. That flap t helps to smooth things out. That is
smoother than a true t. It is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is, it is. We like that smoothness.
it is.
You gave him cookies?
Okay, now Joey asks a question, what are his stressed words here?
You gave him cookies?
You gave him. [flap]. Do you hear the pitch change? It goes up. You gave them and comes
back down. That means gave is a stressed syllable, it is a little bit longer. Again,
we have no h in him, the v is linking right into the ih vowel. You gave him, you gave him.
You gave him--
cookies?
Cookies? Now we have stress here as as well. You can see his head nods a little bit. We
have extra energy, extra stress in the k sound of cookies, kk, kk, cookies. But the stress is
a little bit different rather than having this up down shape, it has a down up shape. Cookies?
So this is less common but it is another shape of stress. Basically,
anytime we're changing direction uh or uh. That is stress. So first syllable stress but were heading
up because it's a yes no question and yes no question tend ot head up in intonation. This
is different from statements that tend to head down. So rather than cookies, he says cookies?
cookies?
Money is so impersonal.
Monica has an argument for why they gave them cookies. What is her stress here?
Money is so impersonal.
Money, money. Definitely we feel that pitch change. Money is so,
she goes up again. So impersonal. So we have three stressed words. Money,
so and impersonal. But I want to point out, in all of our stressed words,
only one syllable is stressed. So the unstressed syllable of money is not longer. Does not have
an up down shape of stress. And impersonal. The other three syllables of impersonal are
not stressed. They're just like an unstressed word. Sonal, sonal. So it's not impersonal, that would be
all syllables but ust one stressed syllable. Impersonal [flap]. Impersonal, impersonal.
Money is so impersonal.
In these two unstressed syllables, you can just really think of dropping the vowel, they're both
the schwa and the schwa gets absorbed by n. It gets absorbed by L. So, sonal, sonal, sonal. Now
this is a dark L, that means we make it at the back of the tongue and not at the front. Words
that end in a dark or that end in an L, that is a dark L. So, if you're unfamiliar with the dark L,
check out my video on the L consonant and the dark L so you can get a feel for how to make
that. It's not le, le, le at the front of the mouth but uhl, uhl, uhl at the back of the mouth.
is so impersonal.
Let's look at our linking, Is, that is the ih as in sit Z,
the word so S consonant o diphthong. Is so, that's not how we do it.
is so impersonal.
Remember when we had an ending v and a beginning f? That's what happening here. Z and S, these take
the same mouth position. Zz, ss, zz, ss. The only thing that's different is z is voiced and
s is unvoiced so, the rule there is unvoiced is stronger, it wins, it's beginning a stressed word,
we drop the z. is so, is so. So just the ih vowel into the s but make sure you link it.
Is so, is so, is so. Not is so but a little easier, a little more relaxed. Is so, is so
is so--
is so impersonal.
Cookies says someone really cares.
Cookies says, cookies says someone really cares. So we have stress on cookies. Coo, cookies says.
Cookies says someone really cares.
Then we have a llittle stress on some, but rather than someone,
it's someone really cares. And we end with the most stressed out of those three there.
Up down shape. So we have stress going down up, stress going down up and then cares,
our most stressed word. Alright, let's look at our linking here.
Cookies says someone really cares.
Well, first let's look at grammar, we have cookies. Cookies, that's plural so we could
say they. Cookies, they, say, we wouldn't say says, that would be wrong. Something single,
singular like it says. So we have a plural, cookies but then we have it says but says
doesn't go with a plural, it goes with a single object so what is happening here?
I think the idea here is it's the act, it's the gift of cookies so a single act, a single gift,
that is something. It says someone really cares. So, I think it's a little bit weird,
I think I would have said cookies say someone really cares but they've said cookies says so,
we'll just think of this as being the gift of cookies says someone really cares. So,
just a quick little grammar note on why that might be confusing. Okay, now let's look at our linking.
Cookies says someone really cares.
Cookies says. So, cookies, the plural there is a z sound. Cookies. It's a weak ending z,
it links into an unvoiced s, that one wins,
so just drop the plural cookies says and just think of linking it in like that.
Cookies says--
Someone really cares.
Says someone. Again says, the ending s there is z. All ending voiced
consonants are weak so it's not Z, very strong but
zzz. But again, it's linking into a word that begins with an S so we drop that says someone.
Says someone--
So, even though we're dropping and linking, I'm still feeling that as cookies says someone
really cares but we're linking it together, cookies says someone, cookies says someone.
Cookies says someone--
So, a note about say and says. Say is pronounced with the s consonant and the ei diphthong, say.
Says. Even though all we're doing is adding the S actually changes the vowel, so now,
rather than the ei diphthong, it's the e vowel, says. Say, says. Cookie says.
Cookies says someone really cares.
Cookies says someone really cares.
The o vowel in some are stressed syllable is the very related uh as in butter vowel
in American English. Someone really cares. Very smooth and connected.
Someone really cares.
The word really, can be three syllables but more common to do it as two and that's what
she's doing. Really, really. You'll also hear it as re with the ih as in sit vowel. I think
she's doing e, really, really cares. Now, the word cares, we have the consonant. E as in
bed vowel followed by schwa r and this schwa r combination does change e so it's not pure. Ca,
cares. It's now how we say it, we say cares cares. So, the R changes the e vowel,
it's a little bit more closed, not quite as much jaw drop, tongue is closer to the roof
of the mouth. Ca--, cares. Cares. And this s is a very weak ending Z, cares.
really cares.
Alright, we're broke.
Alright, we're broke. Alright, a couple of fun things happening here. Alright,
alright, stop T, so we don't hear that release, alright, alright. Also,
the L is pretty much dropped. That's the most common pronunciation so you can think of it
as being a very quick o as in law vowel, aw, aw aw, aw. Alright, alright, alright.
Alright--
we're broke.
Alright, we're broke. [flap]. The same stress pattern, unstressed, stressed,
unstressed, stressed. We are, we're reduces becomes we're,
we're. So say that as quickly as you can. We're, we're, we're. We're broke. We're broke.
we're broke.
but
Broke but. Broke but. I don't really hear the release of the K, do you? I
think that that's more of a stop without the release. We're broke but, we're broke but
we're broke but--
but cookies do say that.
We're broke but. Do you notive how I'm saying this word, I'm not saying but. I'm saying but,
but, reduced. B consonant, schwa, stop T not but, just but, but, but, but. But cookies. But cookies.
But cookies--
but cookies do say that.
Cookies do say that. So we have a lot more stress here. She really wants to make her point.
Cookies do say that. I would say they're all stressed.
We have up down shape of stress. Up down, up down and then down up, that stop t at the end
not released. So, she's stressing more words than you normally would in a sentence because she feels
challenged. She feels like they think that she's being cheap, she's trying to make a nice gesture.
Cookies do say that.
Cookies do say that. Smoothly linked together.
Cookies do say that.
Let's listen to this whole conversation one more time.
Hey.
Hey, how much did you guys tip the super this year?
Yeah, we were going to give fifty but if you guys gave more, we don't want to look bad.
Oh, actually, this year, we just made them homemade cookies.
And twenty-five it is.
You gave him cookies?
Money is so impersonal. Cookies says someone really cares.
Alright we're broke but cookies do say that.
Thank you so much for studying with me. Be sure to subscribe with notifications on so
you know about each new lesson and keep your learning going now with this video. I love
being your English teacher. That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.