to study real life English conversation.

- Oh my God! That’s amazing. - Poor Gina!

That is so cute.

Every year, my extended family gets together for a week to play, swim, and have fun together.

First, let's head to the beach.

- Hey Ri! You enjoying the beach? - Yeah.

- Except for you got a face full of water? - Yeah!

Except for you got.

Let’s talk about the phrase ‘except for’, it’s pretty common.

The T comes between two consonant sounds, and in that case, natives often drop the T sound.

I did.

Except for--

Just the P then the F, excep’for.

Also, notice that I reduced the word ‘for’.

Fer, fer.

Except for--

Except for you got.

Listen again.

Except for you got...

- a face full of water? - Yeah!

- What happened? Tell me about it. - It got bigger.

- Well, it got my no [nose!], that I, I start choking.

Oh no! She started choking! So glad she’s alright.

Well this is the perfect day for him. Overcast and warm.

How did my mom pronounce the word AND?

She reduced it to ‘n’. Just the N sound. Listen again.

Well this is the perfect day for him. Overcast and warm.

Overcast and warm.

This is how it’s normally pronounced, unless you want to stress the word ‘and’.

Here, my cousin stresses it:

What about standing up like Gigi?

Check this out: she can pull hair and stand up at the same time.

She can pull hair and stand up at the same time.

“And”, fully pronounced.

Pull hair and stand up--

Most of the time, you’ll want to reduce this, nn, just like my mom.

Overcast and--

Can you wave, Gina? Hi!

Can you wave?

We reduce ‘can’ when it’s a helping verb, that is, not the main verb in the sentence.

WAVE is the main verb.

Most of the time, ‘can’ is a helping verb: kn, kn.

Can you wave?

Listen again.

Can you wave, Gina?

Hi!

On this day, it happened to be Gina’s first birthday.

We sang happy birthday to her. Do you know this song?

Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!

Happy birthday dear Gina! Happy birthday to you!

And now onto meal time.

-How's the meal? -The lasagna’s pretty good.

Not quite as good as Marlise’s, but not bad.

Pretty good.

We use this phrase a lot.

It means okay, but not great.

How are you?

Pretty good.

How was the movie?

Pretty good.

What do you notice about the pronunciation?

The lasagna’s pretty good.

Pretty, pretty.

That’s a Flap T. Not a True T, pretty, but a Flap T, pretty.

This is the American English pronunciation.

I write it with a D, but depending on your native language, it may sound like an R to you.

Just flap the tongue against the roof of the mouth without stopping the air.

Pretty.

The lasagna’s pretty good.

Pretty good, with the UH as in PUSH vowel.

My uncle makes it very clear.

See if you can imitate him.

Pretty good.

You wanna go watch the tennis game?

Wanna

‘Want to’ shifting to ‘wanna’ in conversation.

You wanna go watch?

Listen again.

You want to go watch the tennis game?

My family loves to play tennis on vacation.

Very few of us are any good at it.

These are the fans out for the big match.

These are the fans.

Did you notice how my dad reduced the word ‘are’?

These are, these are.

This is how we pronounce ARE, it just sounds like an extra syllable at the end of the word before.

These are.

These are the fans. Listen again.

These are the fans...

out for the big match.

Don’t go easy on him, Ernie.

Easy on him.

What do you notice about the word ‘him’?

No H!

We pronounce ‘him’ this way a lot.

Just like ‘are’, when it’s reduced, think of adding an extra syllable to the end of the word before it.

On him, on him.

Easy on him.

Listen again.

Don’t go easy on him, Ernie.

Let me go check on him.

Here’s another HIM reduction: Check on him.

On him, on him, on him.

Listen again.

Check on him.

Um, wait, when did you meet Gigi in Colorado?

When did you meet?

Did you, did you.

Did you, would you, could you, should you: all common two-word phrases.

We often make the Y sound a J sound when it comes after a D.

Diijew, jj, jj, jj.

Did you.

Listen again.

When did you meet Gigi...

...in Colorado. When was that?

- Uh, we were out there to ski in March. - Okay

Anybody want to hit a few with my partner?

Anybody wanna hit a few?

Did you hear that in the background?

Wanna. Listen again.

Anybody want to hit a few--

...with my partner?

- Yeah, I will! - Warm him up?

I'll warm him up.

Again, dropping the H in ‘him’.

Warm him, warm him.

I’ll warm him up.

Can you grab it? Nice!

- Oh! - Oh!

That’s what she thinks of your hat.

Thinks uh’ your hat.

You’ll notice that we sometimes drop the V sound in ‘of’; we just use the schwa.

Uh.

Thinks of, thinks of your hat.

Listen again.

She thinks of your hat.

- Hello! - Stoney, who's this?

- This is Stoney! - Your cousin!

- Oh, don’t whack her in the head. - Don’t let him put his mouth on that, Dad.

It's probably gross.

Don’t whack her in the head.

Did you notice the dropped H in ‘her’?

Just like with ‘him’.

Wacker, wacker.

Listen again.

Don’t whack her in the head.

You can’t chew that.

Man, it’s such a nice evening.

Perfect temperature, slight breeze, beautiful sun.

That it is.

Listen to how I talk about the weather:

Man, it’s such a nice evening.

Perfect temperature, slight breeze, beautiful sun.

That it is.

Perfect temperature.

Notice I only make one T: Perfect temperature.

So you can think of dropping the T in ‘perfect’, because you have one beginning the next word.

Perfect temperature.

Also, I make ‘temperature’ just three syllables: TEM-per-chur.

This is an easier pronunciation.

Temperature, perfect temperature.

Perfect temperature

Slight breeze

I made the T in ‘slight’ a stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.

Slight breeze, slight breeze.

Beautiful sun.

The T in ‘beautiful’ is a Flap T because it comes between two vowels.

Beautiful

Beautiful sun

Man, it’s such a nice evening.

Perfect temperature, slight breeze, beautiful sun.

That it is.

Going out might be sort of fun.

Except for that I don’t want to have to go forever.

Except for!

Did you hear that phrase again?

Sep-fer-thut.

I reduced ‘except’ to just ‘sep’, without releasing the p.

I also reduced ‘for’ and ‘that’ – ‘that’ had the schwa and a Stop T. Sep-fer-thut.

Except for that. Listen again.

Except for that

I don’t want to have to go forever.

Wanna.

Another ‘wanna’.

I don’t want to have to go forever.

- I don’t want to have to drive very far. - No.

Do you want to color?

Wanna. Wanna color.

Do you want to color?

Is he messing up your coloring, Lydia?

Is he messing you up? Should we move him?

Move him.

Dropped H in ‘him’.

Move him, move’um.

Should we move him?

- Yeah. - Yeah.

No. No. Tell them no.

Tell them no.

My aunt is dropping the TH in them, tell um, tell um.

This sounds just like ‘him’ when the H is dropped, um, um.

Move um, tell um.

They sound the same when they’re reduced. That’s okay.

Tell them no.

It’s alright.

No, it’s alright.

We also went skiing.

When I get tired, this is how I end.

David is a little less graceful.

Haha!

He’s down!

What I fun week I had with my family playing games, swimming.

They’re special people, and I can’t wait to see them again!

I hope you liked this video.

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