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  

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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.