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  • This song got the most votes on what song to learn English with next.

  • Taylor swift, wildest dreams.

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  • Alright, let's get started.

  • He said, "Let's get out of this town"

  • So she put a little brake here. So, we'll call that two separate thought groups.

  • So in this first three-word thought group, what word has the most stress?

  • He said, "Let's"

  • He said, "Let's"

  • He said, "Let's"

  • He said, "Let's"

  • Let's-- has much more stress, more volume, the up-down shape. Da da da. It's longer.

  • So that's the same as it would be in spoken English. He said, "Let's"-- He said, "Let's"--

  • The three words are smoothly connected, there are no breaks between them

  • the sound just flows right through that phrase.

  • He said, "Let's"

  • He said, "Let's"

  • He said, "Let's get out of this town..."

  • Now we have two T's in the phrase, in the words, get and the word out. And she pronounces them differently.

  • So a T is usually a flap T which sounds sort of like an American D.

  • Outta, outta, outta, if it comes between two vowels or diphthongs, so they both do.

  • Get out of-- get out of-- dadadada--

  • So in spoken English, it would be really common to make both of those a flap T,

  • but she doesn't do that with the first. The first, she makes a stop T, the second T is a flap T,

  • smoothly linking those. Get out of-- The word 'of' is reduced, it's just the schwa.

  • Out of-- out of--

  • Get out of--

  • Get out of--

  • Get out of--

  • Now, the word 'get' is pronounced, how?

  • Get out of--

  • Get out of--

  • Get out of--

  • Get, get, get, get, get.

  • That's a stop T. You might think: I don't hear a T. That would sound like this: get, but a stop T: get, get,

  • is different from no T at all.

  • No T at all would sound like this: geh, geh, the voice would go down in pitch, it would be a little bit longer,

  • the stop T is an abrupt stop, and that is what signifies the T. Get, get, get.

  • We don't hear a T sound, but because there's an abrupt stop, our minds as native speakers, hear that as a T.

  • Get, get, out of, get out of.

  • So she puts a break there by making that stop T, and then she reattached

  • the phrase on the OW diphthong rather than linking with a flap T.

  • Get out of--

  • Get out of--

  • Get out of this town.

  • Out of this town. And then the rest of the words link together really smoothly.

  • Out of this town. The two most stressed words there. They're longer, they're stressed.

  • Out of this town.

  • Out of thi s town.

  • Out of this town.

  • So 'of' and 'this', of this-- of this-- of this-- lower in pitch, have an unstressed feeling.

  • Out of this town.

  • Out of this town.

  • Out of this town.

  • The word 'town' has the OW diphthong, and the N consonant.

  • I have noticed this combination can be tricky for non-native speakers, especially my students from China,

  • tend to say town.

  • And they nasalized the vowel and don't make an N, but that's not what we do in American English.

  • Tow-- ow-- The OW diphthong is not nasalized at all, and then the tongue comes up for the N.

  • Town. Town. Town.

  • So make sure your tongue is making contact with the roof of the mouth, the tongue tip does lift, that's the N.

  • If you feel like your tongue tip isn't lifting, then you're probably nasalizing the vowel or the diphthong here.

  • Town, town. We do not want that. Town. Town. Nnnn. N consonant at the end.

  • Town.

  • Town. Drive out of the city.

  • What do you hear as the most stressed words in this next phrase?

  • Drive out of the city.

  • Drive out of the city.

  • Drive out of the city.

  • Drive.

  • Drive out of the city.

  • Drive and 'ci' the stressed syllable of city, have the most stress.

  • Da-da-da-da-da-da. They're longer.

  • That rhythmic contrast of long and short is important in singing, but also in spoken English.

  • All of these words linked together really smoothly, there are no breaks, drive out of the city--

  • dduuuhhhh-- smooth connection, the V sound right into the OW diphthong of 'out'.

  • That is a flap T again.

  • Out of, out of, out of, out of the, out of the.

  • And the schwa vowel just links right into the word 'the'. Of the, of the. Out of the, out of the.

  • Drive out of the city.

  • Drive out of the city.

  • Drive out of the city.

  • Drive out of the city.

  • City.

  • What's happening with this T? It is a flap T, isn't it? City. Da-da-da-da-da.

  • The tongue flaps against the roof of mouth, that's because it comes between two vowels: city.

  • City.

  • City. Away from the crowds.

  • Away from the crowds.

  • The stress of how it's sung is exactly like the stress of how it would be spoken.

  • Away. Stress on 'way', from the crowds, stress on 'crowds'. Away from the crowds. Away from the crowds.

  • So the first syllable of 'away', we see the letter A, but it's just the schwa.

  • Uh, uh, uh.

  • Away. Away from the-- They're not that clearly pronounced, are they?

  • Away from the crowds.

  • Away from the crowds.

  • Away from the crowds.

  • From the-- from the-- from the--

  • She reduces the vowel, we would do this in spoken English, too.

  • It's the schwa: from, from, from, from the, from the.

  • And all of these words in this phrase link together really smoothly.

  • From the--

  • from the crowds. I thought heaven can't help me now.

  • I thought heaven-- A little bit of length on 'thought', da-da, I thought--

  • but then more stress, more volume in the voice, heaven can't help me now, in those three syllables.

  • I thought heaven can't help me now.

  • I thought heaven can't help me now.

  • I thought heaven can't help me now.

  • What about the T in 'thought'? Do you hear that released?

  • Tttt..

  • I thought--

  • No. There's no release. It's a stop T.

  • I thought-- I thought--

  • I thought--

  • A T is a Stop T when the next word begins with a consonant as it does here.

  • Sometimes, the beginning H is silenced, like in the word 'hour'.

  • But in the word 'heaven', it's not silent. We do say that H, that's a consonant sound.

  • So the T before is a stop T.

  • I thought heaven--

  • I thought heaven--

  • I thought heaven--

  • I thought heaven can't help me now.

  • What about the T in 'can't'? Do you hear tttt, a released T?

  • Can't help me--

  • Can't help me--

  • Can't help me--

  • No. T is not released that often, actually, a true T, it's not all that common.

  • And in N apostrophe T contractions, there are a couple of different ways that T will be pronounced.

  • Sometimes, it's totally dropped, and sometimes, it's a stop, and it's a stop here.

  • Can't help-- can't help-- can't help--

  • It's not: can't help-- and it's also not: can't help-- but it's: can't help--

  • Little tiny lifts in the voice there. That stop signifies the T to Americans.

  • Can't help--

  • She is using a little bit more breath on the two h's, and if we exaggerate the first sound,

  • the first consonant of a word that brings a little bit more stress, a little bit more drama to it,

  • heaven, help--

  • Heaven can't help--

  • Heaven can't help--

  • Heaven can't help me now.

  • Help me now.

  • Help.

  • What happens to that P? Help. Right? It's released. Help. But just like T, P is also a stop consonant.

  • So the lips come together. They close. That cuts off the air. Help. And then they open, and some air escapes.

  • That's called the release.

  • But, it's common in American English when the next word begins with a consonant

  • like it does here to skip the release.

  • So you would close your lips for the P, help me,

  • but then when you open them, you go right into the next word rather than releasing that air first.

  • So she's also making that a stop consonant.

  • The L in the word 'help' is a dark L because it comes after the vowel in that syllable.

  • Help. Help.

  • You actually don't need to lift your tongue tip for that.

  • You've probably learned that to make an L, you lift your tongue tip.

  • Uhl. But that's only for a light L.

  • For a dark L, we usually don't lift our tongue tip.

  • And in fact, if you do, it makes it sound too forward in the mouth and it doesn't sound quite right.

  • Help, hel, hel, help.

  • We don't want that. We want hel hel help.

  • And to make that uhl, dark L sound, we don't lift the tongue tip.

  • We'd leave the tongue tip down and with the back of the tongue, we press down and back a little bit.

  • Uhl.

  • Hel-- help. Help me. Help me now.

  • Help me now.

  • Help me now.

  • Help me now. Nothing lasts forever.

  • We're really learning a lot about consonants in this, aren't we?

  • And the way she sings them is exactly like how we do them in spoken English, too.

  • Let's look at the next phrase. Because again, something interesting is happening with some ending consonants.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Nothing lasts forever. So first of all, our stress more volume,

  • a little bit more length.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • The middle syllable of 'forever' is what's stressed.

  • Let's talk about the NG ending here. Nothing. What do you hear?

  • Nothing--

  • Nothing--

  • Nothing--

  • Nothing--

  • So it's a little bit different. The NG sound gets changed to an N sound. Nothin. Nothin.

  • It's fairly common to do that with ING ending words, especially in sung English.

  • You don't want to do it all the time and spoken English, because then it would start to sound

  • a bit like a regional accent, but definitely, everyone does it some in American English.

  • Nothing--

  • Nothing--

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Lasts.

  • STS cluster and then an F right next to it. So we have four consonants in a row. How does she pronounce it?

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Well, it's definitely not: lasts forever, lasts forever.

  • I think what she's doing is dropping these two. I think you can get away with that. Lasts forever.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Everyone would know that you had said 'lasts' even though you didn't say that.

  • It's just the way that we would sometimes shorten a word.

  • It's not uncommon to drop a consonant like T between two other consonants,

  • and here we have T and S between S and F, and it's just natural to drop them and link it into the next word.

  • Lasts forever. Nothing lasts forever.

  • Natural and spoken English, as well as sung English.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • Nothing lasts forever.

  • The word 'forever' you see the letter O, you might want to say 'for'

  • but that's not how it's pronounced it's pronounced: fer-- forever, forever.

  • So I would write that with the schwa: for-- eh-- and then the stressed syllable is next.

  • So that syllable is not stressed, it's not: for, its: fur, fur, forever-- forever--

  • Forever.

  • Forever. But this is gonna take me down.

  • But this is gonna take me down. Okay, lots of stress on 'take',

  • much more up-down shape there, higher pitch, some stress on 'this' but: this-- more volume, more intensity.

  • Take me down.

  • But this is gonna take me down.

  • But this is gonna take me down.

  • But this is gonna take me down.

  • Let's look at the T in 'but', what happens here?

  • But this--

  • But this--

  • But this--

  • But this-- but this-- but this-- It's not but.

  • It's but, but, but, but.

  • Said really quickly, it's an unstressed word,

  • I'd write that with a stop T. But, but, but this, but this,

  • but this is gonna--

  • but this is gonna--

  • but this is gonna--

  • but this is gonna--

  • 'Gonna', of course, short for 'going to' and all of these words linked together really smoothly.

  • This is gonna take me down.

  • No breaks.

  • In American English, things link together really smoothly.

  • Now, we have the word 'down', just like 'town'.

  • It's the OW diphthong, and the N consonant.

  • I know a lot of my students say something like: down, with a nasalized diphthong, we don't want that.

  • Dow-- no nasal quality at all. Dow-- and then the N sound. Dow--nnn-- Dow--nnn-- Down. Down.

  • Down.

  • Down.

  • Down. He's so tall and handsome as hell. Now, let's listen to just the words: Down.

  • He's so--

  • Down. He's so--

  • Down. He's so--

  • Down. He's so--

  • Do you notice there's no H in 'he's'?

  • Down. He's so-- He's so-- He's so-- Just the EE vowel.

  • That's a fairly common reduction. We drop the H in some of these function words like he, his, him/her,

  • that are really common.

  • So she's dropped to the H there. This happens in spoken English, too.

  • Down. He's so--

  • Down. He's so--

  • Down. He's so--

  • The apostrophe S in 'he's' is a light week Z sound, but when it links into an S, which is stronger,

  • then the S tends to just take over that Z.

  • So you can think that Z is not actually there. It's the EE vowel and then S. He's so-- He's so-- He's so tall.

  • He's so tall.

  • He's so tall.

  • He's so tall.

  • Tall. Higher pitch. That word is stressed. He's so-- He's so tall.

  • He's so tall.

  • He's so tall.

  • He's so tall.

  • Tall.

  • Also down here, hell and well, these are all Dark Ls.

  • They all come at the end of the word.

  • And you don't need to lift your tongue tip for that. Tall, hell, well. Uhl, uhl, uhl.

  • That ending sound, that dark sound does not require tongue lift. Uhl.

  • And if you do lift your tongue, there is a chance you will mess up the dark sound.

  • He's so tall.

  • He's so tall.

  • He's so tall and handsome as hell.

  • He's so tall and handsome as hell.

  • And-- that word is reduced. Nnnn-- you could write that schwa N, there's no D sound.

  • And handsome. And handsome.

  • And handsome.

  • And handsome.

  • And handsome.

  • What about the D in handsome? Not there. Handsome. Handsome.

  • And handsome as hell.

  • And handsome as hell.

  • And handsome as hell.

  • And handsome as hell.

  • Hell with a little bit of extra breath in that H, just to bring a little bit more stress and drama to that word.

  • And handsome as hell. The word 'as', not pronounced with the AH vowel. That's reduced. 'As' becomes: as, as.

  • You could think of it as the schwa, or the IH as in sit vowel. Handsome as-- handsome as-- handsome as hell.

  • Handsome as hell.

  • Handsome as hell.

  • Handsome as hell. He's so bad but he does it so well.

  • Here, the second time I am hearing the H on he's,

  • he's so-- again, there's no Z sound, just linked together with an S sound. He's so-- he's so-- he's so-- he's so bad.

  • He's so bad.

  • He's so bad.

  • He's so bad but he does it so well.

  • Bad, with some stress.

  • A little bit more breathy there, higher pitch, longer.

  • He's so bad but he does it-- 'But he does' becomes: but he-- but he-- What? That's so weird!

  • It sounds like B-U-D-D-Y, buddy,

  • and that's because she drops the H in 'he' so we have an ending EE vowel

  • and now, the T comes between two vowels so that's a flap T.

  • But he-- but he-- but he--

  • But he-- but he-- but he does it so well.

  • This is perfectly natural and spoken English as well.

  • But he-- but he does it so well.

  • Some stress on 'does' and also a lot on 'well'. She does some interesting things with the notes there,

  • that is a stressed word.

  • But he does it so well.

  • But he does it so well.

  • But he does it so well.

  • But he does it so well.

  • All links together really smoothly,ending Z sound in 'does' links right into the IH vowel.

  • Does it-- does it-- now, what about this T?

  • Does it so--

  • Does it so--

  • Does it so--

  • Does it so-- does it so--

  • Do you hear tttt?

  • It's not there. It's a stop T, does it so-- does it so--

  • That's because the next word begins with a consonant, the S sound.

  • Does it so well.

  • Does it so well.

  • Does it so well.

  • Does it so well. I can see the end as it begins--

  • I can see the end as it begins--

  • Very clear with the stress there as far as the intonation, the pitch of the song, the melody.

  • I can see the end as it begins.

  • 'Begin', two-syllable word with second syllable stress.

  • I can see the--

  • Now, the vowel in 'the' is pronounced 'the' instead of 'the' because the next word begins with a vowel.

  • So the rule is: if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, make it 'the'.

  • If the next sort of begins with a consonant, make it 'the'.

  • I can see the end--

  • I can see the end--

  • I can see the end--

  • I can see the end-- I can see the-- I can, I can, I can.

  • Nice 'can' reduction just like in spoken English. Can, can, can.

  • When it's a helping verb, that is not the main verb, the main verb is 'see'.

  • Then it's going to be reduced. It's not can, its can, I can see, I can see the end.

  • I can see the end--

  • I can see the end--

  • I can see the end as it begins.

  • Now, here, 'as it', she doesn't reduce the vowel.

  • It is the AA in bat vowel, and the Z sound. The Z sound links right into the next vowel IH. As it-- as it--

  • What do you think is gonna happen with this T? The next word begins with a consonant.

  • As it begins--

  • As it begins--

  • As it begins--

  • As it-- as it be-- as it-- There's no ttttt. That's a stop T.

  • As it begins--

  • As it begins--

  • As it begins--

  • Let's talk about the word 'begin'. So the pronunciation has the IH as in sit vowel.

  • Be-- be-- begin-- begin-- But in sung English,

  • and sometimes in spoken English, you will hear people change this vowel a little bit.

  • She doesn't say bih-- begin, she says bee-- begin.

  • Begins--

  • So she says more of an EE as in she vowel,

  • that's not what you'll see when you look up this word in a dictionary.

  • Though it does happen, in sung and spoken English too.

  • But just so you know, if you're speaking, you should probably try to go with the IH vowel.

  • Bih-- bih-- begin, begin.

  • What's really the most important thing about this word is that the first syllable is very short,

  • and the second syllable is a longer, so that we have a sense of the stress.

  • Bih-- bih-- begin--

  • Begin--

  • begin-- My one condition is...

  • My one condition is...

  • So we have some stress on all of these words. One, my one condition is.

  • My one condition is...

  • My one condition is...

  • My one condition is...

  • Condition, three syllable word with middle syllable stress. So the first syllable is not

  • cone-- or anything with more of a vowel. We see the letter O but it's the schwa. Con-- con-- condition.

  • So just like this word 'can', which reduces to can, this syllable also reduces to: can, the same sounds.

  • Con-- condition. Condition.

  • T in the TION here, makes the SH sound.

  • Condition.

  • Condition--

  • Condition--

  • Condition is-- Say you'll remember me--

  • Okay, the chorus. What's... What are our most stressed syllables in this first phrase?

  • Say you'll remember me--

  • Say you'll remember me--

  • Say you'll remember me--

  • Say-- Say you'll remember me--

  • The stressed syllables, the longer syllables, you will, you'll, becomes you'll, you'll,

  • I would write that with the schwa, it's reduced.

  • Say you'll--

  • Say you'll--

  • Say you'll--

  • Say you'll--

  • Say you'll--

  • And again, this is a dark L.

  • You'll, you'll.

  • You do not want to lift your tongue tip for this.

  • You'll, lalalala-- If you lift your tongue tip, it's probably going to interfere with the dark sound.

  • You'll, you'll, Say you'll-- Say you'll remember me--

  • Say you'll remember me--

  • Say you'll remember me--

  • Say you'll remember me--

  • Also note, it's not remember, ree, ree, it's rih, rih, with the IH as in sit vowel.

  • Rih-- rih--remember-- remember-- EH as in bed vowel in the stressed syllable.

  • Remember, remember me--

  • Remember me--

  • Remember me-- Standing in a nice dress--

  • Standing in a nice dress--

  • Standing in a nice dress--

  • Nice, the most stressed word there.

  • The ING ending is again, turned into an N ending, standin' not standing.

  • Standin' in a-- standin' in a--

  • And and they all link together really smoothly. The letter A is just the schwa.

  • Standin' in a nice--

  • Standing in a nice dress--

  • Standing in a nice dress--

  • Standing in a nice dress--

  • Lots of Ns in this phrase.

  • Standing in a nice--

  • Standing in a nice--

  • Standing in a nice--

  • Standing in a nice--

  • The vowel in 'stand' is AA as in bat, but when that's followed by N like it is here, it changes, it's not pure.

  • That would be stand, and that's not how we say it, we say stand.

  • Uh uh. There's more of an UH vowel in the middle because the back of the tongue relaxes

  • before the front of the tongue goes up for the N.

  • Sta-- standin-- standin' in a nice dress--

  • The letters CE here, the S sound, which goes right into the next sound, the consonant cluster.

  • Standing in a nice dress--

  • Standing in a nice dress--

  • Standing in a nice dress--

  • DR, now this can be pronounced JR.

  • Jr-- jr-- dress.

  • Instead of dd-- dress, dress.

  • The JR sound is actually more common, and that's what she does here. Nice dress. Nice dress.

  • Jjjj-- instead of ddd---

  • Nice dress--

  • nice dress-- Starin' at the sunset, babe--

  • Starin' at the sunset--

  • Okay, again, the ING ending is turned into an IN ending.

  • Starin-- starin--

  • Now, we have at. Is that pronounced with a full vowel? Or is the vowel reduced?

  • Starin' at the sunset, babe--

  • Starin' at the sunset, babe--

  • Starin' at the sunset, babe--

  • She does fully pronounce it. Starin' at-- at the--

  • that is a stop T though because the next word begins with a consonant. Starin' at the sunset.

  • Starin' at the sunset.

  • Starin' at the sunset.

  • Starin' at the sunset.

  • Sunset is a compound word and in compound words, it's the first word that's stressed.

  • So in this case, Sun-- sunset-- Okay, we have another ending T here.

  • What do you think? Are we gonna hear a tttt-- released T?

  • Sunset.

  • Sunset. No, we did not hear a released T, that was a stop T.

  • Sunset, babe.

  • So the next word begins with a consonant, also this, the rule is if the T is at the end of a thought group,

  • then it will also be a stop T. Now, an exception to this would be if it's in a cluster like in the word 'connect'.

  • Then in clusters, it's often pronounced.

  • But when it's not in a cluster, like here, and it's at the end of a sentence, end of a thought group,

  • very common to make that a stop T,

  • sung English, and spoken English.

  • Sunset.

  • babe... Red lips and rosy cheeks...

  • Red lips and rosy cheeks... Our descriptor words, are a little bit more stressed.

  • Red lips and rosy cheeks...

  • A little bit of length on 'cheeks' as well, the word 'and' reduced, D is dropped, and, and, and.

  • Red lips and rosy-- and, and.

  • Red lips and rosy cheeks...

  • Red lips and rosy cheeks...

  • Red lips and rosy cheeks...

  • Red lips. So the D sound is not released. It's not red lips. Red lips. But it's red lips.

  • So the tongue goes up, the D sound is made with the vocal cords.

  • Red.

  • But then rather than releasing air, she just goes right into the next sound, the L consonant.

  • This is true of spoken English too, if the D is followed by a word that begins the consonant, it's not red lips,

  • it's not released like that.

  • Red lips, red lips. There's just a really subtle D sound before the next word.

  • Red lips--

  • Red lips and rosy cheeks...

  • The letter s in Rosie is a Z sound. Rosy cheeks. Zzzzz. Rosy cheeks.

  • Rosy cheeks.

  • Rosy cheeks.

  • Rosy cheeks. Say you'll see me again...

  • Say you'll see me again...

  • Okay, now here's the first time she does something that's really different than spoken English.

  • So we have: Say you'll see me again... And that is not the way that we would stress that word.

  • She's just doing that for effect in her song. It's not a-gain, it's again, it's again, with second syllable stress.

  • The first syllable is just a very fast schwa in spoken English. Uh, uh, uh, again, again.

  • Say you'll see me again...

  • Say you'll see me again...

  • Say you'll see me again...

  • Say you'll see me again...

  • And she even... She changes the vowel, she makes it more like: ah, ah, again, ah.

  • But in spoken English, it's the schwa. Uh, uh, uh.

  • Again...

  • You'll see me-- you'll see me--

  • Again, don't need to lift the tongue tip here, this is a dark L, it's not you'll, it's yuhl, yuhl, reduced.

  • You'll, you'll--

  • Say you'll,

  • Say you'll see me again even if it's just in your---

  • Even if it's just in your---

  • Even-- stress there.

  • Even if it's just in your--- And then held out, building up to the title of the song.

  • even if it's just in your---

  • even if it's just in your---

  • even if it's just in your---

  • Even if it's just--

  • So the stress here is the same as it would be in spoken English, stressed on the stressed vowel EE,

  • then we have three unstressed syllables in a row.

  • Even if it's -- even if it's-- even if it's just in---

  • Now the T in 'just' is not dropped, it's part of a cluster.

  • But the reason why it's not dropped is because the next word begins with a vowel.

  • If the next word began with a consonant, like in the phrase: just my, just my, just my.

  • Then we drop that T because it comes between two consonants.

  • But in the word 'just' when the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, you probably will hear that T.

  • Just in-- ttt-- Just in--

  • Even if it's just in---

  • Even if it's just in---

  • Even if it's just in your--

  • And 'your' is not reduced.

  • Your-- now, normally in spoken English, we wouldn't stress that so much.

  • We would just go right into the next phrase, the next word.

  • 'Your' is a function word, it's not that important. Just in your wildest dreams.

  • Just in your-- just in your-- your-- your-- your-- your wildest dreams.

  • But for the song, this word is building up to the next thing, it is not reduced, it is fully pronounced, it is longer.

  • Just in your wildest dreams...

  • Just in your wildest dreams...

  • Just in your wildest dreams...

  • Then we have the title of the song,

  • Wildest Dreams, and I love how the music matches the music of spoken English.

  • So the stressed syllable in wildest, is the first syllable and that one is so much longer, wildest dreams.

  • So the syllables are not of equal length, and this is true in spoken English as well.

  • And maybe we hear it even better in sung English

  • because the stressed syllables can be even longer like it is here.

  • Wildest dreams...

  • Wildest dreams...

  • Wildest dreams...

  • Wildest. Long-short. Wildest. The L here, also again a dark L because it comes after the vowel in the syllable.

  • So the vowel, in this case, a diphthong, the AI as in buy,

  • wil-- uhl-- that is the dark sound, that does not made the tongue tip up, that's different.

  • That's lll lalala, this is uhll-- uhll-- wildest.

  • So your tongue tip stays down until you need it to go up for the D.

  • Wildest--

  • wildest--

  • wildest--

  • Now to sing the dark L sound, uhlll---

  • it's not a sound to hold out, it's not a particularly pretty sound when we isolate it,

  • so you wouldn't say wildest, you wouldn't hold that out, you would put it in at the very end,

  • you would put your length of the syllable in the diphthong or the vowel.

  • Wiiii-- And I don't even really hear much of the dark sound, she's sort of skips out a little bit. Wildest.

  • Very subtle and quick at the end, but it's certainly not wildest.

  • Wildest--

  • wildest--

  • wildest--

  • Now what about the T in wildest?

  • Wildest dreams...

  • Wildest dreams...

  • Wildest dreams...

  • It's part of an ending ST cluster. Now, up here with 'just',

  • we said when that cluster is followed by a word that begins the vowel or diphthong, you say the T.

  • If it's followed by a word that begins with the consonant, or in this case, a consonant cluster, you drop the T.

  • And that's exactly what she does. This is true in spoken English too.

  • And again, remember the DR cluster can be JR. Dreams, dreams, rather than

  • dreams, ddddd, dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams, dreams.

  • A light J sound, I think that's what she does. I think it's a little bit easier.

  • Wildest dreams.

  • Wildest dreams...

  • Wildest dreams...

  • Wildest dreams...

  • Then just a vowel expression, we hear that a lot in music.

  • Ahh, ooh, etc.

  • Aahh... Wildest dreams...

  • And then again, on the repeat of wildest dreams,

  • T is dropped, words link together with the S, the JR cluster 'dreams' just like the first time.

  • Wildest dreams aahh...

  • Wildest dreams aahh...

  • Wildest dreams aahh...

  • Okay, so this is a pretty long video. We did the first verse and we did the chorus.

  • Just like when I do a scene from a movie, I don't do the whole movie.

  • I don't think I'm going to do the whole analysis here because that could end up being a two hour long video.

  • So we'll stop here, but I want to challenge you, if you enjoy this, and you want to know the rest of the song,

  • you can do your own analysis.

  • Here's what you should do. Download the song, buy it somewhere,

  • open it in a program that allows you to look at the details of the song, like the volume.

  • I use Audacity for this, and this allows you to go to different places in the song, play them over and over...

  • Say you'll remember me...

  • Say you'll remember me...

  • And that kind of thing.

  • When you listen to something on a loop like that, it helps you identify

  • what exactly is happening and it helps you focus in on the details.

  • And then you can write your own Ben Franklin analysis of what you hear happening.

  • The stress, put your curve up and down for the stress, dropped sounds, reductions.

  • Pay attention, write them down. You know a lot. You can do this.

  • Here's an idea. If you do one, take a picture of one of your pages of your analysis,

  • post it to Instagram, and use #rachelenglish so I can check it out.

  • Now the important question:

  • what song would you like to be the next analysis song?

  • Put it in the comments. Below but if someone has already put your song, then just like that comment.

  • The one with the most likes lets me most easily see the most popular request.

  • Working on this video is making me think about the melody of English.

  • How we speak but it's almost like a song,

  • and it's reminding me of a video I made a long time ago where I talked about the shape, the vocal shape,

  • the melody of a stressed syllable.

  • I want to make sure you see that if you haven't already, so you can click on it right here.

  • Also, please subscribe with notifications if you haven't already.

  • I make a new video every Tuesday, and I'd love to have you join me every week.

  • That's it guys, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

This song got the most votes on what song to learn English with next.

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