The One Where Rachel Quits Her Job to study English.

Last week, she had a job interview.

Now in this episode, she's gotten the job and it's her last day working at the coffee shop.

We're going to study this scene and everything we can about American English pronunciation

to figure out what makes American English sound American.

Here's the scene.

There you go. Enjoy.

>> Should I tell her I ordered tea? >> No.

Excuse me, everyone.

Uh, this is my last night working here.

And, uh, I just wanted to say that I made some really good friends here.

And, uh, it's just time to move on.

As of this moment, I will never have to make coffee again.

And now let's do the analysis together.

There you go.

Okay our first thought group here is three words long.

What is the stress?

What's the most stressed word?

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

The stress is all going up towards the peak.

The energy peaks out on the word go that has the O diphthong.

You will need some lip rounding for that.

There you, going up and pitch, going up in energy and volume,

there you go and then the up-down shape on the stressed syllable

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

Try to do that. Try to do it really smoothly connected with that peak of stress on go.

You'll listen to it three times then there will be a little pause for you to try it.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go.

There you go. Enjoy.

Enjoy.

Enjoy. Second syllable stress.

Enjoy.

Enjoy.

Enjoy.

Enjoy.

So, the context here, this is Rachel's last shift.

The end of her last shift.

She did get a job in the video that we studied last week.

This section of the episode

she had just had an interview where she didn't feel like she did very well,

but she did get the job

and so this is her last shift and she knows that she has a job to go on to.

Enjoy.

Enjoy.

Enjoy.

>> Should I tell her I ordered tea? >> No.

Okay Chandler didn't actually order coffee.

What is the stress of his question here?

Should I tell her I ordered tea?

Should I tell her I ordered tea?

Should I tell her I ordered tea?

Should I tell her, the verb, should I tell her I ordered tea, tea and the pitch goes up.

It's a yes/no question.

Those are our two most stressed syllables there.

Should I,

the word should. I would say is I would write that with a SCHWA should, should, should I, should I.

The D is a flap sound because it comes between two vowels or diphthongs.

The L is silent here, so it comes between the SCHWA and the I diphthong.

So, it says should I, should I, da, da, da, da, da.

The tongue bouncing on the roof of the mouth should I tell her.

Should I tell her...

Should I tell her...

Should I tell her...

Should I tell her.

Tell begins with True T

because that starts a stressed syllable.

That's always going to be a true T

unless it's the TR cluster then it might be a CH sound, tell her.

We have a dropped H the ER, the SCHWA R ending just links on to the word before tell her,

tell her, should I tell her.

Should I tell her...

Should I tell her...

Should I tell her I ordered tea.

I ordered both a little flatter, lower in pitch I ordered, I ordered, I ordered, I ordered tea.

Before the stressed word tea

and again that is a True T because the T there begins a stressed syllable.

I ordered, I ordered, I ordered these two words flatter in pitch simplified less clear.

I know the word order

can be really tough I actually have a video that goes over how to pronounce that word when it's stressed,

you can check it out.

I'll put a link in the video description.

...I ordered tea?

...I ordered tea?

>> I ordered tea? >> No.

No. No. No.

Quick up-down shape no, no.

No.

No.

No.

Excuse me, everyone.

Excuse me, everyone.

Stress on 'scuse.

Notice the word is not excuse but it's scuse. She turns it into one syllable.

This is pretty common, so the letter X here represents two sounds K and S,

ex-cuse but it's not uncommon to drop the first vowel and drop the K

and just say scuse, scuse S sound K, U diphthong Z 'skjuz, 'skjuz me excuse me

and that's what she does here, stress on that syllable.

'Skjuz me, everyone.

Excuse me, everyone.

Excuse me, everyone.

Excuse me, everyone.

Uh, this is my last night working here.

Uh. Okay after the word uh what is the stress of this thought group?

Uh, this is my last night working here.

Uh, this is my last night working here.

Uh, this is my last night working here.

This is my last night, this is my, this is my.

These first three words said pretty quickly

this is my last then we have more stress there, last night working here.

this is my last night working here.

this is my last night working here.

this is my last night working here.

So, last and work have the most stress.

Even so, even though last is one of the stressed words it does have a dropped sound.

There is no T.

The reason is because it's part of an ending ST cluster.

The next word begins with a consonant.

The T between two consonants like this even when they're in two different words is often dropped.

Last night, it's just the S sound into the N sound,

last night and then we have a Stop T at the end of night.

That's because the next word begins with a consonant and the sound before it was a vowel or diphthong.

In this case the AI as in buy diphthong.

So, the sound before is

a diphthong but the letter before is an H

which we would think of as being a consonant letter

but if the T was between two consonants we would drop it just like here.

We don't talk about letters; the rules are all about sounds.

So here the T is not between two consonants, it's after the I diphthong before consonants.

That's why this T is a Stop T.

If you're completely confused about the T pronunciations

I do have a playlist at that goes over

all of the different ways that we pronounce T's and the rules around them.

this is my last night...

this is my last night...

this is my last night working here.

Last night working here stress, unstress.

Stress, unstressed, unstressed, last night working here.

So, the ing ending and the word here flatter, lower in pitch coming down in vocal energy.

The word 'work' this is a really tough word.

Don't try to make a vowel, it's the R vowel consonant combination wərk.

This is how we do it in American English.

This vowel doesn't really have a sound by itself, it just blends with the R,

wərk, work.

So, work, no jaw drop. We don't need much jaw drop for this sound.

Tip of the tongue pulls back and up a little bit wər, wərking, wərking here.

...working here.

...working here.

...working here.

And, uh...

And, uh...

Okay, it's not that common to hear the D in the word and but

she does do it especially

you'll hear people doing that when they're thinking of what to say next

then they're more likely to fully pronounce and.

And, the D links right into the next sound, which is the UH as in butter sound and, uh.

And, uh...

And, uh...

And, uh, I just wanted to say that...

What's the stress of this next thought group?

I just wanted to say that...

I just wanted to say that...

I just wanted to say that...

I just wanted to say that.