taking a scene from Friends and  we're doing a full pronunciation  

analysis. What are the characteristics of  American English? You're going to improve  

your listening comprehension and your English  pronunciation too. Here's the scene we'll study.

Hi.

Hey, anyone hear from Phoebe yet?

No, nothing.

I hope she's okay.

Yeah. I know exactly what she's going through.

How do you know exactly what she's going through?

She told us.

So what you got there Monica?

Just some stuff for the party.

Hey, what are you guys doing here? Aren't  you supposed to be Christmas shopping?

You guys haven't gotten your presents yet?  

Tomorrow is Christmas Eve,  what are you going to do?

Don't you have to be Claymation  to say stuff like 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.

Hi.

Hey, anyone hear from Phoebe yet?

So, two common American greetings.  Hey is more common and I talked  

about that in the video that we did two weeks ago,  

another scene from this Friends episode.  Hi, hi, up down shape of stress. Hi.

Hi.

Hey.

Hey, hey. And then hey, a more common  greeting, hey, also up down shape of stress.

Hey

Hey, anyone hear from Phoebe yet?

So, this is a yes no question. So out pitch  is going up towards the end. That's common  

for yes no questions. So, we have a couple  stressed syllables, let's listen for them.

Anyone hear from Phoebe yet?

Anyone hear from. So, we start higher and we come  low. Anyone. A little bit of up down on here from.  

So, anyone and here. Anyone, three  syllable word with first syllable stress.

Anyone hear from Phoebe yet?

Phoebe yet? So, then we backed up. So, Phoebe,  also stressed but rather than going up down,  

the stress here goes down up. Phoebe  yet? Because we're heading up,  

because of it being a yes no question. Phoebe yet?

Phoebe yet?

Phoebe yet? And we have a stop T there, he doesn't  release that air stop T yet just an abrupt stop.  

That is the most the most common pronunciation  of an ending T at the end of a thought group.  

Let's look at our linking and things that are  happening with the pronunciation in this phrase.

Anyone hear from Phoebe yet?

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Anyone hear from Phoebe yet?

Anyone hear from. Anyone hear from. So, do you  hear how I'm saying this. I'm not saying from.  

I'm saying from, from. That's exactly how Ross  said it so this word reduces. We change from  

the uh as in butter vowel. From, to the  schwa. From, from, from. The schwa gets  

absorbed by that M so you can think of there  being no vowel there. From, from, hear from.

Anyone hear from--

The word 'hear', if you look this up in a  dictionary, you'll see it's got the ih as  

in sit vowel, but when that vowel is  followed by schwa R like it is here,  

it changes, it becomes a vowel more like the  E vowel. So it's not e but he-ee, hear, hear.

Anyone hear from--

Anyone hear from, anyone  hear from, anyone hear from.  

See if you can copy that  smoothness. Anyone hear from.

Anyone hear from--

Phoebe yet?

Phoebe yet? So, the ph makes the F  sound, Phoebe. And both the stressed  

and the unstressed syllables in this name  have the same vowel, that is the E vowel.

Phoebe, Phoebe, Phoebe yet?

Phoebe yet?

No, nothing.

No, nothing. Uhuuhuh. If we slow that down,  you would really hear that shape of stress,  

no, nothing. So two up down shapes  of stress, we have the oh diphthong,  

she makes a little bit relaxed, it's not  no but more like no, no, no, no, nothing.

No, nothing.

Now here, the O, the letter O makes the uh as in  butter vowel. So, even though it looks like n-o,  

n-o, the pronunciation would be the same,  that is not true. No, nothing. Now, t-h-i-n-g,  

she does not make that an NG ending, she  doesn't say nothing, she says nothing,  

nothing. So, making the NG ending just  an N ending, ih as in sit n and nothing.

Nothing.

I hope she's okay.

Okay, so Monica's response. Four words,  two of them as stressed. Which do you  

think are longer and up down shape of  stress or a down up shape of stress?

I hope she's okay.

I hope she's. Uhuhuh. Definitely hear that pitch  change. I hope she's. And then we have okay. Also  

an up down shape of stress there. So, we have hope  and K. Now, the word I, that's the I diphthong.  

It's unstressed here, I don't really hear  her pronouncing both of those sounds, I.

I hope she's.

It's more like a, a, I hope,  I hope, I hope she's okay.  

So, ,aybe more like the ah as in father said  very, very quickly. I hope, I hope she's okay.

I hope she's okay.

Hope she's. So, let's talk about  our p. This is a stop consonant,  

hope. A stop consonant is a stop of air and  a release. But it's really common in stop  

consonants not to make the release when  the next sound is a consonant. Here the  

next sound is the sh consonant. So it's not  hope she's. But it's just hope she's, hope,  

my lips come together for the P but I skip  the release rather than that escape of air,  

we go right into the sh consonant, hope she's.  But there is that little tiny lift break, that's  

the stop of the stop consonant as my lips come  together. Hope she's. I hope she's, I hope she's.

I hope she's --

I hope she's okay.

Okay, okay. This is a word that  can have first syllable stress,  

okay. Or second syllable stress,  okay. She's doing second.

she's okay.

Yeah, I know exactly what she's going through.

Yeah, yeah. Up down shape of stress

Yeah, --

I know exactly what she's going through.

Yeah, I know exactly. So, more stress on  our verb. I know exactly on our adverb.

I know exactly --

I know exactly what she's going through.

Going through, what she's going through, then  one more stressed syllable on the verb going.  

So everything links together  smoothly even the word yeah,  

links right into the I, he doesn't  do a break there, yeah, yeah I know.

Yeah, I know exactly what she's going through.

Maybe you noticed this, maybe you  already know it but this word is  

pronounced the exact same way as this word.  N consonant, O diphthong. Know. Yeah I know.

Yeah, I know --

exactly what she's going through.

Exactly. Now this is an interesting word.  We have the letter X. That always makes two  

sounds. In this case egz, G and Z, exactly. Then  we have a K, the letter C makes K, t-l-y. So,  

when t comes between two consonants, it's really  common in American Englsih to drop it and that's  

what he does, he does not say exactly. You  will find very few people pronouncing it that  

way. Exactly, exactly with no T is a much more  common pronunciation. Exactly, I know exactly.

I know exactly.

I know exactly what she's going through.

Exactly what she's, what she's, what she's, what she's.

Do you notice I'm not saying what she's?  It's a very quick stop. It's an unstressed word  

said very quickly. What she's, what she's,  what she's, what, what. I'm debating, do I  

want to write that with a schwa, what, what or  uh as in butter, what, what. Let's listen again.

I know exactly what she's --

I think I'm going to write it with the  schwa, I think it's just, there's not much  

of a vowel there but what, what, what, what  she's, what she's. What she's, what she's.

what she's --

going through.

Going through, going through. So one  peak of stress and the rest of the  

sentence just comes as the intonation drops  off. Now, Rachel up here took an IG ending,  

ing ending and made it an IN ending. He's  doing that too, rather than saying going,  

he's saying goin', goin'. Unstressed syllable  as it as in sit and going through, going, going,  

going through. Through, this word can be tricky,  we have an unvoiced th with an R. now the tongue  

does have to come through, the teeth here. But  it's just the very tip. Make sure there's not  

tension so the air can just flow really freely.  Going through, going through, th, th, th, through.

going through.

And all of these letters o-u-g-h just  make the ooh vowel. Going through.

going through.

How do you know --

How do you know. She's stressing  you, we see that with a hand gesture,  

how do, how do you know. A little bit  of stress on our question word. That's  

really typical to have the question  word be stressed. How do you know?

How do you know --

How do you know, how do you know. So  do and more said a little bit more  

quickly but all of this really links together  smoothly. How do you know, how do you know.

How do you know --

Exactly what she's going through?

Know exactly. So, we have the oh diphthong,  

the ih as in sit vowel. Know exactly. It can help  you think a w glide consonant between the two to  

help you link those smoothly. Know exactly.  Now, wait. Is she saying the T in exactly?

Exactly --

Exactly, exactly, no, she doesn't. Like  I said, that's really uncommon. I only  

know one person our of everybody  I know who says that T. Exactly.

Exactly --

What she's going through.

Exactly what she's going through? Exactly.  

Stress on the middle syllable there. How do  you know exactly what she's going through?

How do you know exactly what she's going through?

Exactly what she's going through. So, what  she's again unstressed said quickly stop T,  

what she's, what she's, what  she's, what she's going through.

exactly what she's going through?

Now, Monica does not make this goin',  

she makes it going with an ng consonant.  So, when we have an ng consonant, ih as  

in sit ng. This NG sound actually changes the  vowel sound. So, it actually sounds more like  

e, going, going, rather than e, e.  So if we change the NG to an N,