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  • You asked for it. So in this American English pronunciation video, were going to do a

  • Ben Franklin exercise where we take real American English conversation and analyze the American

  • accent to improve listening comprehension and pronunciation skills.

  • First, let’s listen to the whole conversation.

  • R: HaQuyen, this is Tom. HQ: Hi.

  • T: Hi. HQ: Nice to meet you.

  • T: How are you? T: Nice to meet you, too.

  • R: Have you guys met before? HQ: Um

  • T: I don’t think so. HQ: No, not, not in person. But youve told

  • me about him. R: Okay. It seems like you have because I’ve

  • known both of you for so long, but … T: Yeah.

  • R: Never overlapped. T: Yeah, well, it’s about time!

  • Now for the analysis.

  • R: HaQuyen, this is Tom.

  • Did you notice how the second syllable ofHaQuyenand the syllableTomwere

  • the most stressed? They had that up-down shape. EspeciallyTom’, which came down in pitch

  • at the end of the sentence.

  • R: HaQuyen, this is Tom.

  • We want this shape in our stressed syllables. The two wordsthis iswere flatter and

  • quicker.

  • R: HaQuyen, this is Tom. [2x] HQ: Hi.

  • T: Hi:

  • Both words, ‘hi’, ‘hi’, ‘hi’, had that up-down shape. Hi. Hi.

  • HQ: Hi. T: Hi. [3x]

  • HQ: Nice to meet you.

  • These two phrases happened at the same time. HaQuyen said, “Nice to meet you.” What’s

  • the most stressed word there? HQ: Nice to meet you. [2x]

  • Meet’. ‘Nicealso had some stress, a little longer. Nice to meet you. The word

  • towas reduced. Rather than the OO vowel, we have the schwa. Nice to, to, to.

  • HQ: Nice to meet you. [2x]

  • Nice to meet you. What did you notice about the pronunciation of this T?

  • HQ: Nice to meet you. [2x]

  • It was a Stop T. Meet you. There was no release of the T sound.

  • HQ: Nice to meet you. [2x]

  • Tom’s phrase, “How are you?” How are you?

  • T: How are you? [2x]

  • He stressed the wordare’. How are you?

  • T: How are you? [2x]

  • Youll also hear this with the wordyoustressed. How are you?

  • T: How are you? Nice to meet you, too.

  • Tom really stressed the wordtoo’.

  • T: Nice to meet you, too. [2x]

  • It was the loudest and clearest of the sentence.

  • T: Nice to meet you, too. [2x]

  • He, like HaQuyen, also reduced the wordtoto the schwa. To, nice to, nice to meet you.

  • T: Nice to meet you, too. [2x]

  • Also, again like HaQuyen, he made a Stop T here. He did not release the T sound.

  • Meet you.

  • T: Nice to meet you, too. [2x] R: Have you guys met before?

  • I put a little break here, betweenguysandmet’, while I thought about what

  • I was going to say.

  • R: Have you guys met before?

  • Did you notice my pronunciation of T? A Stop T.

  • R: Met before?

  • We tend to make T’s Stop T’s when the next word begins with a consonant. Or, when

  • the word is at the end of a thought or sentence.

  • R: Met before? [2x] R: Have you guys met before?

  • What do you notice about the intonation of the sentence? How does it end?

  • R: Have you guys met before?

  • Before? It goes up in pitch.

  • R: Have you guys met before?

  • That’s because this is a yes/no question. A question that can be answered with yes or

  • no goes up in pitch at the end. Other questions, and statements, go down in pitch.

  • T: I don’t think so.

  • I don’t think so, I don’t think so. Again, there was a clear stop in sound here. I don’t

  • think so.

  • T: I don’t thinks so. [2x]

  • I don’t think so. The words were not connected. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t think. I don’t

  • think so. ‘Thinkwas the most stressed word there. I don’t think so. Feel your

  • energy to towards it and then away from it in the sentence. I don’t think so.

  • T: I don’t think so. HQ: No, not, not in person.

  • The firstnotwas a Stop T, as HaQuyen did not continue. Not, not. Not in person.

  • The second T, though, was a Flap T because it links two vowels together. The AH vowel,

  • and the IH as in SIT vowel. Most Americans will make the T between vowels a Flap T, which

  • sounds like a D between vowels. Not in [3x]. Not in person.

  • HQ: Not in person. [2x]

  • Personis a two-syllable word. Which syllable is stressed?

  • HQ: Not in person [2x].

  • The first syllable. PER-son. The second syllable doesn’t really have a vowel in it. It’s

  • the schwa sound. But when the schwa is followed by N, you don’t need to try to make a separate

  • vowel, -son, -son, person, person.

  • HQ: Not in person [2x], but youve told me about him.

  • How is the T pronounced inbut’?

  • HQ: But youve told me about him. [2x]

  • It’s a Stop T, but youve, but youve. What’s the most stressed, the most clear

  • word in this phrase?

  • HQ: But youve told me about him. [2x]

  • It’s the verbtold’. But youve told me about him. The sentence peaks with that word.

  • HQ: But youve told me about him. [2x]

  • HaQuyen dropped the H inhim’. We do this often with the wordshim’, ‘he’,

  • his’, ‘her’, for example. Also, ‘haveandhad’.

  • HQ: But youve told me about him. [2x]

  • Now the T comes between two vowels. What’s that going to be? A Flap T. About him, about

  • him. Just flap the tongue on the roof of the mouth.

  • HQ: But youve told me about him. [2x] R: Okay.

  • I didn’t really pronounce the OH diphthong here, it was more like a schwa, okay, okay.

  • ‘-Kayhad the shape of a stressed syllable. Okay.

  • R: Okay. [2x] It seems like you have

  • In the first part of this sentence, what is the most clear, the most stressed syllable?

  • R: It seems like you have [2x]

  • It’s the wordseems’. It seems like you have [2x].

  • R: It seems like you have [2x] because I’ve known both of you for so long, but.

  • What about in the second half of the sentence. What’s the most stressed syllable?

  • R: because I’ve known both of you for so long, but. [2x]

  • Known. Because I’ve known both of you for so long. ‘Longis also stressed, it’s

  • also a longer word.

  • R: because I’ve known both of you for so long, but. [2x]

  • Even though this sentence is very fast, it still has longer stressed words, ‘seems’,

  • known’, ‘long’. It’s important to keep your stressed words longer, even when

  • youre speaking quickly. This is what’s clear to Americans.

  • R: because I’ve known both of you for so long, but. [2x]

  • The less important words, the function words, will be less clear and very fast. And sometimes,

  • well change the sounds. For example, in the wordfor’. That was pronounced with

  • the schwa, for, for, for. It’s very fast.

  • R: For so long [2x], but.

  • How did I pronounce the T inbut’?

  • R: For so long, but. [2x]

  • It was the end of my thought, it was a Stop T. But, but. I stopped the air.

  • R: For so long, but. [2x] T: Yeah.

  • Tom’s interjection, ‘yeah’: stressed. Up-down shape. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  • T: Yeah. [2x] R: Never overlapped.

  • Can you tell which is the stressed syllable innever’? Which is longer?

  • R: Never overlapped. [2x]

  • It’s the first syllable. Ne-ver. What about in the next word?

  • R: Never overlapped. [2x]

  • Again, it’s the first syllable. O-verlapped. Never overlapped. Uh-uh. Never overlapped.

  • R: Never overlapped. [2x]

  • Notice theed ending here is pronounced as a T, an unvoiced sound. That’s because

  • the sound before, P, was also unvoiced. Overlapped, overlapped.

  • R: Never overlapped. [2x] T: Yeah, well, it’s about time.

  • Did you notice that Tom didn’t really make a vowel here. Tsabout, tsabout. He connected

  • the TS sound into the next sound.

  • T: Well, it’s about time. [2x]

  • How is this T pronounced?

  • T: Well, it’s about time. [2x]

  • A Stop T, because the next sound is a consonant.

  • T: Well, it's about time.

  • Let’s listen again, following along with our marked up text. Youll hear two different

  • speeds, regular pace, and slowed down.

  • R: HaQuyen, this is Tom. HQ: Hi. T: Hi.

  • HQ: Nice to meet you. T: How are you?

  • T: Nice to meet you, too.

  • R: Have you guys met before? HQ: Um

  • T: I don’t think so. HQ: No, not, not in person. But youve told

  • me about him. R: Okay. It seems like you have because I’ve

  • known both of you for so long, but … T: Yeah.

  • R: Never overlapped. T: Yeah, well, it’s about time!

  • R: HaQuyen, this is Tom. HQ: Hi. T: Hi.

  • HQ: Nice to meet you. T: How are you?

  • T: Nice to meet you, too.

  • R: Have you guys met before? HQ: Um

  • T: I don’t think so. HQ: No, not, not in person. But youve told

  • me about him. R: Okay. It seems like you have because I’ve

  • known both of you for so long, but … T: Yeah.

  • R: Never overlapped. T: Yeah, well, it’s about time!

  • Well listen one last time. This time, youll repeat. Youll hear each sentence or sentence

  • fragment three times. Repeat exactly as you hear it, paying attention to intonation, sounds,

  • and stress.

  • R: HaQuyen, this is Tom. [3x]

  • HQ: Hi. T: Hi. [3x]

  • HQ: Nice to meet you. T: How are you? [3x]

  • T: Nice to meet you, too. [3x]

  • R: Have you guys met before? [3x]

  • HQ: Um… T: I don’t think so. [3x]

  • HQ: No, not, not in person. [3x]

  • But youve told me about him. [3x]

  • R: Okay. [3x]

  • It seems like you have [3x]

  • because I’ve known both of you [3x]