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  • Have you ever wanted to call a restaurant to make a reservation?

  • Using the phone in a language that's not your native language can be intimidating.

  • I've put together a sample conversation for calling a restaurant to make a reservation.

  • Today, we're going to listen to the conversation and do an in-depth pronunciation analysis

  • of some of it.

  • In this conversation, the person calls to make a reservation.

  • She asks about availability and then they have a discussion.

  • Let's listen to the whole conversation and then we'll talk about the various phrases

  • you might need when making a phone call like this.

  • Hi!

  • Do you have any availability for a party of six at 7pm on Friday?

  • This Friday?

  • Let me check.

  • Mmmit looks like we don't have 7pm.

  • The earliest I have is 8:30.

  • Wow.

  • Okay, nothing before that?

  • Nothing at like 5pm or anything like that?

  • No, I'm sorry it's graduation weekend at temple so we're really booked up.

  • Okay let me check with the others in my party and see what they think.

  • I'll give you a call back if we decide to book.

  • Sounds good!

  • Have a great day!

  • Thank you.

  • The first thing she says is: hi!

  • Do you have any availability for a party of 5 at 7p.m.

  • On Friday?

  • She asks for availability.

  • Are there any empty tables she can reserve or have they all been reserved already?

  • She fills in the number of people in her party.

  • That is the total number of people that will be eating the time and the date.

  • Do you have any availability for a party of 6 at 7 on-- try that.

  • You pick out a party size, a time, and a date, and fill it in.

  • The date can be something like Saturday or October.

  • Come up with your sentence and practice it out loud.

  • can she book this reservation that she wants?

  • No. let's listen to his response.

  • This Friday?

  • Let me check.

  • Um...

  • It looks like we don't have 7p.m.

  • The earliest I have is 8:30pm.

  • Unfortunately, we don't have 7 p.m. is the answer.

  • There's no table at 7 p.m.

  • He does offer an alternative saying the earliest I have is 8:30.

  • That was nice of him to give further information.

  • If you call for reservation, and someone just says: no, sorry.

  • We don't have that.

  • You could say: do you have anything available earlier or later?

  • Try that.

  • Say it out loud with me.

  • Do you have anything available earlier or later?

  • Let's go back to the conversation.

  • 8:30 pm won't work for her so she asks about anything earlier.

  • Wow.

  • Ok.

  • Nothing before that?

  • Nothing at like 5 or anything like that?

  • And unfortunately, the restaurant doesn't have anything earlier.

  • He offers an explanation I think, adding information to a rejection always makes the rejection

  • a little more friendly.

  • He says: no, I'm sorry.

  • It's graduation weekend at Temple so we're really booked up.

  • Booked upis a phrasal verb that means there's nothing available.

  • All the options have been taken by someone else.

  • So now she's left with the option of 8:30 or nothing at all.

  • She decides she doesn't want to make the decision herself.

  • So if she's going to check with her friends, she says: ok, let me check with the others

  • in my party and see what they think.

  • I'll give you a call back if we decide to book.

  • I'll give you a call back if we decide to book.

  • So she's saying I'm not going to book the 8:30 slot right now.

  • Practice that sentence with me.

  • I'll give you a call back if we decide to book.

  • I'll give you a call back if we decide to book.

  • I'll give you a call back if we decide to book.

  • I'll give you a call back if we decide to book.

  • call backmeans I will call you again so there's no more information that needs

  • to be exchanged and he wraps it up with some friendly phrases and says bye: Sounds good.

  • Have a great day.

  • Thank you!

  • The phrasesounds goodis like saying “I understand, have a great dayorhave

  • a nice day”.

  • When you're speaking with someone at a business, like at a restaurant, or to shop, it's common

  • for that person to say this to you as the interaction is ending and she responds with

  • thank you”.

  • Now, how to sound natural when speaking these phrases in American English?

  • How to be understood?

  • I do an in-depth analysis of the whole conversation in the conversation course in my online school,

  • Rachel's English Academy.

  • Will give you a free preview here, an analysis of the first line where we talk about things

  • like word stress, reductions, the flap T, and so on, in a real conversational English.

  • I you like this kind of exercise and you think you want more of them, there are dozens of

  • them in Rachel's English Academy and I add more every month so check out rachelsenglishacademy.com

  • for information on subscribing.

  • Here's that conversation analysis now.

  • Hi!

  • Do you have any availability for a party of 6 at 7p.m.

  • On Friday?

  • This is a pretty long sentence, a pretty long thought group.

  • Hi do you have any availability for a party of 6 at 7p.m.

  • On Friday?

  • No breaks.

  • Let's take a listen again and think about what words you think are the clearest and

  • the longest, the ones that stand out of the sentence the most.

  • Hi do you have any availability for a party of 6 at 7p.m.

  • On Friday?

  • Hi do you have any availability for a party of 6 at 7p.m.

  • On Friday?

  • First of all, hi!

  • Hi!

  • Has sort of an up-down shape and then a little bit of a break.

  • It could be considered a separate thought group: hi!

  • Hi!

  • Especially because it's at the beginning of the sentence and because it's a greeting and

  • she wants to sound friendly, the pitch is higher and this does make it stand out of

  • the rest of the sentence more.

  • Hi!

  • Hi!

  • Hi!

  • Hi!

  • Do you have any availability?

  • I feel like she takes the word availabilityavailabilityand really stretches it out.

  • The stressed syllable there: availabilityis 'bil' but the syllable 'vail' availability

  • also has a little bit of stress.

  • Availabilityda- da- da- da- da- da- So the primary stress is on the fourth syllable

  • but there is secondary stress on the second syllable.

  • AvailabilityavailabilityHi!

  • Do you have any availability for a party of 6 at 7 p.m.

  • On Friday?

  • Then the other word that I hear being the most clear, the most sticking out of the sentence,

  • the most obvious, is

  • Hi do you have any availability for a party of 6 at 7p.m.

  • On Friday?

  • If you did not mark or feel the same stress that I did, that's okay.

  • Party and six and frialso had some stress but the thing to notice is that not every

  • word is given equal weight.

  • Some words are said much more quickly.

  • Hi!

  • Do you have any availability for a party of 6 at p.m on Friday?

  • And actually these three words: do you havedo you haveare set really quickly and

  • a little unclearly.

  • I don't hear the h.

  • Do you havedo you havedo you haveis what I hear, not: do you havebut: do

  • you havedo you havedo you havedo you havedo you haveit's not uncommon

  • to drop the h in these function words like have, had, his/her.

  • Do you havedo you havedo you haveand the word 'do' said so quickly that

  • it almost doesn't have a vowel: dyadyado you havedo you havealthough she

  • dropped the h so it was: do you havedo you havedo you havedo you have

  • do you havedododo youit's almost like we're making it just one syllable,

  • connecting the D right onto the word 'you': do youdodo you have anydo you

  • have anydo you have anydo you have anydo you have any availabilityavailability

  • availabilitySo that word was a little slower: availabilityand notice that the

  • t is a flap t here.

  • Bilityavailabilityavailabilityavailabilitydo you have any availability

  • for a party of sixfor a party of sixfor a— for a—

  • So these two words linked together and reduced.

  • For a— for a— for a— It's almost like we don't have a vowel here.

  • It's the F sound and then the schwa R sound and R absorbs the schwa so they're just one

  • sound: For a— for a— for a— moving right into the next sound which is the schwa for

  • 'a': for a partyfor a party of sixfor a party of sixfor a party of six

  • for a party of sixso parhas more stress there than for a partythis is a flap T:

  • partyparty

  • Remember, the T is a flap when it comes between two vowels like it did here, or when it comes

  • after an R and before a vowel or diphthong.

  • Partypartypartyparty of sixparty ofparty ofparty ofYou could

  • drop the V sound here but she doesn't.

  • She makes a really quick V sound along with the schwa.

  • Party ofparty ofparty of sixparty of sixparty ofofparty of six

  • party of six at seven pmat sevenat sevenOkay so the word 'at' often reduces

  • to the schwa sound.

  • She doesn't do that.

  • She does have an AH vowel but it still said very quickly: atatatatAnd

  • the T here is a stop T because the next word begins with the consonant so that would be

  • the S sound in the word: atatatparty of six atparty of six atat

  • atatparty of six at 7 p.m.

  • On Friday.

  • PM on FridayPM on Friday

  • So the letters P and M are said with their letter names here and that would be the P

  • consonant and the EE vowel and then the EH as in bed vowel and the M consonant: PM

  • PMPMPMPMAnd any time we're seeing a series of letters out loud like JFK,

  • PM, HBO, stress is always on the last one.

  • So M has more stress than P: PMPMPMPMPMPMPMPMAM would sound

  • like this: AMAMAMCan you tell that I'm stressing the second one?

  • AM and that would be spelled in IPA with the AY as in Say diphthong and then again the

  • EH as in bed vowel and the M consonant: AMAMPMPMSo on both of these cases,

  • we're linking the two words together: AMAMPMPMPM— 7 pm on Friday

  • 7 pm on Friday

  • So everything links together, the ending N of seven, M into the vowel of 'on', 7

  • pm on FridayThis can either be written with the AH as in father, or the AW as in

  • Law vowel.

  • It's so quick here.

  • It's kind of hard to tell what she uses: 7 pm on Friday— 7 pm on Friday— 7 pm on

  • Friday— I would probably write it with the AH as in father vowel: on FridayFriday

  • on FridayOkay, the pitch goes up at the end.

  • She's asking a yes/no question and so making the pitch go up shows that she is inquiring.

  • On Fridayon Fridaydo you have any availability for a party of six at 7 p.m.

  • On Friday?

  • I call this kind of analysis of Ben Franklin analysis.

  • To see more videos like that on YouTube, click in

  • the description.

Have you ever wanted to call a restaurant to make a reservation?

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