Name: ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AND ACCENT TRAINING: Detailed Analysis of American speech | Rachel s English
Uploaded: 2018-12-20T06:32:46.000Z
Duration: 37 min 15 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Today, we're going to do one of the most effective exercises in improving your listening comprehension,

which in turn, improves your pronunciation,

your accent, and how natural you sound 
when speaking American English.

We're going to do a Ben Franklin exercise.

00:00:23,660 --> 00:00:27,260
I've been doing these exercises for years 
with my students

and i've seen that they are truly one of the best ways to understand how Americans really speak.

So what we do is we take a bit of speech 
that a real American is speaking,

and then we do a full analysis of the pronunciation.

We'll look at the stress, we'll look at reductions, we'll look at things like a flap T,

so that you understand everything that's being said and how to say that yourself.

First, the speech that we're going to analyze.

I'm going to talk about a fall baking 
weekend that I had with my friend, Laura.

This year, the fall baking weekend was a 
little bit different.

because now we have not just one kid, not just two kids, but three kids, including a newborn.

So everything was a little chaotic when my friend Laura and her family came to visit.

But most importantly, we had an amazing weekend spending time together with our families.

This year, the fall baking weekend was a little bit different because—

I didn't take a breath or make a longer break until after the word because, but I did put a little bit of a lift.

This year, the fall baking weekend was a little bit different because —

And by just putting a little lift, a little tiny break in the voice, it brings those out more of those words,

Also 'was' I made that pretty long, I drew 
out the vowel a little bit.

Often, the word 'was' is reduced and then it's pronounced: wiz, wiz, said very quickly.

But I didn't do that. I fully pronounced it.
Did not reduce to the schwa.

With the tongue flapping against the roof of the mouth.

the stop T in bit, followed by a consonant.

The NT ending, whether it's in a word like 
this, or where it's N apostrophe T,

With that nasal N sound coming to an 
abrupt stop in the nose.

A little bit different, a little bit different, a little bit different.

Notice how I'm pronouncing the word 'different'.

This is a word that can be pronounced with three syllables, diff-er-ent or two, diff-rent,

and I pronounce it as two. Its more common, it's easier.

So go ahead and just think of it as two syllables with the first syllable being stressed.

And notice this is a schwa, not much of a vowel, and the second syllable said very quickly.

All of those words said really quickly, but 
there are important words there.

Well, I had already introduced the idea that I was going to be talking about the fall baking weekend,

so that's why this second time, I said it more quickly.

I'm not introducing the idea, i've already told you that's what I'm going to talk about.

So what was the most important part about this sentence to me, was describing it, not introducing it.

You already know I'm talking about the fall baking weekend, that's why that ended up sounding faster.

and the information about it that it was a little bit different is what was more stressed and more clear.

This year, the fall baking weekend was a little bit different because--

Often this word is reduced, but I'm saying 
it more clearly here.

Be-- unstressed syllable with the IH as in sit vowel, then a stressed syllable, UH as in butter vowel.

Now we have-- And I put a break, not just one kid.

And I really stress the first word of each of those thought groups.

And again, a stop T in 'not' because the 
next sound is a consonant.

What do you notice about the T in the word 'just'?

Subtitles ListPlay Video

ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AND ACCENT TRAINING: Detailed Analysis of American speech | Rachel s English

pronunciation

phrase

common

stress