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  • You guys love Ben Franklin videos.

  • They're one of the best ways for you to improve listening comprehension

  • and learn tricks to sound more natural when speaking English, like using specific reductions.

  • This January, you're getting five all new Ben Franklin videos

  • where we do a full analysis of real American English conversations.

  • Today's topic, word game.

  • Let's get started with this analysis.

  • First, the whole conversation.

  • Team two, listen up.

  • - I'm looking at you. - Woot, woot!

  • Three, two, one.

  • Okay. This is something that you use to sweep the floor, and you plug it in.

  • - Broom. - No, you plug it in. Vacuum.

  • - Uh, it’s two words. - Vacuum cleaner.

  • Now, the analysis.

  • Team two, listen up.

  • Team two, listen up.

  • So we had divided our family into two teams

  • and bothteamandtwoare stressed. Team two.

  • Buttwois the most stressed because

  • that is the part that makes it different from team one.

  • And actually, I wrote that poorly. That should look like this. Team two.

  • In English, we don't want choppy words within a thought group.

  • We don't want them to feel separate.

  • We always want them to feel very connected.

  • The intonation, the pitch, always changes smoothly.

  • Team two. So the ending M right into the T with no break.

  • Team two, listen up.

  • Team two.

  • Team two.

  • Team two, listen up.

  • Again here, it links together.

  • Smooth: Listen up.

  • The T in listen is always silent.

  • The ending N linking into the beginning vowel.

  • Nuplisten up.

  • Listen up.

  • Listen up.

  • Listen up.

  • What's going on with the P here? I'm not releasing it. Up. Ppp--

  • I'm not releasing it with a puff of air, my lips closed, that cuts off the sound, that's the stop part of the stop consonant.

  • But then they don't open releasing the air.

  • This is fairly normal. It's fairly common to drop the release part of a stop consonant

  • when it comes at the end of a thought group. Listen up.

  • You can see my lips come together.

  • Listen up.

  • That gives the idea of the P and then that's it.

  • I move on to my next phrase.

  • Listen upis a phrasal verb.

  • How is it different fromlisten’?

  • It's something you would use if you're trying to get the attention of someone or even more often, of a group of people.

  • This is something you might say if you feel like people have not been paying attention

  • and now you really need them to.

  • You're saying: I need everyone's attention because what I'm about to say is really important.

  • Listen up. Listen up.

  • Listen up. Listen up. Listen up.

  • I'm looking at you.

  • I'm looking at you.

  • I say this right as someone on my team cheers me on with a little high-pitched: woot woot!

  • That's just something, a phrase you might use

  • to show excitement or to cheer someone on in a competition.

  • I'm looking at you.

  • I'm looking at you.

  • I'm looking at you.

  • So I say I'm looking at you.

  • Lookandyouget the most stress in this phrase.

  • A couple things happen here. First of all,

  • well, we have the contraction ‘I amto I'm

  • which is said quickly: I’m. I'm. I'm looking— I'm looking

  • Lookbeing the stressed syllable there, then I changed the NG sound, I just make it an N sound. Lookin.

  • So I make the sound at the front of my mouth with the front of my tongue

  • rather than at the back of my mouth with the back of my tongue.

  • I'm looking at you. Lookin.

  • I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you. I'm looking at you.

  • This is a little bit more casual of a pronunciation

  • and we definitely change the NG to the N

  • quite a bit in -ing words but I don't recommend doing it all the time.

  • There's definitely such thing as doing it too much.

  • We tend to do it more with the -ing words that are the most common.

  • What's going on withat you’?

  • First of all, I reduce the vowel inatso it's: uh- uh- uh- the schwa.

  • Then we hear a CH sound. Where's that coming from?

  • When a word ends in a T and the next word isyouoryour’,

  • it's not uncommon to combine those to link them together with a CH sound: choochoo

  • at youat you

  • I’m looking at you.

  • at youat you— I’m looking at you.

  • I must have thought that somebody on my team had not been paying very good attention because I saylisten up

  • which means what I’m saying next really matters,

  • I’m about to start, and then I say ‘I’m looking at you.’

  • specifically calling out someone on my team.

  • I’m looking at you.

  • Three. Two. One.

  • Then my nephew gives me a countdown for the timer.

  • Three separate content words.

  • Three.

  • Two.

  • One.

  • All with an up-down shape of stress.

  • Three. Two. One.

  • We never want flat pitches in our stressed words.

  • This up-down shape of stress, this change of pitch of intonation,

  • is what marks a stressed syllable. It's very natural American English to do this.

  • Three. Two. One.

  • Three. Two. One.

  • Three. Two. One.

  • Okay this is something that you use

  • Okay this is something--

  • So the wordsthisandis’, they would usually be said very quickly.

  • This is something

  • but as I read it, I'm still thinking about what to say,

  • so they get made longer. This is

  • They're both turned into stressed syllables but this is not how it would normally be pronounced.

  • This isbecomes: this isthis isthis is somethingthis is something

  • That's the change that's important in conversational American English.

  • Now here of course it's not quite conversational. This is different. I'm playing a game

  • and I'm taking more time as I'm thinking on the spot.

  • That means thinking without prior preparation about what to say.

  • This is something

  • This is something

  • This is something that you use

  • Something that you use

  • So here we have a T followed byyou’. I do not make it a CH.

  • I make it a Stop T: that you use

  • but I do reduce the AH vowel.

  • Thatbecomes: thatthatthat

  • This helps me say this word more quickly.

  • That you use--

  • That you use--

  • That you use--

  • That you use to sweep the floor.

  • To sweep the floor--

  • Okay, another example of an over pronunciation of a word.

  • The wordtoalmost never pronounced this way in conversational English. To.

  • Why did I do that? I was thinking of what is the right word to say.

  • So in conversational English, it would be: to sweep

  • tototo

  • The OO vowel reduces to the schwa: to sweepto sweepto sweep the floor

  • to sweep the floor

  • to sweep the floor

  • to sweep the floor and you plug it in.

  • To sweep the floor and you plug it in.

  • Sweep.

  • Floor.

  • To sweep the floor.

  • Sweep the floor. Sweep the floor.

  • Listen to these three words and pay attention to the stress pattern. It's long, short, long.

  • Sweep the floor. Sweep the floor. Sweep the floor.

  • Sweep the floor.

  • So the wordthedoesn't have this up-down shape of stress. It's flatter and it’s said very quickly.

  • the-- the-- the--

  • Sweep the-- sweep the-- sweep the floor and you plug it in.

  • And you plug it inand

  • Drop the D so even though I hold this word out a little bit as I think

  • and I don't reduce the vowel, the vowel is still ah.

  • I do drop the D, just a very common reduction of that word.

  • You plug it in

  • And you plug it in-- And you plug it in-- And you plug it in--

  • So here we have three words: plug it in,

  • where you have two links of ending consonant to beginning vowel: plug itgitgit

  • So you can think of the ending consonant G

  • as beginning the next word gitgitplug itplug itplug it

  • That may help you link.

  • It init init in

  • Here, again, we link the ending T right into the vowel IH and it changes to a flap T.

  • Why does it do that? Because it comes between two vowels.

  • It init init in

  • plug it inplug it in

  • plug it inplug it inplug it in

  • Plug inis a phrasal verb and we use this with electronics or things that charge,

  • where you have the plug and you either insert it