Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Today you’re studying fast English by looking at the reductions, the linking, the stress patterns,

the simplification that native speakers do when speaking American English.

We’re using the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,

a classic from 1986.

And all the linking and reductions that Americans do can make it pretty hard to understand them,

but when you study American English, the way we will in this video,

your listening comprehension and your ability to sound natural speaking English

is going to improve dramatically.

Study like this, you’re going to be able to understand American movies and TV without subtitles.

Oh, that hurts, Cameron.

We’re doing this all summer. We started in June, and we’re going through August.

Stick with me every Tuesday, they’re all great scenes

and there’s going to be so much to learn that can transform the way you understand and speak English.

And as always, if you like this video or you learned something new,

please like and subscribe with notifications.

You’re going to watch the clip, then we’re going to do a full pronunciation analysis together.

This is going to help so much with your listening comprehension

when it comes to watching English movies in TV.

But there’s going to be a training section.

You’re going to take what you’ve just learned and practice repeating it,

doing a reduction, flapping a T, just like you learned in the analysis.

Okay, here’s the scene.

It’s getting late, buddy, we better go get the car back home.

What? » What do you…? We have a few hours.

We have until six.

I’m sorry, I mean, I know you don’t care, but it does mean my ass.

You think I don’t care?

I know you don’t care.

Oh, that hurts, Cameron.

Cameron, what have you seen today?

Nothing good.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, this…

What do you mean nothing good?

We’ve seen everything good. We’ve seen the whole city.

And now, the analysis.

It’s getting late, buddy, we better go get the car back home.

Okay, a pretty long thought group here. Everything glides together smoothly.

Let’s just look at the first four words. What are our stressed syllables there?

It’s getting late, buddy-

It’s getting late, buddy-

It’s getting late, buddy-

It’s getting– A little bit of stress there. It’s getting late, buddy-

It’s getting late, buddy–

It’s getting late, buddy–

It’s getting late, buddy–

It’s getting late, buddy–

It’s getting late, buddy–

We have a couple reductions happening here.

The word it’s is reduced. The vowel is dropped, so it’s just the TS cluster linking into the G.

Now with these ING endings, it’s pretty common for native speakers in

the more common words, in more casual situations, to change the NG sound,

NG which is made at the back of the tongue, to just an N sound

N which is made with the front of the tongue lifting.

So getting becomes gettin’ gettin’.

Now why does the T change?

If I don’t change the consonant, if it’s an ING ending, then it’s a flap T. Getting. Getting. Getting.

But if I change it to an N, this becomes a stop T. Gettin. Get-nn. Get-nn.

It’s getting,

There’s a rule about T followed by schwa and N

and how that T becomes a stop T.

That’s an exception to the rule because here in the first syllable, we have G and EH as in bed,

and the rule is when a T comes between two vowels, it’s a flap T.

But the exception is when it’s T schwa N, then it’s a stop T, and that’s what’s happening here.

So it would maybe be written in IPA with the IH as in sit, and N ending

rather than schwa, but they act the same when they’re unstressed.

So if we change the ING to an N,

and the final sound was a T sound

with a vowel before, it becomes: gettin, gettin.

It’s getting–

Another example would be the word hitting.

H-I-T-T-I-N-G hitting with a flap T,

but if we drop the G and make it an N, then it’s hittin, hittin, hit-nn. Stop T.

So we have a dropped IH in it’s, we have a stop T, and the ending changes to N.

Gettin, get-nn, get-nn,

so put your tongue into position for the T, stop your air, get-nn.

Then you don’t need to move your tongue. It’s in position for the N, just make the N sound.

Get-nn, get-nn.

It’s getting,

late.

It’s getting late. It’s getting late, buddy.

It’s getting late, buddy.

It’s getting late, buddy.

It’s getting late, buddy.

In this stress word late, we also have a stop T, that’s because the next word begins with a consonant.

It’s getting late, buddy.

It’s getting late, buddy.

It’s getting late, buddy.

It’s getting late, buddy.

Now, let’s talk about these D’s. The D sound, ddd–

is a stop of air and release. Buddy, buddy.

But that’s not how we pronounce it between vowels.

Here it comes between the vowel UH as in butter, and EE as in she,

a D sound between vowels is flapped.

So it’s not buddy, but it’s: buddy.

Buddy. Dadadadada. Buddy. It’s getting late, buddy.

It’s getting late, buddy.

It’s getting late, buddy.

It’s getting late, buddy, we better go get the car back home.

We better go get the car back home.

Be– the stressed syllable of better, stressed there.

We better go get the car back home.

So we have three syllables there that are longer, the rest are lower in pitch.

So it’s not we, but it’s: we, we, we better.

We better–

We better. We want it to feel unstressed next to the stressed syllable be.

If I didn’t do that, it would be: we better, we better go get the car back home.

Well, that’s not how we speak at all.

We really need that contrast. We, we, we, we better.

We better–

We better. Do you notice that the T sound here is a flap?

Just like the D between two consonants.

The T between two consonants is also a flap.

Better. Better.

Unless we’ve already seen an exception here.

Unless it’s part of the T schwa N sequence, then it’s a stop.

But in this word, it’s not. So it’s better, better, buddy, buddy, rarara, it’s a flap.

We better go get.

We better go get.

We better go get.

We better go get.

We better go get. So the second syllable of better

and go get the, those are all flatter, lower in pitch just like we.

Tter go get the– Tter go get the–

We better go get–

We better go get–

We better go get–

Get the–

Do you notice that stop T there? Don’t release it. Get the.

You just stop the air in your throat very quickly before moving on to the next sound.

Get the, get the, get the, better go get the.

Better go get–

the car back home.

Car back home. Car back home. Dadada.

Back has a little bit of length too, even though it doesn’t have the up down shape that car does,

that would be: car back home, but it’s: car back home. Car back home.

Car back home.

Car back home.

Car back home.

What?

What? What? We hear this faintly in the background. It’s the woman sitting in the car. What?

Pitch going up. She’s asking what?

Why? Why on earth would we need to get the car back home? It’s not getting late. What?

Stop T at the end.

What?

What?

What? » What do you..?

What do you… He starts to say the phrase: what do you mean?

What do you… and he makes the M but he doesn’t say the rest of the word.

What do you mm… What do you mm… So I’m going to put an M here at the end.

What do you mm… What do you mm… What do you…

Okay, so what’s happening with what and do? This is pretty common when

a word that ends in T like what is followed by a D,

that we drop the T sound and just link it in. Wha–

So you can think of it as the UH as in butter, or the schwa depending on how quickly you’re making it.

Wha– Wha– Wha- wha duh– wha duh– wha duh-wha duh yuh–

What do you..?

What do you..? What do you..?

Then this is going to be a flap because it comes between two vowels.

What do you..?

All of these vowels reduced to the schwa. It’s not: what do you, it’s: wha duh yuh- wha duh yuh- wha duh yuh–

What do you mean?

What do you want to do?

What do you think?

Pretty common to pronounce these three words this way.

Wha duh yuh- wha duh yuh- wha duh yuh-

Simplify your mouth movement. Move quickly. What do you, what do you.

Try to relax everything, practice that, just those three words.

Wha duh yuh- wha duh yuh- And then you can do a stressed word after.

What do you think?

What do you mean?

What do you need?

This is how we speak natural conversational American English.

What do you..?

What do you..?

What do you..? We have a few hours.

We have a few hours.

We have a few– stress on have, hours, stress on hours, but he’s making the pitch go up.

So rather than an up down shape, it’s a down up shape.

Hours, we have a few hours.

But everything really links together smoothly, doesn’t it?

We have a few hours.

We have a few hours.

We have a few hours.

We have a few–

A, and few, and we, they’re all less stressed. Just put them into the line.

Have a few hours.

No skips or breaks. We have a few hours.

Hours. Notice the H in this word is silent.

We have a few hours.

We have a few hours.

We have a few hours.

We have a few hours.

We have until six.

We have until six. Stressing the verb. We have until six.

And the time. We have until six.

We have until six.

We have until six.

We have until six.

We have until six. We have until six.

Make sure you’re imitating that smoothness in the change of pitch.

Uuhhhhh

We have until six.

We have until six.

We have until six.

No reductions here.

Notice the T in until is a true T.

That’s because it starts a stressed syllable. Until six.

The letter X here makes the KS cluster.

Six. Six. We have until six.

We have until six.

We have until six.

We have until six.

I’m sorry, I mean, I know you don’t care, but it does mean my ass.

Another long thought group here. I’m sorry.

I’m sorry. That’s the loudest syllable in this phrase.

I’m sorry, I mean, I know you don’t care.

So we have a little up on know, a little up down on care, I know you don’t care.

I’m sorry, I mean, I know you don’t care.

I’m sorry, I mean, I know you don’t care.

I’m sorry, I mean, I know you don’t care.

I’m sorry, I mean, I mean, I mean.

These two words actually, these three words, lower in pitch, a little bit less volume, flatter.

I mean I, I mean I, I mean I, I mean, I know.

I mean, I know–

That flat contrasts with sorr– and know.

I’m sorry, I mean. I should have included this unstressed syllable here into that.

Sorr-y I mean, I- y I mean, I- y I mean, I-

because the unstressed syllable of the stressed word also has an unstressed feel.

So we have one, two, three, four unstressed syllables in a row, between our stressed syllables.

I’m sorry, I mean, I– I mean, I– I mean, I– I mean, I- I mean, I-

Try to make it really that low and that simple with your mouth movements.

I’m sorry, I mean, I–

I’m sorry, I mean, I–

I’m sorry, I mean, I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

So you and don’t, also unstressed between our more stressed words, and the word you reduces.

Again, it’s not you, just like before, here, it’s ye.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

Super subtle lift here. Don’t care. Don’t. Stop T.

It’s a little bit nasally because of the N. I know you don’t care. Don’t care. Don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care, but it does mean my ass.

But it does mean my ass.

So we have stress on does, and ass,

but it, said really quickly, flat, low in pitch. But it, but it, but it, but it.

They link together with a flap. But it, but it, but it.

This T is a Stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.

But it does. But it does.

But it does. But it does. But it does.

Does. Make sure you’re not saying: does.

That is not an S that is a Z sound. Does. Does.

But it does mean my. Mean my. Mean my.

Lower end pitch, flatter. Mean my ass.

Link these two words together really smoothly.

It’s an AI diphthong and the AH vowel.

Sometimes it’s a challenge for my students to link two vowel or diphthong sounds together.

My ass. You can think of going through the glide consonant Y.

That might help you connect them more smoothly.

So what does this phrase mean? It means my ass. That means:

I’m the one who’s going to be in trouble, not you, me.

But it does mean my ass.

But it does mean my ass.

But it does mean my ass.

You think I don’t care?

He’s amazed. He can’t believe it. What is his stress here? What are the most stressed words?

You think I don’t care?

You think I don’t care?

You think I don’t care?

You think I don’t care?

Definitely stress on think. You think I don’t care?

And stress on care, it’s going up.

You think, now here, the word you doesn’t reduce. It’s not yuh, it it’s not yuh, yuh, it’s: you, but it is flatter in pitch.

It’s not: you think, it’s not stressed, it’s: you, you, you, you, you think, you think, you think I don’t-

Two unstressed words again. You think i don’t care?

You think I don’t care?

You think I don’t care?

You think I don’t care?

Don’t care, don’t care. Again, a subtle little break here while we stop the air for that stop T.

I don’t care? I don’t care?

I don’t care?

I don’t care?

I don’t care?

I know you don’t care.

Ooh, that’s a harsh response. What’s his stress?

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

Care has stress but he’s not putting it up as a question so his pitch goes down.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

Again, don’t care, don’t care, little stop T there.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

I know you don’t care.

Oh, that hurts, Cameron.

Oh. Oh. up down shape.

Oh, that hurts, Cameron. That hurts, Cameron.

Hurts, the verb, most stressed there.

Oh, that hurts, Cameron.

Oh, that hurts, Cameron.

Oh, that hurts, Cameron.

That hurts. Do you notice that stop T there? That hurts.

Now, let’s talk about this word for a second. H consonant, UR vowel, R combination, TS cluster.

A lot of my students get confused with this. They want to do something like: huts,

or they want to put some sort of vowel in before an R. But this sound is so influenced by the R

that it’s just all the same sound. Hhh-rr-ts. Hhh-rr

Now to make the sound, you don’t really need jaw drop.

Just put your tongue into position for the R. Urrrrr.

Tip is pulled back and up, it’s not touching anything.

Urr-hurr-hurts, hurts, that hurts, that hurts, Cameron.

That hurts, Cameron.

That hurts, Cameron.

That hurts, Cameron.

The word Cameron, just like camera,

could be pronounced potentially with that middle syllable, but he doesn’t.

He leaves it out. Camera. Cameron.

This is a more common pronunciation, so right from M into R.

Cam-ron. Cameron.

Cameron.

Cameron.

Cameron.

Cameron, what have you seen today?

Cameron. Cameron. Cameron.

A little up shape at the end. Cameron. Again, dropping that middle syllable. Cameron.

Cameron.

Cameron.

Cameron, what have you seen today?

What have you seen today?

The question word get some stress. What have you seen today?

Today? Now, be careful with this word. A lot of people want to say: Today, Today, Today.

That is not the OO vowel. Look it up in the dictionary, you’ll see the schwa. T,T,T Today. Today. Today.

What have you seen today?

What have you seen today?

What have you seen today?

What have you, what have you. Okay, so the word you does not reduce. It’s you, not yih, but it is unstressed.

You, you, the word have does reduce, he drops the H.

Now we have a T between vowels, so that becomes a flap T linking them.

What have, what have.

What have–

W consonant, AA vowel, flap T linking, and then have is reduced to just schwa V.

What have, what have, what have, what have you, what have you seen, what have you seen today?

What have you seen today?

What have you seen today?

What have you seen today?

Nothing good.

Nothing good.

Nothing good.

He’s being a little sassy here. They’ve had a lot of fun that day.

Nothing good.

Making the pitch go up a little bit at the end.

Nothing good.

Sort of shows that sassiness. Nothing. Did you notice? It’s not: nothing, nothing, nothing,

so he’s changed the NG ending to just an N ending.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Nothing–

Another thing I want to just say about ING endings.

So ING written in IPA, IH, Nn, IN, written in IPA, IH, Nn, however,

when the vowel IH is followed by NG, that vowel changes.

It’s actually a lot more like EE, like in the word ring, or sing. That’s not ring, or sing.

So that NG consonant changes the vowel. So if we have an ING ending,

and we change the NG sound to an N sound, we not only change the consonant, but we change the vowel as well.

It goes from sounding like EE to sounding more like IH.

So nothin’ in, in, instead of nothing, ing, ing, nothing, nothing, nothing good.

Nothing good.

Nothing good. Light release of the D.

Don’t make it good. That’s too much. Good. Good. Good.

Really light.

Good.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, this…

Okay, so we’re not going to go through the pronunciation of this. He’s just sort of in disbelief,

just sort of saying little beginnings of words but not actually completing any of them. He can’t believe it.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, this…

What do you mean nothing good?

What do you mean nothing good?

Wha– up down shape on our question word. What do you mean nothing good?

What do you mean nothing good?

What do you mean nothing good?

What do you mean nothing good?

What do you– again, we have that reduction, don’t we?

It’s not: what do you, but it’s: whah d’ya–

What do you mean–

Actually, it’s what uh you– so he reduces the vowel in do to the schwa,

but he doesn’t reduce it in you, it is still unstressed. So this can be:

what do you, or whah d’ya-. What do you , whah d’ya.

So the first time we heard it as: whah d’ya, now here, it’s: what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you.

What matters is that that is unstressed. Now, you can choose to do you, or ya, totally up to you.

If you want to work this phrase into your conversational english, and you want to practice it,

you can choose if you want to reduce that vowel or not.

Just really practice: whah d’ya- whah d’ya- or what do you, what do you.

Practice that smoothness and the stress. The first word is stressed,

the other two words said very quickly. That’s what’s important here to sound natural.

Both vowels are okay. Whah d’ya. What do you. What do you. What do you mean?

What do you mean?

What do you mean?

What do you mean?

Mean nothing good? Mean nothing–

Two words, same sound linking them together. Mean nothing.

Just a single N sound to link. Nothing. Nothing. Okay, so UH as in butter vowel,

unvoiced TH, your tongue tip has to come through.

Nothing. Nothing. Let’s take a look at his mouth position for that sound.

What do you mean nothing good?

Nothing good. Now here, he does not change the ING ending to IN so it is EE as in She, ING sound. Nothing.

Nothing. Nothing good. Nothing good. Right from the NG sound into the G sound, no break, all connected.

Nothing good.

Nothing good.

Nothing good. We’ve seen everything good.

We’ve seen everything good.

So the words we’ve and seen, two unstressed syllables leading up to that peak of pitch.

Ev– on the first syllable here. Everything good and then some more stress there.

We’ve seen everything good. And it all links together.

The V sound is very subtle. We’ve seen– just very subtle and fast there.

We’ve seen. We’ve seen. We’ve seen. Think of it as a word, not two words.

That’s how linked together it needs to be. We’ve seen everything.

You can think of this word as being: neverything, neverything, if that helps you connect the two words.

We’ve seen everything good.

We’ve seen everything good.

We’ve seen everything good.

We’ve seen everything good.

Thing, unvoiced TH. IH as in sit, NG ending, so the vowel is more like EE. Everything good.

And again linking right into the G sound. Everything good.

Everything good.

Everything good.

Everything good. We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

Stress on seen, again, we’ve, it’s unstressed, it’s just leading up to that stressed syllable.

We’ve seen the whole.

Whole city. Some stress on whole. More stress on ci-city.

So we see the letter C but of course, it’s the S consonant, first syllable stress, city.

Flap T because it comes between two vowels, we flap it. I’ve been writing that with the D symbol, dadada,

because the T between vowels sounds just like the D between vowels. City, city, city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

Whole, silent W. We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city. I want to talk about the L here:

whole city, that’s a dark L because it comes after the diphthong sound in that syllable.

That would be pronounced or written in IPA H, OH diphthong, L. Whole. Whole.

Now, because the next word begins with a consonant, we can get away with not lifting the tongue tip,

and actually that’s what you want to do. If you lift your tongue tip for this L, it will bring the sound more forward

and it will probably take too long.

We just want: who-oh-ohl, whole.

Also the dark L really changes that diphthong, doesn’t it? It’s not: who-ol, who-ol.

So the diphthong isn’t pure, it’s whole.

Sort of a funny dark sound. The lips around some. The back of the tongue presses down and back.

Whole city. Before we go into the S sound.

We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

We’ve seen the whole city.

Let’s listen to this whole conversation one more time.

It’s getting late, buddy, we better go get the car back home.

What? » What do you…? We have a few hours.

We have until six.

I’m sorry, I mean, I know you don’t care, but it does mean my ass.

You think I don’t care?

I know you don’t care.

Oh, that hurts, Cameron.

Cameron, what have you seen today?

Nothing good.

Nothing, nothing, nothing, this…

What do you mean nothing good?

We’ve seen everything good. We’ve seen the whole city.

Now for the fun part,

you’ll look at the notes we took together and you’ll hear a part of the conversation on a loop three times.

Then there’s a space for you to repeat. For example, you’ll hear this:

Maybe so, sir.

Then you’ll repeat it: maybe so, sir. Try to imitate everything about this exactly so when you see this,

then you’ll repeat it. Maybe so, sir.

That’s from Top Gun: Maverick, which was the first movie we studied in this summer series.

You’ll also have the opportunity to listen and repeat in slow motion.

This will be important for you if you’re more of a beginner, or if you’re having a hard time focusing on linking or the melody.

Maybe you’ll want to do it both ways, but the important thing is here is your opportunity

to take what you learned and put it into your body and your own habit.

That’s what’s going to transform your speaking.

You might do well to work with the audio section of this video every day for a week.

Imitating the rhythm and the simplifications will get easier each time you do it.

If you can’t keep up with the native speaker, do the slow-motion imitation.

Okay, here’s our audio training section.

Don’t forget to come back and do this audio again tomorrow and the next day.

You want to build habits here so you don’t need to think about it so much when you’re speaking in conversation.

You can focus on the words and not the expression or pronunciation.

Don’t forget this is part of a series all summer long, 13 videos, 13 scenes for movies check out each one,

learn something new each time.

That’s it guys and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.