Lady Bird

In the US, summer is for sand, sun, and blockbuster movies.

And this summer, we’re going to use those movies

to learn English, and study how to sound American.

Every video this summer is going

to be a Study English with Movies video.

We’ll pull scenes from the summer’s hottest movies,

as well as favorite movies from years past.

It’s amazing what we can discover

by studying even a small bit of English dialogue.

We’ll study how to understand movies,

what makes Americans sound American,

and of course, any interesting vocabulary, phrasal verbs,

or idioms that come up in the scenes we study.

I call this kind of exercise a Ben Franklin exercise.

First, we’ll watch the scene.

Then we’ll do an in-depth analysis of what we hear together.

This is going to be so much fun.

Be sure to tell your friends and spread the word

that all summer long, every Tuesday,

we’re studying English with movies,

here at Rachel’s English.

If you’re new to my channel, click Subscribe,

and don’t forget the notification button.

Let’s get started.

First, the scene.

What do you want from me?

Yes?

My, my grandma wanted me to tell you

that she missed you at Christmas.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.

Your mom is crazy, I’m scared of her.

She’s not crazy, she’s just, y’know, she,

she has a big heart, she’s very warm.

Now, the analysis.

What do you want from me?

I love this phrase, it’s a little bit sassy.

There’s one really clear stressed word,

and she does a movement on it, as she says it.

She puts her foot down on the stressed word.

Watch it again and listen for that.

What do you want from me?

And the most stressed word is want.

What do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

So the energy goes up towards the peak of want.

What do you want from me?

And then it falls down away from that peak.

What do, we have a T and a D.

How are these two words pronounced?

Let’s go ahead and throw in this word, too.

How are these three words pronounced?

What do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

They’re pronounced

what do you, what do you, what do you.

So the vowels in do and you are not reduced.

You could hear that whaddya, whaddya.

You could hear them as schwas,

but she’s making them both OO vowels.

what do you, what do you, what do you, what do you.

But notice the T here is dropped,

and she’s just using the D to link the two words together.

Wha-do, wha-do.

So it’s a flap because it comes between two vowel sounds.

And the T is also a flap

when it comes between two vowel sounds.

So it’s sort of like she’s combining the two,

or you can think of it as dropping the T.

But this would be a pretty common way

to pronounce the phrase, what do you.

What do you, what do you, what do you,

what do you, what do you.

I would say it’s the most common way.

You can just forget about the T and link it into the D.

What do you, what do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

Want from me, want from me.

So we have a stop T, want from, want from.

And the word ‘from’ is reduced.

It’s not from, it’s from, from.

I would write it with a schwa.

From me, from me.

Then here we have ending M, beginning M,

links together with just a single M sound.

Very smooth, no breaks, no skips or jumps

in the intonation here.

Uhh, just a smooth up and down.

What do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

What do you want from me?

Yes?

Yes?

And she does a head gesture, she’s impatient.

Why is this guy showing up at her work, yes?

Upward pitch shows that it’s a yes-no question.

She’s saying, I’m expecting you to talk here.

Yes?

Yes?

Yes?

My, my grandma wanted me to tell you

that she missed you at Christmas.

Whoa, different day, different outfit,

important announcement.

Did you know that with this video,

I made a free audio lesson that you can download?

In fact, I’m going this for each one

of the YouTube videos I’m making this summer,

all 11 of the Learn English with Movies videos.

So follow this link, or find the link

in the video description

to get your free downloadable audio lesson.

It’s where you’re going to train all of the things

that you learned about pronunciation in this video.

Back to the lesson.

Yes?

My, my grandma wanted me to tell you

that she missed you at Christmas.

So we have several stressed words here.

My, my grandma wanted me

to tell you

that she missed you at Christmas.

So I’m hearing those as our four most stressed syllables,

little bit longer, up-down shape,

the energy goes towards them then it comes away.

But we have lots of other interesting things

with pronunciation that are happening here.

My, my grandma wanted me to tell you

that she missed you at Christmas.

My, my grandma wanted me to tell you

that she missed you at Christmas.

My, my grandma wanted me to tell you

that she missed you at Christmas.

My, my grandma, my, my, my, my.

Both the words ‘my’ are unstressed,

they’re said really quickly, they’re low in pitch.

My, my, my, my, my.

So you have to simplify the mouth position.

You can’t do this big jaw drop for the AI diphthong,

like you might do in a stressed syllable, my, my, my, my.

My, my grandma,

Grandma, so it’s a stressed word,

and yet we don’t say the D.

Very common to drop the D in this word.

We often drop the D between two consonants,

here it comes after N, before M, and it’s dropped, grandma.

My, my grandma,

And actually, he’s dropping the N, too.

So this can be pronounced with the N,

grandma, but you know what?

It’s actually not that common either

in this particular word, grandma,

grandma.

AH vowel,

followed by the M consonant,

when AH is followed by M it’s not pure, we add an AH vowel.

Grandma.

Grandma, grandma, grandma, try that.

My, my grandma,

My, my grandma wanted me to tell you

that she missed you at Christmas.

Wanted me to tell you,

actually, I really need another line here,

another curve on wanted.

Now, it’s interesting, it is stressed, it’s the verb.

Usually we don’t reduce stressed words, but you know what?

Sometimes we do and that’s happening here, wanted.

The T is not there.

Sometimes we drop the T after N, that’s what’s happening.

Wanted, wanted.

But the ED ending still follows the rule for ED after T,

and that is it adds an extra syllable.

It’s the IH vowel plus D sound.

Wanted, wanted,

wanted me to, wanted me to.

The other thing that you might notice is

the word ‘to’ is not pronounced to,

it’s pronounced duh, duh, duh.

It’s a flap T and the schwa, wanted me to,

wanted me to, wanted me to tell.

Wanted me to tell you,

wanted me to tell you that she missed you.

Tell you that she missed you,

tell you that she missed you.

Okay, so the word That, tell you that she,

it’s reduced, it’s not that, but it’s that, that.

It’s the schwa instead of the AH vowel, that, that, that.

Tell you that she.

So, between the stressed words Tell and Missed,

we have three unstressed words,

and they’re all said really quickly,

and they’re flat, lower in pitch,

you that she, you that she, you that she.

Tell you that she,

tell you that she missed you at Christmas.

Now the ED ending after S is pronounced

as a T sound, so it does not add an extra syllable.

Missed you, missed you.

But that’s not what’s happening, is it?

Let’s listen.

That she missed you at Christmas.

That she missed you at Christmas.

That she missed you at Christmas.

Okay, so what’s happening here?

We do drop the T sometimes

when it comes between two consonants

just like I said we do with the D here,

although we were actually dropping the N

and the D in that case.

But we do drop the T between two consonants.

So here T comes after the S sound,

it comes before the Y consonant.

I’m not really hearing the T.

I’m certainly not hearing

(softly makes T sound) a released T.

So I’m actually gonna go ahead and say

you can drop that sound, you can drop the ED ending.

And this is something that my students ask me sometimes.

They say, “I don’t hear the ED ending sometimes.”

And I think that when they don’t hear it

is when it makes a T sound,

but it comes between two consonants.

I think this is a case where it gets dropped a lot

in conversational English.

She missed you at Christmas, she missed you at Christmas.

I know exactly what’s being said,

I know that it’s past tense.

I’m not hearing it and thinking it’s not past tense.

Because I know the context,

and I’m used to T’s being dropped between two consonants.

That she missed you at Christmas.

That she missed you at Christmas.

That she missed you at Christmas.

Missed you at Christmas,

you at, you at, you at.

So here we have two more unstressed words together,

they’re flat in pitch, they’re said very quickly,

the AH vowel is reduced, it’s the schwa,uh, uh, uh stop T.

So that and at are similar

in that they both reduce often

with the AH vowel becoming the schwa,

and then the T is a stop T when it’s followed

by a word that begins with a consonant.

That she missed you at Christmas.

That she missed you at Christmas.

That she missed you at Christmas.

Like Christmas.

Okay, let’s keep talking about our T’s between consonants.

How is this T pronounced?

Christmas.

It’s dropped.

Christmas, Christmas.

Christmas.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

What are our stressed syllables there?

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Yeah, yeah, that has a little stress.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

An, anyway is well stressed.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Tiny little break after yeah.

Yeah, well, tiny little break after well.

Yeah, yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone.

And then very smooth, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

How is she making those words link together so smoothly?

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Well she’s dropping the H in have, that’s common.

And she’s actually dropping the apostrophe T

in an apostrophe T contraction.

That happens sometimes, too.

It happens especially when an apostrophe T is followed

by a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong.

Now this word typically begins with a consonant,

but that often gets dropped, so it’s not a consonant,

it is a vowel, couldn’t’ve.

And so the N is linking right into the vowel

and the vowel is reduced.

It’s not AH, it’s the schwa, couldn’t’ve.

Couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve.

Try that, let’s do it slowly, couldn’t’ve.

So I’m putting the tongue up

into position for the D, couldn’t.

I’m not releasing the D, I’m going right into an N sound.

couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve,

couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve.

That really smooths it out, doesn’t it?

A lot smoother than couldn’t have, couldn’t have.

Well, I couldn’t have gone.

Well, I couldn’t have gone.

Well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Couldn’t have gone anyway.

Gone anyway, gone anyway.

Ending N, ending consonant links into beginning vowel,

the EH of anyway, and it’s just all very smoothly connected.

Actually, she keeps going.

She smoothly connects the AY diphthong into the N consonant.

Well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

Well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.

So this is actually a pretty long thought group.

My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.

What are our most stressed words here?

My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.

My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.

My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.

My mom, little bit of length there,

little bit of higher pitch.

My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.

Pissed and Thanksgiving.

Okay, now here we have another ED ending, it comes after S,

an unvoiced sound, therefore, it is the T.

I do have a video on ED endings

if you’re not sure about the rules for pronunciation.

So you can search on YouTube Rachel’s English,

ED endings, and you’ll find it there.

It’s pretty simple, the rules.

Last time we dropped the T in ‘missed’

because it was followed by a word

that began with a consonant.

But here, the next word begins with a vowel

and do you hear a T sound?

My mom was pissed about.

My mom was pissed about.

My Mom was pissed about.

Definitely, I definitely hear

a true T releasing into the vowel.

Pissed about, t’about, t’about, t’about, t’about,

pissed about.

My mom was pissed about.

My mom was pissed about.

My mom was pissed about.

I also wanna point out the word ‘was’ isn’t was.

That’s stressed, it’s was, unstressed.

Said very quickly, I would write that with a schwa.

Was, was, was, was, was, was pissed, was pissed about.

Then we have a stop T in about

because the next word begins with a consonant.

It’s the TH, unvoiced, of Thanksgiving.

My mom was pissed about.

My mom was pissed about.

My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving, middle syllable stressed.

Have you noticed when you look this word up

in the dictionary, it says it’s the A, as in that vowel,

is followed by the NG consonant?

The letter N here is actually the NG sound

because it’s followed by K.

And when those two sounds come one after another,

in the same syllable,

usually the K makes the N an NG sound instead.

So it’s made at the back of the tongue where the K is,

instead of at the front of the tongue.

Now, when the AH vowel is followed by NG, it is not AH.

I’m sure you can tell it’s not tha, Thanksgiving,

tha, thanks, but it’s thanks.

When AH is followed by the NG consonant,

it sounds a lot more like the AY diphthong, thanks, thanks,

and that’s just like over on the other slide,

where we talked about the word grandma.

The AH vowel followed by the M consonant here

and the vowel changes.

So the AH vowel changes

when it’s followed by nasal consonants.

M or N, we add an uh sound, a-uh.

Followed by NG, it changes to the AY diphthong, more or less.

Thank, thanksgiving, thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving.

Your mom is crazy, I’m scared of her.

Your mom is, and then a break,

thinking about wow, what to say about this girl’s mom?

Your mom is, what’s stressed there?

Your mom is,

Very clear, isn’t it?

Your mom is, your mom is, it’s the middle word, Mom.

Your mom is, your mom is.

The word Your is reduced, it’s not your,

but it’s said much faster than that.

I would write it with a schwa, reduced vowel.

Yer, yer, yer, yer mom, yer mom, yer mom is.

Your mom is,

crazy, I’m scared of her.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

So even though this is two different sentences,

he links them right together, he does not stop.

They make one thought group, crazy I’m scared of her.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

Actually, that’s not how he said it.

He did say the H here.

So earlier, she dropped the H on the word have.

It’s very common to drop the H

on words like have, had, her, he, him.

But we don’t always do it, he doesn’t do it.

It’s still unstressed, I’m scared of her.

Of her, of her, of her, of her.

But the H isn’t dropped.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

Okay, what are our stressed words,

our stressed syllables in this thought group?

crazy, I’m scared of her.

Crazy, crazy, I’m scared of her.

Cray and scare, longer with that up-down shape of pitch.

Everything really smoothly connected,

the lower unstressed syllables

fall right into the same line,

no skips or jumps in intonation.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

Crazy, I’m scared of her.

Scared of her, scared of her,

of her, of her, of her.

I would probably write of with the schwa.

Sometimes we drop the V sound here,

which the letter F makes the V sound.

But he doesn’t, he does make a quick V sound.

Of, of, of, of her, of her, of her, of her, of her.

I’m scared of her,

She’s not crazy.

She’s not crazy, she’s not crazy.

So cray, the most stressed syllable there

in that little thought group,

and the intonation of she’s

and not builds up towards that, she’s not crazy.

She’s not, she’s not, she’s not.

Do you hear how the pitch is rising there?

Towards the peak of cray.

She’s not crazy, crazy,

and we have a stop T at the end of not

because the next word begins with a consonant sound.

She’s not crazy.

She’s not crazy.

She’s not crazy, she’s just,

She just, how is that pronounced?

She’s just,

She reduces the word just.

It’s not just, it’s just, just, just, just.

T is dropped, vowel is the schwa,

Just, just, just, she just, she just, she just.

Flat in pitch, said quickly, unstressed.

She’s just,

y’know, she–

Y’know, y’know, y’know,

little filler phrase here while she thinks,

y’know, y’know, y’know.

Often we reduce the word you to yuh

in this little filler phrase, she does.

Yuh, yuh, y’know, y’know, y’know, y’know.

Y’know, she, y’know, she, y’know, she–

She, she, she says the word she, it’s fast.

Even though she stops to repeat herself,

the word sort of is on its own,

it’s still said very quickly, low in pitch, she, she, she.

Y’know, she, y’know, she,

y’know, she, she has a big heart.

She has a big heart,

she’s defending her mother here.

Two stressed words, she has a big heart.

So big, even though it’s an adjective,

it’s not as stressed as the other two stressed words there.

She has a big heart, heart.

So I would say the word big,

even though it is a content word,

doesn’t really feel stressed.

And that’s something you’ll notice

as you study pronunciation is that

we say content words are stressed,

function words are unstressed, totally not true.

Sentences with lots of content words

will have some content words that sound stressed,

and some that sound unstressed

because there are other content words

that are more important

that are stressed in that sentence.

She has a big heart.

Has, the letter S, here, is pronounced as a Z,

and that Z links right into the next sound,

which is the schwa has a, has a, has a big heart.

And did you notice there’s a stop T here?

T, we often say in clusters,

in ending clusters, is a true T,

but that’s not really true with NT or RT.

I’ve noticed with RT it’s really a lot more like a stop T.

Heart, heart, that’s what she does here.

Heart, heart, heart, she’s very warm.

She’s very warm.

She’s very warm,

ver and warm stress there.

I’m sure you can notice that the AW, as in Law, vowel

in the word warm doesn’t sound like AW.

Aw, warm, oh-oh-oh,

it’s much more closed.

When it’s followed by R, the letter R,

the sound R does change that vowel.

Lips round a little bit more,

tongue pulls back a little bit more, warm, warm, not AW,

which is the symbol you’ll see

if you look it up in a dictionary.

She’s very warm,

Let’s listen to the whole

conversation one more time.

What do you want from me?

Yes?

My, my grandma wanted me to tell you

that she missed you at Christmas.

Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.

My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.

Your mom is crazy, I’m scared of her.

She’s not crazy, she’s just, y’know,

she, she has a big heart, she’s very warm.

We’re going to be doing a lot more

of this kind of analysis together.

What movie scenes would you like to see analyzed like this?

Let me know in the comments.

And if you want to see all my Ben Franklin videos,

click here.

You’ll also find the link in the video description.

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