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You can understand Americans effortlessly and speak very natural English

when you study the way we’re going to today.

We’re going to study English with the movie Molly’s Game.

And we’re going to study an argument.

There are two different ways that people tend to speak in an argument.

Louder and more intense, and quieter and more intentional.

And in this scene, we have both.

We’re going to look at all the things that make spoken English difficult—linking, reductions,

changing the sounds of a word. When you study these things and you know them,

you’re going to be so much more comfortable and confident speaking English.

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

That is my business literally.

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.

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

Be that as may…

You know who the biggest winner in this game is?

It’s you.

You know who the second biggest winner is?

Look. » It’s you.

What are you taking home? 10,000 a night now?

That is my business, literally.

Between you, the dealers, and the servers, you’re taking a lot of money out of this game.

And now, the analysis.

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

Okay, so these people are arguing.

His voice is higher, it’s louder.

These guys– it’s a little bit more intense, has a little bit more of an edge to it.

What do you think are the most stressed syllables here?

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

These guys– a little bit of stress there.

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

So me and you get the most stress. He’s comparing the two of them.

But even guys, even all of the words other than me and you, are said pretty quickly.

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

These guys, These guys, These guys, These guys. These, said quickly, unstressed.

These guys–

These, These, These, These. That S is a Z sound.

It’s weak. Just make sure you’re not saying: these.

These, These, These, These, These, these guys.

These guys—

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

What about: want to play cards with–?

What about this string of unstressed words before our next stressed syllable, me?

Want to play cards with—

Want to play cards with—

Want to play cards with—

Want to play cards with–

want to play cards with—So, pretty fast. The words ‘want to’ are combined into the reduction: wanna, wanna.

Wanna play cards with—

Want to play cards with—

Want to play cards with—

Want to play cards with—

And actually in the word with, I hear that TH being dropped. With me, with me, with me.

Just a super fast W, IH sound linking into the word me. With me.

With me.

So let’s listen to that whole string of unstressed, less stressed words.

Want to play cards with me–

Want to play cards with me–

Want to play cards with me, not you.

Me, not you. Me, not—stop T in not. And actually, now that I’m focused on just these three words,

I hear that the word you is stressed but it doesn’t have the stress that goes up and down.

It has a stress that goes up. You—me, not you.

Me, not you.

Me, not you.

Me, not you.

Be that as it may…

Her voice is much quieter.

Each word is more clear and separate.

More so than it would be in normal conversational English.

Be that as it may. Stress on be, be that as it may.

Be that as it may…

Be that as it may…

Be that as it may…

And she makes her stress go up, so that she can signal that she’s going to continue, she’s not done,

but he goes ahead and talks over her anyway, doesn’t he? Be that as it may…

Be that as it may… » You know—

Be that as it may… » You know—

Be that as it may… » You know—

Be that– So even though she’s being clearer than you would in normal conversational English,

she still doesn’t release that as a true T.

Be that as it– that’s a stop T, she stops the air.

Be that as it may… she doesn’t link it together with the flap T.

Be that as it may… Be that as it may…

That would be the way that you would probably pronounce that in conversational English,

you would reduce the vowel in as, you would make a flap T to link,

but she doesn’t do that. Be that as it—

She does link here, the Z sound links right into the beginning IH vowel.

As it may– another stop T in it. Be that as it may…

Be that as it may… » You know—

Be that as it may… » You know—

Be that as it may… » You know—

So this is very careful English.

He’s speaking much more quickly, his is more conversational.

So even though we think: oh, this is so clear, this one has to be right. It’s actually not.

I mean, it’s fine that she does it here, but if you spoke everything you said this clearly, this slowly,

that would no longer be natural English.

It’s this kind of English with the reductions and the linking, words like wanna, dropped sounds,

that’s the kind of English that’s normal conversational English.

Okay, let’s keep going.

Be that as it may… » You know—

Be that as it may… » You know—

Be that as it may… » You know who the biggest winner in this game is?

You know– A lot of stress there.

You know who the biggest winner in this game is?

I think those are our most stressed words.

Let’s look at the rest. How does it all link together smoothly?

You know who the biggest winner in this game is?

You know who the biggest winner in this game is?

You know who the biggest winner in this game is?

So the word you, I don’t think that’s a reduction. I do think it’s you instead of ye, ye, ye. You know–

that’s a common way to pronounce it, with the schwa. Ye– you know.

But I do hear that that as the OO vowel. You, you, you, you, you. You know– you know–

but it’s said incredibly quickly. It’s not: you know, it’s you know, you, you, you. You know who the—

You know who the–

You know who the–

You know who the–

The word ‘who’ pronounced with the H consonant and the OO vowel.

I barely hear an H consonant. You know who the– You know who the–

You could even do that dropped, I think. You know who the– You know who the–

because I’m not even sure if I hear the H.

You know who the–

You know who the–

You know who the–

You know who the–

Wow, that’s not very clear, is it? But that’s what we do in normal conversational English.

The, also said very quickly, unstressed. The– the– the– the– the—

You know who the–

You know who the–

You know who the biggest winner in this game is?

Now we have two words with a stressed syllable.

Biggest winner so even though the word biggest is stressed, the T is dropped.

We drop this T in an ending cluster like ST cluster when the next word begins with a consonant.

Biggest winner. That helps us link more smoothly.

Biggest winner—

Biggest winner–

Biggest winner–

Now this vowel is the IH vowel like in sit.

Make sure you’re not making the EE vowel like in seat.

Biggest, biggest, bih—ih– it’s more relaxed. Bih– biggest. Biggest.

I’m saying it now with the T, but no, when we link in, we drop the T.

Biggest winner. Another IH vowel.

Winner. Biggest winner.

Biggest winner–

Biggest winner–

Biggest winner in this game is?

In this game is? In this game is?

So the R links right into the IH vowel. Winner in this–

So the unstressed syllable of winner,

the word in, and the word this, this is three unstressed syllables together.

Ner in this– ner in this– ner in this– ner in this– and they’re flatter in pitch.

In this game. Then for the stressed word game, we have that up down shape,

all linked together smoothly.

Ner in this game— ner in this game is?

Winner in this game is?

Winner in this game is?

Winner in this game is?

Winner in this game is?

Now in this, you’re going to have to really simplify the mouth movements, especially here,

the TH in this is voiced, same with hearing the word the, voiced TH.

When you have a voiced TH beginning an unstressed word like the, or this, you don’t actually say: the or this.

To do that, I’m making my tongue tip come through the teeth.

Well, that’s too much and too long of a sound for a little unstressed word like the, or this.

So we actually do a shortcut with that TH in these situations, voiced sound, beginning a stressed word.

That, this, the, these, up here as well.

So rather than a full TH sound, it’s, the, the, the, the.

The TH is made with the tongue, not coming through the teeth, but

pushing forward, it moves forward and it’s right towards the backs of the teeth,

but it’s not at the roof of the mouth, that would probably end up sounding like a d,

Ddd—it’s the, the, the, and you pull the tongue tip back.

So for here, the word the, you pull it back and you just make the schwa.

The, the, the. Here, for the word these, these, these, these, these. You pull it back, you make the EE vowel.

For the word this, this, this, this, this, this, this. You pull it back and you make the IH quickly before the S.

This, this, this, this. So it’s not this, this this, this, this,

it’s this, this, this, this. Winner in this game is?

You really have to simplify that TH in order to get that sound right,

in order to get that word said quickly enough as an unstressed word.

Winner in this game is?

Winner in this game is?

Winner in this game is?

Game is, game is. The word ‘is’ is pronounced IH as in sit, Z.

So don’t make it ‘is’ but: is, is, is. This is weak, you don’t have to go izzz–

and really put a lot of energy into that sound, just make sure it’s not a strong S, is, is, is.

Game is.

It’s you.

It’s you. It’s you. More stress on you. It’s you.

Than on its. But both words pretty clearly pronounced. It’s you. It’s you. Nice and smooth.

It’s you.

It’s you.

It’s you.

You know who the second biggest winner is?

You know who the second biggest winner is?

So we have a few more syllables here with this length. Let’s look at the word you.

I think I hear a reduction. Let’s listen.

You know–

You know, you know. It is a reduction. So it’s not you,

with the OO vowel, but it’s: ye ye ye, you know, you know, you know.

Here where it was stressed, it was definitely you, but here, unstressed, it can either be the same sounds but

with an unstressed feeling, or it can be reduced, and he reduces it. Ye ye ye ye you know, you know.

You know–

who the second biggest winner is?

You know who the— who the— who the— who the—

Again, low in pitch, flat, simplify this voiced TH, You know who the— You know who the—

You know who the—

second biggest winner is?

Second biggest winner is?

Okay so we have four words, they all have a little bit of an up down shape feeling in their stressed syllable.

We have a couple dropped sounds. Second biggest.

The D is dropped here.

So we dropped the T in biggest, we already know that,

because it’s part of an ST cluster and the next word begins with a consonant.

So biggest winner, we already looked at that, but second biggest.

We also dropped that for the same reason. It comes between two consonants, especially if the consonant before was an N,

very likely we’re going to drop that. Like in the phrase:

grand piano, grand piano, it’s very common to drop a D in that situation, after an N,

before another consonant, grand piano.

Second biggest winner is?

Second biggest winner is?

Second biggest winner is?

Second biggest winner is? Uuhhh.

That up down shape. Really practice that when you’re working with the audio. Second biggest winner is?

It’s just the smooth pulse up, uhhhh, gliding together very smoothly.

Second biggest winner is?

Second biggest winner is?

Second biggest winner is?

Look. » It’s you.

Look. Look.

She doesn’t want to answer that question, look, look, up down shape,

two O’s here. Don’t say OO, it’s UH like in the word push, or in the word sugar. Look, look.

Look–

And she lightly releases the K. And again she’s just started talking and he butts in.

He doesn’t let her finish her sentence her word before he starts talking again.

Look–

It’s you.

It’s you. So just like up here,

we’ve got it’s, on the way up, and the stress on you.

It’s you. It’s you. Again you, not reduced. You, you, you. It’s you.

It’s you.

It’s you.

It’s you.

What are you taking home?

What are you taking home?

What are you taking home?

Lots of stress. Stress on the question word.

What are you taking– a little bit of stress there, home?

And then quite a bit more stress there on the word home.

What are you taking home?

What are you taking home?

What are you taking home?

What are you taking home? Now, let’s look at how these two words are linking together.

It’s not what are, so that’s maybe what you learned. The pronunciation of this is what, the pronunciation of this is are,

but that’s not actually how it is.

What rr– What rr–they’re linking together with the flap T. The vowel here is the UH as in butter.

The word ‘are’ is reducing to just schwa R. What rr– What rr– What rr–

And then there’s a single flap of the tongue against the roof of the mouth for the T.

What rr– What rr– what are you—

What are you—

taking home?

What are you taking home? Taking, taking, taking.

This is a true T because it starts a stressed syllable. What are you taking home?

Home? And then a lot more stress there, up down shape on that OH diphthong. What are you taking home?

Dadadadadada. What are you taking home?

What are you taking home?

What are you taking home?

What are you taking home? Ten thousand–

Ten thousand– let’s write this out.

Ten thousand a–

Ten thousand a night now?

And now here, we have the word now stressed, but it’s going up because this is a yes no question.

So the first question, you can’t answer it with yes or no. It’s a number, it’s an amount.

So if a question is not a yes/no question, it usually goes down in pitch,

and if it is a yes/no question, it usually goes up in pitch at the end.

Ten thousand–

Ten thousand–

a night now?

Ten thousand a night now? I’d put a little bit of length on night as well.

Ten thousand a night now?

Ten thousand a night now?

Ten thousand a night now?

Ten thousand a–

Now what’s happening to this D in thousand?

It’s getting dropped, isn’t it? The word ‘a’ becomes the schwa.

And we just link those together with no d. Ten thousand a night now?

Ten thousand a night now?

Ten thousand a night now?

Ten thousand a night now?

So this is different, before, we said we would drop a D after an N if the next sound was a consonant.

But here, it’s not, it’s a vowel and we’re still dropping it.

D after N is a case where we do sometimes drop that even if the next word is a vowel.

And this is also true of T, we drop T after N a lot like in the word ‘internet’,

that word just becomes: internet.

So this is just one of those things, the N makes it possible

that we’re going to drop the D or a T after, and that’s what happens here: Ten thousand a night now?

Night, night, do you hear that stop T?

Night now? So it’s not released, just a little break in the line, night now, night now,

to signify the stop quality of that T, and our ears hear that as a T.

Ten thousand a night now?

Ten thousand a night now?

Ten thousand a night now?

That is my business.

That is my business.

And then she puts a little break there, two thought groups.

That is my business.

Everything links together smoothly. She uses a flap T here to link the two words, just like we did with ‘what are’.

That is my business.

That is my business.

That is my business.

Here, the vowels are the AH vowel and the IH vowel.

D comes between two vowels, sorry, T comes between two vowels make that a flap.

That is my– that is my—

That is my—

That is my—

That is my—

Business. Now this is a word that kind of looks like it should be three syllables.

Business, business, but it’s not, there is no middle syllable there.

Bus– B consonant, IH vowel, Z consonant: bus—ness– and then N,

IH and S in the unstressed syllable.

So here the S is a Z. Make sure you’re making that a Z sound: biz—biz—

Business, business.

Business–

Business, literally.

Literally. First syllable stress and the other syllables just come in on the way down.

Literally.

Flap T because it comes between two vowels and it does not start a stressed syllable.

Literally. Literally.

Literally.

Literally.

Literally.

So why does she say literally? We do use: ‘That is my business’ as a phrase to mean

it doesn’t concern you. For example, if someone said:

Rachel, you shouldn’t let Stoney eat ice cream every night.

I might say: That’s my business. Or: Mind your own business. Or: Whatever.

And that means this doesn’t concern you. I don’t want your input on it.

But she’s talking about how she makes her money, her business,

and so she says: That is my business, literally.

So she’s saying it in two ways. One, this doesn’t concern you how much I make a night, and two,

this is literally my income, how I make my money, how I run my business. That is my business, literally.

That is my business, literally.

That is my business, literally.

That is my business, literally.

Between you, the dealers, and the servers–

Okay, so now he lists three things. Between you, pitch goes up, between you,

the dealers, and the servers.

So when we list, we tend to make the pitch go up

for each item, until we get to the end and then the pitch goes down.

Between you, the dealers, and the servers—

Between you, the dealers, and the servers—

Between you, the dealers, and the servers—

Between you, the dealers, and the servers—

Notice the T in between is a true T. That’s because it starts a stressed syllable. Between you.

Between you–

the dealers.

The dealers– now we’re going to want that simplified TH, not the, but the, the, the.

The dealers, the dealers.

The dealers,

and the servers—

And the servers— and the servers— And, and, dropped D there.

And the servers. There’s a little bit of a, and the, a little bit of an up down shape there.

And is something that we don’t usually stress but he’s stressing that because he wants to really

emphasize the fact that there are multiple ways that he is losing money in this game.

You, the dealers, and the servers.

And the servers—

You’re taking a lot of money out of this game.

Okay, then he keeps going, no break, this Z sound links right into the Y sound. We have a reduction here.

It’s not your, it’s yer. Servers you’re– servers you’re— servers you’re—

Servers you’re–

taking a lot of money out of this game.

Servers, you’re taking a lot of money out of this game.

Those are our longer, more stressed words. The T in taking is a true T because it starts a stressed syllable.

Taking a– So we have two unstressed syllables here, everything links together.

Taking a, taking a, taking a lot, taking a lot.

Taking a lot

of money out of this game.

A lot of– So we have another T between vowels, so that’s going to be a flap T.

The word of is reduced, it’s just the schwa.

A lot of– A lot of– A lot of—

Taking a lot of–

money out of this game.

Then we have the word money, stressed, first syllable stress,

money, and that vowel in the stress syllable is the UH as in butter vowel.

Money. Money. A lot of money.

Linking together smoothly, no breaks, a lot of money.

A lot of money–

out of this game.

A lot of money out of this game. So then we have three more unstressed words,

plus the unstressed syllable here: ney out of this– ney out of this– ney out of this—

ney out of this game, money out of this game.

How are ‘out of this’ pronounced?

Out of this game.

Out of this game, out of this, out of this, out of this.

The word of again is reduced entirely to the schwa. Out of, out of, out of.

So this becomes a flap T linking together two vowel diphthong sounds here, it’s the OW diphthong.

Out of, out of, out of. Out of this, out of this. Again, don’t try to say: this, this, that’s too much TH, simplify it.

This, this, this, this. Out of this, out of this, out of this, out of this game.

Out of this game.

Intense conversation. Let’s listen to it one more time.

These guys want to play cards with me, not you.

Be that as may…

You know who the biggest winner in this game is?

It’s you.

You know who the second biggest winner is?

Look. » It’s you.

What are you taking home? 10,000 a night now?

That is my business, literally.

Between you, the dealers, and the servers, you’re taking a lot of money out of this game.

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.