Pratique du Shadowing: American English Connected Reading | Complaining About the Road - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Création de la leçon...
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Hey, what's up?
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It's Alex.
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Today, let's talk about the connected sounds in the short text
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where you're complaining about the quality of the road in your town.
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Let's take a look.
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I live in a place where they care about bikes a lot.
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I live in a, live in a.
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So this i in in basically gets reduced, and the uh gets connected to in.
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I live in a place where they care about bikes.
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Care about bikes.
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That T in about turns into a glottal stop.
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Where they care about bikes a lot.
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That T in lot also turns into a glottal stop because it's the end of the sentence.
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I live in a place where they care about bikes a lot.
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The roads are wide and flat and they're paved smooth.
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The roads are wide and flat.
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So here the road sir, we don't write apostrophe re but we do take out
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that ah sound in our the roads are sir the roads are wide
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and flat now here wide and Flat if I say
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that really quickly you don't really hear any of the individual sounds in a Md
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and gets reduced to a single nasal release release n.
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Widen flat.
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Widen flat.
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Now if I slow down a little bit I'll say widen flat.
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Widen flat.
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Widen flat.
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Widen flat.
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So I have a little bit of a hint of that vowel but that D is definitely gone.
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Widen flat and they're paved smooth. And there.
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So now I'm starting a section of the sentence with and so I'll say the eh vowel there. And there.
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I won't say the D though.
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And they're paved smooth.
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That D in paved gets reduced quite a bit before the S.
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And they're paved smooth.
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Paved smooth.
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There's a lot of space on the side of the road.
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There's a lot of.
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There's a lot of space.
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So a lot of, you can just think of it as combining into a lot of.
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There's a lot of space.
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There's a lot of space on the side of the road. On the. On the.
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We connect the N and the TH. On the. On the.
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My tongue goes between my teeth when I say on the instead of behind the teeth, which is what we normally do for an N sound.
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On the side of the road.
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Side the. Of the.
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There's no v in of anymore.
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Side the.
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Side the road.
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Space on the side of the road to ride your bike.
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Road d-d-d.
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The word to gets reduced right here very, very much.
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Road to.
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Road to ride your bike.
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Now, ride your turns into ride j-er.
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The vowel in your changes.
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Ride j-er.
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And the consonant y-er turns into a j-er after this d.
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Ride your bike.
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There's a lot of space on the side of the road to ride your bike.
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The only thing I don't like.
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The only, yonly.
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I add a little yuh sound there.
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The only.
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The only thing I don't like.
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Don't, don't like.
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I have a glottal stop there for the T in don't.
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If I say it really quickly, I could say don't like.
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The only thing I don't like.
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Don't like.
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Don't like.
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And in that case, there's no glottal stop or T.
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It just goes don't like.
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However, if you say this a little slower, it sounds strange, because we're used to hearing no glottal stop, no T, only in very fast speech.
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So if you say don't like, don't like, and stretch it out and say it very slowly, it can sound a little bit strange.
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The only thing I don't like, or don't like, the only thing I don't like is how many rocks and nails.
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Rocks and nails.
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So here we take off the D in and and reduce that first vowel.
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Rocks and nails there are on the road.
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Rocks and nails there are on the road.
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Now here I'm stressing there are, there are.
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I don't, the only thing I don't like is how many rocks and nails there are, there are on the road.
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I can never connect this into there-er.
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I can in other types of sentences, but in this sentence pattern, the only thing I don't like is how many blah blah blah there are.
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The only thing I know is how many blah blah blah there are.
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In this situation, I can never connect there-er.
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The only thing I don't like is how many rocks and nails there are, there are, on the road.
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On the road.
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On the road.
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Seriously, it's crazy.
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There must be dozens of nails.
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There must be dozens of nails. Must be.
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There's no T there.
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Must be turns into must be.
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There must be dozens of nails along the roads.
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Dozens of nails.
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Now that of nails could be of nails or a nails.
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You could reduce it and take out that v sound.
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There must be dozens of nails along the roads I ride on.
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The roads I ride on.
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ZI.
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Connect I to roads.
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Along the roads I ride on.
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I've gotten two flat tires.
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I've gotten.
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Gotten.
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I've gotten.
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There's a glottal stop there.
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Gotten.
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It's not a T.
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It's not gotten.
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It's gotten.
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I've gotten two flat tires.
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Flat tires.
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The T in flat and the T in tires connects together.
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I've gotten two flat tires in two months riding here.
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Months is a difficult word for a lot of people to say.
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All you need to do is take out the TH.
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Months.
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Months.
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That's how we say it every day.
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Months.
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Two months riding here.
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If you ride fast, if ya. If ya.
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So here U turns into ya.
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If you ride fast, there's no way to see the nails.
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No way to, d, d.
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That too, when it's used as part of a verb, reduces down to d.
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There's no way to see the nails until it's too late.
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Late.
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We finally end with a glottal stop T.
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Late normally ends with a T, but at the end of the sentence, we turn it into a glottal stop.
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Too late.
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If you like this kind lesson, remember I've got even longer and even more detailed pronunciation lessons
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that break down all the different rules I've discovered in many years of research.
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These lessons are available at the links below and in the comments.
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I'll see you there.
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All right, now I'll read the whole thing slowly but still with all the natural connected speech rules.
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It sounds a little funny because these rules only ever happen in fast, natural speed speech, but you can still practice with the slower version.
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After that, I'll read it at a normal speed.
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There must be dozens of nails along the roads I ride on.
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I've gotten two flat tires in two months riding here.
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If you ride fast, there's no way to see the nails until it's too late.
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Alright, here we go with normal speed.
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I live in a place where they care about bikes a lot.
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The roads are wide and flat and they're paved smooth.
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There's a lot of space on the side of the road to ride your bike.
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The only thing I don't like is how many rocks and nails there are on the road.
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Seriously, it's crazy.
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There must be dozens of nails along the roads I ride on.
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I've gotten two flat tires in two months riding here.
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If you ride fast, there's no way to see the nails until it's too late.

About This Lesson

In this lesson, you will practice American English connected reading through a relatable subject: complaining about the road quality in your town. By focusing on conversational phrases and the natural reduction of sounds, you can improve your English pronunciation. The lesson emphasizes how sounds in a sentence connect and change, allowing you to hear and replicate the rhythm and flow of spoken English. This is essential for enhancing your conversational skills and making your speech sound more fluent and natural.

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

  • Care about - To have concern or affection for something.
  • Paved smooth - Describing a road that is made flat and even.
  • A lot of - A common phrase meaning 'many' or 'much.'
  • On the side of - Referring to being adjacent to something.
  • Wide and flat - Describing the dimensions of a road.
  • Glottal stop - A sound that occurs when the airflow stops momentarily in the throat.
  • Nasal release - A technique where sound is released through the nose while pronouncing certain words.

Practice Tips

To make the most of this lesson and improve your English pronunciation, consider using a shadowing app that allows you to practice alongside the video. Start by listening to the sentences being spoken and try to mimic the rhythm and connected sounds. Focus particularly on phrases like "care about" and "a lot of", where sounds merge into one another. Keep your speed to match that of the speaker as closely as possible.

One effective technique is to break down sentences into smaller parts, allowing you to master each segment individually. For example, practice saying "widen flat" slowly, then gradually increase your speed until you can say it naturally. Don't hesitate to repeat sections multiple times; repetition is key in shadowspeak practice.

Additionally, pay attention to the use of the glottal stop in the sentence, particularly with words ending in "t." This may be challenging, but it’s essential to sound more native-like. As you practice, notice how dropping certain sounds makes the speech flow more effortlessly. Use this understanding to refine your skills in every shadowing session.

Finally, remember to use shadowspeaks to share your practice recordings with others for constructive feedback. This can help you identify areas for improvement, making your journey to fluency more effective and enjoyable.

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.