Shadowing Practice: COPY MY AMERICAN ACCENT! 🇺🇸 (How to 100% Improve Your Speaking Fluency) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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I'm going to teach you all about the American accent, which is my English accent because I am from the United States.

And this is a practice lesson, so I want you to participate and actually say these words and sentences with me.

And if you are someone who wants to improve and develop your speaking fluency, please subscribe, turn on notifications, that way I can become your teacher.

My name is Wes, the channel is Interactive English.

It's all about trying to help you reach your fluency goals.

So we're going to do this step by step.

And really, we're just going to build on top of things as we go along.

And again, I want you to practice.

So let's start with a couple of super common reductions.

And these are reductions that you absolutely need to learn

because you will hear them all the time and you will also use them all the time.

And I'm talking about probably the two most common reductions, gonna and wanna.

So going to and want to, when those phrases are followed by a base verb, we can reduce reduce them and going to is going to get reduced to gonna

and want to will get reduced to wanna.

Now, you may already be familiar with these reductions and you may already be using them as well and that's great.

It's all about developing a nice rhythm and flow.

So I'm going to give you some sentences and I just want you to repeat after me, say these reductions out loud, but I'm not going to spell the reduction.

I really want you to get in the habit, even when you're reading and you see going to followed by a verb that you're just going to change it already.

And in your mind, you're going to say gonna or wanna.

Now, keep in mind, these are reductions.

You're not going to emphasize these words.

So just repeat after me.

We're going to be late.

Are you going to go?

I'm not going to eat that.

He's going to start a new job.

It's going to rain tomorrow.

Excellent.

Easy enough.

And you really just move right through the sentence using these reductions.

So let's practice a few more sentences, this time with the reduction wanna.

I want to go home.

What do you want to do?

I don't want to be late.

Do you want to play a game?

Do you want to play a game.

We just want to relax.

All right, well done.

I trust that you are saying these out loud and practicing your speaking skills because just saying them out loud,

even with simple sentences, it's really going to help you get more comfortable so that you can start using them naturally.

Now, speaking of reductions, let's continue and talk about some single word reductions and I'm talking about the words to,

for, and and.

So these words are commonly used, but they're not really content words.

They're not words that you're going to emphasize.

And when they get reduced, the vowel sound can change slightly.

So each of these words has two different pronunciations.

So like the word to, it may sound like the number, but when it's reduced, It may sound much softer.

And you're really going to hear more of a schwa sound, that unstressed vowel sound.

The word for is going to sound like fur.

And and we're just going to reduce that.

That D is going to go away and it's going to sound like N.

I really want to emphasize the idea that these words are unstressed because I want to practice them.

And typically when people end up focusing on them, they emphasize the word.

And that is not the case.

The whole idea is that these words are unstressed and that is why that vowel sound is going to change.

Let's look at this first sentence.

But there's something I want to mention before we practice.

I'm going to the dentist.

Now, this does not mean you're always going to reduce this word.

There may be situations, depending on the tone and the conversation that you're having, it may sound like two.

Maybe you're not paying attention and I'm trying to emphasize that this is something I'm doing.

I'm going to the dentist.

And you hear two.

But quite often, you're just going to say this casually without giving it too much thought.

And two is going to get reduced and it's going to sound like a softer tu.

I'm going to the dentist.

I want you to say this after me.

Let's say it slowly.

I'm going to the dentist.

Now let's say it at a normal speed.

I'm going to the dentist.

And then this one, slowly.

She's planning to travel to France.

Now, let's practice with some sentences using FOR, but we're going to reduce it to FOR.

Once again, we'll say it slowly and then at a normal speed.

I went for a walk in the park.

And then this last sentence, I'm going to throw in a reduction.

What are you gonna do for lunch?

What are you gonna do for lunch.

And finally, let's practice reducing AND to N.

She's healthy and fit.

We're having chicken and rice for dinner.

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We're having chicken and rice for dinner.

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We're having chicken and rice for dinner.

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You're doing great.

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And I hope that as I was saying those sentences, you can hear the reduction, that it's a much softer sound.

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And I also hope that when you were saying them, you're keeping that in mind, that it's a softer sound, it gets reduced.

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And this is really important.

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Like I said, it's about developing a nice rhythm and flow.

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And we're going to talk about that in just a moment.

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But the next thing that I want to tell you about is something that is a distinct part of the American accent.

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And I'm talking about the flap T.

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So the flap T, it really sounds like a soft D

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and they say flap because your tongue really is just coming up and flapping against the top part of your mouth.

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So there are three times when this occurs and you should be aware of all three.

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The first one, which I think is the most common, and that is when the T comes between two vowel sounds.

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And there are many words that that you would use a flap T.

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Just repeat after me.

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Water, city, better.

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I also want you to keep in mind that when you have a phrase

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and the T comes at the end of the word

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but it's between two vowel sounds you're also going to pronounce that as a flap T.

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I want you to repeat these phrases after me.

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Put up,

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get over start out you hear those flap T's you're also going to use a flat T

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when the T comes before or after a dark L

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so once again repeat these words after me little bottle battle

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and finally you're going to pronounce the T as a a flap T when it comes before or after a controlled R.

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Say these words after me.

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Daughter, party, turtle.

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One way that I love practicing the flap T is with a tongue twister, Betty Botter.

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Now, most of these T's, they come between two vowel sounds, and I want you to repeat after me.

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Let's do this line by line.

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So just repeat after me.

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Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter.

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If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter.

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Again, you're pronouncing all those flap T's.

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Let's say it one more time.

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Let's say the whole thing.

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And I want you to shadow.

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So in this case, I want you to say it with me.

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Try to maintain that same speed and really use that flap T.

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Are you ready?

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Betty Botter bought some butter, but she said the butter's bitter.

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If I put it in my batter, it will make my batter bitter.

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So this is a great way to practice the flap T

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because there's so many of them and you're just saying that soft D sound.

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Now another distinct part of the American accent, which is a sound, and I want you to master it, and that is the American R.

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So let's talk about how to pronounce the American R.

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We'll just call it that.

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And I'll tell you how to position the tongue in your mouth.

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So your tongue is going to be pulled back a little bit, and the sides of your tongue are going to be touching the insides of your upper teeth.

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The tip of your tongue is going to be pointed up and it's really gonna be fixed in a fixed position.

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Your lips are gonna be a little rounded.

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So this is what it sounds like that.

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It reminds me of a Frosted Flakes commercial.

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Tony the Tiger would say the word great but really emphasizing that R sound.

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Give it a try and really emphasize that R sound.

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Great!

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Let's practice with some individual words.

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And this is really important because it's all about fine-tuning your pronunciation

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because the R sound in other English varieties is not always the same.

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So I want you to say these words after me, and I'm going to emphasize that R, and I want you to do the same.

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Are you ready?

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Ready?

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Red.

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Right.

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Around.

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Car.

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Star.

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And you're really going to pronounce that R sound.

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The next thing that I want to share with you is incredibly important when talking about rhythm and flow.

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You've heard me mention this several times already.

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But you need to keep in mind that English is a stress time language,

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and this is what's going to help you develop that rhythm and flow in a more natural way of speaking.

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So what does it mean when we talk about stress timing?

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It means that the stress syllables or words are said at approximately regular intervals,

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and then the other words or syllables may get reduced in order to fit that pattern.

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And because of this, the English language may sound mellifluous, which is a great adjective which means something is pleasing or soothing to hear.

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So because English is a stress time language, it can sound a little musical.

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You could take any sentence and really create a melody.

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And that's what I want to do right now.

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And I want to say these sentences with a melody, and I'm going to throw a lot at you right now.

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So let's just look at this first one.

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He's going to go to the gym.

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time I clap, that is the stressed syllable or word.

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He's gonna go to the gym.

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Think about what else is going on in the sentence.

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Going to, I'm gonna reduce that to gonna, to the gym.

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To, it's reduced, so that vowel sound's gonna change to the gym.

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However, that T, it comes between two vowel sounds, so I'm gonna pronounce it as a flat T.

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So to the gym, it's actually gonna sound like to the gym.

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Go to the.

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You hear that flat T along with that reduced sound.

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Go to the.

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Go to the.

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And you will hear this all the time with the American accent.

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Go to the gym, go to the mall, go to the store.

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So I told you I'm gonna throw a lot at you right now.

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So think about that melody, he's gonna go to the gym.

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And I want you to say it just like that.

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So repeat after me, he's gonna go to the gym.

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One more time with that melody, he's gonna go to the gym.

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And even if I'm just saying this casually at a normal speed, you can still pick up on that stress timing.

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He's gonna go to the gym.

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He's gonna go to the gym.

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Let's practice the next sentence.

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