Shadowing Practice: Best Dialogue of All Time - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Speaker 1st of 111- Film isn't just a visual medium, it's a verbal one too.
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And nowhere is the brilliance of a good script easier to hear than in the mouths of the characters.
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Bickering and bantering, yelling and yapping, probing and pontificating, these are our picks for the best dialogue of all time.
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Kicking us off at number 10, we're looking at dialogue that was brilliant in its specificity, and how it evoked a certain place or time or sense of character by choosing words,
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pacing, structure, cadence that was specifically evocative.
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This is dialogue from The Departed.
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A lot of you fucking die.
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On the waterfront.
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A one way ticket to Palookaville. And Snatch.
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Hey, what is my kindest for the horse?
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You know?
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My Cousin Vinnie.
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Two Utes.
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Juno.
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I'm a splog.
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True Grit.
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I'm the dude, man.
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However, for our number 10 pick, we think it's pretty damn hard to beat Hunger.
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Speaker 1, how's your smoke going?
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Speaker 2, Grand.
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Speaker 2, Mm, filthy habit, disgusting.
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Speaker 1, why awful?
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Speaker 3, Lovely though.
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Speaker 2, Aye, praise the Lord.
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Speaker 1 We're not actually Irish, so this could be about as accurate as Lucky Charms' commercial, but goddammit if it doesn't sound bang on to us.
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And what's more important even than its accuracy is how it uses it.
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How it dresses a most urgent of conflicts in the most eloquent and specific of clothing.
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There's a certain musicality to the sound of it.
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A rhythmic patter to what amounts to a negotiation for a group of men's lives.
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It transports you to a place and a time where terrible decisions had to be made, and illustrates it with the most beautiful of language.
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Next, we're considering wordplay, verbal trickery, linguistic aerobics.
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The famous who's on first routine is the classic benchmark here.
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Speaker 3 007 Well then who's playing first?
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Speaker 3 007 Yeah.
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Speaker 1 007 I mean the fellow's name on first base.
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Speaker 4 007 Who?
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Speaker 1 007 But we also have to show some love to the Grand Budapest Hotel.
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Speaker 2 007 A second copy of the second will.
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Speaker 1 007 Lucky number Slevin.
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Speaker 2 007 I never thought you were him I thought he was you.
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Speaker 2 007 And our number 9 pick Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are dead.
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Speaker 2 008 A man talking sense to himself is no matter than a man talking nonsense not to himself.
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Or just as man.
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Or just as man.
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And he does both.
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So there you are.
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Stark raving saint.
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Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead is Tom Stoppard's absurdist spin off of Shakespeare's Hamlet.
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Following two of its most interesting minor characters as they grapple with various existential dilemmas.
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Attempting to riddle their way through an inherently nonsensical world in one extended conversation the whole film long.
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So the turn of a phrase is tantamount to the entirety of the drama.
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It is even physicalized in a verbal tennis match as they match wits instead of swings.
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The word play is the plot.
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They seemingly live and die by their language
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and it puts an urgency behind their conversation that is both desperately hilarious and completely gripping.
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Of course, sometimes it's not the words, so much as how they relate to the meaning underneath.
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We're talking subtext, dialogue that takes the scenic route, that zigs when the intention zags, that works to conceal or contain or contrast the underlying truth.
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It's done wonderfully all over Double Indemnity.
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I wonder if you wonder.
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The third man.
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You oughta leave this thing alone.
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And famously in The Godfather.
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I'm gonna make him an offer that can be filled.
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But come on, people, we'd have to be kidding ourselves to not go Tarantino's way.
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And while he's written Cirque du Soleil level verbal contortion all the way from Reservoir Dogs.
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You're a big Lee Marvin fan, aren't you?
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To Hateful Eight.
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Did I know him?
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Yep.
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Yeah, I knew him.
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There's nothing that's had quite the subtextual impact as Pulp Fiction.
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Looks like me and Vincent caught you boys at breakfast.
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Sorry about that.
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Did you have it?
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Hamburgers.
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Hamburgers, the cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast.
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What kind of hamburgers?
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Cheeseburgers.
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No, no, no, no, no, where'd you get them?
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Tarantino is the master of subtext.
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And it's our favorite kind.
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He's not just writing subtext in that awful literary way where both people are talking in a mutual, thinly veiled metaphor that's basically just a coat.
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No, in Pulp Fiction, they talk about hamburgers.
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They talk about coffee.
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They talk about tomatoes and pot bellies and oral sex and the Bible.
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They talk about anything and everything that has nothing to do with what's really going on.
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Because what they're really doing is threatening and apologizing and flirting and falling in love and sparring and opening up.
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And the results speak for themselves.
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Next up we're looking at the all time best verbal conflict.
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Dialogue that attacks and digs and dodges and parries and goes straight for the heart.
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Words as warfare, conversation as combat.
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Think the master.
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Who likes you except for me?
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Or the lion in winter.
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You can expire.
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Move first, old man. Or doubt.
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You have taken vows.
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Or Glengarry Glen Ross.
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What is this, courtesy class?
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You bet your ass it's all over the social network, but for our number seven pick, our favorite of Sorkin's psychological sadism belongs to Steve Jobs.
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Speaker 3rd of Nate Harnessy, Vycella, Jr.: We're there.
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Speaker 3rd of Nate Harnessy, Vycella, Jr.: No, it's got a one in six chance of working.
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Speaker 3rd of Nate Harnessy, Vycella, Jr.: God damn it.
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Speaker 3rd of Nate Harnessy, Vycella, Jr.: We're not a pit crew at Daytona.
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This can't be fixed in seconds.
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Speaker 3rd of Nate Harnessy, Vycella, Jr.: You didn't have seconds.
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You had three weeks.
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The universe was created in a third of that time.
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Speaker 3rd of Nate Harnessy, Vycella, Jr.: Well, someday you'll have to tell us How you did it.
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Love it or hate it, Sorkin's writing is something to marvel at.
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And nowhere is it more talky, more play-like, more reliant on what characters say than hear.
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The conflict bubbles so turbulently just below the surface, always swirling around and constantly being dredged up by Jobs himself.
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Who flies about like a conversational juggernaut, arguing and threatening and bludgeoning the people around him into the shape of the world as he envisions it.
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Sorkin's dialogue stages a war on many fronts, while always connecting it to Jobs' central thrust for a result
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that is a frenzied whirl of a character desperately clawing about in a fight for his own self worth. On the other hand,
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the flip side of this kind of linguistic aggression takes us to the calmer world of dialogue as storytelling.
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Where the pleasure lies not in the conflict, but in the honesty and vulnerability of humans sharing their personal narratives.
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It's the big chill.
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Why is that folks, we're all alone out there. And Magnolia.
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The past is not true with us.
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End of tour.
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I'm sure that I still have those same parts of me.
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And coffee and cigarettes.
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I know I got it.
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Freezes coffee.
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But for our number six, there can be none other than My Dinner with Andre.
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See, I've seen a lot of death in the last few years, Wally.
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And there's one thing that's for sure about death.
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You do it alone, you see.
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That seems quite certain, you see.
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That I've seen.
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That the people around your bed mean nothing.
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Your reviews mean nothing.
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Whatever it is, you do it alone.
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And so the question is, when I get on my deathbed, what kind of a person am I going to be?
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And I'm just very dubious about the kind of person who
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would have lived his life those last few years the way I did.
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My Dinner with Andre is quite literally just a conversation.
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There is no plot, no external conflict, no ticking clock.
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Just two men with various disagreements, as men have, talking them through.
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There is no character arc or grand reconciliation or great big epiphany.
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The film is just talk, and yet, it's utterly fascinating.
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Written by the two actors, distilled from months worth of their actual conversation, it is nothing more than two men gradually and articulately revealing their inner selves.
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At number five, we want to reserve a spot for a dialogue that manages to feel as true to life as possible.
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And sure it'll never be realistic because have you listened to real people talk?
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It's awful.
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But with careful balance and compromise and imperfection, a talented scribe can achieve a subtle naturalism worthy of this list.
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Primer is an excellent example of this.
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Speaker 1st 3rd year old
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Speaker 1st 3rd year old Speaker 1st 3rd year old Speaker 1st 3rd year old Speaker 2nd year old
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Speaker 1st 3rd year old Speaker 1st Week 1 Speaker 1st
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Week 2 Speaker 1st Week 2 Speaker 1st Week 2 Speaker 2st Week 2 Speaker 1st Week 2
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Speaker 2 Speaker 1st Week 2 And even Superbad in parts.
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Speaker 1st Week 1
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Speaker 1st Week 2 Speaker 1st Week 2 And Kenneth Lonergan is hot as hell right now with Manchester by the Sea, but we want to turn new Lonerganians,
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onto an older lesser known gym of his that's flush with this kind of dialogue, you can count on me.
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Speaker 2 on speaker 2 Speaker 1st Week 2 Speaker 2 Speaker 3 Speaker 3 Speaker 1st Week 3 Terry,
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how are you?
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Yeah.
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The magic of You Can Count On Me is that so much happens in the dialogue without resorting to the extraordinary, the unbelievable, or the melodramatic.
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It is subtext but a tamer sort.
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Deep familial conflicts of love and responsibility and respect
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and dependability lie underneath the everyday topics of plumbers and car rides and the quotidian how are you.
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Speaker 1st on the far opposite end of the naturalism spectrum, we end up with the hyper stylized, uber suave quick wit of banter.
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Where everyone always seems to know the exact right thing to say.
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David Mamets is sharp as attack and heist and house of games.
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Speaker 1st on the screen, let's talk turkey pal.
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Speaker 1st on the screen, Woody Allen's is quick and frenetic in Amy Hall and Manhattan.
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Speaker 1st on the screen, people should make the full life like pigeons or Catholics.
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Speaker 1st on the screen, and Scott Frank's take on Elmore Leonard is never better than in Get Shorty.
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Speaker 1st on the screen, I say any more than I have to, if that.
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Speaker 1st on the screen, but for our fourth to last slot, we're going with Shane Black, who is iconic in Lethal Weapon.
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Speaker 3 That's a real badge, I'm a real cop and this is a real fucking gun.
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Speaker 1 Hilarious in The Nice Guys.
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Speaker 3 Oh, excuse me, I'm carrying a dead body and I have a schwanz in my face.
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I'm sorry I'm not.
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Speaker 2 You can't even say Baryshnikov.
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Speaker 1 But never better than in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.
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Speaker 2 I want you to picture a bullet inside your head.
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Speaker 2 Can you do that for me?
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Speaker 2 F* you.
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Speaker 2 Anyway, that's ambiguous.
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Speaker 2 Ambiguous?
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No, I don't think so.
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No, I think he means that when you say picture it inside your head, okay, is that a bullet will be inside your head or picture it in your head?
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Like, he's got a point.
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Where Sorkin's characters always seem in danger of destroying each other with their words, Shane Black's are just slap boxing.
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And Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is him at his quippiest, throwing the most hilarious of shade in the cleverest of ways.
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It's verbal slapstick, characters tripping over their own words in an attempt to prove themselves smarter than each other.
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Of course, that last slot was all Hollywood.
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And while you may have noticed by now
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that we've limited this list to English language films only
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because we didn't feel properly qualified to evaluate dialogue in languages we couldn't speak, English isn't only the purview of America.
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The UK has their own special kind of banter too.
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You can find it in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
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That boy doesn't know his arsehole from his ear on.
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Train spotting.
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They're just wankers.
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With Nail and I.
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They must be delighted with your career.
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And Hot Fuzz up the model village.
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But to our ears, there's one modern master who stands above them all, Martin McDonough.
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And while Seven Psychopaths is a fantastic second effort, our hearts still belong to In Bruges.
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Speaker 1st of 11, I retracted it, didn't I?
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Speaker 1st of 11, while Martin McDonough only has two feature films to his name, he's an accomplished playwright of the funniest, darkest theater you'll ever read.
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We personally recommend The Pillow Man
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if you ever get a chance for the most hilarious take on child murder you'll ever hate yourself for laughing at.
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And some of that sneaks over into InBrews too, because McDonough goes dark.
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He takes his comedy to the blackest of places.
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Everyone in Bruges should be despicable for what they've done and will undoubtedly continue to do.
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And yet, you love them for their cleverness, their humanness, and their sense of the absurd.
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But banter isn't a modern invention, and we want to take these last two slots to pay homage to its origins.
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And in America, that means your Noirs.
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Speaker 1st of 11, Speaker 1st of 11, Speaker 1st of 11, Speaker 1st of 11, Speaker 1st of 11, Speaker 1st of 11, Speaker 1st of 11, Speaker 1 00 You paid us more than
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if you'd been telling us the truth and enough more to make it all right.
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Speaker 1 00 You're Wilder.
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Speaker 1 00 I'll say.
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Speaker 1 00 You're Sturgis.
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Speaker 1 00 You find him, I'll push him.
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Speaker 1 00 You're Lubitsch.
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Speaker 1 00 Must you flirt?
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Speaker 1 00 I don't have to but I find it natural.
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Speaker 1 00 You're Hawks.
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Speaker 1 00 How do you like your brandy sir?
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Speaker 1 00 They're in a glass.
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Speaker 1 00 However, we're gonna take it back one step further to some of the original kings of banter, the Marx Brothers and their brilliant back and forths of horse feathers.
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Speaker 1 00 Who are you?
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Speaker 1 00 I'm fine thanks, who are you?
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Speaker 1 00 I'm fine too about the animal crackers?
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Speaker 2nd Doctor Hennessey And our number two pick, duck soup.
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Speaker 788 Three- Speaker 1 that I care, but where is your husband?
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Speaker 4th of 2000 Why he's dead.
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Speaker 19 0000 I'll bet he's just using that his excuse.
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Speaker 819 I was with him till the very end.
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Speaker 109 Hmm, no wonder he passed away.
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Speaker 1913 I held him in my arms and kissed him.
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Speaker 109 Oh I see, then it was murder.
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Will you marry me?
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Did he leave you any money?
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Answer second question first.
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Speaker 1 111 While the screenplay was written by a handful of scribes, over a handful of years, the mouthful of dialogue is distinctively brothers Marxist.
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In an act refined over decades from vaudeville to Broadway to the screen, the Chico, Harpo, Groucho, Zeppo combination was honed into one of the best comedy formulas of all time.
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The type of banter they sling rapid fire and nonstop is specific to the wild smorgasbord of characters the brothers had created.
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And Duck Soup is probably the best incarnation of their particular brand of madness, and by God does it sing.
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Finally, for our number one, we're tracing British banter's origins to another place.
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And it's not to Monty Python.
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I'm your king.
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Well, I didn't bow for you.
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Or James Bond.
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Mr. Smith and Wesson, and you've had your six.
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Or kind hearts and coronets.
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He said he wants to improve his mind.
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He has room to do so.
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No, it comes from before all that, way before all that.
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Our top scribe of our top slot goes to a young man by the name of Bill, who wrote some of the prettiest dialogue you ever did see.
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He did it in Romeo and Juliet.
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Why then is my pump well plowed?
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He did it in Julius Caesar.
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He's a tried and valiant soldier.
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So is my horse, Octavius.
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And he did it in our top pick, Hamlet.
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Gildan, sterner, hrosen, crads, good lads, how do you both?
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As the indifferent children of the earth.
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Happy in that we are not over-happy on fortune's cap, we are not the very button.
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Nor the soles of her shoes.
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Neither, my lord.
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By then you live about her waist, or in the middle of her family.
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Faith a private's way.
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In the secret parts of fortune, most true, she is a strumpet, what news?
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Are we cheating because this dialogue was originally written for the stage?
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Sure, maybe.
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But to separate the origins of cinema dialogue from theater is disingenuine and likely impossible.
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And the bard is simply the goat and Hamlet is even better.
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And if you haven't given him a shot since high school, do yourself a favor and try.
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Try him on film.
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His dialogue is so much more fun in the hands and mouth of a smart actor than it is on the page.
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They can reveal the humor, the wit, the musicality, the subtext, the emotion, the conflict, the humanity beneath it all.
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And it hardly gets better than Kenneth Branagh's turn.
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There's nothing on this list that Shakespeare didn't do better and first, which is why we think this is the best dialogue of all time.
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So what do you think?
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Disagree with some of our picks?
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Do we leave out any of your favorite dialogue?
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Think my voice sounds sexy and want to take me out for a night of passion and romance?
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Is anyone still actually listening?
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God, I hope not.
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Let us know in the comments below and be sure to subscribe for more Cinefix movie lists.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Best Dialogue of All Time”. This video has 286 sentences and 2978 words to shadow. The speech runs for 14:06. The speaker talks fast, about 211 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. Only 79% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is demanding.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| banter verb | /ˈbæntə/ | To engage in banter or playful conversation. |
| verbal adjective | /ˈvɜː.bəl/ | Of or relating to words. |
| subtext noun | An implicit meaning of a text, often a literary one, or a speech or dialogue. | |
| hamburger noun | /ˈhæmˌbɜɹ.ɡɚ/ | A hot sandwich consisting of a patty of cooked ground beef or a meat substitute, in a sliced bun, usually also containing salad vegetables, condiments, or both. |
| slot noun | /slɑt/ | A narrow depression, perforation, or aperture; especially, one for the reception of a piece fitting or sliding into it. |
| musicality noun | /ˌmju.zɪˈkæ.lɪ.ti/ | The condition of being musical. |
| naturalism noun | A state of nature; conformity to nature. | |
| scribe noun | /skɹaɪb/ | Someone who writes; a draughtsperson; a writer for another; especially, an official or public writer; an amanuensis, secretary, notary, or copyist. |
| flirt verb | /flɚt/ | To throw (something) with a jerk or sudden movement; to fling. |
| ambiguous adjective | /æmˈbɪɡ.ju.əs/ | Open to multiple interpretations. |
| linguistic adjective | /lɪŋˈɡwɪstɪk/ | Of or relating to language. |
| threaten verb | /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/ | To make a threat against someone; to use threats. |
| desperately adverb | /ˈdɛs.p(ə.)ɹət.li/ | In a desperate manner; without regard to danger or safety; recklessly. |
| underneath adverb | /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/ | Below; in a place beneath. |
| handful noun | /ˈhæn(d)fʊl/ | The amount that a hand will grasp or contain. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| leave out verb | To omit, to not include, to neglect to mention. |
| open up verb | To open. |
| pass away verb | To die. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Hey, what is my kindest for the horse?
- No, no, no, no, no, where'd you get them?
- Who likes you except for me?
- Did he leave you any money?
- Why then is my pump well plowed?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | be made · is even physicalized · can be filled |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have taken · I've seen · they've done |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 65 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, we're, didn't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: threaten /ˈθɹɛt.n̩/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, deathbed /ˈdɛθˌbɛd/, feather /ˈfɛðə/, filthy /ˈfɪlθi/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: conversational /ˌkɒnvə(ɹ)ˈseɪʃənəl/, benchmark /ˈbɛn(t)ʃmɑːk/, homage /(h)oʊˈmɑʒ/, reconciliation /ˌɹɛkənˌsɪliˈeɪʃ(ə)n/, negotiation /nɪˌɡəʊ.ʃiˈeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: musicality /ˌmju.zɪˈkæ.lɪ.ti/, ambiguous /æmˈbɪɡ.ju.əs/, desperately /ˈdɛs.p(ə.)ɹət.li/, articulately /ɑɹˈtɪk.jə.lət.li/, conversational /ˌkɒnvə(ɹ)ˈseɪʃənəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like banter, verbal, subtext.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.