Shadowing Practice: How Do Americans Speak So Quickly?! | The American English Accent EXPLAINED - Learn English Speaking with Video
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We're deep into fall
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and this time of year always makes me want to cozy up with a good rom -com or romantic comedy.
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So today we're going to take a short scene from the classic movie
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You've Got Mail and do a full analysis of the American English pronunciation.
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Words that link together.
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Words where a sound is dropped or changes.
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How do Americans speak so quickly? this is how.
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And studying this will improve your listening skills and your American English accent.
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First, the scene.
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If you haven't seen this movie, it's about the very early days of meeting someone on the internet.
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Will you be mean to him too?
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No, I will not.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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The man who is coming here tonight is kind and funny.
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He's got the most wonderful sense of humor.
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But he's not here.
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Well if he's not here he has a reason because there is not a cruel or careless bond in his body.
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Now the analysis.
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Will you be mean to him too?
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Okay we start off with the yes no question and he follows the exact format vocally
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melodically for a yes no question and
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that is his pitch goes up towards the end of the
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phrase in american english almost every phrase goes down except for
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yes no questions will you be mean to him too will
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you be mean to him too will you be mean to him too will you be mean to him to.
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I hear two longer words there.
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They're mean and to.
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Will you be mean?
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Will you be?
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Those words are said very quickly. Will you be?
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Will you be?
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Will you be?
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Mean has more length and has a pitch change.
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In this case, it's going down and up because we're on our way up.
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Will you be mean to him too?
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And then to also has that scoop down and then back up.
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So to and mean are our stressed words here.
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In American English, we have a contrast between stressed words and unstressed words that is very important for being understood.
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Stress words are going to be longer, a little bit louder.
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They'll have a pitch change, either a scoop up or a up and down shape.
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Will you be mean to him too?
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Will you be mean to him too?
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Will you be mean to him too?
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Unstressed syllables are going to be shorter, flatter in pitch, a little bit quieter.
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And that's very important for understandability, the difference between stressed and unstressed syllables.
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will you be will you be will you be
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so our first three words are will you be will you
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be will you be will you be will you be will you be
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so it's not will it's more like will will i would write
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that w and then i think i would write that with schwa l for the dark l but it said very quickly
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The dark L takes over the schwa sound, so don't try to make a vowel and a consonant.
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It's just the dark L sound, ull, ull, ull, ull, ull, ull, ull, ull, ull, ull, ull, ull, which is very vowel -like,
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ull, ull, will you be, will you be?
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Will you be, will you be, will you be, will you be?
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You said so quickly, you, you, you, you.
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B also said so quickly.
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B, B, B, B.
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Hear how my voice is quieter?
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You be, you be, you be, you be.
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And the pitch is flatter.
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It's also lower.
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Will you be, will you be, will you be?
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And then it starts to rise.
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Will you be mean?
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And now this word stretches out.
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It's got more length.
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We've got that E vowel and that's where the voice scoops down and up.
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Will you be mean?
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Will you be mean?
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I'm Rachel, and I'm a former opera singer who has been teaching the American accent for over two decades.
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Helping you feel confident speaking English is absolutely my passion.
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Please check out rachelsenglishacademy .com, or scan this QR code, where you can learn about my online accent training courses,
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and studying with me.
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That's rachelsenglishacademy .com.
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Mean to him? So too!
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Him.
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Said quickly and not fully pronounced.
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The word to is a word that usually reduces.
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It's almost never pronounced with the OO vowel,
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but instead the schwa, which is just basically no mouth position at all.
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As relaxed as you can be.
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The T consonant often changes to a D kind of sound when it comes, especially in this case, after an N, mean -da.
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Mean -da -da -da -da -da -da.
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It's a flap of the tongue.
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So not tt, a release of air for a true T.
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So mean to becomes mean -da, mean -da.
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Mean to him too?
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Mean to him too?
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Mean to him too?
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Mean to him too?
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Mean to him too?
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Here we do have a true T.
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T, t, t.
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So it's that crisp, clear release of air
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and then the OO vowel where we have our length and our scoop of our pitch. To?
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Mean to him too?
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Mean to him too?
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Mean to him too?
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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No. Okay, Okay, so her response?
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Stressed.
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Up, down, shape?
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No. And it's one of the longer words.
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No. It's not no, no, no. Which would be an unstressed version of that word.
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No. This pitch change?
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Really important for clarity.
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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And she links everything together right from the O diphthong of no into the I diphthong of I.
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It's smooth.
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There's no break there between her words.
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No, I will not.
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And then she stresses not with the change in pitch scoop down and up.
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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Now, I said when we go from down to up that that's almost always a yes -no question in American English.
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That's true.
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But it's also used in statements to show that we're going to keep going, that we have more to say about that.
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And so she continues on about why.
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Why she will not.
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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So, I and will, they don't really have a change in direction.
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They're just part of the line connecting no and not.
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I will, I will, I will, I will.
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They're not I will, but I will, I will.
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No, I will.
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No, I will not.
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So, these are the less important words here, the less clear words here.
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You can say them more quickly and more simply.
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I also want to point out this ending L is a dark L, and you don't need to lift your tongue tip for that.
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You've probably learned for the L, you always lift your tongue tip, but that is not true for the dark L.
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The dark L is made with the back of the tongue, and the tongue tip stays down for that.
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I will.
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I will.
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My tongue is not lifting for that.
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No, I will not.
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It will lift for the N.
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No, I will not.
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She also ends her word not with the true T.
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It's pretty common here when a word, a thought ends in a t to make a stop t.
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No, I will not.
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And you abruptly stop the air.
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However, she doesn't do that.
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She does release it into t, a true t sound.
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And that's bringing even more stress to it.
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She is sort of upset by his statement.
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And so she has more emotion in her voice.
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And that's why she's ending this t in a true t.
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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No, I will not.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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Then she has a pretty long thought group.
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There are no breaks here.
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Every word links together.
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And when that happens, we call that a thought group.
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When there's not a break in the spoken English.
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And this is pretty long.
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Everything links together.
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Let's find our anchors, our words that are stressed, that are longer, that have that pitch change.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight.
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Okay, so there we have, because the man, we have clearly more length there.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight,
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again, her pitch is going up with each of these stress words because she is not done with her thought.
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This will have a statement intonation going down.
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Let's listen.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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Because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike you. Is completely unlike you.
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And the pitch goes down.
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Boom.
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Statement.
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Is completely unlike you.
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Is completely unlike you.
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Is completely unlike you.
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So, we have man, come, night, as our stressed syllables,
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and then le, like, as our stressed syllables coming down.
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Because the man who was coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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Because the man who was coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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Because the man who was coming here tonight is completely unlike you.
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So, because the.
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These two words are not stressed.
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They're said quickly.
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Let's listen. Because the. Because the. Because the. Because the. Because the. Because the. Because the.
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That's pretty fast. Because the. Because the.
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Because the man.
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Man.
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Man.
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Now, that has more length.
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Man is the A vowel followed by the nasal consonant N.
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And when that happens, it is not a pure A vowel, like in the word cat,
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A, but it becomes A, A, the man.
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So keep that in mind.
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The tongue almost immediately starts relaxing into something like the A vowel, A.
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The man, the man, the man, the man who was coming here tonight.
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And then who is said quickly, who is, who is, who is, who is, who is, who is, who is.
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He was, he was, he was coming here tonight.
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Coming here tonight.
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Now, this is a word that almost every non -native speaker of English mispronounces at first.
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It's not tonight, to.
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This is always a schwa, to.
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And just like here with the word to, the T can actually change to something that sounds more like a D, and it does here.
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It's not tonight, but it's tonight, tonight, here tonight, here, da, da, da, da, da.
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It's a flap that helps the two words link together smoothly.
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Here tonight.
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Here tonight.
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Here tonight.
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Here tonight.
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Here tonight.
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Now let's look at the ending T of tonight.
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It is doing something interesting.
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Here the ending T was T, a true T.
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It was the end of the thought group.
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There was a pause.
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But here she keeps right on going, linking into the next word, which is IS, beginning with the IH vowel.
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So we have the word tonight.
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Second syllable there has the N consonant, the I diphthong, and the T.
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And one of the rules in American English is when the T comes between two vowel or diphthong sounds, So here it does.
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The diphthong I and the vowel IH.
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It's a flap T.
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Almost always.
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And that's used to link words together smoothly.
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So tonight becomes here tonight is.
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Here tonight is.
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It's another flap linking into IH.
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Here tonight is.
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Here tonight is.
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Here tonight is.
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Here tonight is here tonight is completely unlike you is completely unlike you
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so we have two stressed words there
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but in our stress words only one syllable is stressed complete
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and in this word it's the second word completely and that is a stop T it's not but it's completely.
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And the phrase, the word unlike, second syllable stress.
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Unlike.
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And the second syllable is what has that up -down shape of stress.
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Completely unlike you.
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Completely unlike you.
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Completely unlike you.
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Completely unlike you.
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The man who is coming here tonight is kind.
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The man who is coming here tonight.
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Okay, so one most stressed word there and it's our noun.
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The man.
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The man who is coming here tonight.
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The man who is coming here tonight.
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The man who is coming here tonight.
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The man who is coming here tonight.
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And both of those also scoop up and down more drama.
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She's going to describe the man.
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The man who is coming here tonight.
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And also the second syllable of the word tonight is stressed.
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So again, don't forget it's not man, but it's man.
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The man, the man who is coming here tonight.
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And we have who is coming here all said quickly.
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Now let's Let's look at our word tonight.
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The last time we heard it, it was pronounced with a flap, tonight, here tonight.
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What about now?
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The man who is coming here tonight, the man who is coming here tonight, the man who is coming here tonight, t, t, t, t, tonight.
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She does do a true T there.
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Why here and not the first time?
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Not totally sure.
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Both are common.
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But the important thing is that the second sound is not ooh, but it's uh, uh, tuh, tuh, said quickly, tonight.
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Tonight.
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Tonight.
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Tonight.
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She also just barely separates tonight and is.
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She does not link with a flap T.
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This time it's a stop.
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So what does that mean?
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Both of these T's, this one staying a true T and this one staying a stop T, not flapping to connect.
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Both of those make this word a little bit more stressed.
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It stands out from the phrase just a little bit more.
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Tonight.
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Tonight.
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Tonight is kind and funny.
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Now we have a list.
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And when we have a list, things go up in pitch, they go down and up,
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kind and funny, until we get to the last one.
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She's got the most wonderful sense of humor, and then her pitch goes down.
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But as she's listing, it's uh, uh, scoop down and up.
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Is kind and funny.
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Is kind and funny.
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Is kind and funny.
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The word is said very quickly, unstressed, linking into the word kind. Is kind?
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So, is is probably less than half as long as kind, but they're both one syllables.
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That's the difference between unstressed and stressed. Is kind? Is kind?
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is kind, is kind, and funny, and funny.
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So, she holds on to the F a little bit more.
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Again, that brings more stress.
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Exaggerating the consonants a little bit brings more stress and emphasis.
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Let's look at this less important word.
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How is it pronounced? and funny,
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and funny, and funny, and funny, and, and, and.
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No D.
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That's really common to drop the D in this word.
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It's a reduction.
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That means a sound changes or is dropped.
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And that's something we do a lot with these words that are not stressed.
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And funny, and funny, and funny.
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He's got the most wonderful sense of humor.
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He's got the most wonderful sense of humor.
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Okay, so then we have two syllables that are much longer, much clearer, up -down shape of stress, and it's wonderful, and it's humor.
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He's got the most.
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Those four words are not pronounced nearly that clearly because they're unstressed.
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He's got the most wonderful sense of humor.
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He's got the most wonderful sense of humor.
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He's got the most wonderful sense of humor.
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He's got the most.
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He's got the most.
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Do you hear how that's flatter than wonderful?
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He's got the most.
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He's got the most.
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Now she is laughing so it skips a little bit, but it's much flatter than one.
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One.
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Wonderful.
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So really keep that in mind.
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Flat pitch for unstressed syllables and quite a bit of pitch change for stressed syllables.
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He's got them lost.
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Also the T in got, that is not released as a true T, it's a stop T.
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Got the, got the.
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I'm Rachel and I'm a former opera singer who has been teaching the American accent for over two decades.
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Helping you feel confident speaking English is absolutely my passion.
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Please check out rachelsenglishacademy .com
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or scan this QR code where you can learn about my online accent training courses and studying with me.
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That's rachelsenglishacademy .com.
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Let's look at the O in the word got.
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It's going to be pronounced with an ah sound like in father.
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In the word most, it's the O diphthong, like in go, most.
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And in the word wonderful, it's the uh vowel, like in butter.
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So in American English, it's so confusing because one letter can represent many different sounds.
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And we really see that in got, uh, most, oh, wonderful, uh.
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He's got the most wonderful.
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He's got the most wonderful.
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He's got the most wonderful sense of humor.
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Sense of humor.
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So sense is a little bit longer as well.
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Sense of is so short.
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Sense of humor.
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Sense of humor.
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Sense of humor.
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Sense of humor.
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Of, of, of, of, of.
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Quieter, so fast.
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Humor.
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Now note this O -R.
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Here's another O with yet another sound.
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That's pronounced as the schwa.
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Actually, this one is too, of, of, of, of, sense of humor, er, er.
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Now, when schwa is followed by R, it sort of blends in with it.
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You don't really hear a separate vowel sound.
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You just hear the R sound.
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Hume, er, er, er, humor.
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Not, we're gonna have the same sound as got.
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That's the AH vowel.
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But, lots of pitch change there, but, and he does do a true T release.
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He is really stressing this word.
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He wants her to see, well, this guy who's so great actually isn't here.
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We have a great demonstration of length and stress here.
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He's not here.
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He's and here.
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The vowel so much longer.
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Not shorter.
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Said more quickly and much flatter.
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And we do have that stop T.
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Not, not, not, not here.
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So it's a really long syllable, a short syllable, and then again a long syllable.
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Stressed, unstressed, stressed.
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He's not here.
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He's not here.
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He's not here.
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Well, well, do you hear the pitch change there?
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It's not flat, it's not well, but it's well.
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Well.
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Up, down, shape of stress.
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Again, a dark L.
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We're not saying well, but we're saying well -llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll well,
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well, well, well, well, if he's not here,
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he has a reason because there is not a cruel or careless bond in his body.
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Let's just look at this next sentence, even though it kind of blends into the next one without a break.
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But let's look at this sentence.
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I want you to listen to it three times in a row
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and see if you can feel which are the syllables that are stressed.
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They'll be longer and they'll have an up -down shape of stress.
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if he's not here he has a reason
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if he's not here he has a reason if he's not here he has a reason
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if he's not definitely some pitch change they're going up
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and down if he's not here again on here he has a reason.
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So, he has a different.
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Lower in pitch, flatter.
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He has a, he has a, he has a.
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If he's not here, he has a reason.
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If he's not here, he has a reason.
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If he's not here, he has twice.
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Listen to this little phrase three times and really feel that smooth connection.
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Actually, let's slow down the speed of that.
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That, I think, helps really hear the pitch change.
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If he's not here.
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If he's not here.
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If he's not here.
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And that's really different than he has, which is all much more the same pitch, much less pitch change, quite flat.
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He has a reason.
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He has a reason.
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He has a reason.
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And then again it goes up.
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Reason.
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Re.
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Letters EA here making the E vowel.
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Re.
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Reason.
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Reason.
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Notice this letter S, that's a Z sound.
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This O, that's a schwa.
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And just like the R taking over the schwa, so does N.
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So you don't need to try to make a vowel sound here at all, really.
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Just go from Z into N.
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Re -zen.
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Reason.
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Reason.
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A reason.
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A reason.
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A reason.
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A reason.
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The article A here, also the schwa.
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Uh, uh, linking smoothly in.
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Actually, let's talk about this S too, because that's also a Z has a, has a, has a, has a.
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Use that Z to link.
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He has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a,
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he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a,
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he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a,
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he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a,
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he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a,
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he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a, he has a,
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he has a, he has a,
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he has a, he
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So we already talked about how the R takes over the schwa.
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It's not really its own separate sound.
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But it is important to know this IH vowel.
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Just like in man, how the N changes that vowel, the schwa R also changes this vowel.
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It is not pure like in the word sit.
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IH, IH, IH, IH.
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Listen to the difference between that vowel and this vowel.
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Sit, IH, hear, IH.
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sit here here here
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it's much more like an ee vowel tongue is closer to the roof of the mouth here here here here
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he has a reason because there is not a cruel
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or careless bond in his body now let's listen to this next sentence
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and again feel for our syllables that have the up down shape of stress, the pitch change, and that length.
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Because there is not a cruel or careless bone in his body.
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Because there is not a cruel or careless bone in his body.
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Because there is not a cruel or careless bone in his body.
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Because there is not a.
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Because that's flatter.
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There.
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That has pitch change and emphasis.
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There is not a.
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These three words, not really.
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No pitch change, much flatter.
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The S is actually a Z.
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Is not a.
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The T there is a flap T linking the two words together.
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Is not a.
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Is not a.
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Is not a.
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Is not a.
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And then we have another pitch change.
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Cruel or careless.
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So cruel is stressed as is the first syllable here.
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The word OR, not stressed.
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The second syllable here, not stressed.
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Cruel or careless, uh, because there is not a cruel or careless, because there is not a cruel or careless,
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because there is not a cruel or careless, don't say cruel, forget that.
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Just crew and then the dark L.
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Cruel, crueler.
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Now because the dark L is linking into a vowel, in this case it's the schwa R, crueler.
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You can lift your tongue tip at the end after you've done the dark sound.
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Cruel -er.
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Cruel -er.
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Cruel or careless.
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Cruel or careless.
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Cruel or careless.
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So because a little bit flatter said quickly, because there.
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Longer, up -down shape of stress, because there.
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Then we have is not a, is not a, is not a, flatter.
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There is not a.
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Because there is not a.
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Because there is not a because there is not a cruel or careless.
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Then we have cruel or careless, uh, two stressed syllables, two unstressed syllables.
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Cruel or careless.
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Cruel or careless.
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Cruel or careless.
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Let's look at the word careless.
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So care, in IPA this would be written with the EH as in bed vowel followed by schwa -R.
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Guess what?
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Schwa -R changes the vowel.
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It's not pure.
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It's not eh, ke, but care.
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It's more like the eh diphthong.
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Careless.
509
Also, this looks like the word less with the eh vowel, but you're going to want to pronounce it with the schwa or the eh.
510
That could sound really good too if you keep it short.
511
Careless.
512
Careless careless careless careless bone in his body bone in his body
513
we have two more up down shapes of stress bone in his body
514
on the first syllable of body and the word bone
515
and she does sort of put a little extra air in her b to stress
516
that this letter o is the o diphthong bow.
517
And this letter O, ah.
518
Bone in his.
519
In, in his, quieter, just linking these two other stressed words together.
520
Bone in his, in his body.
521
So ah, ah, in his, in his.
522
Different, flat, quieter.
523
Bone in his body.
524
Bone in his body.
525
Bone in his body.
526
Ah, louder, longer, up -down shape of stress.
527
And then the word ends with a flap, body, and a quick unstressed E.
528
Bone in his body.
529
Ah, two up -down shapes of stress.
530
Bone in his body.
531
Bone in his body.
532
Bone in his body.
533
Have you seen this movie?
534
If not, recommended.
535
Let's listen to this conversation one more time.
536
will you be mean to him too no i will not
537
because the man who is coming here tonight is completely unlike
538
you the man who is coming here tonight is kind
539
and funny he's got the most wonderful sense of humor
540
but he's not here well if he's not here he has a reason
541
because there is not a cruel or careless bond in his body
542
if you've not seen this movie it is worth watching thank you so much for spending your precious time with me.
543
Please make sure to subscribe with notifications on
544
and don't forget to check out RachelsEnglishAcademy .com where you can learn more about my accent training courses.
545
That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How Do Americans Speak So Quickly?!”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: tonight, word, vowel, careless, pitch. This video has 545 sentences and 4466 words to shadow. The speech runs for 33:32. The speaker talks at a steady 133 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cruel adjective | /ˈkɹuːəl/ | Intentionally causing or reveling in pain and suffering; merciless, heartless. |
| careless adjective | /kɛɹ.ləs/ | Not concerned or worried (about). |
| pitch noun | /pɪt͡ʃ/ | A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand. |
| humour noun | /ˈhjuːmɚ/ | The quality of being amusing, comical, funny. |
| bone noun | /boʊn/ | A composite material consisting largely of calcium phosphate and collagen and making up the skeleton of most vertebrates. |
| pronounce verb | /pɹəˈnaʊns/ | To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously. |
| scoop noun | /skup/ | Any cup-shaped or bowl-shaped tool, usually with a handle, used to lift and move loose or soft solid material. |
| accent noun | /ækˈsɛnt/ | A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to… |
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| smoothly adverb | /ˈsmuːðli/ | in a smooth manner; smooth |
| passion noun | /ˈpæʃən/ | A true desire sustained or prolonged. |
| smooth adjective | /smuːð/ | Having a texture that lacks friction. Not rough. |
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| opera noun | /ˈɒp.ə.ɹə/ | A theatrical work, combining drama, music, song and sometimes dance. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| go down verb | To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one. |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). |
| go up verb | To move upwards. |
| take over verb | To assume control of something, such as a business or enterprise, and sometimes by force. |
| back up verb | To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so. |
| come down verb | To descend, fall down, collapse. |
| point out verb | To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body. |
| slow down verb | To decelerate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Will you be mean to him too?
- Hear how my voice is quieter?
- Will you be, will you be, will you be?
- Do you hear how that's flatter than wonderful?
- Have you seen this movie?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | has been teaching |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is dropped · are said · being understood |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | man who is · ull, which is · schwa, which is |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | haven't seen · You've probably learned · you've done |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 39 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, they're, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: smoothly /ˈsmuːðli/, smooth /smuːð/, diphthong /ˈdɪpˌθɔŋ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: passion /ˈpæʃən/, contrast /kənˈt(ʃ)ɹæst/, reduction /ɹɪˈdʌk.ʃən/, emotion /ɪˈməʊ.ʃən/, demonstration /dɛmənˈstɹeɪʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: demonstration /dɛmənˈstɹeɪʃən/, notification /ˌnoʊtɪfɪˈkeɪʃn̩/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, exaggerate /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like cruel, careless, pitch.
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.