Shadowing Practice: MASTER the American Accent with 9 Simple Words 🇺🇸 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

Let's talk about some words to help you master the American accent.

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Let's talk about some words to help you master the American accent.

Now, as someone who is learning English as a second language,

you should never feel like you need to speak with any particular accent.

The most important thing is that we understand each other.

However, I know that this topic interests many people.

We all have different speaking goals,

and if one of your goals is to try to emulate the American accent and learn more about it,

then I think this lesson will really help.

So in general, I'm going to talk about the pronunciation of certain words,

which falls under the umbrella of the American accent.

And pronunciation and accent, they're not necessarily the same.

They're not always interchangeable.

Pronunciation is how words are pronounced.

You're just making those sounds.

Whereas accent is the way in which someone pronounces words,

and it's influenced by the country or area they come from.

To give you an example of what I'm talking about,

let's look at our first word, to.

This is a very common and useful word and the word to actually has two different pronunciations,

a strong form and a weak form.

The strong form to sounds just like the number to.

The weak form is when the word is unstressed,

it's gonna get reduced and the vowel sounds gonna change and it's gonna sound more like it has a schwa sound, to.

It's much softer.

This is what I'm talking about when changing to to to is more about accent reduction.

Because to is really a function word.

These are words that are not really emphasized.

Because function words are words that have a grammatical purpose.

And Americans often reduce function words in everyday speech.

In other words, they often say function words more quietly and quickly.

And that is why to may often get reduced and sound like to.

Let's look at the following in practice.

I'm going to the mall.

Can you hear that weak form?

I'll say it slowly.

I'm going to the mall.

Now I want you to practice.

Say it with me.

I'm going to the mall.

Here's another one.

Now let's say it together.

So, hopefully it was easy for you to identify and hear that weaker,

unstressed t, not only when I was saying it,

but when listening to those videos as well.

So, I just want you to be mindful and understand that this occurs.

It's not something that you have to start using.

You could practice this if you want to.

And I think shadowing is a great way to do that and trying to say something in the exact same way.

Because this is not really something that you'll just be able to turn on and off.

It may take a little bit of time

if you would like to reduce your accent and start using some of these weaker,

unstressed words and sounds.

Now, if you would like to improve your English skills,

build your vocabulary, improve your speaking fluency,

please subscribe to the channel, turn on notifications.

That way I can become your teacher.

My name is Wes.

The channel is Interactive English.

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

Let's continue with another very common word that I'm sure you use quite often,

and that is for.

Except I'm not really going to pronounce it for.

Again, when it's unstressed, the word's going to get reduced.

That vowel sound's going to change from for to fur.

So, for, that or, it's a low back vowel.

You can really feel it coming from the back of your mouth.

For, to a fur.

It's much softer.

It is going to sound more like a front vowel and very similar to fur,

except in that case, the vowel sound's going to be a little longer.

But let's practice with this question right here.

What are you going to do for dinner?

Can you hear that softer sound?

And it does get reduced.

What are you gonna do for dinner?

So, uh, what are you guys doing for dinner tonight?

So what do you think we should do for dinner?

This pronunciation is easy for me.

I hope it's easy for you.

Again, listen to how the word is unstressed.

Easy for you.

Easy for M, not for me.

You make it easy for me,

I'll make it easy for you.

And we can practice with some tricky sentences.

So repeat after me.

I have four brushes for my four cats because they have a lot of fur.

Let's say that one more time.

I have four brushes for my four cats because they have a lot of fur.

And now give this next one a try.

We waited for the bus for four hours.

Once again, we waited for the bus for four hours.

And yeah, that can be a little tricky,

especially with that for four hours, for four hours.

But this is something you will definitely hear in spoken English and people are going to reduce for to fur.

The next word is one that I really enjoy, water.

Okay, so there are two things that I want to focus on.

The flap T and the final R.

So the flap T is a really distinct part of the American accent.

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This is when the T is going to sound like a soft D.

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And it often occurs when the T comes between two vowel sounds and is part of an unstressed syllable.

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So here are some words,

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and just repeat after me and try to use that flap T.

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Water.

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City.

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Political.

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Meeting.

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Quality.

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Critical.

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All of those words have T's that I would pronounce as a flap T.

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Now the final R is something else that Americans often pronounce when the R comes at the end of a word.

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So again, just repeat after me,

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really pronounce that R, and I'll probably emphasize it a little bit.

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Water.

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Car.

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Weather.

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Chair.

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Now, if we want to practice with other words that are just like water,

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that have a flap T and final R,

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we can use these words right here.

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Again, repeat after me.

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Better.

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Voter.

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Later.

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Butter.

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Writer.

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These are great words to practice both of those things,

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the flap T and final R.

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Mountain.

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This word is all about the glottal T or glottal stop.

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So what is that?

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This is when you stop the flow of air through the glottis in your throat.

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So the sound is coming from down here.

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And you can practice a glottal stop with uh-oh, uh-oh.

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The glottal stop is coming after uh and before oh.

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You can really feel the tightness in your throat when you say uh-oh, uh-oh.

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Now, with the American accent,

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when the T is followed by an N sound,

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it may get pronounced as a glottal T,

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like in the word mountain.

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So, see if you can hear the difference when I say the word with a true T and a glottal T.

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Mountain.

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Mountain.

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Versus mountain.

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Mountain.

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One thing that I want to point out is that this is not a fixed rule.

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that any T that's followed by an n sound is going to be pronounced as a glottal T.

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If you are living in the U.S or you visit the U.S.,

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you may hear both.

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So here are some examples of the word mountain.

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I'm going to keep pronouncing it with a glottal T.

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But here are some examples of it being pronounced with more of a true T.

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Yeah, and the mountains, they're not like mountains on Earth.

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And now I want you to listen for that glottal stop.

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Oh, that sounds fun.

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I'm mountain biking on Sunday and Montage Mountain.

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But because we're talking about the American accent,

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I want to practice with some words.

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And I want you to try to use a glottal T because I think a lot of people do this.

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I actually do it all the time.

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So I'm going to do this to get you thinking about that tightness in your throat.

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But let's say these words.

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Repeat after me.

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Mountain.

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Kitten.

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Written.

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Gotten.

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bitten.

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Those last three were actually the past participle of those verbs and whenever,

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you know, you say the past participle of,

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well, quite a few different verbs,

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you may use a glottal T.

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So let's practice with this sentence and there,

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of course, there are many glottal stops when saying this.

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I have written a story about a kitten that walked up a mountain and was bitten by by a spider.

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So I want you to repeat after me and we're gonna say the sentence in chunks.

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I have written a story about a kitten that walked up a mountain and was bitten by a spider.

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So when saying that sentence with many of those words,

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you should feel that tightness in your throat with those glottal stops.

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Mountain.

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The next word, center.

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Easy enough to pronounce, but I would like to point out that when the T follows an n- sound,

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it may elide.

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Elision is when sounds or syllables get removed.

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You don't really hear that T when I say center.

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Wanted.

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interview, 20, entertain.

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In each of those words,

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you don't hear that T because it elides.

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Once again, this is not an established rule.

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I'm just trying to share with you how I think most people will say this word, center.

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You may hear somebody say it with the T, center.

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Either one, just listen.

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But we all know you put your biggest talent front and center.

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Oh, I'll be there.

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Front and center.

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I would like to point out that when the T follows an N sound,

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but it comes at the beginning of a stressed syllable,

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then you will pronounce it as more of a true T in words like internship or anticipate or intensive.

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If you would like to practice,

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then start with the words that I have already showed you.

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And again, they're pretty common and we can do so with this sentence.

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I was watching an entertaining interview with 20 people who all wanted to be the center of attention.

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Say it with me.

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I was watching an entertaining interview with 20 people who all wanted to be the center of attention.

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Excellent.

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Let's practice this word right here, can.

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And I want to start with the vowel sound,

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because this is also a difference between British and American English,

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because you're going to pronounce the vowel sound differently.

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And I will make some comparisons between those two English varieties,

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because I think when people are learning the language,

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these are the two varieties that most people reference.

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So in the U.S., can't,

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and in the U.K., can't.

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Can't, can't.

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We can't do that.

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You can't do this.

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I can't just do that.

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What?

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We can't do that.

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Now, so many people tell me they struggle with this word,

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not only when listening and trying to identify the word,

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but also when speaking and trying to say it.

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And I think probably one of the more challenging things about this word is the NT,

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that consonant cluster at the end.

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The final NT, consonant cluster,

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your tongue is actually going to be curled down and the tip is going to be behind your bottom front teeth.

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Can't.

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and we're really going to end with a glottal stop.

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And we can practice this with the word ant,

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which is really the last three letters in the word can.

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So who the hell are you?

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I'm Ant-Man.

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Ant-Man?

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What, you haven't heard of me?

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Can't.

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Can't.

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It's an incredibly common word,

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and it can be a little tricky,

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which is why I thought it deserved a little attention.

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But let's practice, and we can even review some of the other things we've talked about with this short sentence right here.

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Just repeat after me.

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I can't find any water in town,

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so I have to go to the mountain.

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Good job.

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Now, I want to practice this word, schedule.

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I have already told you that we're going to practice some of the differences between American English and British English.

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We did that with the previous word.

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That vowel sound is different when pronouncing can't versus con.

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And there are many other words that are pronounced differently when comparing American English versus British English.

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And it's important to know some of these words,

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especially if you are trying to emulate the American accent.

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So let's play a little game.

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I'm going to give you a word.

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I'm going to say both pronunciations,

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and then I just want you to think about,

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well, which one is the American pronunciation.

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So here's your first one,

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and I think you know it because I've already said the word.

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You have schedule versus schedule.

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And in the U.S., people are going to say schedule.

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Here's the next one.

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Advertisement, advertisement.

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In the United States, people are going to say advertisement.

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Here's another one.

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Zebra, Zebra.

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I am going to say Zebra.

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How about this word?

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Dynasty, Dynasty.

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I hope that you chose dynasty as the US pronunciation because that is correct.

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Now you get the idea.

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There are many words that are pronounced differently between American and British English.

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I just want to get you thinking about some of these pronunciation differences.

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So if this is something you want to practice,

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just be aware of this,

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the words that we just looked at,

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as well as these words right here.

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I'll give you a moment to look at them

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but we need to move on

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so let's move on to our next word entrepreneur this is one of many words

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that have been borrowed from french and the pronunciation is the same ish

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but not really the pronunciation is really an americanized version of

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this french word i'll let you listen to the difference entrepreneur entrepreneur they're kind of close

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but if you are a french speaker then you need to be careful and understand that these words have been Americanized.

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Here are some other words that have been borrowed from French,

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and I want you to think about what they have in common.

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Fiance, connoisseur, café, sorbet.

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Just listening to me say those words,

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perhaps you notice that the stressed syllable is at the end.

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And in English, this is something that is not very common,

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and perhaps even a little bit of a hint that the word has been borrowed from French.

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But I often hear second language speakers make a slight pronunciation mistake with some of these words that have been borrowed,

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because they end up stressing the wrong syllable,

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instead of that final syllable.

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Something to keep in mind whenever words are borrowed from other languages,

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they may sound similar, but not always the same.

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Just food for thought.

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And then we have a fun and very long word, which is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

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And it's silly, but the reason I chose this is to get you thinking about rhythm

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and flow and trying to develop that rhythm and flow.

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Because English is a stress time language.

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It's a language where the stressed syllables are said at approximately regular intervals,

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and the unstressed words or syllables are shortened in order to fit that rhythm.

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So here is a very short and simple sentence,

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three different intervals, and then as I add to the sentence,

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those intervals are going to stay the same.

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Cats chase mice.

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The cats chase mice.

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The cats chase the mice.

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The cats will chase the mice.

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And as I'm saying this,

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you can hear those stressed words and syllables,

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and it does sound a little musical.

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And again, it's really a good example of English as a stress time language.

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Now, let's go back to our ridiculously long word.

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And we can say this word,

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keeping in mind those stressed intervals.

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In total, the word has 14 syllables,

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and I'll say it again,

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and I want you to think about that stress.

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Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

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I could even clap and say it again,

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and every time I clap,

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that is a stress sound.

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Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

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So let's break it apart into those different intervals.

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You can see the stress,

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and now I want you to practice this word with me.

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Ready?

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Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

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Let's try it one more time.

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Again, we're developing that rhythm and flow.

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It's gonna sound a little bit like a song.

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Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.

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Excellent.

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This is something that you can practice because when it comes to speaking with an American accent,

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well, rhythm and flow are a part of that.

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And I think it's useful to practice and develop your speaking skills.

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And you could really do this with any sentence,

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like the very first one that we practice with.

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I'm going to the mall later.

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I'm going to the mall later.

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And you can really hear that rhythm and flow if I want to emphasize it just like this.

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Okay.

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Of course, people aren't going to speak that way,

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but it does help you hear that melody and that rhythm and flow.

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So, that's all I have for you in this lesson.

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You can practice on your own with these different words.

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If you enjoyed the lesson and learned something new,

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you can let me know by hitting that like button.

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As always, thank you so much for watching,

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and I will see you next time.

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So long.

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Shadowing Practice: MASTER the American Accent with 9 Simple Words 🇺🇸 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing Practice: MASTER the American Accent with 9 Simple Words 🇺🇸 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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About This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Practice Tips

What is the Shadowing Technique?