Shadowing Practice: Word Stress: Sentence Position -- American English Pronunciation - Learn English Speaking with Video
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38 sentences
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Today I'm going to go over something I find quite interesting about American English,
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and that is how different the same word can sound depending on where it falls in a sentence.
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I've been noticing recently some of my students from certain countries have the tendency to accent the last word in the sentence.
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And in general, American English goes down in pitch throughout a sentence.
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So actually, the words at the end of a sentence should be lower in pitch,
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lower in volume, more unstressed than the same word would be if it came earlier in the sentence.
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Let's take, for example, the word home in the sentences, I'll be home by three.
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Last night I drove the car home.
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Let's hear the word home in the first sentence, I'll be home by three, repeat it on a loop a few times to get it into our ear.
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I'll be home by three.
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Home, home, home, home.
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And now in the second sentence, last night I drove the car home.
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Last night I drove the car home.
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Home, home, home, home.
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And now let's compare, switching back and forth.
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Home, home, home, home, home, home, home, home, home.
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Clearly they are at two different pitches, two different volumes.
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Here I'm using the software program Pratt to view both sentences and the loops of the word home.
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The first sentence, I'll be home by three.
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And the loop for the word home in
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that sentence, home, home, home you can see that the volume is greater compared to the word home in the second sentence.
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And down here we see the pitch.
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Both of these sentences have the downward trend, the second one ending with this little dot down here,
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as most statements in English do.
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The word home in the first sentence is here, quite high in pitch, the word home in the second sentence, here, quite low in pitch.
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This section up here is the M, sort of just a grumble in the voice.
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It sort of stops sounding like speech at this point, doesn't it?
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It's so low in pitch, so low in volume, so far down in the throat.
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Yet when you hear it in the context of the sentence, Last night I drove the car home.
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You do identify it as the word home.
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Let's listen one more time to the loop where we alternate the word home from the two sentences.
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Home, home, home, home, home, home, home.
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So keep this in mind when you're speaking, when you're practicing reading out loud.
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Make sure you're not stressing the last word of a sentence by bringing it up in pitch or making it louder.
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Because in English, it's actually the opposite.
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The words at the end of the sentence will be lower in pitch and also softer.
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The final word in the sentence can sometimes be very low and very soft.
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That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 38 sentences and 496 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:03. The speaker talks at a natural 163 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pitch noun | /pɪt͡ʃ/ | A throw; a toss; a cast, as of something from the hand. |
| loop noun | /luːp/ | A length of thread, line or rope that is doubled over to make an opening. |
| compare verb | /kəmˈpɛɚ/ | To assess the similarities and differences between two or more things [“to compare X with Y”]. Having made the comparison of X with Y, one might have found it… |
| throat noun | /ˈθɹoʊt/ | The front part of the neck. |
| depend verb | /dɪˈpɛnd/ | To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition |
| 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… |
| alternate adjective | /ˈɔl.tɚ.nət/ | Happening by turns; one following the other in succession of time or place; first one and then the other (repeatedly). |
| tendency noun | /ˈtɛn.dən.si/ | A likelihood of behaving in a particular way or going in a particular direction; a tending toward. |
| downward adverb | /ˈdaʊnwɚd/ | Toward a lower level, whether in physical space, in a hierarchy, or in amount or value. |
| grumble verb | /ˈɡɹʌmbl̩/ | To make a low, growling or rumbling noise, like a hungry stomach or certain animals. |
| unstressed adjective | /ʌnˈstɹɛst/ | Not stressed or accentuated. |
| sentence noun | /ˈsɛn.təns/ | The judicial order for a punishment to be imposed on a person convicted of a crime. |
| soft adjective | /sɔft/ | Easily giving way under pressure. |
| loud adjective | /ˈlaʊ̯d/ | Of great intensity. |
| context noun | /ˈkɑn.tɛkst/ | The surroundings, circumstances, environment, background or settings that determine, specify, or clarify the meaning of an event or other occurrence. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| go over verb | To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze. | |
| read out verb | /ˌɹiːd ˈaʊt/ | To read something and say the words to inform other people; to call. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 11 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'll, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
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 pitch, loop, compare.
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.