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Today you’re transforming your spoken English by studying a scene from the movie
Brittany Runs a Marathon, with me. She just had a job interview, she didn’t get the job.
But she gets a lead on her next job. We’re going to go in-depth with the English used in this scene.
What happens to the T in interview?
When you study a scene like this, you’ll be able to understand American movies and TV effortlessly
without subtitles. The best part is, not only do you get to learn and study with the video,
you get to train with the training section in this video, audio.
So that you can start to make a habit of all of these tricks you’re learning.
You know, if you like animals, I should refer you to my sister.
We’re doing this all summer, we started in June and we’re going through August, stick with me
every Tuesday, they’re all great scenes, and there’s going to be so much to learn that can transform
the way you understand and speak English.
And as always, if you like this video, or you learn something new, please like and subscribe with notifications.
You’re going to watch the clip, then we’re going to do a full pronunciation analysis together.
This is going to help so much with your listening comprehension when it comes to watching
English movies in TV. But there’s going to be a training section.
You’re going to take what you’ve just learned and practice repeating it, doing a reduction,
flapping a T just like you learned in the analysis. Okay, here’s the scene.
I’m so sorry.
No, it’s fine. It’s just I keep interviewing at places and no one thinks I’m the right fit.
Oh my goodness who is this gentleman?
Oh, this is a foster.
You know, if you like animals, I should refer you to my sister.
She owns a company. They do house sitting and pet sitting.
And now, the analysis.
I’m so sorry.
Okay so we hear someone off-camera say: I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry. Mmm so, I’m so sorry. And sorr– both have a little bit of that up-down shape of stress.
The word I’m is reduced. It’s really just the M sound, isn’t it? Mmm so, mmm so, mmm so.
The M sound hooked right on to the S. I’m so sorry.
I’m so sorry.
No, it’s fine. It’s just I keep–
So she does a little break here, after the word keep, breaking that up into another thought group.
So let’s look at this first thought group.
No, it’s fine.
No, it’s fine. Both of those have more volume.
No, it’s fine.
No, it’s fine.
It’s just I keep–
and then the second part, we have two peaks on just and keep, but they’re definitely lower. Uhhhh. Uhhh.
No, it’s fine. It’s just I keep–
No, it’s fine. It’s just I keep–
No, it’s fine. It’s just I keep–
No, it’s fine. It’s just I keep–
No, it’s fine. We have an OH diphthong in no,
linking into an IH vowel. When the Oh diphthong links into another vowel or diphthong,
can definitely feel like we passed through a W sound,
the glide consonant. No it’s, so you can almost think of this word as being wits, wits, no it’s, no it’s, No, it’s fine.
That might help you link those together more smoothly. No, it’s fine. And we have all of these sounds T, S, and F.
No, it’s fine.
No, it’s fine.
It’s just I keep–
Fine. It’s just– fine. It’s– the ending N links right into the beginning vowel of IH.
And there’s no break even though grammatically, that would be written as another sentence probably.
There’s no break in sound so it still links together. No, it’s fine. It’s–
No, it’s fine. It’s–
It’s just I keep, it’s just I. So we have an ST cluster here followed by the AI diphthong. We do make that T.
If the next word was something that began with a consonant, then we would drop it.
But when it begins with a vowel or diphthong, we do tend to say it and link it in.
It’s just I, juh uh uh, not really uh, not really just, but more juh uh uh uh, less jaw drop.
It’s just I, I almost even write that as the schwa even though I am putting some length on it.
But it has less jaw drop than ah, uh, it’s just, it’s just I keep.
It’s just I keep,
I keep, puts her lips together for the P, it’s a stop consonant,
but she doesn’t release it she doesn’t say: keep, keep, she says: I keep.
I keep,
And that stop signifies the P. I see her lips go together but she doesn’t release a puff of air.
I keep,
interviewing at places and–
Interviewing at places and, another break here, breaking it up into another thought group.
Interviewing, stress on the first syllable there. Interviewing at places and–
Interviewing at places and–
Interviewing at places and–
Interviewing at places and–
We have some reductions here. Even though interviewing is
the stressed word, one of the stressed words,
the T is dropped, very common to do that in words with INTER, like internet.
Also in general, when a T comes after an N, it’s not uncommon to drop it,
like in the word center. You might hear that as center,
and then of course, interview, international, internet. Very common to drop that T.
Interviewing,
at places and.
Interviewing at, at at at.
Do you notice the pronunciation of at? It’s not at, its it ut ut,
Schwa, Stop T, stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.
Interviewing at places.
Interviewing at places, interviewing at places, interviewing at places
and–
Places and– places and– Okay so the ending S in places is a Z sound and that links into,
I would write it as schwa N,
the reduction of and, places and, zan zan zan zan. Places and–
Places and–
no one thinks I’m the right fit.
What are our most stressed words in this last thought group here?
No one thinks I’m the right fit.
No one thinks I’m the right fit.
No one thinks I’m the right fit.
No one, a little bit of stress there, no one thinks I’m the right fit.
I would say thinks and fit have the most up down shape. No and right have a little.
No one, no one, no one.
No one,
Make sure those really link together, it’s the OH diphthong.
No one, and then the word one, W, UH as in butter, N. No one, no one.
No one,
No one thinks.
No one thinks,
I’m the right fit.
No one thinks I’m the, I’m the, I’m the. Two words that are less stressed, lower in pitch.
I’m the,
So two unstressed words, and then the stressed word right, I’m the, I’m the, I’m the, I’m the right.
I’m the right,
fit.
And we do have a stop T there because the next word begins with a consonant fit.
Now let’s look at our ending T here. It’s a true T, she definitely releases it. Let’s take a listen.
Fit.
It’s very common to make an ending word like that with a stop T at the end of a thought group.
Fit, fit, instead of: fit fit, but she’s really emphasizing it to say that someone’s not the right fit.
Means they wouldn’t work well at a job at an organization on a project
because of the other people or things in place.
So it’s a way to tell someone no without criticizing them too much. They’re just not the right fit.
Fit..
And so she’s been hearing that a lot. She’s feeling not very good about it.
And so she’s stressing that word a little bit more by doing the True T pronunciation.
Right fit.
Right fit.
Oh my goodness who is–
Okay, so now, her pitch goes up really high. Oh my goodness.
She’s very excited to have a moment with the dog.
Oh my goodness,
See if you can imitate that when you’re working with the audio. Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness!
Oh and good have the most stress there.
Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness!
Goodness. Something interesting is happening here she’s dropping the D,
goodness, I’ve definitely heard that happen before,
so instead of goodness, it’s goodness, goodness, goodness.
When you think about it, the tongue position for the D, ddd, with the tongue tip up, is really similar to the N, nnn.
Also with the tongue tip up, maybe that’s why it’s dropped.
At any rate, you can drop it too here when you’re imitating this.
Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness!
Also rather than the EH vowel in goodness, it’s really more of an IH. Goodness. Goodness.
So she’s playing with this word a little bit.
Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness!
Oh my goodness who is this gentleman?
Who is this– still that really high pitch.
Who is this gentleman?
Who is this gentleman?
Who is this gentleman?
Who is this gentleman?
Who is this gentleman?
Do you notice the T in gentlemen? Gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen.
No T there. Again, T after N just like in interviewing, internet, gentleman, no T, T is dropped.
Gentleman?
Also notice in the word a man, the syllable man, it’s not AA, it’s a schwa. Gentleman, man, man, man, man.
Try not to even put a vowel in there. It’s an unstressed syllable. It should not be man. Man, man, gentlemen.
Gentleman?
Oh, this is a foster.
This is a foster. Oh, this is a foster.
So again, her intonation is a little bit higher than normal. This is not a conversational intonation.
This is like: oh my goodness, what a cute dog intonation. Lifted.
This is a foster. You would never have an normal conversation with somebody at this pace,
at this pitch, but this pitch being higher shows a different emotional state. This is a foster.
This is a foster.
This is a foster.
This is a foster.
Everything links together. This is a, the ending S of this goes right into the IH vowel of is.,
the ending z of is goes right into the schwa, UH, which goes right into the F.
This is a foster.
This is a foster. And actually her pitch goes up in the end after that.
Foster. After that up-down shape.
And it does because she’s gonna keep going. She could have made it go down, but by making it go up,
she’s like wait, I have an idea, I want to say more.
This is a foster.
You know, if you like animals, I should refer you to my sister.
You know,
More stress on know, the word you, you’re probably noticing it’s not you, it’s ya, a reduction,
you know, you know.
You know,
if you like animals, I should refer you to my sister.
What are our peaks of stress in this next phrase?
If you like animals, I should refer you to my sister.
If you like animals, I should refer you to my sister.
If you like animals, I should refer you to my sister.
If you like, if you like, The F
linking right into the JU diphthong. It almost sounds like we can hear the word few in there.
If you like animals. Stress on an–, now this is not a pure AA.
If you look it up the dictionary, it’s written with the AA symbol
but when AA gets followed by N, it’s not pure anymore.
Jaw doesn’t drop quite as much, the back of the tongue relaxes, so we have a little bit of an UH vowel in between.
AAUH, animals, animals, animals.
Animals,
I should refer you to my sister.
I should refer you to my sister. A little bit of stress on I, refer, second syllable stress there.
I should refer you to my sister.
First syllable stress on sister. That has some of that up-down shape too.
The word should, not pronounced should, it’s pronounced: should should.
Unstressed, reduced, it’s the schwa,
and we can drop that D, I do hear it very faintly before the R. Should, should, should, should.
Should refer, should refer. Now, the word refer has a schwa in that first unstressed syllable, re-fer.
So don’t make that REE. Refer, refer, but re re re refer, refer.
I should refer,
Refer you to my. Refer you dadada. Flap T schwa for the word to. Refer you to my sister.
Refer you to my sister.
She owns a company.
What’s her stress here?
She owns a company.
She owns a company.
She and com– our most stressed syllables there.
She owns, okay she ends in EE, owns begins with the OH diphthong.
When a word that ends in EE links in to a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong,
that can be hard for some people to link really smoothly, she owns. It might help if you think of a Y
being in front of the word owns, she owns.
She owns,
a company.
She owns a company. Endings Z of owns linking right into the schwa.
She owns a, which links right into the K sound of company.
Company. Now, this is a letter A, compa– but that should be a schwa. Pany, Pany, Pany, Pany, Pany.
These two unstressed syllables should be really simple. Pany, Pany, Pany, Pany,
low in pitch, less fully pronounced. Compared to com, com, company, company, company.
She owns a company.
She owns a company.
They do house-sitting and pet sitting.
They do, a little pause there, tiny little break. They do, they do, they do, they do, they do.
Those both have a little bit of a stress feel to me.
They do, they do, they do house-sitting and pet sitting.
House sitting and pet sitting.
Little tiny break there. House sitting, house sitting and pet sitting.
Okay, so maybe you notice the T’s, the double T’s in sitting, those are flap T’s. House sitting, pet sitting.
Dadadada. Sitting, sitting, sitting, sitting.
House sitting. Do you notice that those two words are just linking together with a single S sound?
House sitting. House sitting.
House sitting,
and pet sitting.
House sitting. The word and reduced, the D is dropped, I don’t think the vowel reduces, I think it’s still AA, but it’s
unstressed, subtle, and, and, and, and, and pet sitting. And, and.
And pet sitting.
And pet sitting. And it links right, the N links right into the P. And pet sitting, pet sitting.
Little stop there to show the T, stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.
Pet sitting. So these two words are related to the word babysitting, which just means to take care of.
If you’re house-sitting, then you’re taking care of someone’s house, probably living there while they’re gone
if they want…they don’t they want their house to be empty.
Pet sitting as well.
And pet sitting.
You go to someone’s house, you take care of their pet while they’re on vacation, or
maybe that pet lives with you while they’re gone. Oh I have a dog at my house, I’m pet sitting for my friend.
House sitting. Pet Sitting. Babysitting.
House sitting and pet sitting.
House sitting and pet sitting.
House sitting and pet sitting.
Okay, let’s listen to this whole conversation one more time.
I’m so sorry.
No, it’s fine. It’s just I keep interviewing at places and no one thinks I’m the right fit.
Oh my goodness who is this gentleman?
Oh, this is a foster.
You know, if you like animals, I should refer you to my sister.
She owns a company. They do house sitting and pet sitting.
Now for the fun part,
you’ll look at the notes we took together and you’ll hear a part of the conversation on a loop three times.
Then there’s a space for you to repeat.
For example, you’ll hear this:
Maybe so, sir.
Then you’ll repeat it: Maybe so, sir. Try to imitate everything about this exactly so when you see this,
then you’ll repeat it. Maybe so, sir.
That’s from Top Gun: Maverick which was the first movie we studied in this summer series.
You’ll also have the opportunity to listen and repeat in slow motion.
This will be important for you if you’re more of a beginner,
or if you’re having a hard time focusing on linking or the melody.
Maybe you’ll want to do it both ways, but the important thing is here is your opportunity
to take what you learned and put it into your body and your own habit.
That’s what’s going to transform your speaking.
You might do well to work with the audio section of this video every day for a week.
Imitating the rhythm and the simplifications will get easier each time you do it.
If you can’t keep up with the native speaker, do the slow-motion imitation.
Okay, here’s our audio training section.
Don’t forget to come back and do this audio again tomorrow and the next day.
You want to build habits here, so you don’t need to think about it so much when you’re speaking in conversation,
you can focus on the words and not the expression or pronunciation.
Don’t forget, this is part of a series, all summer long, 13 videos, 13 scenes for movies, check out each one,
learn something new each time.
I make new videos on the English language every Tuesday and I’d love to have you back here again.
Please subscribe with notifications and continue your studies right now with this video.
And if you love this video, share it with a friend.
That’s it guys and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.