Learn English with Movies Lady Bird
In the US, summer is for sand,
sun, and blockbuster movies.
And this summer, we’re
going to use those movies
to learn English, and study
how to sound American.
Every video this summer is going
to be a Study English with Movies video.
We’ll pull scenes from the
summer’s hottest movies,
as well as favorite
movies from years past.
It’s amazing what we can discover
by studying even a small
bit of English dialogue.
We’ll study how to understand movies,
what makes Americans sound American,
and of course, any interesting
vocabulary, phrasal verbs,
or idioms that come up
in the scenes we study.
I call this kind of exercise
a Ben Franklin exercise.
First, we’ll watch the scene.
Then we’ll do an in-depth
analysis of what we hear together.
This is going to be so much fun.
Be sure to tell your
friends and spread the word
that all summer long, every Tuesday,
we’re studying English with movies,
here at Rachel’s English.
If you’re new to my
channel, click Subscribe,
and don’t forget the notification button.
Let’s get started.
First, the scene.
What do you want from me?
Yes?
My, my grandma wanted me to tell you
that she missed you at Christmas.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.
Your mom is crazy, I’m scared of her.
She’s not crazy,
she’s just, y’know, she,
she has a big heart, she’s very warm.
Now, the analysis.
What do you want from me?
I love this phrase,
it’s a little bit sassy.
There’s one really clear stressed word,
and she does a movement
on it, as she says it.
She puts her foot down
on the stressed word.
Watch it again and listen for that.
What do you want from me?
And the most
stressed word is want.
What do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
So the energy goes up
towards the peak of want.
What do you want from me?
And then it falls down
away from that peak.
What do, we have a T and a D.
How are these two words pronounced?
Let’s go ahead and
throw in this word, too.
How are these three words pronounced?
What do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
They’re pronounced
what do you, what do you, what do you.
So the vowels in do and
you are not reduced.
You could hear that whaddya, whaddya.
You could hear them as schwas,
but she’s making them both OO vowels.
what do you, what do you,
what do you, what do you.
But notice the T here is dropped,
and she’s just using the D to
link the two words together.
Wha-do, wha-do.
So it’s a flap because it
comes between two vowel sounds.
And the T is also a flap
when it comes between two vowel sounds.
So it’s sort of like
she’s combining the two,
or you can think of it as dropping the T.
But this would be a pretty common way
to pronounce the phrase, what do you.
What do you, what do you, what do you,
what do you, what do you.
I would say it’s the most common way.
You can just forget about
the T and link it into the D.
What do you, what do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
Want from me, want from me.
So we have a stop T, want from, want from.
And the word ‘from’ is reduced.
It’s not from, it’s from, from.
I would write it with a schwa.
From me, from me.
Then here we have ending M, beginning M,
links together with just a single M sound.
Very smooth, no breaks, no skips or jumps
in the intonation here.
Uhh, just a smooth up and down.
What do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
What do you want from me?
Yes?
Yes?
And she does a head
gesture, she’s impatient.
Why is this guy showing
up at her work, yes?
Upward pitch shows that
it’s a yes-no question.
She’s saying, I’m
expecting you to talk here.
Yes?
Yes?
Yes?
My, my grandma wanted me to tell you
that she missed you at Christmas.
Whoa, different day, different outfit,
important announcement.
Did you know that with this video,
I made a free audio lesson
that you can download?
In fact, I’m going this for each one
of the YouTube videos
I’m making this summer,
all 11 of the Learn
English with Movies videos.
So follow this link, or find the link
in the video description
to get your free
downloadable audio lesson.
It’s where you’re going
to train all of the things
that you learned about
pronunciation in this video.
Back to the lesson.
Yes?
My, my grandma wanted me to tell you
that she missed you at Christmas.
So we have
several stressed words here.
My, my grandma wanted me
to tell you
that she missed you at Christmas.
So I’m hearing those as our
four most stressed syllables,
little bit longer, up-down shape,
the energy goes towards
them then it comes away.
But we have lots of
other interesting things
with pronunciation that
are happening here.
My, my grandma wanted me to tell you
that she missed you at Christmas.
My, my grandma wanted me to tell you
that she missed you at Christmas.
My, my grandma wanted me to tell you
that she missed you at Christmas.
My, my grandma, my, my, my, my.
Both the words ‘my’ are unstressed,
they’re said really quickly,
they’re low in pitch.
My, my, my, my, my.
So you have to simplify
the mouth position.
You can’t do this big jaw
drop for the AI diphthong,
like you might do in a stressed
syllable, my, my, my, my.
My, my grandma,
Grandma, so
it’s a stressed word,
and yet we don’t say the D.
Very common to drop the D in this word.
We often drop the D
between two consonants,
here it comes after N, before
M, and it’s dropped, grandma.
My, my grandma,
And actually,
he’s dropping the N, too.
So this can be pronounced with the N,
grandma, but you know what?
It’s actually not that common either
in this particular word, grandma,
grandma.
AH vowel,
followed by the M consonant,
when AH is followed by M it’s
not pure, we add an AH vowel.
Grandma.
Grandma, grandma, grandma, try that.
My, my grandma,
My, my grandma wanted me to tell you
that she missed you at Christmas.
Wanted me to tell you,
actually, I really need another line here,
another curve on wanted.
Now, it’s interesting, it
is stressed, it’s the verb.
Usually we don’t reduce stressed
words, but you know what?
Sometimes we do and that’s
happening here, wanted.
The T is not there.
Sometimes we drop the T after
N, that’s what’s happening.
Wanted, wanted.
But the ED ending still follows
the rule for ED after T,
and that is it adds an extra syllable.
It’s the IH vowel plus D sound.
Wanted, wanted,
wanted me to, wanted me to.
The other thing that you might notice is
the word ‘to’ is not pronounced to,
it’s pronounced duh, duh, duh.
It’s a flap T and the schwa, wanted me to,
wanted me to, wanted me to tell.
Wanted me to tell you,
wanted me to tell you that she missed you.
Tell you that she missed you,
tell you that she missed you.
Okay, so the word That, tell you that she,
it’s reduced, it’s not
that, but it’s that, that.
It’s the schwa instead of the
AH vowel, that, that, that.
Tell you that she.
So, between the stressed
words Tell and Missed,
we have three unstressed words,
and they’re all said really quickly,
and they’re flat, lower in pitch,
you that she, you that she, you that she.
Tell you that she,
tell you that she missed you at Christmas.
Now the ED
ending after S is pronounced
as a T sound, so it does
not add an extra syllable.
Missed you, missed you.
But that’s not what’s happening, is it?
Let’s listen.
That she missed you at Christmas.
That she missed you at Christmas.
That she missed you at Christmas.
Okay, so what’s happening here?
We do drop the T sometimes
when it comes between two consonants
just like I said we do with the D here,
although we were actually dropping the N
and the D in that case.
But we do drop the T
between two consonants.
So here T comes after the S sound,
it comes before the Y consonant.
I’m not really hearing the T.
I’m certainly not hearing
(softly makes T sound) a released T.
So I’m actually gonna go ahead and say
you can drop that sound,
you can drop the ED ending.
And this is something that
my students ask me sometimes.
They say, “I don’t hear
the ED ending sometimes.”
And I think that when they don’t hear it
is when it makes a T sound,
but it comes between two consonants.
I think this is a case
where it gets dropped a lot
in conversational English.
She missed you at Christmas,
she missed you at Christmas.
I know exactly what’s being said,
I know that it’s past tense.
I’m not hearing it and
thinking it’s not past tense.
Because I know the context,
and I’m used to T’s being
dropped between two consonants.
That she missed you at Christmas.
That she missed you at Christmas.
That she missed you at Christmas.
Missed you at Christmas,
you at, you at, you at.
So here we have two more
unstressed words together,
they’re flat in pitch,
they’re said very quickly,
the AH vowel is reduced,
it’s the schwa,uh, uh, uh stop T.
So that and at are similar
in that they both reduce often
with the AH vowel becoming the schwa,
and then the T is a stop
T when it’s followed
by a word that begins with a consonant.
That she missed you at Christmas.
That she missed you at Christmas.
That she missed you at Christmas.
Like Christmas.
Okay, let’s keep talking about
our T’s between consonants.
How is this T pronounced?
Christmas.
It’s dropped.
Christmas, Christmas.
Christmas.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Yeah, well, I
couldn’t have gone anyway.
What are our stressed syllables there?
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Yeah, yeah,
that has a little stress.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
An, anyway is well stressed.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Tiny little break after yeah.
Yeah, well, tiny little break after well.
Yeah, yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone.
And then very smooth, I
couldn’t have gone anyway.
How is she making those words
link together so smoothly?
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Yeah, well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Well she’s dropping
the H in have, that’s common.
And she’s actually
dropping the apostrophe T
in an apostrophe T contraction.
That happens sometimes, too.
It happens especially when
an apostrophe T is followed
by a word that begins
with a vowel or diphthong.
Now this word typically
begins with a consonant,
but that often gets dropped,
so it’s not a consonant,
it is a vowel, couldn’t’ve.
And so the N is linking
right into the vowel
and the vowel is reduced.
It’s not AH, it’s the schwa, couldn’t’ve.
Couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve.
Try that, let’s do it slowly, couldn’t’ve.
So I’m putting the tongue up
into position for the D, couldn’t.
I’m not releasing the D, I’m
going right into an N sound.
couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve,
couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve,
couldn’t’ve, couldn’t’ve.
That really smooths it out, doesn’t it?
A lot smoother than couldn’t
have, couldn’t have.
Well, I couldn’t have gone.
Well, I couldn’t have gone.
Well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Couldn’t have gone anyway.
Gone anyway, gone anyway.
Ending N, ending consonant
links into beginning vowel,
the EH of anyway, and it’s just
all very smoothly connected.
Actually, she keeps going.
She smoothly connects the AY
diphthong into the N consonant.
Well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
Well, I couldn’t have gone anyway.
My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.
So this is actually
a pretty long thought group.
My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.
What are our most stressed words here?
My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.
My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.
My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.
My mom, little
bit of length there,
little bit of higher pitch.
My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.
Pissed and Thanksgiving.
Okay, now here we have another
ED ending, it comes after S,
an unvoiced sound, therefore, it is the T.
I do have a video on ED endings
if you’re not sure about
the rules for pronunciation.
So you can search on
YouTube Rachel’s English,
ED endings, and you’ll find it there.
It’s pretty simple, the rules.
Last time we dropped the T in ‘missed’
because it was followed by a word
that began with a consonant.
But here, the next word
begins with a vowel
and do you hear a T sound?
My mom was pissed about.
My mom was pissed about.
My Mom was pissed about.
Definitely, I definitely hear
a true T releasing into the vowel.
Pissed about, t’about,
t’about, t’about, t’about,
pissed about.
My mom was pissed about.
My mom was pissed about.
My mom was pissed about.
I also wanna point
out the word ‘was’ isn’t was.
That’s stressed, it’s was, unstressed.
Said very quickly, I would
write that with a schwa.
Was, was, was, was, was, was
pissed, was pissed about.
Then we have a stop T in about
because the next word
begins with a consonant.
It’s the TH, unvoiced, of Thanksgiving.
My mom was pissed about.
My mom was pissed about.
My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving,
middle syllable stressed.
Have you noticed when
you look this word up
in the dictionary, it says
it’s the A, as in that vowel,
is followed by the NG consonant?
The letter N here is actually the NG sound
because it’s followed by K.
And when those two sounds
come one after another,
in the same syllable,
usually the K makes the
N an NG sound instead.
So it’s made at the back of
the tongue where the K is,
instead of at the front of the tongue.
Now, when the AH vowel is
followed by NG, it is not AH.
I’m sure you can tell it’s
not tha, Thanksgiving,
tha, thanks, but it’s thanks.
When AH is followed by the NG consonant,
it sounds a lot more like the
AY diphthong, thanks, thanks,
and that’s just like
over on the other slide,
where we talked about the word grandma.
The AH vowel followed
by the M consonant here
and the vowel changes.
So the AH vowel changes
when it’s followed by nasal consonants.
M or N, we add an uh sound, a-uh.
Followed by NG, it changes to
the AY diphthong, more or less.
Thank, thanksgiving, thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving.
Your mom is crazy, I’m scared of her.
Your mom is, and then a break,
thinking about wow, what to
say about this girl’s mom?
Your mom is, what’s stressed there?
Your mom is,
Very clear, isn’t it?
Your mom is, your mom is,
it’s the middle word, Mom.
Your mom is, your mom is.
The word Your is reduced, it’s not your,
but it’s said much faster than that.
I would write it with
a schwa, reduced vowel.
Yer, yer, yer, yer mom,
yer mom, yer mom is.
Your mom is,
crazy, I’m scared of her.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
So even though this is
two different sentences,
he links them right
together, he does not stop.
They make one thought group,
crazy I’m scared of her.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
Actually, that’s not how he said it.
He did say the H here.
So earlier, she dropped
the H on the word have.
It’s very common to drop the H
on words like have, had, her, he, him.
But we don’t always do
it, he doesn’t do it.
It’s still unstressed, I’m scared of her.
Of her, of her, of her, of her.
But the H isn’t dropped.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
Okay, what
are our stressed words,
our stressed syllables
in this thought group?
crazy, I’m scared of her.
Crazy, crazy,
I’m scared of her.
Cray and scare, longer with
that up-down shape of pitch.
Everything really smoothly connected,
the lower unstressed syllables
fall right into the same line,
no skips or jumps in intonation.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
Crazy, I’m scared of her.
Scared of her, scared of her,
of her, of her, of her.
I would probably write of with the schwa.
Sometimes we drop the V sound here,
which the letter F makes the V sound.
But he doesn’t, he does
make a quick V sound.
Of, of, of, of her, of her,
of her, of her, of her.
I’m scared of her,
She’s not crazy.
She’s not
crazy, she’s not crazy.
So cray, the most stressed syllable there
in that little thought group,
and the intonation of she’s
and not builds up towards
that, she’s not crazy.
She’s not, she’s not, she’s not.
Do you hear how the pitch is rising there?
Towards the peak of cray.
She’s not crazy, crazy,
and we have a stop T at the end of not
because the next word begins
with a consonant sound.
She’s not crazy.
She’s not crazy.
She’s not crazy, she’s just,
She just,
how is that pronounced?
She’s just,
She reduces the word just.
It’s not just, it’s
just, just, just, just.
T is dropped, vowel is the schwa,
Just, just, just, she
just, she just, she just.
Flat in pitch, said quickly, unstressed.
She’s just,
y’know, she–
Y’know, y’know, y’know,
little filler phrase
here while she thinks,
y’know, y’know, y’know.
Often we reduce the word you to yuh
in this little filler phrase, she does.
Yuh, yuh, y’know, y’know, y’know, y’know.
Y’know, she, y’know, she, y’know, she–
She, she, she
says the word she, it’s fast.
Even though she stops to repeat herself,
the word sort of is on its own,
it’s still said very quickly,
low in pitch, she, she, she.
Y’know, she, y’know, she,
y’know, she, she has a big heart.
She has a big heart,
she’s defending her mother here.
Two stressed words, she has a big heart.
So big, even though it’s an adjective,
it’s not as stressed as the
other two stressed words there.
She has a big heart, heart.
So I would say the word big,
even though it is a content word,
doesn’t really feel stressed.
And that’s something you’ll notice
as you study pronunciation is that
we say content words are stressed,
function words are
unstressed, totally not true.
Sentences with lots of content words
will have some content
words that sound stressed,
and some that sound unstressed
because there are other content words
that are more important
that are stressed in that sentence.
She has a big heart.
Has, the letter S,
here, is pronounced as a Z,
and that Z links right
into the next sound,
which is the schwa has a,
has a, has a big heart.
And did you notice there’s a stop T here?
T, we often say in clusters,
in ending clusters, is a true T,
but that’s not really true with NT or RT.
I’ve noticed with RT it’s
really a lot more like a stop T.
Heart, heart, that’s what she does here.
Heart, heart, heart, she’s very warm.
She’s very warm.
She’s very warm,
ver and warm stress there.
I’m sure you can notice that
the AW, as in Law, vowel
in the word warm doesn’t sound like AW.
Aw, warm, oh-oh-oh,
it’s much more closed.
When it’s followed by R, the letter R,
the sound R does change that vowel.
Lips round a little bit more,
tongue pulls back a little
bit more, warm, warm, not AW,
which is the symbol you’ll see
if you look it up in a dictionary.
She’s very warm,
Let’s listen to the whole
conversation one more time.
What do you want from me?
Yes?
My, my grandma
wanted me to tell you
that she missed you at Christmas.
Yeah, well, I
couldn’t have gone anyway.
My mom was pissed about Thanksgiving.
Your mom is
crazy, I’m scared of her.
She’s not
crazy, she’s just, y’know,
she, she has a big heart, she’s very warm.
We’re going to be doing a lot more
of this kind of analysis together.
What movie scenes would you
like to see analyzed like this?
Let me know in the comments.
And if you want to see all
my Ben Franklin videos,
click here.
You’ll also find the link
in the video description.
That’s it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.