Transcript
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr6JCyVixPA
English - RE
0:00>> Here with my friend Tom, my favorite Rachel’s English teacher, besides myself.
0:04>> Of course. >> We’re going to have a little conversation
0:06and then turn it into a Ben Franklin exercise.
0:21>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? Can I call you Rach?
0:24>> You can call me Rach. >> Um, sort, of, but in a very good way. You
0:30know I’m leaving for Europe. >> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going
0:33to be gone for? >> I’m going to be gone for five weeks.
0:34>> That’s a good long time. >> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving
0:37in 10 days. So it feels like there’s a lot to be done.
0:44>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? [2x]
0:47Are you stressed about anything, Rach? Every word there was quite fast except for the word
0:53‘you’. It’s a little uncommon to stress a function word like this. Normally, I think
1:00I would stress the word ‘stressed’. Are you stressed about anything, Rach? But the
1:05reason why Tom stressed the word ‘you’ is because I had just asked him if he was
1:10stressed about anything. So now, he was turning the question to me, and he stressed ‘you’.
1:16Are you stressed about anything, Rach?
1:19>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? [2x]
1:21A couple other things I notice about this sentence, Tom turns the T into a D, making
1:27it a flap. About anything, about anything. He’s doing this because it’s a T coming
1:34between two vowel sounds. Even though it’s two separate words, the T still comes between
1:40two vowel sounds, which means it’s a great opportunity to link the two words together
1:46with a Flap T (which sounds like the American D).
1:50About anything [3x]. Are you stressed about anything, Rach?
1:55>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? [2x]
1:58Did you notice how the intonation went up at the end? About anything Rach? Rach? Rach?
2:06That’s because this is a yes/no question. And yes/no questions go up in pitch at the
2:13end.
2:14>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? Can I call you Rach?
2:16>> You can call me Rach.
2:18>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach.
2:20These next two sentences are great examples of reducing the word ‘can’.
2:25>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach.
2:28The word ‘can’ is so fast there, as if it has no vowels at all. Just the K sound
2:34and the N sound. Kn, kn, kn. Can I call you Rach? You can call me Rach.
2:41>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach. [2x]
2:45Notice how everything flows together. We don’t feel like we have five separate words in this
2:52sentence. Can I call you Rach? Can I call you Rach? It’s just like one long word.
2:58We do that by linking words together. When a word begins with a vowel, and the word before
3:03ends in a consonant, this is an easy time to link. Just like up here, when we used a
3:08Flap T to link. Can I. [3x] Linking an ending consonant to a beginning vowel helps smooth
3:17out the line. Can I. Can I call you Rach? You can call me Rach. Again, the word ‘can’
3:24is almost lost here. Kn, kn. You can call me Rach.
3:28>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach. [2x]
3:33We reduce the word ‘can’ like this when it’s not the only verb in the sentence.
3:38In these two sentences, the main verb is ‘call’. That means the word ‘can’ is a helping
3:45verb. That’s a function word, it’s not as important as the main verb ‘call’.
3:50The word ‘can’ is usually a helping verb. When you pronounce it reduced, kn, kn, it
3:56will help you sound more American. Can I call you Rach? You can call me Rach. Kn, kn.
4:03>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach.
4:08>> Um, sort of, but in a very good way.
4:12Did you notice? Another Flap T here, linking the word ‘sort’ and ‘of’. Sort of,
4:17sort of, sort of. So it sounded like an American D. I just said that when the T comes between
4:23two vowel sounds, it turns into a Flap T and can link words. But R is not a vowel sound.
4:31The rule is, if the T comes between two vowels, or after an R, before a vowel, that it becomes
4:37a Flap T. Sort of. [3x] If we think of this as one word, stress is on the first syllable.
4:45Sor-duv. And the second syllable is very fast. It has the schwa, not a full vowel. Sort of. [2x]
4:54>> Um, sort of, but in a very good way.
4:57Let’s go back for a second. I left something important out. The word ‘um’. This is
5:03the word we use when we’re thinking. Um or uh. These thinking sounds use the UH as
5:11in BUTTER vowel. Uh, uh. I call this the core sound of American English. Everything in the
5:19mouth, face, neck, throat is extremely relaxed. Uh, um. That allows the placement to be lower
5:28in the body, less in the face. Very American. Um, uh.
5:35>> Um, sort of, but in a very good way. [2x]
5:43The first syllable of the word ‘very’, ver-, and the word ‘way’, but in a very
5:48good way, are the most stressed. Do you hear how fast this string of function words is?
5:56But in a. [4x] But in a very good way. They all link together. Again, we have ending consonant
6:04linking into a beginning vowel, ending consonant linking into a beginning vowel. Both of these
6:10links help to make it sound like one word, very smooth. But in a, but in a. Again, this
6:17T is turning into a Flap T, or, a D sound. But in a, but in a. But in a very good way.
6:24>> Um, sort of, but in a very good way. You know I’m leaving for Europe.
6:29You know I’m leaving for Europe. What do you hear as the most stressed syllables in
6:34this sentence? I hear ‘know’, ‘leav-‘, ‘Eur-‘. You know I’m leaving for Europe.
6:45>> You know I’m leaving for Europe. [2x]
6:48These are all the most important parts of the sentence, the content words. Content words
6:55are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Here we have verb, verb, and proper noun.
7:04You know I’m leaving for Europe. Notice that in a content word, for example, leaving,
7:11that only the stressed syllable is stressed. Even though this is an important word, and
7:16it’s a stressed word in the sentence, the unstressed syllable, the –ing ending, is
7:22not stressed. So, unstressed syllables, even in stressed words, are still unstressed syllables.
7:30>> You know I’m leaving for Europe. [2x]
7:34Notice I use the contraction I’m. Some of my students don’t like to use contractions
7:40because they don’t think they’re clear enough. They will say ‘I am’. You know
7:45I’m leaving for Europe. But using a contraction, like I’m, is just like up here, where we
7:50took these three words and linked them together and made them very fast. But in a. So, contractions
7:57are words we reduce and link together in writing and in speech. I’m, I’m.
8:03>> You know I’m leaving for Europe. [2x]
8:07Reducing and contracting words will help you sound very American. There’s actually one more
8:12example of a reduction in this sentence. It’s the word ‘for’. For Europe. For Europe.
8:18I reduced that vowel to the schwa. And the schwa-R together make one sound, rr. Rr, rr,
8:26fr, fr. For Europe, for Europe. And again, here we have an ending consonant linking into
8:34a beginning vowel. For Europe. [3x] So those two words glide together very easily. For
8:43Europe, for Europe.
8:47>> You know I’m leaving for Europe. >> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going
8:50to be gone for?
8:51This was all very fast. Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for? Wow.
8:57Tom didn’t even really finish the word ‘right’. Yes that’s right how long? He certainly
9:03didn’t pronounce a full T. He moved on to the next sentence before he even finished
9:08that word.
9:09>> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for?
9:11So there was no real break here between sentences. You probably noticed he took ‘going to’
9:18and turned it into ‘gonna’. How long are you gonna? You gonna? [3x] How long are you
9:25gonna be gone for?
9:26>> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for? [2x]
9:30Did you notice Tom did not reduce the word ‘for’ to the schwa. Well, I just said
9:35that that’s something that we want to do with this word in order to make it sound more
9:39American. But, I do need to add: we don’t reduce words like ‘for’ when they’re
9:45at the end of a sentence.
9:46>> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for?
9:48There, they need to be fully pronounced. Even though it was still very fast, it wasn’t
9:53a stressed word, it did have the full vowel.
9:59>> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for?
10:00>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks.
10:03I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x] Again, I used ‘I’m’ instead of ‘I
10:10am’. That helped me make it fast and less important, compared to the more important
10:15words in the sentence.
10:16>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x]
10:20You also may have noticed, I also took ‘going to’ and pronounced it ‘gonna’.
10:25I’m gonna [3x].
10:27>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x]
10:31How do you hear this word ‘for’? Listen again.
10:34>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x]
10:38You’re right, it’s reduced. For, for, for, for five, for five. For five weeks.
10:44>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x]
10:48So, the most important words there, the loudest, the clearest, are ‘gone’, ‘five’,
10:58and ‘weeks’. Those are the words that carry the actual meaning of the sentence.
11:03So, we don’t reduce these more important words. But if we say all the other words fast,
11:10reduce them, then it makes these more important words stand out the most. I’m going to be
11:16gone for five weeks.
11:17>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. >> That’s a good long time.
11:21That’s a good long time. Tom didn’t really pronounce the TH here. He reduced the word
11:27‘that’s’ to just the schwa-TS sound. Utsa, utsa, utsa good long time. [2x]
11:34>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. >> That’s a good long time. [2x]
11:40We reduce that’s, it’s, what’s, at the beginning of a sentence like this a lot. And
11:46look, we have an ending consonant beginning vowel to link. That’s a, [3x]
11:52that’s a good long time. He stressed the last three words.
11:56>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. >> That’s a good long time. [2x]
12:03We have adjective, adjective, noun.
12:15The three content words are stressed, longer, clearer.
12:20>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. >> That’s a good long time.
12:23>> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving in ten days.
12:26I reduced the word ‘it’s’ by dropping the vowel. Tsa, tsa, it’s a good long time.
12:32>> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving in ten days.
12:34It’s a good long time. Linking the TS cluster into the schwa. Tsa, tsa, it’s a good long
12:42time. It’s a good long time. Again, these three words are stressed, good long time.
12:48I stressed the word ‘good’ the most. It’s a good long time. It’s a good long time.
12:54Just like Tom did earlier, I didn’t really leave a sentence break here, did I? I went
12:59straight on to my next thought.
13:01>> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving in ten days.
13:05Look. Another contraction. The most important syllables in that sentence: leav-, ten, days.
13:13I’m leaving in ten days. [4x] Again, they’re the most important parts of the sentence for
13:24content. The verb leaving, and the time amount, ten days.
13:28>> I’m leaving in ten days, so it feels like there’s a lot to be done.
13:33I notice the word ‘it’ is not very clear. So it feels. [2x]
13:38>> I’m leaving in ten days, so it feels like there’s a lot to be done.
13:42So it feels like. The word ‘it’ begins with a vowel. Here, the word before ends with
13:47a vowel. So we can link vowel to vowel. So it. [3x] So it feels like. It’s a very smooth
13:55transition. And it can feel like I go through the glide consonant W. So it. [3x] That helps
14:03me link them together. So it feels like.
14:06What’s happening with the T in ‘it’? It’s a Stop T. So it, so it, so it feels.
14:13So it feels like. The T is not fully pronounced, tt. So it, so it. But instead, I stop the
14:21air. So it. In general, we pronounce T’s this way when the next sound is a consonant.
14:28So it feels like there’s a lot to be done. And the ending Z sound of ‘there’s’
14:34links right into the schwa sound uh. There’s a, there’s a, there’s a lot to be done.
14:40>> There’s a lot to be done. [2x]
14:44How are these two words pronounced? Lot to, lot to. This is clearly not an ‘oo’ vowel,
14:51it’s a schwa. Lot to. But what about the T’s? Lot to. I’m making the first T a
14:59Stop T. Lot. So I’m just stopping the air for a second—lot to, lot to—before releasing
15:08to make the second T. There’s a lot to be done.
15:12>> There’s a lot to be done. [2x]
15:15We use these three words together, a lot to, quite a bit. Let’s do a quick comparison
15:22to ‘a lot of’, which we also use together frequently. Here we have an ending T consonant
15:29and beginning vowel. The T comes between two vowels, so it’s a Flap T or a D sound. A
15:35lot of, a lot of. So the T in ‘lot’ is pronounced one way in this phrase, a lot to,
15:43and a different way in this phrase, a lot of. Let’s listen to the whole bit of conversation
15:49one more time.
15:51>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? Can I call you Rach?
15:54>> You can call me Rach. >> Um, sort, of, but in a very good way. You
16:00know I’m leaving for Europe. >> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going
16:03to be gone for? >> I’m going to be gone for five weeks.
16:04>> That’s a good long time. >> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving
16:07in 10 days. So it feels like there’s a lot to be done.
16:11Even with just a little bit of speech, there’s a lot to study. Thanks for studying with me.
16:18That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wr6JCyVixPA
English - RE
0:00>> Here with my friend Tom, my favorite Rachel’s English teacher, besides myself.
0:04>> Of course. >> We’re going to have a little conversation
0:06and then turn it into a Ben Franklin exercise.
0:21>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? Can I call you Rach?
0:24>> You can call me Rach. >> Um, sort, of, but in a very good way. You
0:30know I’m leaving for Europe. >> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going
0:33to be gone for? >> I’m going to be gone for five weeks.
0:34>> That’s a good long time. >> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving
0:37in 10 days. So it feels like there’s a lot to be done.
0:44>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? [2x]
0:47Are you stressed about anything, Rach? Every word there was quite fast except for the word
0:53‘you’. It’s a little uncommon to stress a function word like this. Normally, I think
1:00I would stress the word ‘stressed’. Are you stressed about anything, Rach? But the
1:05reason why Tom stressed the word ‘you’ is because I had just asked him if he was
1:10stressed about anything. So now, he was turning the question to me, and he stressed ‘you’.
1:16Are you stressed about anything, Rach?
1:19>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? [2x]
1:21A couple other things I notice about this sentence, Tom turns the T into a D, making
1:27it a flap. About anything, about anything. He’s doing this because it’s a T coming
1:34between two vowel sounds. Even though it’s two separate words, the T still comes between
1:40two vowel sounds, which means it’s a great opportunity to link the two words together
1:46with a Flap T (which sounds like the American D).
1:50About anything [3x]. Are you stressed about anything, Rach?
1:55>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? [2x]
1:58Did you notice how the intonation went up at the end? About anything Rach? Rach? Rach?
2:06That’s because this is a yes/no question. And yes/no questions go up in pitch at the
2:13end.
2:14>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? Can I call you Rach?
2:16>> You can call me Rach.
2:18>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach.
2:20These next two sentences are great examples of reducing the word ‘can’.
2:25>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach.
2:28The word ‘can’ is so fast there, as if it has no vowels at all. Just the K sound
2:34and the N sound. Kn, kn, kn. Can I call you Rach? You can call me Rach.
2:41>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach. [2x]
2:45Notice how everything flows together. We don’t feel like we have five separate words in this
2:52sentence. Can I call you Rach? Can I call you Rach? It’s just like one long word.
2:58We do that by linking words together. When a word begins with a vowel, and the word before
3:03ends in a consonant, this is an easy time to link. Just like up here, when we used a
3:08Flap T to link. Can I. [3x] Linking an ending consonant to a beginning vowel helps smooth
3:17out the line. Can I. Can I call you Rach? You can call me Rach. Again, the word ‘can’
3:24is almost lost here. Kn, kn. You can call me Rach.
3:28>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach. [2x]
3:33We reduce the word ‘can’ like this when it’s not the only verb in the sentence.
3:38In these two sentences, the main verb is ‘call’. That means the word ‘can’ is a helping
3:45verb. That’s a function word, it’s not as important as the main verb ‘call’.
3:50The word ‘can’ is usually a helping verb. When you pronounce it reduced, kn, kn, it
3:56will help you sound more American. Can I call you Rach? You can call me Rach. Kn, kn.
4:03>> Can I call you Rach? >> You can call me Rach.
4:08>> Um, sort of, but in a very good way.
4:12Did you notice? Another Flap T here, linking the word ‘sort’ and ‘of’. Sort of,
4:17sort of, sort of. So it sounded like an American D. I just said that when the T comes between
4:23two vowel sounds, it turns into a Flap T and can link words. But R is not a vowel sound.
4:31The rule is, if the T comes between two vowels, or after an R, before a vowel, that it becomes
4:37a Flap T. Sort of. [3x] If we think of this as one word, stress is on the first syllable.
4:45Sor-duv. And the second syllable is very fast. It has the schwa, not a full vowel. Sort of. [2x]
4:54>> Um, sort of, but in a very good way.
4:57Let’s go back for a second. I left something important out. The word ‘um’. This is
5:03the word we use when we’re thinking. Um or uh. These thinking sounds use the UH as
5:11in BUTTER vowel. Uh, uh. I call this the core sound of American English. Everything in the
5:19mouth, face, neck, throat is extremely relaxed. Uh, um. That allows the placement to be lower
5:28in the body, less in the face. Very American. Um, uh.
5:35>> Um, sort of, but in a very good way. [2x]
5:43The first syllable of the word ‘very’, ver-, and the word ‘way’, but in a very
5:48good way, are the most stressed. Do you hear how fast this string of function words is?
5:56But in a. [4x] But in a very good way. They all link together. Again, we have ending consonant
6:04linking into a beginning vowel, ending consonant linking into a beginning vowel. Both of these
6:10links help to make it sound like one word, very smooth. But in a, but in a. Again, this
6:17T is turning into a Flap T, or, a D sound. But in a, but in a. But in a very good way.
6:24>> Um, sort of, but in a very good way. You know I’m leaving for Europe.
6:29You know I’m leaving for Europe. What do you hear as the most stressed syllables in
6:34this sentence? I hear ‘know’, ‘leav-‘, ‘Eur-‘. You know I’m leaving for Europe.
6:45>> You know I’m leaving for Europe. [2x]
6:48These are all the most important parts of the sentence, the content words. Content words
6:55are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Here we have verb, verb, and proper noun.
7:04You know I’m leaving for Europe. Notice that in a content word, for example, leaving,
7:11that only the stressed syllable is stressed. Even though this is an important word, and
7:16it’s a stressed word in the sentence, the unstressed syllable, the –ing ending, is
7:22not stressed. So, unstressed syllables, even in stressed words, are still unstressed syllables.
7:30>> You know I’m leaving for Europe. [2x]
7:34Notice I use the contraction I’m. Some of my students don’t like to use contractions
7:40because they don’t think they’re clear enough. They will say ‘I am’. You know
7:45I’m leaving for Europe. But using a contraction, like I’m, is just like up here, where we
7:50took these three words and linked them together and made them very fast. But in a. So, contractions
7:57are words we reduce and link together in writing and in speech. I’m, I’m.
8:03>> You know I’m leaving for Europe. [2x]
8:07Reducing and contracting words will help you sound very American. There’s actually one more
8:12example of a reduction in this sentence. It’s the word ‘for’. For Europe. For Europe.
8:18I reduced that vowel to the schwa. And the schwa-R together make one sound, rr. Rr, rr,
8:26fr, fr. For Europe, for Europe. And again, here we have an ending consonant linking into
8:34a beginning vowel. For Europe. [3x] So those two words glide together very easily. For
8:43Europe, for Europe.
8:47>> You know I’m leaving for Europe. >> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going
8:50to be gone for?
8:51This was all very fast. Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for? Wow.
8:57Tom didn’t even really finish the word ‘right’. Yes that’s right how long? He certainly
9:03didn’t pronounce a full T. He moved on to the next sentence before he even finished
9:08that word.
9:09>> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for?
9:11So there was no real break here between sentences. You probably noticed he took ‘going to’
9:18and turned it into ‘gonna’. How long are you gonna? You gonna? [3x] How long are you
9:25gonna be gone for?
9:26>> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for? [2x]
9:30Did you notice Tom did not reduce the word ‘for’ to the schwa. Well, I just said
9:35that that’s something that we want to do with this word in order to make it sound more
9:39American. But, I do need to add: we don’t reduce words like ‘for’ when they’re
9:45at the end of a sentence.
9:46>> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for?
9:48There, they need to be fully pronounced. Even though it was still very fast, it wasn’t
9:53a stressed word, it did have the full vowel.
9:59>> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going to be gone for?
10:00>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks.
10:03I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x] Again, I used ‘I’m’ instead of ‘I
10:10am’. That helped me make it fast and less important, compared to the more important
10:15words in the sentence.
10:16>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x]
10:20You also may have noticed, I also took ‘going to’ and pronounced it ‘gonna’.
10:25I’m gonna [3x].
10:27>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x]
10:31How do you hear this word ‘for’? Listen again.
10:34>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x]
10:38You’re right, it’s reduced. For, for, for, for five, for five. For five weeks.
10:44>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. [2x]
10:48So, the most important words there, the loudest, the clearest, are ‘gone’, ‘five’,
10:58and ‘weeks’. Those are the words that carry the actual meaning of the sentence.
11:03So, we don’t reduce these more important words. But if we say all the other words fast,
11:10reduce them, then it makes these more important words stand out the most. I’m going to be
11:16gone for five weeks.
11:17>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. >> That’s a good long time.
11:21That’s a good long time. Tom didn’t really pronounce the TH here. He reduced the word
11:27‘that’s’ to just the schwa-TS sound. Utsa, utsa, utsa good long time. [2x]
11:34>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. >> That’s a good long time. [2x]
11:40We reduce that’s, it’s, what’s, at the beginning of a sentence like this a lot. And
11:46look, we have an ending consonant beginning vowel to link. That’s a, [3x]
11:52that’s a good long time. He stressed the last three words.
11:56>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. >> That’s a good long time. [2x]
12:03We have adjective, adjective, noun.
12:15The three content words are stressed, longer, clearer.
12:20>> I’m going to be gone for five weeks. >> That’s a good long time.
12:23>> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving in ten days.
12:26I reduced the word ‘it’s’ by dropping the vowel. Tsa, tsa, it’s a good long time.
12:32>> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving in ten days.
12:34It’s a good long time. Linking the TS cluster into the schwa. Tsa, tsa, it’s a good long
12:42time. It’s a good long time. Again, these three words are stressed, good long time.
12:48I stressed the word ‘good’ the most. It’s a good long time. It’s a good long time.
12:54Just like Tom did earlier, I didn’t really leave a sentence break here, did I? I went
12:59straight on to my next thought.
13:01>> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving in ten days.
13:05Look. Another contraction. The most important syllables in that sentence: leav-, ten, days.
13:13I’m leaving in ten days. [4x] Again, they’re the most important parts of the sentence for
13:24content. The verb leaving, and the time amount, ten days.
13:28>> I’m leaving in ten days, so it feels like there’s a lot to be done.
13:33I notice the word ‘it’ is not very clear. So it feels. [2x]
13:38>> I’m leaving in ten days, so it feels like there’s a lot to be done.
13:42So it feels like. The word ‘it’ begins with a vowel. Here, the word before ends with
13:47a vowel. So we can link vowel to vowel. So it. [3x] So it feels like. It’s a very smooth
13:55transition. And it can feel like I go through the glide consonant W. So it. [3x] That helps
14:03me link them together. So it feels like.
14:06What’s happening with the T in ‘it’? It’s a Stop T. So it, so it, so it feels.
14:13So it feels like. The T is not fully pronounced, tt. So it, so it. But instead, I stop the
14:21air. So it. In general, we pronounce T’s this way when the next sound is a consonant.
14:28So it feels like there’s a lot to be done. And the ending Z sound of ‘there’s’
14:34links right into the schwa sound uh. There’s a, there’s a, there’s a lot to be done.
14:40>> There’s a lot to be done. [2x]
14:44How are these two words pronounced? Lot to, lot to. This is clearly not an ‘oo’ vowel,
14:51it’s a schwa. Lot to. But what about the T’s? Lot to. I’m making the first T a
14:59Stop T. Lot. So I’m just stopping the air for a second—lot to, lot to—before releasing
15:08to make the second T. There’s a lot to be done.
15:12>> There’s a lot to be done. [2x]
15:15We use these three words together, a lot to, quite a bit. Let’s do a quick comparison
15:22to ‘a lot of’, which we also use together frequently. Here we have an ending T consonant
15:29and beginning vowel. The T comes between two vowels, so it’s a Flap T or a D sound. A
15:35lot of, a lot of. So the T in ‘lot’ is pronounced one way in this phrase, a lot to,
15:43and a different way in this phrase, a lot of. Let’s listen to the whole bit of conversation
15:49one more time.
15:51>> Are you stressed about anything, Rach? Can I call you Rach?
15:54>> You can call me Rach. >> Um, sort, of, but in a very good way. You
16:00know I’m leaving for Europe. >> Yes, that’s right. How long are you going
16:03to be gone for? >> I’m going to be gone for five weeks.
16:04>> That’s a good long time. >> It’s a good long time. I’m leaving
16:07in 10 days. So it feels like there’s a lot to be done.
16:11Even with just a little bit of speech, there’s a lot to study. Thanks for studying with me.
16:18That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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