Shadowing Practice: Connected Speech — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hello and welcome back to my channel, or
2. 0:02welcome if you're new here. My name is
3. 0:04Claire and I am an English teacher and a
4. 0:07native speaker from the United States.
5. 0:09And today I'm going to lead you through
6. 0:11a shadowing practice to help you with
7. 0:14your English pronunciation, maybe even
8. 0:16work on your accent if you want to, and
9. 0:19your overall intonation and fluency of
10. 0:22the language. So in today's video, we're
11. 0:25going to focus on connected speech. And
12. 0:28connected speech is what happens when
13. 0:30native speakers don't pronounce every
14. 0:34word separately. We link words together,
15. 0:38we drop some sounds entirely, and
16. 0:41sometimes we even change the sound that
17. 0:46it usually takes if it's just the word
18. 0:49on its own, but when it is combined with
19. 0:52another word or another sound, we change
20. 0:56the sound within that word entirely. And
21. 1:00that's why when you listen to English,
22. 1:03maybe you listen to podcasts or you
23. 1:05watch movies in English or TV shows,
24. 1:09that's why it might sound really fast
25. 1:12and sometimes hard to understand or hard
26. 1:15to catch what the people are saying,
27. 1:16even if you are at an advanced level of
28. 1:20English and you have studied all the
29. 1:23grammar and you know the language really
30. 1:25well, you might still find it difficult
31. 1:28to understand some native speakers. And
32. 1:31English is already pretty tricky and
33. 1:33complicated with pronunciation because
34. 1:35it is not a phonetic language, but then
35. 1:38you throw in connected speech and the
36. 1:40things that I'm going to be talking
37. 1:41about today and it can be difficult to
38. 1:44understand. So this video is going to
39. 1:46help you both with your understanding,
40. 1:48so your listening skills, and also of
41. 1:51course your pronunciation of the
42. 1:53language so that you can start to sound
43. 1:56more natural, more proficient in the
44. 1:58language, maybe even start to sound like
45. 2:01an American native speaker if that's
46. 2:05your goal. So for each feature of
47. 2:07connected speech that we come across
48. 2:09within this shadowing practice, I will
49. 2:12of course point that out to you and we
50. 2:14can practice those cases of connected
51. 2:16speech together. Let's begin.
52. 2:19English made easy [music and singing]
53. 2:20with Claire.
54. 2:24Okay, so first you're going to repeat
55. 2:26after me.
56. 2:28I was sitting in the park, drinking
57. 2:31water, feeling a little bored and like I
58. 2:34needed a change. Your turn.
59. 2:43Let's say it again.
60. 2:45Listen first.
61. 2:46I was sitting in the park, drinking
62. 2:49water,
63. 2:50feeling a little bored and like I needed
64. 2:52a change.
65. 3:02Repeat after me.
66. 3:04I thought maybe I'd take a trip into the
67. 3:06city. Your turn.
68. 3:13I thought maybe I'd take a trip into the
69. 3:15city.
70. 3:21Okay, so let's pause here after the
71. 3:23first paragraph of our story to point
72. 3:26out one of the most key features of
73. 3:28connected speech in American English and
74. 3:31that is the flap T. So when you find a T
75. 3:36in the middle of a word, in the middle
76. 3:39of two vowel sounds, and a lot of the
77. 3:42times it shows up as a double T, we
78. 3:45pronounce that T like a D.
79. 3:49So instead of sitting, we say sitting.
80. 3:55Sitting. And we don't say water, but
81. 3:59water.
82. 4:01Water.
83. 4:03So you can hear that the T in the middle
84. 4:05of that word sounds like it's a D.
85. 4:08Little is pronounced little.
86. 4:13Little. And the final word we have here
87. 4:16with a flap T is city. So not city, but
88. 4:21city.
89. 4:22Okay, so hopefully that rule is simple
90. 4:25enough. Pronounce those Ts in the middle
91. 4:28of the words like a D, duh duh. So now
92. 4:33let's shadow this section. You're going
93. 4:35to say it with me. Say it at the same
94. 4:38time as me and try to match my rhythm
95. 4:41and intonation of the language. Here we
96. 4:44go.
97. 4:46I was sitting in the park,
98. 4:48drinking water,
99. 4:50feeling a little bored and like I needed
100. 4:53a change.
101. 4:55I thought maybe I'd take a trip into the
102. 4:57city.
103. 4:59All right, repeat after me again. So I
104. 5:01made a plan the next day to go to the
105. 5:03museum. Your turn.
106. 5:11So I made a plan the next day to go to
107. 5:14the museum.
108. 5:20Repeat.
109. 5:21I just wanted to do something different
110. 5:24and I hadn't been there in years.
111. 5:33I just wanted to do something different
112. 5:36and I hadn't been there in years.
113. 5:44So in this paragraph, we have the
114. 5:47connected speech rule, we drop the T
115. 5:52sound when a T is followed by a
116. 5:55consonant. So in the first sentence we
117. 5:58have next day.
118. 6:01Next day. So we wouldn't say next day.
119. 6:06That's too too many consonant sounds in
120. 6:09a row. Almost anytime in English when
121. 6:11you see three consonants in a row, you
122. 6:14can probably guess that we're not going
123. 6:16to be pronouncing all of them. It would
124. 6:19take too much effort. We end up
125. 6:22connecting the speech a little bit and
126. 6:25to do that we drop the T sound in next.
127. 6:30So it's not next day, but it becomes
128. 6:33next day.
129. 6:36Next day. You can think of it as there's
130. 6:38no T at all. We also have this in just
131. 6:43wanted.
132. 6:44Just wanted. So we don't pronounce the
133. 6:47T. We don't say just wanted, but
134. 6:51just wanted.
135. 6:53Just wanted. Okay, so let's practice
136. 6:56this concept by saying the whole thing
137. 6:59again. You're going to say it the same
138. 7:01time as me. Here we go.
139. 7:03So I made a plan the next day to go to
140. 7:06the museum.
141. 7:08I just wanted to do something different
142. 7:10and I hadn't been there in years.
143. 7:13Repeat. I called a few friends and asked
144. 7:16if they wanted to come.
145. 7:23I called a few friends and asked if they
146. 7:25wanted to come.
147. 7:32One of them was visiting their
148. 7:33grandparents, but the others could join.
149. 7:42One of them was visiting their
150. 7:44grandparents, but the others could join.
151. 7:52All right, so here I want to point out
152. 7:55when we don't pronounce the D sound in
153. 8:00words. So again, when we have three
154. 8:04consonant sounds in a row and the middle
155. 8:06one is a D,
156. 8:09we don't pronounce the D. So take a look
157. 8:12at the word friends.
158. 8:15Friends.
159. 8:17You can think of it as if we're saying
160. 8:20friends.
161. 8:21No D.
162. 8:23Okay? Same with grandparents.
163. 8:27Not grandparents,
164. 8:29but grandparents.
165. 8:32Grandparents. It would be the same for
166. 8:35grandma or grandpa.
167. 8:38We don't pronounce the D. All right,
168. 8:40let's shadow this section together. So
169. 8:43you're going to say it with me.
170. 8:45I called a few friends and asked if they
171. 8:48wanted to come.
172. 8:50One of them was visiting their
173. 8:51grandparents, but the others could join.
174. 8:55All right, repeat after me first. I
175. 8:57thought if I brought a backpack, I could
176. 8:59pack it up with snacks and water. Your
177. 9:02turn.
178. 9:09And again, I thought if I brought a
179. 9:11backpack, I could pack it up with snacks
180. 9:14and water.
181. 9:21I headed out early, ready for a good
182. 9:24day.
183. 9:30I headed out early, ready for a good
184. 9:32day.
185. 9:38Okay, here I'm going to point out the
186. 9:40concept of linking.
187. 9:43And that is when we link the consonant
188. 9:47of the last word to the vowel of the
189. 9:50next. So often when a word ends in a
190. 9:53consonant and the next word starts with
191. 9:55a vowel sound, we would link the
192. 9:58consonant to that vowel. So, right at
193. 10:01the start we have
194. 10:03thought if I
195. 10:04thought if I
196. 10:06thought if I
197. 10:09So, instead of thought if I, three
198. 10:13separate words, we link those words
199. 10:16together and it ends up sounding like we
200. 10:18have thought if
201. 10:22I
202. 10:24Okay, so those would be the three words.
203. 10:27thought if I thought if I
204. 10:32thought if I. And that's so much easier
205. 10:34to say than thought if I. Same with the
206. 10:38phrase pack it up. pack it
207. 10:43up
208. 10:44pack it up We also have headed out
209. 10:47early. headed out
210. 10:51early
211. 10:52headed out early
212. 10:54So, you can start off saying it slow
213. 10:56like that. And then when you speed it
214. 10:59up, it sounds really natural. And in the
215. 11:01very last phrase we can also link good
216. 11:06day. Because in this case, the first
217. 11:08word ends with the same consonant sound
218. 11:11as the next word. So, when we have that,
219. 11:14we don't need to pronounce it twice. We
220. 11:17don't need to say good day. But, simply
221. 11:21say it one time and more on the second
222. 11:24word. So, good day.
223. 11:27good day Okay, so linking is really
224. 11:31important for connected speech in
225. 11:33English and we have a lot of examples
226. 11:35here in this paragraph. So, let's say it
227. 11:38all together.
228. 11:40You can repeat this one as many times as
229. 11:42you need. Here we go.
230. 11:45I thought if I brought a backpack, I
231. 11:47could pack it up with snacks and water.
232. 11:51I headed out early
233. 11:53ready for a good day.
234. 11:55Repeat after me. I texted my friends,
235. 11:58"Leaving now. I'll meet you there."
236. 12:00Your turn.
237. 12:07I texted my friends, "Leaving now. I'll
238. 12:09meet you there."
239. 12:17We had a great time. And at one point, I
240. 12:19turned to my friend and said
241. 12:22"Don't you feel like this was exactly
242. 12:24what we needed?"
243. 12:26You go.
244. 12:37Okay, let's repeat that one one more
245. 12:38time. So, listen first. "We had a great
246. 12:41time. And at one point, I turned to my
247. 12:43friend and said 'Don't you feel like
248. 12:46this was exactly what we needed?'"
249. 12:58All right, so in this final paragraph we
250. 13:01have a couple examples of assimilation.
251. 13:05And there are several different cases in
252. 13:08connected speech where we will see
253. 13:10assimilation in English. For this video,
254. 13:13I'm just going to point out one to you.
255. 13:15And that is when a word ends with a T
256. 13:20and is followed by a y sound, which is
257. 13:23usually represented by the letter y in
258. 13:27English. We change that middle sound
259. 13:29between the words
260. 13:31to a ch
261. 13:33sound. So, my first example is meet you.
262. 13:37So, not meet you or even meet you, but
263. 13:42meet you. I'll meet you there. We also
264. 13:45have
265. 13:46don't you. So, not don't you,
266. 13:49but don't you. Don't you feel like this
267. 13:53was exactly what we needed? Don't you?
268. 13:55So, assimilation is when two sounds next
269. 13:58to each other are almost too different.
270. 14:01So, it makes for a difficult transition
271. 14:04between those sounds. So, in the case of
272. 14:06meet you, it doesn't really
273. 14:10gel well together. In connected speech,
274. 14:13the sound becomes ch. So, there are
275. 14:16several cases of assimilation that I can
276. 14:18cover in a later video where we have two
277. 14:22sounds next to each other and they
278. 14:23create a new sound when combined. Okay,
279. 14:27so let's shadow this final paragraph
280. 14:30together. Here we go.
281. 14:33I texted my friends, "Leaving now. I'll
282. 14:36meet you there."
283. 14:37We had a great time. And at one point, I
284. 14:40turned to my friend and said
285. 14:43"Don't you feel like this was exactly
286. 14:45what we needed?"
287. 14:47All right, so now's the time in the
288. 14:48video where I read through this entire
289. 14:50story and you can shadow along with me.
290. 14:55So, repeat this part of the video as
291. 14:57many times as necessary, as many times
292. 15:00as it's helpful. Here we go.
293. 15:03I was sitting in the park drinking water
294. 15:07feeling a little bored and like I needed
295. 15:09a change.
296. 15:11I thought maybe I'd take a trip into the
297. 15:13city.
298. 15:15So, I made a plan the next day to go to
299. 15:17the museum.
300. 15:19I just wanted to do something different
301. 15:22and I hadn't been there in years.
302. 15:26I called a few friends and asked if they
303. 15:28wanted to come.
304. 15:30One of them was visiting their
305. 15:31grandparents, but the others could join.
306. 15:35I thought if I brought a backpack, I
307. 15:37could pack it up with snacks and water.
308. 15:40I headed out early ready for a good day.
309. 15:45I texted my friends, "Leaving now. I'll
310. 15:47meet you there."
311. 15:49We had a great time. And at one point, I
312. 15:52turned to my friend and said
313. 15:55"Don't you feel like this was exactly
314. 15:57what we needed?"
315. 15:58All right, guys. So, thank you so much
316. 16:00for making it to the end of this video.
317. 16:02I hope it was helpful for you. Check out
318. 16:04my other shadowing practices in my
319. 16:06shadowing practice playlist if you did
320. 16:09find it helpful. And if you want to
321. 16:11support the work I do, be sure to click
322. 16:13the join button below and consider
323. 16:16becoming a member of my channel. I'll
324. 16:19see you guys next time. Bye for now.
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