English Script Request

In the U.S. 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 With English Movies Video. We'll pull scenes from this summers 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 type 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.

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First, the scene:
"That sounds different, did you change it?"
"I changed it a little bit."
"Why?"
"I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he... altered Bach's version."
"Uh..play that again."
"Play what again?"
"The thing you played outside."
"Oh! You want me to play that thing I played outside!"
"Please."
"Ah..."

Now, the analysis:
"That sounds different, did you change it?"
So we have a statement and a question. Listen to the intonation for this statement: That sounds diff-erent. The intonation goes down, they a yes/no question. Did you change it? Change it? And the intonation goes up. That's often what happens with a yes/no question. "That sounds different, did you change it?", "That sounds different, did you change it?", "That sounds different, did you change it?"
Uh sounds, uh sounds different. So sounds and 'dif', stressed, the word 'that' reduced, he drops the TH. Ah-ah-ah. Quick little AH vowel, stop T. Ah, ah, ah sounds, ah sounds.
"That sounds, that sounds, that sounds different"

That sounds different. So a four word sentence here, sorry, a four syllable sentence. And the middle two are stressed. Unstressed, that sounds, stressed, diff--, stressed, rent, unstressed. Diff-rent. Now this word could be three syllables, diff-er-rent, but most native speakers will drop the middle syllable, he does, it's just diff- first syllable stress, diff-rent.
"Different,"
"Different,"
"Different,"
Different, diff--ferent--ferent--ferent--ferent so F sound, R sound, schwa ferent---ferent---ferent---, and then a stop. Different.

"I changed it a little bit."
"Why?"
"I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he... altered Bach's version."
"Uh..play that again."
"Play what again?"
"The thing you played outside."
"Oh! You want me to play that thing I played outside!"
"Please."
"Ah..."

3:09
Different.
3:10
He goes right into the next sound of the D.
3:12
Different, did-- different-- but we don't release the T. That would be: different did-- different did--
3:19
but he says: different did, different, different.
3:23
Different--
3:26
Did you change it?
3:28
Did you change it?
3:29
Again it's a four-syllable, section of this thought group.
3:33
Did you change it?
3:35
Change, change is stressed, the other three are unstressed. So in the first half, that statement half,
3:42
we had two stressed syllables.
3:44
And now we have just one. So, did you-- flat, low in pitch:
3:50
did you-- did you-- did you-- did you--
3:53
Did you--
3:56
change it?
3:57
Did you-- did you-- did you-- did you--
3:59
Notice that he's combining D with Y to make a J sound, which we would write an IPA with this symbol.
4:08
Did you-- did you-- did you-- did you--
4:11
That's fairly common. When a word ends in a D, and the next word is you or your,
4:18
you might hear it with 'would you' becoming: would you, would you, would you.
4:24
Common to hear that J sound when an ending D connects into 'you'.
4:28
Did you--
4:30
Did you-- did you-- did you--
4:33
Now say that quickly, flat, low in pitch, just the way he does. Did you-- before the stressed syllable 'change'.
4:43
Did you change it?
4:45
Did you change it?
4:47
Did you change it?
4:48
Did you change it?
4:50
Change it?
4:51
And then the word 'it' said quickly, unstressed, but the intonation does go up because of the question
4:56
and it ends in a stop T, not released because it's at the end of a thought group.
5:01
Change it? Change it? Change it?
5:05
Well, I changed it a little bit.
5:06
Okay then he responds with a short thought group.
5:10
Tell me what you think is the most stressed syllable in that thought group.
5:15
Well, I changed it a little bit.
5:17
Well, I changed it a little bit.
5:18
Well, I changed it a little bit.
5:20
Well, I changed it a little bit.
5:24
Little-- lih-- and 'bit' a little length, but definitely most of the stress, the peak of the stress, is unchanged.
5:31
The word 'well' said pretty unclearly.
5:35
Well, I changed it a little bit.
5:37
Well, I changed it a little bit.
5:39
Well, I changed it a little bit.
5:40
Well, I-- Well, I-- Well, I--
5:42
I don't even really hear the L sound, it's just like a W: what, what, what, before the AI diphthong:
5:49
Well, I--
5:49
Well, I--
5:51
Well, I--
5:51
Well, I--
5:52
Whoa, different day, different outfit, important announcement.
5:57
Did you know that with this video, I made a free audio lesson that you can download?
6:02
In fact, I'm going this for each one of the youtube videos I'm making this summer,
6:06
all eleven of the Learn English with Movies videos.
6:11
So follow this link, or find the link in the video description to get your free downloadable audio lesson.
6:17
It's where you're going to train all of the things that you learned about pronunciation in this video.
6:23
Back to the lesson.