English Pronunciation Analysis | Advanced English Conversation

Tagged With: Ben Franklin Exercises

You’ll get English pronunciation analysis and advanced English conversation practice as I show you, in detail, every spoken English twist and turn in a monologue about the weather.

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Video Text:

You’ve told me one of your favorite exercises is a Ben Franklin exercise, where we study everything about American English pronunciation to help you improve your listening comprehension and understand how to sound more American. 

So today, we’re going to do a Ben Franklin exercise on a monologue about the weather.   

First, we’ll listen to the full monologue, then there will be an in-depth analysis.  After that, after you study everything about stress, reductions, and linking, there will be a listen and repeat section.  This is where you get to practice out loud and see if you can imitate what I’ve done.    

First, the monologue. 

Today it’s a hundred degrees in Philadelphia.  That’s thirty eight degrees Celsius.  We’re in the middle of a heat wave, which is the opposite of a cold snap, and every day this week is supposed to be upper nineties.  I know some people love the heat.  I am not one of these people.  Weather like this makes me want to stay inside all day and only venture out after the sun has set.    

Now, the analysis.
Today it’s a hundred degrees in Philadelphia.

What do you hear is being the most stressed words in that little thought group?

Today it’s a hundred degrees in Philadelphia.

I hear the stressed syllable of ‘a hundred’ and ‘Philadelphia’. Let me write

This out. A hundred. So stress is on the first syllable of ‘hun’. A hundred. Today, it’s a hundred degrees in Philadelphia.

Today it’s a hundred degrees in Philadelphia.

And I feel that I’m emphasizing the H a little bit more than normal, that’s to add stress to that syllable, to that word. A hundred. Hundred, making the H a little stronger than normal.

A hundred degrees.

And I break it up a little bit. There’s a little break between ‘today’ and ‘it’s’. Today it’s a hundred degrees in Philadelphia. And then I do another little break here. Why did I do that? Well, I think I did it to add emphasis to how hot it is. It’s a hundred degrees. When we put a little break before a segment in a thought group, it helps to add stress to it just like exaggerating the beginning consonant did. It’s a hundred degrees.

Today it’s a hundred degrees.

Today it’s a hundred degrees in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia. This is a long word and long words can be intimidating. Notice the PH, which is in here twice, is pronounced as an F. Philadelphia. Phila-del-phia. So the syllable ‘Phil’ has a little bit of secondary stress, it’s a little bit longer but ‘del’ has the most stress, the up-down shape of the voice, and that’s what we can use to shape the word. Philadelphia. Philadelphia. Philadelphia.

Philadelphia.

Philadelphia. That’s thirty eight degrees Celsius.

That’s thirty eight degrees Celsius. That’s thirty eight degrees. I did it again, I put a little break before the TH for ‘thirty’ and that adds stress. That’s thirty eight degrees.

If I made it more smooth: That’s thirty eight degrees. That’s thirty eight degrees. Then I lose some of the stress that I want to put on how hot it is. I want to put stress on the number: That’s thirty eight degrees. Let’s write that out too.

That’s thirty eight degrees.

Thirty eight degrees. Okay, we have a couple things happening with our T’s here. We have this first T in ‘thirty’, that’s a flap T. And the T is a flap T when it comes between two vowels or when it comes after an R before a vowel like in the word ‘thirty’.

Thirty. Thirty. Thirty eight degrees. So the T in ‘eight’ is a Stop T because the next sound is a consonant. Thirty eight degrees. So we definitely don’t release it, it’s definitely not a True T, that would sound like this: Thirty eight degrees. Thirty eight degrees. And that’s just more emphasis on the T. It’s a more clear pronunciation than we would give it. We make it a stop.

Thirty eight degrees. Thirty eight. Eight. Eight. Eight. Eight. We cut off that word by cutting off the air. That abrupt stop is what lets us know this was a T. Thirty eight degrees.

Thirty eight degrees.

The word ‘degrees’ ends in the Z sound and the word ‘Celsius’ begins with the S sound. If I was speaking less clearly, a little bit more conversationally, I would have said: Thirty eight degrees Celsius. And I would have connected the two and just made a single S sound, but I was being a little bit more clear here, just like up here when I said ‘a hundred degrees’, and then I put a little break after ‘degrees’. I did not connect with the same sound because I wanted the ‘thirty eight degrees’ to stick out of the line a little bit for stress, for emphasis.

Thirty eight degrees Celsius.

Celsius. Celsius. First syllable stress: thirty eight degrees. Stress on ‘thir—’. Thirty eight degrees Celsius. And then we also have stress on that first syllable. Celsius.

Celsius. Celsius. Celsius. We’re in the middle of a heat wave.

We’re in the middle of a heat wave. One word is the most stressed there, is most clear, highest in pitch. What is it?

We’re in the middle of a heat wave.

Heat. Definitely ‘heat’ has the most stress. We’re in the middle of a heat wave. And what do you notice about the T there? A Stop T because the next word begins with a consonant.

We’re in the middle of a heat wave.

We’re in the middle of a heat wave. So ‘mid’, a little bit of stress. ‘Wave’ is also a stressed word. It’s not as stressed as ‘heat’, that’s the most stressed, but it is longer and more clear. What about these two strings of words that are not stressed? What do they sound like? Let’s just listen to them on their own. First: We’re in the— What does that sound like?

We’re in the—

We’re in the— We’re in the— We’re in the— Not very clear. It’s definitely not: We’re in the—, that would be a stressed pronunciation. They’re all unstressed, said very quickly, no gaps between the words. We’re in the— We’re in the— We’re in the— We’re in the—

We’re in the— We’re in the— We’re in the—

I would write this contraction ‘we’re’ with the schwa. Schwa R, said very quickly, not too clear: we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re, we’re.

Then ‘in’: We’re in— we’re in— we’re in— we’re in— with no break, we’re in the— we’re in the— we’re in the— The word ‘the’ with no break, schwa. We’re in the— we’re in the— we’re in the—

We’re in the— we’re in the— we’re in the—

Then we have the words ‘of’ and ‘a’.

Of a— of a— of a—

Of a— of a— of a— of a— of a—

I don’t drop the V sound, and I would probably write this with the full UH as in butter rather than a schwa. But it’s still said quickly, it’s still unstressed. Of a— of a— of a— of a—

That’s really different than our most stressed word ‘heat’ which has up-down shape and is much longer. These strings of unstressed words are very flat in pitch, compared to the stressed words, and that’s part of the important contrast of American English.

We’re in the middle of a heat wave.

We’re in the middle of a heat wave which is the opposite of a cold snap.

Which is the opposite of a cold snap.

So ‘heat wave’, ‘cold snap’, in both of those phrases, both words are stressed but the first word is the most stressed.

Which is the opposite of a cold snap.

So in this sentence fragment, ‘op’ and ‘cold’ and ‘snap’ are our most stressed words and the other words like above are less clear, flatter in pitch, unstressed.

Let’s listen to ‘which is the’.

Which is the— which is the— which is the—

Which is the— which is the— which is the— which is the— Now, I noticed I pronounced the word ‘the’ with a schwa. There is an official rule about the pronunciation of ‘the’ and it says: when the next word begins with a vowel, you make that an EE vowel: the opposite.

But I have noticed that many Americans don’t do this and I did not do this here. I made this a schwa. Which is the— which is the— which is the— Notice the S in ‘is’ makes the Z sound. The letter S often makes the Z sound. Don’t be deceived and think because you see the letter S, that it’s the S sound.

Which is the— Which is the— Which is the opposite of a cold snap.

Opposite of a cold—

So these words are all linked together. The T becomes a Flap T which links into the next word. Opposite of a— of a, of a, of a. Opposite of a cold snap— But all of these words link together, there’s no break, there’s no choppiness.

Which is the opposite of a cold snap.

Let’s look at the ending D in ‘cold’. It is not released. That would sound like this: cold snap, cold snap, cold snap, cold ddd—. We don’t do that. We put the tongue up into position for the D, and we vibrate the vocal cords: cold snap, and then we go right into the S sound without releasing. So the D sound is very subtle when it’s followed by a consonant because we don’t release it but native speakers still definitely hear that vibration in the vocal cords. Cold, cold, ddd, cold snap.

Cold snap, cold snap, cold snap.

So a ‘heat wave’ is a phrase we use when there’s a period of time, a couple of days, where the heat reaches an extreme high, and a ‘cold snap’ is the exact opposite. We use this phrase for a period of days where the weather reaches extremely low temperatures.

Usually, a heat wave or a cold snap lasts just a few days, maybe at most, a week.

We’re in the middle of a heat wave which is the opposite of a cold snap.

And every day this week—

And every day this week— And, and. I drop the D there. We almost always drop the D in this word. And, and. I don’t reduce the vowel. I still make: ah, ah, ahn, it is common to make that a schwa, and that would sound like this: Nn every day this week— Nn every— Nn every— But I did put more of a vowel in it: and every— and every day— every day this week— ‘Every’ the most stressed word there.

And every day this week—

‘Day’ and ‘week’ also a little bit longer than the unstressed word ‘this’, but they don’t have the height of pitch that ‘every’ has. ‘Every’ is most stressed. Every day this week. Let’s listen to just these three words. Day this week. So you can hear the contrast of long, short, long: da da da. Da da da. Day this week.

Day this week—

Day this week is supposed to be upper nineties.

Is supposed to be upper nineties. Let’s write this out again. I should do a better job of writing out my numbers for these exercises. Is supposed to be upper nineties. So I put a little break here. Again, for emphasis. I want to emphasize how hot it’s supposed to be. Upper nineties. Upper nineties.

Both of those two-syllable words have first syllable stress: upper nineties. And notice, this is a Flap T, it comes between two vowels.

Nineties, da, da, da, da, da. Nineties.

Now, what’s happening with the word ‘supposed’ in the phrase ‘supposed to’?

Is supposed to be upper nineties.

So we have ‘is supposed to’. ‘Is’ ends in the Z sound. ‘Supposed’ starts with an S. Now here’s a case where I am linking and I’m dropping the Z. S is an unvoiced consonant and unvoiced consonants are considered to be strong. Voiced consonants like Z are weak, so when they link together, the strong consonant wins.

So rather than saying: is supposed— and making a Z than an S, it’s just: Isspposed—

Isspposed— isss— just one single S sound.

Is supposed to— is supposed to— is supposed to—

Now, this word, this phrase, actually: supposed to, never pronounced that clearly. We do a reduction with it. Can you hear it?

Is supposed to— is supposed to— is supposed to—

Supposed to— supposed to— So it’s a three-syllable word, suh— sorry it’s a three-syllable phrase. Supposed to— But I turn that into a two-syllable phrase. Spposed to— So officially, this would be a ZD ending, but I make it unvoiced ST and when I link that into the next word that begins with a T, the word ‘to’ with the reduced to the schwa ‘to’.

When I link it in, then I just make one T sound: spposed to— And I’m basically dropping this first syllable: Suh— po— I drop the vowel so it’s just: Ssspose to— Ssspose to— So we do a couple things here: we reduce by instead of putting a vowel between the S and the P, we just put the S right up next to the P, which drops the first unstressed syllable.

So we take the S, put it on to the stressed syllable ‘po’: sspo—, and then we take the ending, we make it unvoiced, and we link it directly into the T. Ssspose to— Ssspose to— Ssspose to—

I actually have a video where I go over the pronunciation of ‘supposed to’ and I give some more examples. So I’ll link to that at the end of this video. But practice that with me for a moment: is supposed to— is supposed to— is supposed to— That’s a very natural way to pronounce those three words together.

Is supposed to—

Is supposed to be upper nineties.

I know some people love the heat. I am not one of these people.

Okay, then I have: I know some people love the heat. It’s very clear there, I think, what the most stressed syllable is. What about in the next sentence?

I know some people love the heat. I am not one of these people.

I am not— Okay, so in both of those phrases, I bring the stressed word out even more, even more up-down shape, even more putting a little bit more strength on the first consonant.

I also make a True T here at the end of ‘not’. That’s, again, because I’m exaggerating that word. I’m making it even more clear than normal. Normally, if I was going to link that into the sentence, it would be a Stop T because the next word begins with a consonant. I know you’re thinking: wait, that’s the letter O, that’s a vowel, but phonetically, it’s written with the consonant: one. So that would be a stop T, but I’m making it a true T for extra emphasis, to bring it away from the rest of the sentence a little bit for stress. I am not one of these people.

I am not one of these people.

So we have a couple other words that have a little bit more length. I know some people love the heat. But it’s not the same as ‘love’ which is the most stressed. And I give a light True T here at the end. It would also be very common to make that a Stop T.

I know some people love the heat.

I am not one of these people.

‘One’ a little bit more length. One of these people. And a little bit more length on the stressed syllable of people as well.

I am not one of these people.

Of these, of these, of these. Said quickly, unstressed, flatter in pitch.
One of these—

One of these—

One of these people—

Weather like this makes me want to stay inside all day.

Weather like this, weather like this. So ‘weather’ isn’t super clearly pronounced but I do stress the first syllable. The stressed syllable. Weather like this makes me want to stay inside.

Weather like this makes me want to stay inside.

Weather like this makes me want to stay inside all day and only venture out after the sun has set.

Stay inside all day and only venture out after the sun has set. So those are the longest, most clear words. Of course, we have other stressed words: makes, want, inside, venture out, after. But when you have many stressed words in a sentence, some are going to take precedence and are going to sound more stressed and others will sound more unstressed and that’s what’s happening here. All stressed words, all nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, will not be equally stressed in a sentence.

Weather like this makes me want to stay inside all day and only venture out after the sun has set.

Are there any reductions?

Weather like this makes me want to stay inside all day and only venture out after the sun has set.

I definitely hear this one: want to. So common to reduce that: makes me wanna, makes me wanna. Weather like this makes me want to stay inside.

So these words here from ‘like’ all the way to ‘wanna’, a little flatter in pitch, they don’t have the stressed shape of the other syllables in this sentence. Makes me want to stay inside all day—

Makes me want to stay inside all day—

Makes me want to stay inside all day and only venture out—

And only, and only. Dropped D in ‘and’. And only venture out—

And only venture out—

And only venture out after the Sun has set—

And I put a little break here after ‘out’. I make that a Stop T. If I didn’t put a break and I was linking it in, then it would be a Flap T because it would come between two vowels or diphthongs. Out after, out after. But I said: venture out after the sun is set. So I put a little break there, breaking up my longer sentence into smaller thought groups.

And only venture out after the sun has set.

Sun has set, sun has set. So two unstressed words, flatter in pitch. After the sun has set. Contrast of stressed and unstressed, so important.

After the sun has set.

In the next section, in the imitation section, I’m going to be breaking up longer sentences like this into smaller segments for you to imitate with.  

And now, the imitation exercise.  You’ll hear each phrase three times.  Then there will be a break for you to repeat it.  Repeat it out loud, and try to match exactly what you hear.  Then I’ll say it one more time, and you say it with me.  Try not to think about what you’re saying and how to pronounce it, instead, just focus on imitating what you hear.  It’s not a bad idea to practice this section several times. This is where you can really change some of your speaking habits.  

 Great job.  If you want to see other Ben Franklin videos, check out this playlist. If you liked this video, please share it with a friend.    

That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.

Video:

English Pronunciation Analysis | Advanced English Conversation

English Pronunciation Analysis | Advanced English Conversation

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