The Rhythm for English Speaking (How Americans Really Speak)

If you would like to improve your accent when you're speaking English, in this video I'm going to give you a very important tip that will definitely transform your accent. You cannot neglect the melody of English. Even if you're pronouncing all of the individual words and the consonant and the vowel sounds correctly, but you're not paying attention to the rhythm and the melody of your words, your speech is going to sound choppy and unnatural, and you even might sound less fluent. In this video, I will teach you the secret to having a better accent and sounding more like a native speaker. I will also teach you some common everyday expressions that native speakers use. and I will teach you how to say them with the perfect American accent. And even if you prefer a British accent, this video will also help you. One of the fastest ways to reduce your foreign accent is for you to focus on these three things: word stress, word reduction, and connecting words, not pausing between thought groups. In this lesson, we will focus on word reduction. This is such an important topic and it's not commonly taught in English classes. Maybe you've already thought about word stress or maybe you've watched lessons on word stress. But have you thought about word reduction? That topic is just as important as word stress for having a natural sounding and a native sounding flow. Native speakers don't pronounce every word clearly and fully. If you don't reduce some words in your sentences, your speech will sound choppy and robotic. You will speak like this with each word stressed the same way. Please pass the salt and pepper. — Hello, I'm Mike. I am a robot. I am here to serve you. How can I help you? — When we reduce words, the vowel sounds almost disappear. They become the schwa sound. It's the h sound. And the consonants are also sometimes eliminated. Let's look at this pronoun. You have probably learned that the pronunciation is our, but let's listen to how native speakers are saying our house, our children, and our school. Listen carefully. — And so, we had tons of people over to — There's hospice at our house. What will happen to our house? — We have to talk to our children about it. — The sort of planet we're going to leave behind for our children and grandchildren. but to really ingrain within our school. — Notice that the O and the U are reduced. They're not saying, they're saying uh it becomes awa sound. Our house. This is our house. Let's practice that together. Repeat after me. Do you like our new car? You say it. They're our friends. So they are our friends sounds very similar to they're our friends. Remember in natural sounding speech pronouns are reduced and they're connected to the words around them. For special emphasis we make an exception and we don't reduce the pronoun. This is ours. It's not yours. It's ours. But otherwise we would simply say this is our house. This is our car. Let's talk about the two ways to pronounce the conjunction and. In the strong form, it's pronounced as and. But it's usually not pronounced that way in most situations. You can pronounce it that way only in these cases when you need to speak especially slowly or when you're pausing to think. For example, I would like to order a sandwich and a salad. Or when you want to emphasize the fact that there's another thing. For example, you had pasta and pizza. You speak Italian and Japanese. Otherwise, we say and in its weak form and it sounds like this. N. The a becomes awah sound and the d disappears. Let's practice. Black and white. We wouldn't say black and white. Bacon and eggs. Connect all of those three words and say them as one. Don't pause. Let's say that again. Bacon and eggs. These words are one unit and they belong together. Now it's your turn. How would you say these words? You say them in and out. I went to In-N-Out. Have you ever gone to In-N-Out Burgers in California? It's a really popular place. How would we say this? You say it again and again. How about better and better. Your English is getting better and better. How about this one? You say it.

Husband and wife. I didn't say husband and wife. That D disappeared. And wife. It's just a little N. And wife. Husband and wife. Are they husband and wife? Okay, let's keep practicing. You will see some words on the screen and you say them as one unit. Don't pronounce the d and reduce the a of and. How would we say this? You say it. Mom and dad. Have you met my mom and dad? How about this one? You say it. Salt and pepper. Salt and pepper. Repeat after me. Please pass the salt and pepper. You say it. Sweet and sour. I ordered sweet and sour chicken. Are you familiar with this one? You say it trial and error. And by the way, you will notice I'm primarily reducing the and, but I'm saying trial and error. I'm saying those words clearly and fully. Trial and error. And let's make a sentence. Repeat after me. We figured it out by trial and error. You say the next one. Peace and quiet. I went to the mountains for some peace and quiet. You say it. Thunder and lightning. We had thunder and lightning last night. And now let's learn some very common expressions with and. These are idiomatic expressions that will help you speak more fluently. I suggest that you learn them and that you practice saying them. Let's look at the first one. You say it. Repeat after me. Part and parcel. And that means an essential or necessary part, an integral part of something. For example, we can say hard work is part and parcel of success. Dealing with customers running a business. Let's listen to how some native speakers used it. The division of labor is part and parcel of the rise of markets. — I think it's uh I I think of it all as part and parcel of the same struggle. — Do you know the meaning of this idiomatic expression? Let's pronounce it correctly first. You say it first. Hustle and bustle. Notice the t is silent in hustle. bustle. And the d is silent in and. Three silent consonants. Let's say that again. Hustle and bustle. That means busy and noisy activity, especially in a city. You can say, "I like the hustle and bustle of a big city. " Let's listen to how some native speakers used it. — Makes for a tranquil place from the hustle and bustle of the city. — Not everyone enjoys the hustle and bustle of city life. — Let's look at the next expression. The ins and outs. And that means the details or the complexities or the specifics of something. For example, we can say, I know all the ins and outs of this job. Before you start, you should learn the ins and outs of the system. Let's look at the next expression. By and large, and that means on the whole or generally speaking. By and large, I like living here. By and large, the meeting went smoothly. Maybe it wasn't perfect, but by and large, it went smoothly. Let's look at the next one. This is a really common one. Repeat after me. Safe and sound. And that means free from harm or from danger. Unharmed. The children arrived home safe and sound. We made it through the storm safe and sound. I'm so glad you are safe and sound. Do you know the meaning of this expression? On pins and needles. Repeat after me. And that means feeling anxious or nervous or excited while waiting for something. I was on pins and needles while waiting for the news. She was on pins and needles before her job interview. When is the last time that you were on pins and needles? Let's listen to how some other people used it. — We were on pins and needles waiting for that because we weren't really sure. — Uh, I'm on pins and needles. — And I guess we all are on pins and needles with our fingers crossed here. — Do you know the meaning of this expression? Wear and tear. You say it

wear and tear. And that means damage or deterioration that naturally happens over time with use. When you use something, there is going to be wear and tear. We can say the sofa shows signs of wear and tear. There's a lot of wear and tear on these tires. Let's look at the next one. You say it. Don't pronounce the D and say them all as one unit. Touch and go. If a situation is touch and go, it's uncertain and it could have either good results or bad results. We don't know yet. It's touch and go. We can say at one point the surgery was touch and go. It was touch and go whether our flight would leave on time. We weren't sure what was going to happen. It was touch and go. Give and take. Give and take is when people make small sacrifices or compromises in order to get along. We can say marriage is all about give and take. It requires give Let's look at the next one. Have you heard this expression before? Smoke and mirrors. You say it. Smoke and mirrors means tricks or deception used to make something appear better or more impressive than it really is. We can say this advertisement is all smoke and mirrors. His promises turned out to be nothing but smoke and mirrors. Let's listen to how some other people used it. It's purely smoke and mirrors to try to distract the Australian public. — There's a great deal of smoke and mirrors involved. You don't know how much money these companies are really making. And so in Silicon Valley, it all lives on smoke and mirrors. — Do you know the meaning of this expression? Speak and span. That means very clean, neat, and tidy. We can say, "I cleaned the house until it was sp and span. " Let's listen to how some other people used it. — His appearance was sp and span. And so we're going to get this whole boat and span. — They want the image of luxury. They want their airlines to look sp and span. — Odds and ends. Do you know what that means? These are small items or leftover of random things that are not part of a set or a main group. They're just little scattered things. We can say, "My cabinet is full of odds and ends. " Let's listen to how some other people use it. with flowers, berries, and other colorful odds and ends. — A miscellaneous stuff bag full of odds and ends, — ups and downs, the good times and the bad times, successes and difficulties. Life is full of ups and downs. Or we can say, I've had a lot of ups and downs in my career. They've their relationship. How do we say this expression? You say it night and day. Night and day means completely different or in total contrast. You can say the two brothers are night and day. They're completely different from each other. Or we can say your English has improved a lot. It's like night and day compared to last year. Is that true about your English? The more expressions you know, the more confident you're going to feel about your English and the more you'll be able to understand native speakers. Remember, native speakers use idioms and expressions and phrasal verbs all the time, and these are things that are generally not taught at school. And make sure you get my online course, Phrasal Verbs for Fluent English. You will learn hundreds of expressions that native speakers use all the time. The course contains almost 1,000 sample sentences with these expressions. That way, you can listen and you can repeat. You can download the audio of all the video content so you can listen anytime and anywhere and practice your accent as well. Plus, there are quizzes to test your knowledge and conversation practice exercises so that you can use them naturally making your own sentences. To get the phrasal verbs for fluent English course, go to accurateenglish. com. What are phrasal verbs? They are expressions such as to put up, to put off, to put on, to turn in, to turn into. When we change the preposition, the meaning completely changes. And this can be so frustrating when you're listening to native speakers and they're constantly using phrasal verbs. So, this is why I created the course to help you sound more fluent and to help you understand native speakers. Go to accurateenglish. com to learn more about the course. If some of these expressions were new to you, I suggest that you watch this video again, write the expressions down, make a list of them, and create your own sentences.

And that way, you're much more likely to remember them. Thanks for watching and keep practicing your