In the US, 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 English with Movies” video. We’ll pull scenes from this summer’s hottest movies, as well as favourite 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 kind 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.”
If you’re new to my channel, click subscribe, and don’t forget the notification button.
Let’s get started.
First the scene:
(Call Me By Your Name)
That sounds different. Did you change it?
Well, I changed it a little bit.
Why?
I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he’d altered Bach’s version.
Play that again.
Play what again?
The thing you played outside.
Oh you want me to play the 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 the statement - “That sounds different” - the intonation goes down.
Then 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?”
“That sounds That sounds different.”
So “sounds” and “diff” stressed; the word “that” reduced. He drops the “T-H” … “ae, ae, ae” … quick, little “ae” vowel, stopped T
“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-e-rent.”
But most native speakers will drop the middle syllable - he does- it’s just “diff” first syllable stress; “diff-rent.”
“Diff-rent”
“Diff-rent”
“Diff-rent”
“Different, frent, frent, frent, frent, frent.”
So, “F’ sound, “R” sound, schwa
“Frent, frent, frent.”
And then a stop.
“Different.”
He goes right into the next sound of the “D.” “Different did” But if we don’t release the “T,” that would be “Different did” “Different did.”
But he says “Different did, different, different.”
“Different.”
“Different.”
“Different. Did you change it?”
“Did you change it?” Again, it’s a four-syllable section of this thought group.
“Different. Did you change it?”
“Change” is stressed, the other three are unstressed. So, in the first half, that statement half, we had two stressed syllables and now we have just one. So, “Did you?” Flat, low in pitch.
“Did you?”
“Did you?”
“Did you?”
“Did you?”
“Did you change it?”
Notice that he’s combining “D” with “Y” to make a “J” sound, which we would write in IPA with this symbol: /ʤ/
“Did you?”
“Did you?”
“Did you?”
“Did you?”
That’s fairly common. When a word ends in a “D” and the next word if “You” or “Your.”
You might hear it with “Would You” becoming “Would you” “Would you” “Would you.”
Common to hear that /ʤ/ sound when an ending “D” connects into “you.”
“Did you?”
“Did you?”
“Did you?”
Now say that quickly, flat, low in pitch, just the way he does.
“Did you?”
Before the stressed syllable “change.”
Did you change it?”
Did you change it?”
Did you change it?”
“Change it?”
Then the word “it” said quickly, unstressed, but the intonation does go up because of the question and it ends in a stop “T” - not released because it’s at the end of a thought group.
“Change it?”
“Change it?”
“Change it?”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
Okay, then he responds with a short thought group. Tell me what you think is the most stressed syllable in that thought group.
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Little” - “lit” and “bit” a little length, but definitely most of the stress, the peak of the stress, is unchanged.
The word “well” said pretty unclearly.
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“We…” I don’t even really hear the “L” sound, it’s just like a “W.”
“What, what, what” before the “AI” diphthong.
So “well” and “I” both unstressed, simplified, and then stress on “changed.”
Now the sounds in “changed” are … the final sounds are: “J’ the “J” sound and the “D” sound.
If I was going to pronounce this really clearly, I would say “changed” - /ʤd/ /ʤd/
But, actually, when he says it, I don’t really hearth “D”.
Do you?
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
And I’m little surprised because the next word begins with a vowel. If the next word began with a constanant, I would totally get why he dropped the “D.” That’s pretty common, to drop the “D” between two consonants.
But it’s followed by a vowel; still I don’t really hear a clear “D” sound.
And I think you could get away with it if you tried imitating it without the “D” sound at all.
“Changed it”
“Changed it”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
If it links together and is smooth and the next word is said quickly, we have two unstressed words here in a row; I don’t think that anyone would wonder where the “D” was.
Also we are used to dropped “Ds,” our ears are, because we do drop “Ds” between consonants.
So, that’s what I’m hearing him doing and I think when you are imitating with the audio, go ahead and think of there being no “D,” as you work with the audio that goes with this video lesson.
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“Well, I changed it a little bit.”
“It a little bit”
“It a little bit”
We have two flap “Ts.” We have a flap “T” in “it” linking into the schwa.
“It a” “It a” “It a”
And then we have a flap “T” in “little.” So try that with me:
“It a little”
“It a little”
It’s funny when we take just those three words. They sort of rhyme, don’t they?
“It a little”
“It a little”
“It a little bit”
“It a little bit”
“It a little bit”
“It a little”
“It a little”
“It a little bit”
And a stop “T”at the end of “bit” because it ends the thought group.
“It a little bit”
“It a little bit”
“It a little bit”
“Why?”
“Why?”
A single thought group, a single-word thought group, I should say. Up-down shape of stress
“Why?”
“Why?”
So, it’s not flat.
“Why?”
“Why?”
But it’s got that up-down shape of stress.
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“Why?”
“I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he’d altered Bach’s version.”
So then we have a longer sentence and he breaks it up into two thought groups. He breaks it up by putting a pause after the word “he.” So let’s look at this thought group and find our most stressed words, and are there some reductions? Let’s find those, too.
“I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he”
“I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he”
“I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he”
I’m hearing: “I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he”
“Played” has some length; “Liszt” has the most stress, I would say, the most up-down shape. And then we have quite a few unstressed words. So, “I” and “just” - how are those pronounced?
The word “just,” “I just” “I just” - gets pretty unclear, both the “J” sound and the vowel are pretty unclear.
“I just,” “I just” “I just”
A really, really subtle “J” then an “ST.” I wouldn’t try to make a vowel there at all.
“I just,” “I just” “I just”
“I just”
“I just”
“I just played it the way”
“played it the way”
“played it the way”
“played it the way”
So we have stressed and then three unstressed words:
“played it the way”
“It the way”
“It the way”
“It the way”
“It the way” - said more simply, a little bit less clearly.
Stop “T” in it:
“It the”
“It the”
“It the”
“It the way”
“It the way”
“ED” ending in “played”
Just a “D” sound. Sound before is voiced, the “AY” diphthong. He doesn’t do a really strong “D” release but I do think it links into the vowel:.
“played it”
“played it”
Really light little flap there.
“played it”
“played it”
“Played it the way”
“played it the way”
“played it the way”
“played it the way Liszt would have played it if he”
And the composer’s name “Liszt” - we don’t say the “Z” in that. I’m not sure how it would be pronounced in his own native language, but in American English, we just say: “List” - up-down shape, the most stress in that thought group.
“played it the way Liszt”
“played it the way Liszt”
“played it the way Liszt”
“played it the way Liszt would have played it if he”
So, we have “S-T-W.” Sometimes we drop the “T” between consonants, he doesn’t drop the “T.” There is a light, true “T” release:
“Liszt would have”
“Liszt”
A little bit of air escaping, just to make that name clear.
“Liszt would have played it if he”
“Liszt would have played it if he”
“Liszt would have played it if he”
Then we have “would have played it” … oops, I forgot the word “if” didn’t I?
“Would” - I forgot the word “it.”
“would have played it if he”
Let’s listen to those words.
“would have played it if he”
“would have played it if he”
“would have played it if he”
“would have played it if he”
So, a little bit of length and stress on “played,” the second time around, too. “Have” - how’s that pronounced?
“would have”
“would have”
“would have”
So, we have:
“would have”
“would have”
“would have”
The word “have” is reduced - it becomes just schwa “V,” so the “H” is dropped, the vowel reduces and it links right into the word before with a flap:
“would have”
“would have”
“D” between vowels is just like the “T” between vowels, it’s a flap of the tongue. Now remember, we have the letter “L” here but that’s not a sound; it’s a silent in “would.”
So this sound before is the “UH” as in push vowel, so the “D” comes between two vowels; flap it
“would have”
“would have”
“would have”
“would have”
Very light “V”sound before the “P.”
“would have”
“would have”
“Would have played it if he”
“Would have played”
“Would have played”
“Would have played”
“Would have played it if he”
Now we have
“played it if he”
“played it if”
The “T” comes between two vowels: the “IH” vowel of “it” and the “IH” vowel of “if” so that is a flap “T.”
“It if he”
“It if he”
“It if he”
“It if he”
And do you notice what is happening with “he”? “H” is dropped.
“if he”
“if he”
“if he”
So “it if he” is pronounced “itifhe,” “itifhe,” “itifhe,” “itifhe.”
“It if he”
“It if he”
“It if he”
Flat “T” linking together, dropped “H,” all said really simply, quickly, flat in pitch.
“It if he”
“It if he”
“It if he”
“It if he”
“It if he”
“It if he altered Bach’s version”
Okay, then we have a three-word thought group. Where’s our stress?
“altered Bach’s version”
“altered Bach’s version”
“altered Bach’s version”
“altered Bach’s version”
I really feel that they’re sort of all similar stress.
“altered Bach’s version”
So, three stressed syllables, every word stressed.
We do have two unstressed syllables” the unstressed syllable of “altered” - “-ered” “-ered” “-ered” and
“Version” - “-sion” “-sion” “-sion”
The letter “S” making the “DJZ” sound.
“altered Bach’s version”
“altered Bach’s version”
“altered Bach’s version”
“altered Bach’s version”
And we have a sort of weak but true “T” here, I would say: “altered,” “altered,” “altered.”
“Altered … altered … altered Bach’s version.”
“Bach’s version” … the word “Bach” in American English: “CH” makes a “K” sound, and when it’s put with an “apostrophe S,” it sounds just like this word: “box.”
“Bach’s version”
“Bach’s version”
“Bach’s version”
“Bach’s version”
“Play that again.”
Okay, a three-word thought group. What’s the most stressed word there?
“Play that again.”
“Play that again.”
“Play that again.”
“Play” has some stress, but so does “that.”
“Play that again.”
“Play that again.”
And he’s pointing over his shoulder. He’s talking about something that he played when they were outside. So he’s pointing to the outside.
“Play that.”
“Play that again.”
That’s why the word “that” has some stress there; it’s referencing the place, the specific song, that he wants to hear again.
“Play that again.”
“Play that again.”
“Play that again.”
“Play that again.”
“That again”
“That again”
Do you hear that flap “T” linking those two words?
“That again”
That’s because the “T” comes between two vowels.
“Play that again.”
“Play that again.”
“Play that again.”
“Play what again?”
Now, similar stress but instead of “that” we have “what?”
“Play what again?”
And just like we had a flap “T” connecting “that” and “again,” we have a flap “T” connecting “what” and “again.”
Using flap “Ts” top connect words like this, so natural, so American.
“Play what again?”
“Play what again?”
“Play what again?”
“Play what again?”
“The thing you played outside.”
What is the stress of this sentence?
“The thing you played outside.”
“The thing you played outside.”
“The thing you played outside.”
“The thing you played outside.”
A little stress on “play” and “side” but most stress on “thing.” The word “the” leads up to that.
“The thing you played outside.”
And then notice that each of these peaks, each of these little stressed peaks, is less than “thing” and they’re just part of that line that falls down.
So we have a big swell on “thing.”
“The thing you played”
A little swell back up on “played” and “outside”
“Ai .. ai …” A little sweet again on “side” but they’re all just a little bump up in the downward fall of the pitch after the peak of stress on the word thing.”
“The thing you played”
All super smoothly connected, no skips, no jumps.
“The thing you played outside.”
“The thing you played outside.”
“The thing you played outside.”
“Oh you want me to play the thing I played outside.”
So a longer thought group here. Our stressed syllables are:
“Oh you want me to play the thing I played outside.”
And “outside” has a slot of stress.
“outside”
“outside”
The pitch goes up the most there.
Lots of pitch variation, that is stress. I think he knows exactly what piece this guy wants him to play. He’s sort of playing dumb here. He knows he wants him to play the song he played outside.
So now he’s really stressing “outside.”
“Oh you want me to play the thing I played outside.”
“Oh you want me to play the thing I played outside.”
“Oh you want me to play the thing I played outside.”
“Oh you want me to play the thing I played outside.”
“Outside” - said really quickly.
Let’s look at the word “want.” It has a little bit of length. What happens to this “T?”
“Oh you want me to play”
“Oh you want me to play”
“Oh you want me to play”
I don’t hear it, and actually, I don’t hear an “N either. It’s common to drop the “T” after “N.” It’s also common to drop the “T” between two consonants.
“Want me” but when an “N” and an “M” are followed together like in the word “grandma” when we drop the “D,” it’s common to let the “N” get lost and just to make an “M.”
“Grandma” - I would make that with just an “M,” no “N,” no “D.” In case it’s unclear, I’m talking about this word:
“Grand-ma” often becomes “gramma” with no “N” and no “D” and that’s happening here - “want me,” I’m dropping the “T.”
Then the “N”: and the “M” go together but we tend to just drop the “N” in that case.
So it’s “wamme” wamme” - the vowel, and then skipping right to the next sound, of the “M” sound.
“Oh you want me”
“Oh you want me”
“Oh you want me”
“Want me”
“Want me”
“Oh you want me”
“Oh you want me”
“Oh you want me”
“Oh you want me”
“Want me to play”
“Want me to play”
What happens to the word “to?”
“Me to - me to - me to - me to.”
It reduces, it changes. Flap “T” linking the two words together, and the vowel changes to the schwa.
“Me to - me to - me to - me to.”
So we have “M” consonant, “E” vowel, flap, and the schwa.
“Me to - me to - me to - me to.”
Flat, low in pitch, unstressed.
“ you want me to”
“ you want me to”
“ you want me to”
“Oh you want me to”
“Oh you want me to”
“Oh you want me to play the thing I played outside.”
“play the thing”
“The” unstressed, compared to “play” and “thing.”
“play the thing”
“play the thing”
“play the thing I played”
So we have stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed.
Five syllables in a row, alternating.
“The” and “I” flatter, lower in pitch.
“play the thing I played”
Try that with me. It’s “uh-uh-uh-uh-uh.”
“play the thing I played”
“play the thing I played”
“play the thing I played”
“play the thing I played”
“play the thing I played”
The word “the,” it’s said really quickly. We can’t … “the” … bring the tongue tip all the way through.
“play the”
“play the”
“play the”
Said very quickly, the back of the tongue touching, sorry, the top of the tongue touching the backs of the teeth. But it’s not really coming through.
“play the”
“play the”
“play the”
“play the thing”
“play the thing I played”
Now, I know this is going to be tricky. We have two “THs,” unvoiced “TH” and even though you are going to simplify that with a shortcut, not bringing the tongue tip through; you do need to on the word “thing” because it’s an unvoiced “TH” and the tongue tip does have to come through there.
So this is tricky. It’s going to be hard to say this quickly. Why don’t we practise right now, juts saying it more slowly:
“play the thing I played”
“play the thing I played”
“uh-uh-uh-uh-uh.”
And make sure it’s all staying really connected, maybe move your head a little bit on the stressed syllable, just to help you feel that:
“play the thing I played”
“play the thing I played”
“play the thing I played”
“play the thing I played”
“play the thing I played outside”
And, finally, “played outside.” “Outside … outside … outside … outside.”
We already talked about that pitch variation bringing stress to that word.
“played outside?”
“played outside?”
“played outside?”
“Please”
“Ah…”
“Please” - single word, single syllable thought group, up-down shape.
“Please”
“Please”
“Please”
“Please”
“Ah…”
“Ah…”
What you say when you realise something, when you understand something.
“Ah…”
Again, up-down shape of stress, just like any other word that is stressed in American English.
“Ah…”
“Ah…”
“Ah…”
Let’s listen to this whole conversation one more time:
That sounds different. Did you change it?
Well, I changed it a little bit.
Why?
I just played it the way Liszt would have played it if he’d altered Bach’s version.
Play that again.
Play what again?
The thing you played outside.
Oh you want me to play the thing I played outside.
Please.
Ah.
We’re going to be doing a lot more of this kind of analysis together.
What movie scenes would you like to see analysed like this?
Let me know in the comments.
And if you want to see all my Ben Franklin videos, click here. You’ll also find the link in the video description.
That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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