{"id":172486,"date":"2023-04-18T00:00:34","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T00:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rachelsenglish.com\/?p=172486"},"modified":"2024-03-21T16:49:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T16:49:01","slug":"reductions-and-linking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rachelsenglish.com\/reductions-and-linking\/","title":{"rendered":"Accent Reduction: How to Reduce and Link Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"TextRun SCXW188398929 BCX0\" lang=\"EN-US\" xml:lang=\"EN-US\" data-contrast=\"none\"><span class=\"NormalTextRun SCXW188398929 BCX0\">Check out this video to see exactly how I help students learn to use reductions and linking to sound more like a native speaker. Plus, discover how you can receive personalized feedback from me as well.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><span class=\"entry-tags\">Tagged With: <a href=\"https:\/\/rachelsenglish.com\/tag\/accent-reduction\/\" rel=\"tag\">Accent Reduction<\/a><\/span> \u00a0 <strong>YouTube blocked? <\/strong><a href=\"#video\">Click here to see the video.<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"container-lazyload preview-lazyload container-youtube js-lazyload--not-loaded\"><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/iDd5JxFy2r0\" class=\"lazy-load-youtube preview-lazyload preview-youtube\" data-video-title=\"I&#039;ll teach YOU American English! \u2764\ufe0f\" title=\"Play video &quot;I&#039;ll teach YOU American English! \u2764\ufe0f&quot;\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/iDd5JxFy2r0<\/a><noscript>Video can&#8217;t be loaded because JavaScript is disabled: <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/iDd5JxFy2r0\" title=\"I&#039;ll teach YOU American English! \u2764\ufe0f\">I&#039;ll teach YOU American English! \u2764\ufe0f (https:\/\/youtu.be\/iDd5JxFy2r0)<\/a><\/noscript><\/div>\n<h2>Video Transcript:<\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">I love helping people communicate in English, and I want to help you, yes, you, on the other side of the screen. It\u2019s been too long since I\u2019ve seen you, since I\u2019ve heard from you. So let\u2019s do this, let\u2019s work together.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Back in 2020, do you remember that year? Or have you let yourself completely forget it? Back in 2020 I collected videos from you and I used them to create two big teaching videos. This one on placement is probably my favorite video I\u2019ve ever made. Let\u2019s do it again. I\u2019m going to give you something to record. You make me a video, and send it to me, then I will give feedback right here through YouTube.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">This is what I want you to record.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Hurry up! We\u2019re going to be late.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Sorry! I just have to go the bathroom and then I\u2019ll be ready.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Alright. I\u2019m going to wait in the car.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Just a few lines. It helps if you record this way rather than this way. Try to be in a quiet place if possible so we can get the best audio. Upload it to YouTube, it can be unlisted and email the link with \u201cHurry up\u201d in the subject. Email that to help@rachelsenglish.com<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Please be sure to include your name, your native language, and definitely if you\u2019re a member of Rachel\u2019s English Academy, be sure to include that too.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Please record and send me your video by May 15th<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Once I get them, I\u2019ll start organizing and working with them. Now, depending on how many I get, I might not be able to put all of them in my teaching video. And please, only send a video if you\u2019re okay with me putting that video in my video on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram. You sending it to me will be your consent.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">So here again is what I want you to record.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Hurry up! We\u2019re going to be late.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Sorry! I just have to go the bathroom and then I\u2019ll be ready.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Alright. I\u2019m going to wait in the car.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">I\u2019ll put the text of this conversation in the video description.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Now, to give you an idea of how I\u2019ll use your videos, I want to show you a little bit of the video I made last time from all your videos. The full video, if you want to see it, will be linked in the video description. Before I play you this, I want to be clear, there is nothing wrong with an accent, and everyone has things that work well with their voices speaking English and things that could be improved if their goal is to sound native speaking English. When I have learned languages in the past, I\u2019ve always loved trying to embody the sound of the language completely, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m coaching towards in this video<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Now the next phrase, \u201cWhat do you want to do tonight?\u201d is so interesting in American English. We have a lot of different reductions that we will do with this. For example, \u2018What do you want to\u2019 will become from many speakers \u2018What do you wanna\u2019. What do you wanna. So we drop the T in what, links right into the d of do. What do, and then we reduce the vowel of do and you. What do you. And then \u2018want to\u2019 becomes \u2018wanna\u2019. What do you wanna, what do you wanna. What do you wanna do tonight?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Very linked together those reductions, everything is super smooth. So now, we\u2019re going to take just \u2018what do you want to\u2019 and we\u2019re going to listen to some students who did a really nice job with the reductions and linking of that phrase. The first two native languages are Portuguese and then we have Urdu.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to&#8211;\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Again, that smoothness, the reduction, what the, the tongue just flaps there. It\u2019s just a flap between those vowels. What do you want to, what do you want to.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to&#8211;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Great. Now, as you hear just that phrase in isolation, are you thinking this is crazy? Are you thinking this is so sloppy and unclear? It is! That\u2019s what we do in American English. We link everything together and we smooth it out and we reduce some words. So \u2018what do you want to\u2019 becomes \u2018what do you wanna?\u2019 Now, we listen to some students who missed some of the reductions.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to&#8211;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Want to, to, to, to, to. The word t-o, we almost never pronounce it to, to, to. We almost always will make that a reduction to, want to. And of course with want, it\u2019s very often to combine those into wanna with no T whatsoever but the to reduction is important. It\u2019s almost always done in American English. Her native language is Russian. Now, we\u2019re going to watch a native student whose native language is Thai.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to&#8211;\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to, what do you want to. What do you, do you, do you. So those are two words that it\u2019s not quite as strong as to where that is just 99% of the time reduced. Do and you, it\u2019s not as common but it\u2019s still something that you\u2019ll hear and notice a lot and when you do it especially with a phrase and a casual conversation like this. What do you want to do, what do you want, what do you wanna sounds better with schwas than do you, do you. That sounds a little bit too full. What do you do, do you, do you, what do you, what do you.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to&#8211;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you wanna. Now, in a lot of ways, this was great. I\u2019m just pointing out that she made a stop T, what do you wanna. When she could have just even dropped that T. When the word what is followed by a word that begins with a D it\u2019s not uncommon to just drop the T and link \u2018wha\u2019 on the next word, what do, what do, what do you. What do you. Now, the word, \u2018tonight\u2019. What do you want to do tonight? Okay, there are two different pronunciations but first, the first thing I want to say about it is the beginning of the word t-o, if you look the word up, the pronunciation in a dictionary that is not to, it\u2019s to. There is a schwa in that word, lots of people like to say tonight, today, tomorrow. That is not the pronunciation, we say to, to, tonight, today, tomorrow. So watch that vowel.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Tonight.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">So there, I just isolated the word tonight, tonight, tonight. Her native language is Russian and I hear her saying to, to, to, to, to, tonight. But it\u2019s to, to, tonight, tonight.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Tonight.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I love his placement but I definitely heard tonight, tonight, to, to, to, instead of to, to, to. Now, the other pronunciation of this word. It can be a flap T. Do tonight, do to [flap]. You have to practice it with the word before but when the word before ends with certain sounds, it\u2019s pretty common to flap the T in tonight, today, tomorrow and even together. What do you want to do tonight, do tonight, do tonight, do tonight. It was a vowel before, pretty common to make that a flap T to smooth it out a little bit more. What do you want to do tonight?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do tonight &#8212;\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do tonight. Did you hear that? Do to, do to, do to. He did the flap T, his native language is Fula and that was perfect. Do tonight.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do tonight &#8212;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Again, flap T, a nice way to smooth that out. Do tonight. His native language is Serbian.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do tonight &#8212;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do tonight. Very clear flap T. Nice job. Her native language is Spanish. What else about the word tonight? Okay the final T. I don\u2019t want that to be dropped. Tonigh. That\u2019s different than how we would do it. We might do it with a stop T, tonight, and that can sound like a dropped T but it\u2019s not. The stop of air is abrupt, the word kind of feels like it gets cut off, tonight. That\u2019s different from tonigh, when the pitch falls off and goes down and sort of tapers then it just sounds dropped and we wouldn\u2019t do that in American English. We could do a light true T release but more common we would make a stop T, do tonight, do tonight. Let\u2019s listen to a couple students who dropped the T.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do tonight &#8212;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">She did the flap T in tonight, I liked that but she didn\u2019t put an ending consonant on. Do tonigh, do tonigh. It needs to be do tonight, do tonight. Her native language is Vietnamese. Let\u2019s check out another student.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do tonight &#8212;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">I felt like the word ended before the T was put on. I didn\u2019t feel that abrupt stop, do tonight. And when I do that even if it\u2019s at the end of the thought, I might even lift my tongue up into position for the T, not just cut it off, cut off the air and in the vocal cords and I saw that his mouth stayed open, there was, there was no mouth movement for the T and I didn\u2019t hear that abrupt stop so, dropped T there. His native language is Burmese.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight? Okay, let\u2019s talk for a second about that most stressed word there. It\u2019s very natural. What do you want to do tonight? To bring the most stress to the verb tonight is an adverb so it\u2019s also a content word but you wouldn&#8217;t really stress that unless you were really focusing on the time. <\/span> <span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tomorrow, no, what do you want to do tonight. Then you might stress it but otherwise it would be what do you want to do tonight? And do would be our peak of stress for that sentence. So peak of stress meaning loudest meaning the highest part of the pitch and I also like to describe it as it feels like the energy of the sentence is going up to that peak, what do you want to do tonight? And then after that peak, it falls away from it. What do you want to do tonight?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight?<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Okay, she also dropped her T at the end of tonight but the peak of stress do was very clear. What do you want to do tonight? What do you want to do tonight?<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight?<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight? Do, do. Again very clear peak of stress for that sentence. The more clear your most stressed word is in a sentence, the better, I think. The feeling of everything linking together and that is just part of that line is important, we talked about reductions, we talked about linking, taking \u2018what do you want to\u2019 and turning it to \u2018what do you wanna?\u2019\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">One more example of that peak of stress and the smoothness of the phrase. This student\u2019s native language is Filipino.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight?<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">But now, let\u2019s look at a few examples of some students who didn\u2019t quite have that smoothness, they had a little more of a choppy feeling to the way they spoke.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight?<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Her native language was Spanish and did you feel how what do you want to do tonight. It felt more separate, [flap] instead of [flap]. What do you want to do tonight? Really smooth and more rhythmic contrast. Her syllable, her syllables were a little bit more all the same which would be natural for a Spanish speaker to do but in American English we want those long versus short syllables.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight?<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight? [flap] Again, sort of a feeling of separateness between the words and in American English, believe it or not, we don\u2019t want separation of words. We want the words to flow one right into the next.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">A note about the beginning of the sentence. The word \u2018what\u2019. That starts with a w sound. And I\u2019ve noticed that some of my students from India for example, Germany also can mix up W and V. And I noticed one of my students here who submitted a video, native language Hindi, he made a V-shape with his lip rather that a W, that\u2019s what we want to see.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Hey, what &#8212;\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do you see his lip position here? It looks like the bottom lip is coming up to touch the top front teeth. That\u2019s V. What we need to see for a W is Www, www, more lip rounding. What do you want, wha, wha, what do you want to do tonight?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">This student did a nice job with the lip rounding. Her native language is Korean.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Hey, what &#8212;<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Did you see that? More lip rounding. Wh, wh, wh, wh, what do you want to do tonight?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The last thing I want to say about this sentence, can you believe how many things there are to say about this sentence? I want to talk about the intonation. This is a question but it\u2019s not a yes no question. You can\u2019t answer it with a yes or no. And because it\u2019s not a yes no question, we\u2019ll make the pitch go down. What do you want to do tonight? For a yes no question, we\u2019ll probably make the pitch go up. Do you want pizza tonight? That&#8217;s a yes no question. This question should go down in pitch and I noticed just a few students made it go up in pitch.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">tonight?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Tonight? Tonight? Do you notice that pitch going up? We want it to go down. Tonight. Her native language was French.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What do you want to do tonight?\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do tonight?<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Do tonight? Do tonight? Pitch going down. His native language is Arabic.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">I so look forward to seeing this next batch of videos that come in from you. Please subscribe to my channel so you never miss a lesson, and do turn notifications on. Then come back often, I love being your English teacher. That\u2019s it and thanks so much for using Rachel\u2019s English.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559739&quot;:160,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><strong>Video:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><a name=\"video\"><\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('video');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-172486-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/07f1c47b71c75472a3cc-b7eea9689205a6672fd1aa00be922d89.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com\/834.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/07f1c47b71c75472a3cc-b7eea9689205a6672fd1aa00be922d89.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com\/834.mp4\">https:\/\/07f1c47b71c75472a3cc-b7eea9689205a6672fd1aa00be922d89.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com\/834.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Check out this video to see exactly how I help students learn to use reductions and linking to sound more like a native speaker. Plus, discover how you can receive personalized feedback from me as well.\u00a0 \u00a0 YouTube blocked? Click here to see the video. Video Transcript: I love helping people communicate in English, and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":175000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[208],"class_list":{"0":"post-172486","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-improve-your-accent","8":"tag-accent-reduction","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>American English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reductions and Linking are THE KEYS to American English 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