English Conversation Practice: How to Speak American English Like a Native Speaker (https:\/\/youtu.be\/mMY1RTcXB1w)<\/a><\/noscript><\/div>\nVideo Transcript:<\/h2>\n
In this English lesson, we\u2019re going to study real English conversation as I bake cookies with my friend Laura.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWow, must be good guys!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m Rachel, and I\u2019ve been teaching English and the American accent on YouTube for over 15 years. Get my free course, the Top 3 Ways to Master the American Accent, at RachelsEnglish.com\/free or follow the link in the video description.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe first thing we do is gather and prep, that\u2019s short for prepare. Prep our ingredients.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo here, yes. I wrote out double out for everything because otherwise,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWe forget.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo we\u2019re doubling the recipe and I wrote out \u2018double the amount of ingredients that we would need.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIf we were going to make less cookies, we might want to halve the recipe. That is, cut it in half. Even though that word is spelled with an L, halve, it\u2019s pronounced just like the word \u2018have\u2019.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to double the recipe, I\u2019m going to halve the recipe.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOh also, it says that we want to sift.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDo you have a sifter?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNo.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, do you have one of those..<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI use a call a very fine,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFine mesh seeve. Sift, seeve, I don\u2019t even know. Sift, seeve, could be either one.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI don\u2019t say it enough to bother with figuring it out.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYou know what? Let\u2019s look it up, let\u2019s get the official pronunciation.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo I looked this up, I only found one pronunciation, it\u2019s IH like SIT. So it\u2019s a SIV, not a SEEVE. Sieve.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, flour. Two and three quarters cup plus one tablespoon.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFlour. Just like halve sounds like have, flour sounds like flower. The two words have the same exact pronunciation even though they are two different words with different spellings and different meanings. Words like this in English are called homophones. I have a long video that goes over a list of many, many common homophones in English, I will link that in the video description.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, I said two and three-quarter cups. Do you guys buy your flour in bulk?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNo. We could at the co-op but we don\u2019t.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI buy these 50-pound bags from webrestaurantstore.com.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n50 pounds?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah. And even though I keep it in the garage in a bin, even though it\u2019s like sort of pricey to have it shipped, the overall cost is like half buying 5-pound bags at the grocery store.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPricey is another way to say \u201ckind of expensive\u201d or \u201ca little expensive\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, I did two cups, now I\u2019m doing a three-quarter cup and then I\u2019m going to do one tablespoon.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m going to go ahead and say, let\u2019s skip the sifting because it\u2019s not even flour. It\u2019s just the baking soda and the baking powder.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWe\u2019re going to skip the sifting. We\u2019re going to not do it. Leave that step out. Do you ever get a little lazy like this when baking or cooking? If you love to bake as much as I do, put your favorite thing to bake in the comments.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, soda. We need so many different sizes.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo, one, wait this is powder. So powder I need one and a half.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOoh, good thing I caught that.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOooh!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAlmost messed that up.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, soda.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSince we\u2019ve measured all our dry ingredients, now we need to get the wet ingredients. Butter, peanut butter, vanilla.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPeanut butter is my favorite food.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOh my God, that\u2019s so good. That\u2019s a good brand too.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThat\u2019s not that full Laura.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIt\u2019s two-thirds cup, you want it like bulging over?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI\u2019m just, I\u2019m seeing that rim there.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo this is me being very particular about the measurements. I said, I see that rim there, which to me says, it\u2019s not full enough. Laura asks if I want it bulging. Bulging is when something is too big for its container. I don\u2019t really want it to be bulging over, I just want it to be perfectly lined up with the top.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nRight.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBulging over. So many good vocab words.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nHow\u2019s that? Does that meet your standards.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah, I feel better about that. I mean, we just said it\u2019s our favorite food like,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTrue.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLet\u2019s not skimp.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSkimp means the same thing as scrimp, which means to use sparingly. To be restrictive. Not to use much. If you love peanut butter, you don\u2019t want to skimp on peanut butter.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeventy-five grams of egg white.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nI think I\u2019m going to crack one egg white for like five grams and then we\u2019ll just put it in with the other egg and we\u2019ll fry it up for a kid. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFry up is a phrasal verb that just means the same thing as fry. Let\u2019s fry up some potatoes for dinner, that\u2019s the same thing as let\u2019s fry some potatoes for dinner. Fry up.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeventy-five exactly.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDid you notice how I said \u2018exactly\u2019? You\u2019ll almost always hear that word with no T sound. Exac\u2014-ly. Exactly.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSeventy-five exactly.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAre you kidding me?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNo. This is perfect!\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThat never happens.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOkay, then it actually went up to seventy-six right after I said that.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAre your parents big bakers slash cookers slash.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTotally not. Neither of them likes to do either of those things.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNeither and either, these words have two different pronunciations in American English. Neither, neither and either, either. Both pronunciations are common.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nTotally not. Neither of them likes to do either of those things.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSo they eat a lot of like take out or.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nYeah. They also eat a lot of um, cheese and crackers and hummus and veggies like snacky meals.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNow, we\u2019re working on the buttercream filling.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAnd then we\u2019re going to sprinkle it with three tablespoons of water so yeah, it\u2019ll be a cup total of content.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nUghh, one over. Forty-three.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThis is something that just happens when I\u2019m with Laura. Random rhythms, made up songs, dancing: they just happen.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSpontaneous, dance party. Hmm-hmmhmm, Hmm-hmmhmm, Hmm-hmmhmm.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWe measure the dough to make sure we\u2019ve rolled it out at the exact right thickness. We cut our circles. Then it\u2019s time to pipe.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhat are you doing?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNo, I just meant like,\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhat\u2019s that?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOh, we\u2019re filling the bag with the frosting. I just meant like give me a yeah, give me a something.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOh, just got on your shirt.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nNo, just use your finger and get a little flip off.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nGood, right?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPeanut butter frosting.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nLet\u2019s fill these babies. Let\u2019s use the piping bag and pipe in our frosting.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nPipe is a noun: something you smoke out of, or a cylinder for moving water, gas, steam. As a verb, it has lots of meanings, one of them is what we\u2019re doing here, forcing dough or frosting through a pastry bag.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOoh, that\u2019s satisfying.\u00a0<\/span>