This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 245 five weird Americanisms to never miss a Hollywood line again.
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Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Boston and New York City, USA.
We know how frustrating it can be when you're trying to watch a Hollywood movie in English and you just can't get what they're saying.
Today we'll give you five examples of weird American speech patterns and we'll show you how to recognize them, when you hear them and what they mean.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Hey, Michelle, I'm doing great.
How are you?
I'm doing really well.
Thanks.
Awesome.
So today we want to talk about how our listeners can actually recognize if they're listening to an American person or someone from another country or another part of the world.
Don't you think that Americans have some very, as all countries do, right?
And as all English speaking countries do, Americans really have some very distinct and funny sometimes speech habits.
Absolutely.
Oh, my goodness.
Yeah, we're a little lazy, i think, when it comes to speaking.
Yeah, i think we are.
We speak quick, we bring our words together and we want to make that really easy for our listeners today to understand, especially because i know a lot of our listeners love to watch hollywood movies.
But I know that they struggle, you know, and that's frustrating when you can't understand the movie.
Right.
Oh, my gosh.
Of course.
Like I have, you know, I love to show my students clips from TV shows, movies, things like that.
And the thing that you know usually is the most confusing, that they have trouble with when it comes to listening is these, you know, kind of American lazy ways of speaking these connected words right,
Yeah, that's one.
So connected words is one of the ones that we wanted to highlight, but let's go through them.
Today we have five.
So let's start with the first one.
So what is the first kind of characteristic of the way that Americans speak?
Okay, well, here's number one.
We pronounce the letter T as D with a soft sound.
So in this, the tongue lightly touches the roof of the mouth quickly, right?
Right.
So think of words like computer.
Right.
Or the T is in between two vowels.
What other words can you think of, Lindsay?
Well yeah, I was going to say it's really important just to note that that happens basically only when the T is between two vowels.
Right.
So we don't do it at the beginning of the word.
If we say like I'm in my teens or I'm in my 20s, we pronounce that pretty much like a T, a normal T.
But this one is really special because it's when, as Michelle said exactly, it's when it's between two vowels.
So what are some other examples?
Water, heater, better, matter.
What else?
What else, Michelle?
University.
Yeah.
And what about when we put two words together?
I mean, one word after the other.
Right.
So, yeah, think of like a great idea.
Great idea.
We don't say great idea.
We say great idea.
Great idea.
Great idea.
I like it.
And and for example, when we say, for example, I bought a I bought a car.
We don't say I bought a car.
A car.
We say I bought a car.
Right.
I bought a car.
There's a D sound instead of the T at the end of bought.
Right.
Or like I have I have a lot of time.
Right.
We don't say I have a lot of time.
We say I have a lot of time.
Right.
Oh, that's a good one.
That's a good one.
So these are all and a few more examples of the of the T in just simple words.
Daughter.
Right.
Daughter.
So it's between two vowel sounds and gotta.
Right.
I have to.
I gotta.
Later.
Right.
And.
Meeting.
Right, right.
These all definitely have this kind of soft D sound, right?
We don't actually say meeting, meeting.
We say meeting, right?
And that's definitely a way to sound more natural and, of course, to be able to listen and understand this.
Because if you're waiting to hear somebody say meeting...
It's probably not going to happen and it's going to be confusing.
So it's good to learn.
I know.
It's so funny.
Sometimes my students tell me that when they learn something, a new word, a new vocabulary phrase, all of a sudden they start hearing it everywhere.
Right.
So I have a feeling this episode might be very 80-20, meaning a great way to maximize your learning quickly, to move you guys forward, to really start to understand American English.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay, so next one.
There are some very distinct phrases that you can spot an American from a mile away if they use these five words.
What are they, Michelle?
These words are like, um, I was like, you know, and I mean...
Oh, my gosh.
I've heard all of these just in the last day.
I know.
We've heard them constantly.
I've probably said them 20 times already in this episode.
Right.
So we know that like those are common.
So we're not going to waste too much time on those.
But I was like, what does that mean?
I was like, it's kind of like we report something that we said.
So telling somebody about a conversation that we had, we never say like well, I mean, if we have, if we're really proper, we'd probably say I said, he said
But a lot of times, whether it's a good or a bad thing, a lot of times we say I was like, he was like, and then I was like right.
Can you think of a time maybe, Lindsay, when you used this?
Yeah.
So, for example, you know, over the weekend I wanted to go to a meetup, a particular Christmas party meetup, but I had forgotten to sign up.
So the signups were closed.
The RSVPs were closed.
And then my friend called and she said, oh, I can get you in.
You know, I talked to the host and I was like, awesome.
I was like, oh, very cool.
Very cool.
I'm very excited.
So one thing I want to mention here that's important is these are casual phrases, guys.
These are casual.
These are not phrases you're going to use in a job interview.
Right.
Or even in a company meeting, a board meeting.
You're not going to report a conversation by saying and I was like right,
No.
Right, Michelle?
Right.
Absolutely.
That's why this is good for conversational English, but not for any formal situation, really.
And even with some like with my older relatives, if I'm not going to say to them I was like, he was like, because it bothers them, because it's not necessarily very proper to tell the truth.
But it's that's how, you know, we speak in certain situations.
So it's good to learn everything.
Right.
Yeah.
I mean, what's your so this is another this is another debate that we could get into.
Right.
And it's a really interesting question.
Like, what is proper?
Right.
I think it depends a lot on who you're around and what the context is, because language is all about context.
Right.
Right, right.
Exactly.
So maybe it's proper.
You know with your friends is different than proper with you know your grandma.
Yeah, totally, totally.
So just to kind of run through these one more time before we move on to the next.
So they are using the word like and using um, and then saying, I was like to report something.
And then you want to say the last two, Michelle?
We have you know and I mean.
Right.
And we'll have to do another episode on all of these, but we don't have time unfortunately, to go into all of them today.
But don't worry, guys.
We're going to circle back and talk about all of them in future episodes.
So stay tuned to All Ears English, of course.
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Let's move on to the next one, Michelle.
Number three.
What is the other?
What is another weird thing that Americans do with the way they speak?
OK, so we actually drop vowel sounds at the end.
So, for example, like think about the word Manhattan.
Right.
So I don't say Manhattan or Manhattan or anything like that.
I say Manhattan, almost like I'm replacing that A at the end with another N.
Yeah.
So it looks like it's happening when there's a T or a double T and there's a vowel, and then there's an N at the end of the word.
Right.
Right.
That's the common thing that's happening.
Absolutely.
Like, for example, actually, I remember this from when I was a kid.
I had a friend.
She always said instead of the word button.
OK, we always made fun of her because she always said number one, she said a button, which is you know from what we were talking about earlier.
Right.
With the with the T's and she didn't pronounce them as D's and it sounded so funny to us.
So where was she from?
Was she from the U.S.?
She's your cousin.
So she was born in the U.S.?
Yeah.
Yeah, she is just from the U.S.
And she always said button.
And I always thought it was so funny.
But that's definitely not the norm.
I mean, and it's not.
Yeah, we just kind of laughed about it.
So it goes to show you, you know, how much we really do that.
But yeah, button.
So also, you know, dropping that O. Yeah, exactly.
Dropping that vowel sound.
Right.
And just going straight from the T. So going up.
So Manhattan.
Dropping.
Button.
Gotten.
Right.
What are the next three, Michelle?
Yeah.
So we have forgotten. eaten and gluten.
This is so funny.
It's something I've worked with a lot of students on.
They're always curious about this and they want to know how to say Manhattan, because a lot of students will say Manhattan right.
So we don't we don't want to say that, guys.
We don't want to say that.
We want to say Manhattan.
Right.
Right.
Drop that vowel sound.
So very interesting.
Michelle, can I ask you a question?
Sure.
Have you ever eaten at a gluten-free place in Manhattan?
Um, I actually, I'm sure that I have eaten at a gluten-free place in Manhattan.
I just, I can't think of it off the top of my head, but I feel like so many places are gluten-free.
You mean you've forgotten already?
I've forgotten already.
I've forgotten, um, I've forgotten everything.
So, um...
OK, no problem.
Maybe next time you'll you'll let me know.
I'll look it up.
I'll Google it.
Let's move on to number four.
Let's keep moving here.
So what do we do?
We string words together now.
So we did an episode back in it was episode 195 when we talked about.
These words, wanna, gonna, coulda, shoulda.
And you can go back to allearsenglish.com slash 195 to check that out.
But this is just another example of what we do, how you can recognize that you're listening to an American if they're saying I want to do this, not I want to do this.
I want to do this.
Right, Michelle?
No.
This is a big one.
Big, big, big one.
Yeah, exactly.
So let's see, Michelle, we're going to have we're gonna notice what I just said.
And I didn't even think about that.
I said, we're gonna have we're going to have we're going to have a photo shoot.
Right.
In a couple of weeks.
I'm so excited.
Aren't you excited?
So you guys are listeners.
You guys are going to see some new photos of the two of us.
It's going to be very fun.
Michelle, what are you going to wear to the photo shoot?
I'm not exactly sure, but I think I'm going to wear probably black pants and very elegant.
What can I tell you?
I'm very elegant.
Maybe some sort of blazer.
I'm probably going to wear something with a little color, but not too much.
Yeah, some pop of color.
What about you?
What are you going to wear?
Yeah, I'm going to wear a pantsuit.
Very, you know, corporate executive type.
It should be very cool.
Oh, okay, cool.
So so one more question.
OK, so so that's practicing the gonna going to.
And how about practicing?
OK, what's your biggest regret about last weekend?
Oh, gosh.
I could have gotten up earlier.
You could have.
I could have gotten up earlier, but I didn't.
I slept in both days.
Oh, that's interesting.
So in that one, you used coulda and you also use gotten.
So you showed us what we talked about in number three, right?
I could have gotten up earlier.
And the truth is, I didn't think about this at all.
I mean I thought of you.
Know, I wanted to use coda for the example, but gotten, I didn't even realize it until you said it.
So it shows you it's really instinctual for us.
I mean, so this is a really important.
And actually another point that I wanted to bring up is a lot of songs, a lot of pop music especially uses this um type of speech.
So it's really good to kind of do some learning from songs that might help you with this.
Yeah, I like that, Michelle.
Thank you for saying that.
I mean, this is really natural English that we're giving you guys here.
You're not going to find this in a textbook, right?
This is, you know, this is the tear up your textbook Tuesday and you're not going to find this in your textbook.
So we're here to show you guys how to really understand those songs that you want to hear and how to understand those movies.
So let's go on to the last one.
This reminds me of a student that I had actually a friend that I had a few years ago and she used to always laugh at me when she heard the word huh at the end of a sentence.
She thought it was the funniest thing.
It is kind of funny, I guess.
So what do we do, Michelle?
The thing is we make a statement that we believe to be true and then we kind of question it by putting huh at the end.
It's weird.
It's almost like, yeah, you agree, right?
Yeah.
Right.
So it's just another way to say right.
It's just that it sounds kind of weird, I think, if you're not used to hearing it.
So you live in Manhattan, huh?
Right.
Oh, so you like to eat hamburgers, huh?
Or actually, Michelle, you like to eat fries, huh?
Oh, yeah.
Right.
So it's chilly outside today, huh?
Yeah.
You like to go on bike rides, huh?
Yeah.
The holidays are stressful, huh?
Oh, yeah.
So those are some examples.
So guys, today we've gone through five really classic examples of the way, the weird ways that Americans speak.
Okay, so just to recap them, Michelle, what was the first one?
Okay, so the first one was...
Pronounce T as a D in words you know like, for example, in between vowel sounds or from one, even with two words.
Right.
We said great idea.
Bada.
OK, that's number one.
That was number one.
And number two was, these are a few phrases that we use, right?
Like, um, I was like, you know, and I mean.
Okay.
Number three.
Okay.
Number three was drop the vowel sound, right?
After a T sound.
And then you have a vowel sound right after it.
Sometimes you just throw it out, right?
Manhattan, button, gotten, forgotten, eaten, gluten.
Right.
That's right.
That's when there's an N at the end.
So good.
Yeah, exactly.
And that is such a tough one.
It's a tricky one.
But I know that you guys can, you don't necessarily have to say it, right?
Because we know that this is hard to pronounce, but start to at least.
Your first step is to start to recognize.
Right, right.
Okay.
So that would be the key to start to recognize it.
So the next thing that we do is we string our words together.
We say wanna, gonna, coulda, shoulda, woulda.
Right.
Oh, yeah.
All the time.
Constantly.
And what's the last weird thing that we do?
The last weird thing we do is we put, huh, at the end of a statement.
And it kind of makes it this question where it's not even really a question.
Yeah, yeah.
Actually, in this one, I think it's kind of looking for agreement.
It's similar to the tag questions that we talked about a few weeks ago, right?
It's chilly out today.
Huh?
Right.
Right.
Exactly.
I was having I was thinking the same thing.
Right.
Like instead of it's chilly out today, isn't it?
Right.
Or the holidays are stressful, aren't they?
You put huh.
Right.
So that's kind of another similar thing to a tag question.
I like it.
Okay, man, I wish we could talk about this all day, but we got to wrap it up.
So thanks so much for listening today, guys.
And thanks, Michelle, for joining me today.
This has been really interesting to talk through this, because it is very strange the way that Americans speak.
Hopefully this will give you guys the tools to start to understand those episodes of Friends that you want to understand, or the movie or the song that you want to understand.
Absolutely.
Okay.
Thanks, Michelle.
Have a great day.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
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