British English Pronunciation Practice (2 Hours of Stories for Perfect English Pronunciation)

Let's improve your English pronunciation by reading five short stories together.

I will read each of these stories twice.

Once at normal speed

and then the second time I will read it much slower

so you can listen to the sounds more carefully.

I highly recommend that you record yourself

while you're reading these stories

so you can listen back to yourself

and correct your mistakes.

If you need more time to repeat,

then feel free to pause the video at any moment.

By the way, if you're new to English pronunciation

and you have no idea where to get started,

then I have the perfect solution for you.

I've put together a powerful pack of completely free PDFs, videos,

and audio recordings to get you started with learning the fundamentals of English pronunciation.

Just click the link in the description to sign up

and I'll email you your completely free English pronunciation pack.

Now, let's get started with the first story, The Lost Puppy.

Once upon a time, there lived a young boy named Tom.

He lived in a small village in the north of England.

He loved animals, especially his little puppy, Max.

One sunny afternoon, Max went missing.

Tom searched everywhere, feeling worried and sad.

In his quest, he met different villagers who helped him look for Max.

They searched the fields, the forest, and near the river.

Finally, they found Max playing near an old barn.

Tom was overjoyed and grateful.

He learned the value of friendship and community through this adventure.

Once upon a time, there lived a young boy named Tom.

He lived in a small village in the north of England.

He loved animals, especially his little puppy, Max.

One sunny afternoon, Max went missing.

Tom searched everywhere, feeling worried and sad.

In his quest, he met different villagers who helped him look for Max.

They searched the fields, the forest, and near the river.

Finally, they found Max playing near an old barn.

Tom was overjoyed and grateful.

He learned the value of friendship and community through this adventure.

The Magic Garden.

Lily discovered a hidden garden behind her grandmother's house.

Curious, she decided to explore it.

The garden was full of colorful flowers and singing birds.

In the center, there was a beautiful fountain.

Lily noticed that when she made a wish near the fountain, it came true.

She wished for her grandmother to be happy.

And suddenly a beautiful butterfly appeared making her grandmother smile.

Lily realized that the garden was magical

but the real magic was in bringing joy to others.

Lily discovered a hidden garden behind her grandmother's house.

Curious, she decided to explore it.

The garden was full of colorful flowers and singing birds.

In the center there was a beautiful fountain.

Lily noticed that when she made a wish near the fountain, it came true.

She wished for her grandmother to be happy and suddenly a beautiful butterfly appeared,

making her grandmother smile.

Lily realized that the garden was magical,

but the real magic was in bringing joy to others.

A day at the beach.

Maria and her family went to the beach for a day of fun.

Maria loved building sand castles and collecting seashells.

She also learned to surf with her older brother.

The waves were gentle, perfect for beginners.

Maria felt scared at first,

but she bravely stood on the surfboard and rode her first wave.

She felt a sense of accomplishment.

The family all enjoyed a picnic while watching the sunset,

and Maria realized just how much she loved the ocean and her family.

Maria and her family went to the beach for a day of fun.

Maria loved building sand castles and collecting seashells.

She also learned to surf with her older brother.

The waves were gentle, perfect for beginners.

Maria felt scared at first,

but she bravely stood on the surfboard and rode her first wave.

She felt a sense of accomplishment.

The family all enjoyed a picnic while watching the sunset.

And Maria realized just how much she loved the ocean and her family.

The Starry Night Camp.

Alex and his friends were camping in the mountains.

They set up their tents and gathered around the campfire.

Alex was fascinated by the stars and wanted to learn about constellations.

His friend Sarah, who loved astronomy,

showed him how to identify different stars and constellations.

They saw the Big Dipper

and made wishes every time they saw a shooting star.

That night, Alex learned about the wonders of the sky

and the joy of sharing knowledge with friends.

Alex and his friends went camping in the mountains.

They set up their tents and gathered around the campfire.

Alex was fascinated by the stars and wanted to learn about constellations.

His friend Sarah, who loved astronomy,

showed him how to identify different stars and constellations.

They saw the Big Dipper

and made wishes every time they saw a shooting star.

That night, Alex learned about the wonders of the sky

and the joy of sharing knowledge with friends.

The school play.

Emily was nervous about her role in the school play.

She had to remember many lines and was afraid of making mistakes.

During rehearsals, her friends encouraged her and her teacher gave her some helpful tips.

On the day of the play, Emily felt more confident.

She performed wonderfully and the audience applauded loudly.

Emily learned that with practice and support from others,

she could overcome her fears and succeed.

Emily was nervous about her role in the school play.

She had to remember many lines and was afraid of making mistakes.

During rehearsals, her friends encouraged her and her teacher gave her some helpful tips.

On the day of the play, Emily felt more confident.

She performed wonderfully and the audience applauded loudly.

Emily learned that with practice and support from others,

she could overcome her fears and succeed.

Well done for reading these stories so beautifully.

Which story was your favorite one to read?

Tell me in the comments.

Your next step now is to click on the link in the description

and get your free pronunciation pack.

You'll receive an additional story to continue practicing your pronunciation,

as well as some free video lessons

and a PDF book containing all the mistakes

that English learners typically make

so you can avoid making them

as well.

Thank you for watching this video

and I will see you in the next lesson.

Bye-bye.

No fire.

No.

Testing.

Testing.

1 2 3.

And then the second time there's a fly like a fly like about to

go into my mouth.

During rehearsals rehearsals rehearsals rehearsals.

Are you ready?

Let's begin.

The Lost Cat.

Once upon a time in a small town, there was a cat named Luna.

Luna was black and white.

She liked to go out and see new places.

But one day she went too far and got lost.

She walked a lot and could not find her home.

Her family was sad and looked for her everywhere.

They put up pictures and asked people, "Have you seen Luna?"

They looked for her for many hours.

At last, they found Luna.

She was under a tree.

Her family was very happy to see her.

Luna was happy too and said, "I will never go too far again."

A day at the park.

Tom and Mia were friends.

One sunny day, they decided to go to the park for a picnic.

They took some sandwiches, some fruit, and some apple juice with them.

In the park, they chose a nice place under a big tree to sit.

They ate and enjoyed their food.

After that, they played games like hide and seek.

They also fed the ducks.

They were very happy and laughed a lot.

When the sun began to set, they packed up their things.

They promised each other they would come back soon.

It was a wonderful day at the park.

The magic seed.

Ben found a shiny black seed in his garden.

He decided to plant it, wondering what it would become.

Every day, he watered it and waited.

Slowly, a little green chute came up.

It grew into a big

and very strange plant

that Ben had never seen before.

One morning, he saw a beautiful, bright flower on the plant.

Ben was surprised.

The flower made him feel happy and special.

He learned that small things can grow into something amazing.

The mystery book.

Emily found an old dusty book in her attic.

It was a mystery novel from many years ago.

The cover was worn, but the story was captivating.

As she read the book, she felt like she was part of the adventure,

solving clues with the detective.

The book was full of unexpected twists and turns,

keeping her guessing until the very end.

When she finally solved the mystery with the detective,

she felt a sense of achievement.

The book had ignited her love for reading and solving mysteries.

The bicycle trip.

Marco and his friends decided to go on a bicycle trip around the lake.

They prepared by checking their bikes and packing some snacks and water.

The journey was challenging but beautiful with stunning views of nature.

Halfway they stopped for a picnic and enjoyed the peaceful surroundings.

However, on the way back, Marco's bike got a flat tire.

The group worked together to fix it, learning the importance of teamwork and preparation.

Despite the setback, they finished their trip feeling proud and closer as friends.

The art contest.

Sophia loved to paint and decided to enter a local art contest.

She worked hard on her painting, putting her heart and soul into it.

The theme of the contest was nature's beauty, so she painted a breathtaking landscape.

At the contest, she saw many talented artists and felt incredibly nervous.

When Sophia's painting won third place, she was overjoyed.

The experience taught her to believe in herself and her art.

She made new friends who shared her passion and was inspired to keep painting.

The forgotten manuscript.

In the quiet solitude of his study,

Professor Harper stumbled upon a forgotten manuscript buried beneath a pile of academic journals.

The manuscript was a collection of short stories penned by an obscure author from

the early 20th century.

It offered a glimpse into the cultural zeitgeist of a bygone era.

Intrigued, Professor Harper dedicated himself to its analysis,

uncovering themes of resilience and the human condition.

His research eventually led to a published paper that revitalized interest in the author,

contributing significantly to literary scholarship.

The quantum experiment, Dr.

Olivia Kim was at the forefront of quantum computing research.

Her latest experiment aimed to demonstrate quantum entanglement over unprecedented distances.

The setup was intricate, requiring precise calibration of lasers and mirrors.

After months of preparation, the experiment was finally conducted.

The results were astonishing, not only confirming the theory,

but also opening new avenues for quantum communication.

Dr.

Kim's work challenged existing paradigms,

earning her accolades in the scientific community and paving the way for future innovations.

The Linguist's Discovery.

Professor Laura Walker, a distinguished linguist,

ventured into a remote Amazonian village to document a nearly extinct tribal language.

Her arrival was met with enthusiasm from the locals,

keen to preserve their linguistic heritage.

Through extensive research, Professor Walker uncovered a sophisticated linguistic system deeply entwined with the

trib's ecological wisdom.

Her findings published in an academic paper highlighted the critical relationship between linguistic diversity,

cultural preservation, and ecological understanding.

Walker's work also spotlighted the urgent need to safeguard endangered languages

as repositories of invaluable knowledge

and environmental stewardship catalyzing global conservation efforts.

It's a mouthful was that last one, wasn't it?

And that's the end.

Once upon a time.

Once this links.

Once upon a time.

Once upon a time.

And notice the intonation as well.

Once upon a time, two brothers lived.

Two brothers lived at the edge of a forest.

Notice that rhythm.

Two brothers lived at the edge of a forest.

So, you notice that my intonation um is going up every time we're stressing

one of the key words.

So, we've got two brothers lived at the edge of a forest lived at

the edge.

We're going to link this together with a y.

If you find the text too small to read, then I'm sorry.

Please find a a laptop or a bigger screen, a tablet or something.

Um I cannot change it.

Not now.

And then we're going to link these together.

At the edge of the forest.

Edge of the forest.

So notice that these all link together.

I'm not saying lived at the edge of a forest.

Yeah.

D.

Okay.

I'm linking them all together.

And I've got a nice rhythm.

Lived at the edge of a forest.

And we're linking connected speech.

The edge of that y.

The older brother.

We're going to link this here.

The older with that Y sound again.

Y as in yes.

Yellow.

Yesterday.

Yeah.

The older.

The older brother was always Lincoln.

Was always.

Not was always was always was always mean to his younger brother.

Now, what we're going to do with his is we're going to cut this

h ear here.

So, we're going to say to instead of to his younger brother to is

okay.

Why do we do this?

Anyone know?

It's because the word is unstressed.

So, with a lot of words that are unstressed,

we can cut and change some letters.

We can be a bit more flexible.

Okay?

I am speaking very very generally there

but when we have words

that are very uh

that are weak okay like his.

So in English we have strong words

and weak words or words

that have a strong

and weak form okay his is one of them his is the strong form

is is a weaker form.

Okay, it's something that we use in the sentence.

Mean to with to I'm not saying the H, not to his to his.

Always mean to his brother.

We're connecting this as well really nicely.

Mean to mean to.

I'm not saying mean to.

I'm not releasing.

Mean to his younger brother.

So those are just the first two sentences. any uh any questions so far?

Sorry, my nose is really really itching today.

I'm not sure why.

Um let's see.

Understand that Lincoln is the key to speaking natural.

Don't you?

I think it depends.

I think it really really does depend.

Sometimes people kind of over they I don't know how to explain it,

but they sometimes um like overlink

and overconnect like they're trying to connect everything

and uh it can sound a little bit forced sometimes.

Yeah, fantastic.

Exactly.

The yer.

The yer brother with that y sound.

What's the rule for connected speech if there's a rule?

There is.

There is.

Well done for asking.

So I will talk about it very very quickly

but what we've got here um maybe the older is a bit of an

easier example.

Okay.

So if you've got two vowels together your first word ends in a vowel.

Your next word starts in another vowel.

We can link these vowels together.

Okay.

And there are three sounds that we can use to do that.

There's y.

Hope you can see that.

Yep.

Were. and then ru.

Okay.

So, when we're linking vowel sounds together,

we use these three sounds a lot of the time.

Okay.

So, in this case, va I'm adding that y.

We've got to whiz to because we're move removing the h.

When we remove the h, we're now left with this vowel sound here.

So, we're going to link it to whiz

and then we add the w uh with the r.

I'm pretty sure I have one linking with R somewhere, but if not,

I'll just give an example now.

Okay, let's go with these two.

If it's too small, then I'm sorry.

Uh, get a bigger screen.

So, you've got car alarm.

So, in most British accents, we don't pronounce this R, right?

It just becomes car car.

I don't say car.

That's very American sounding, right?

There are some accents within the UK that do pronounce the R,

but I'm talking about modern received pronunciation here.

Okay, so car alarm, we don't pronounce this R,

and we also don't pronounce this R.

Actually, it's the same sound.

Yeah, car alarm.

However, together, because now we've got two vowel sounds together,

R and uh with the schwa here.

Yeah.

We're going to link them together with a R.

So this R when the word is alone

or if there's a consonant sound after this word,

it's silent.

But if the next word starts with another vowel sound,

we add the R in and we pronounce it.

Caram car alarm.

Now we call this the linking R.

Okay.

Over here we've got law in order.

We're going to cut this D.

We're going to connect this in order.

So notice I'm cutting that D like we did with his.

We've got the weak form is and we've got the weak form.

So we shorten it um we don't shorten it, we cut the D, sorry,

and then we weaken the word to.

Then law ends in this O sound. and with certain sounds.

I'm not going to go into detail here in this video

because I have a full video explaining all about it on YouTube

that you can go

and take a look at.

And also on the course,

I'm going to be taking a look at it in more detail

and practicing it with you to make sure you're doing it correctly

as well and that you're not just absorbing the rules,

but that you can produce it as well.

We actually add a R here.

So, we've got Lauren order law and order.

So, we add a R in there to help us connect those two vowel

sounds together.

Now, a lot of you might be thinking, well,

why are we adding sounds to connect these together?

Well, it makes it easier to transition because if I say L and order,

it's like and it's hard to pronounce those two vowels together,

especially for an English speaker.

Okay, it may be possible for you in your language,

but for native English speakers, it's very difficult.

Okay, we can't do it.

We need a sound in there to separate those vowels.

So, law and order.

And this one we call the intrusive R.

Okay?

Because there's no R in the spelling.

So, we call it an intrusive R.

Linking R is when you have a R.

So, you have an R in the spelling.

Intrusive R.

There's no R.

And of course, these ones are also silent.

Order.

Order.

Lauren.

Order.

Car alarm.

You notice those?

Exactly.

Perfect.

Like I saw a movie.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

So you got I saw a movie.

I saw a movie.

We connect it with that R.

Any other questions about connected speech?

Can you get a copy of the text?

Um maybe I can put it in the description.

Um but otherwise, I mean, you've got the video of it here.

This video will be available for replay.

Uh like as a replay.

You can watch it as many times as you want.

It's only the three letters, Y, W, and R.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Mhm.

So, no more questions about that.

Fantastic.

Okay.

If the audio is a little bit low,

then uh turn up your volume because it's on max volume for me.

I can't put it up anymore

and I'm not shouting

because it's a Saturday

and I don't want to disturb my neighbors.

Flora and Fauna.

Yeah.

Fantastic.

Yeah, flora and florer and fauna.

It's quite a mouthful.

Floraur.

So that's that.

Okay.

And then when it comes to for example here where we've got two consonants

together,

what we do is

if they are pronounced in the same part of the mouth,

we can hold it and then release it for the next consonant sound.

So for example, N and T.

You probably got mouth noises then.

Sorry.

N and T, they're both pronounced with the alvola ridge at the front here.

N T.

Okay.

So, what I can do is hold

that N and release it

as a T.

Mean to mean to instead of saying mean to and releasing it twice.

What happens here when you have consonant vowel?

So if this is consonant consonant, these ones are uh for example vowel vowel.

When you have consonant vowel, super easy peasy,

you take that final consonant sound

and you move it over to the beginning of the next word.

So for example, you've got.

So we're not going to say at because it's not the strong form.

Okay?

Then we've got lived.

We're going to take that duh.

We're going to move it over and we're going to say live. live.

So that duh moves over

and that's what happens

when you have a consonant

and a vowel together.

Easy peasy, right?

Yeah.

Sometimes you say look at and don't use connected speech, right?

Um I mean I use connected speech.

Native English speakers use connected speech naturally.

If they don't use connected speech, then they will sound quite robotic.

Okay?

We use it naturally

and a lot of the time we don't know

that we're using it,

right?

It's just something that natives learn, but we don't learn it in school.

Okay?

We just learn it just from uh acquiring the language as children.

So, moving on to the next paragraph.

God, my nose is really itchy today.

I don't know why I must have like some kind of allergy to a

plant or something in here.

I've got loads of plants behind me.

Never mind.

So, second paragraph. every day.

The older brother.

So, you know what's going to happen here?

The older brother would go would go.

Look what I'm doing.

I'm not saying would go.

I'm saying would go.

Would go.

Notice what I'm doing.

Wgo.

That duh, that duh changes to a ggo.

We hold it.

So we're not saying wgo wgo.

WG go.

Okay.

This is something that we do to certain letters at the end of words.

Okay.

T write them here.

T.

Oh, that's just on the edge there.

Let's move it a bit closer.

There we go.

T, D, and N are the biggest ones.

Sorry, if I keep looking over here,

my neighbors are having like a barbecue or something and it keeps distracting me.

I should close my curtains.

T D and N.

If they appear at the end of a word,

quite commonly they will change so that they are similar to the next sound.

Okay?

To the next consonant sound.

This also happens with other sounds like occasionally it can happen with C for

example.

Okay?

But t duh and n it happens to these three quite a lot.

So if you ever hear certain words that end in t du n changing,

perhaps it sounds like that final sound has disappeared or it is changing.

That's because it is.

You're not crazy.

Okay, we call this assimilation.

I was going to say elision.

It's not illusion.

We call this assimilation if you want the technical term.

Okay, that basically means

that we're taking a sound

and we're changing it

so it's easier to pronounce the next sound

or it's easier to pronounce the sounds around it.

Okay, this happens a lot in English

and it happens in some other languages

as well.

Okay, so older brother would go to.

So, we've got vow vowel again together.

Go into um what I'll do later is I will find the link for

my um video on connected speech.

I have a full playlist about connected speech

and I talk about the rules for these in way more detail.

Okay?

So, you'll know how to do it in more detail like

when is it y were

and r.

All right?

Um because I don't want to go into it here.

I could easily spend an extra 10 minutes on

that and I don't want to do

that because the stream was only supposed to be half an hour

but is looking more like 45 minutes.

So, go winter.

Go winter.

We're going to add that W.

Go into the forest.

Mind this th as well in the.

Make sure you're not saying d or d.

Okay.

The the forest. go into the forest to collect some.

Now, here what we're doing is we're cutting this T.

Super simple, easy peasy rule.

If you have t

or duh at the end of a word

and you have consonant t

or d plus the next word starts with another consonant,

cut that t or duh, right?

You can pronounce it.

You can say to collect some wood

but it's quite hard right

so what many natives will do is they will cut it right this is

your speak like a native hack right

that everyone is always talking about like marketing

if you want to speak like a native

then cut some sounds we're quite lazy

as native speakers so to collect some collect some

so I'm cutting that tea right collect some wood to collect some wood to

sell at the local market.

So, you might be wondering, Emma, why are you putting these lines here?

What are these?

Well, these are just to mark little pauses.

Okay, these are called speech units.

So, when we have these little kind of sections here, for example,

like this is a speech unit.

It's like little parts of a phrase

or sentence or whatever um where we have breaks around them just to breathe,

just to pause.

And there are no set rules for when we put these breaks.

But of course, if you put them in completely random places,

it can sound a bit weird.

Okay?

So, for example, every day the older brother would go into the forest.

Oh, that sounds strange, right?

So, we're not going to do that.

Every day the older brother would go into the forest to collect some wood

to sell at the local market.

So notice I'm putting in these little breaks

and it helps kind of make the text a bit more digestible

and also gives you a bit of a break.

Um you can change where you put the pauses um to add emphasis.

So, for example, um I mean to make it sound super dramatic,

the older brother would go into the forest to collect some wood to sell

at the local market.

So, you see how it changes the meaning once you start adding these pauses.

So, English is quite flexible in that way.

As I said, there's no set rule.

Um any questions about that so far?

Do you have a complete pronunciation course?

Yes, I do.

I have my own uh pronunciation course and it's being updated every single month.

Every month.

Uh but there's also the group classes

as well which you can join on the Preply page.

The link is in the description.

Any other questions?

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

I'm glad to hear.

Yep.

Perfect.

Exactly.

Yeah, you've got the rule.

Exactly.

Consonant TD consonant.

You can cut the T and D.

You don't have to, but you can.

You can cut it.

All right.

So, let's press on.

Let's continue.

One day.

Remember, we're not going to say one day.

We're going to say one day.

One day.

Connect it together.

Ezie.

Cut the H.

Ezie. as he was about to As he was about to lower his axe.

Cut this.

This lower would normally be awah.

But because we're removing the h, we've got a vowel.

We've got vowel vowel, right?

What we're going to do,

we're going to add

that R back in here.

as he was about to lower his axe.

As he was about to lower his axe,

as he was about to lower his axe, to chop down one specific tree.

To chop down one specific tree.

Notice I'm putting a bit more emphasis on that that one specific tree.

Okay?

It's not just chop down one specific tree.

No, to chop down one specific tree.

I'm adding more emphasis because it makes it a bit more dramatic.

Yeah, it's one specific tree.

Be dreaming of that phrase tonight.

One specific tree.

He heard it speak.

He heard it speak.

So, it speak.

I'm pronouncing them together.

It speak.

It speak.

He heard it speak.

He heard it speak.

It said, it said, not it said, it said, please spare me my branches.

Or if you're from the south, branches.

Okay, I say branches in the south.

Branches.

Or if you're from the north like I am, branches.

You choose whichever one you want.

Okay, I'm going to say branches because I'm from the north.

Branches.

If you spare my branches.

If you spare.

So notice this R silent.

Spare.

Spare me my branches.

If you spare my branches, I will give you some golden apples.

Some golden apples.

I will give you some golden apples.

The boy agreed.

The boy agreed.

Val vow.

So even though we have this y here, remember it's a vowel sound.

Oi.

The boy agreed.

Again, mind that th here, not the boy.

The boy.

The the the boy agreed.

So the tree.

So the tree.

The tree.

So the tree gave him gave him two golden apples.

Golden nap napples.

Golden apples.

The boy agreed.

So the tree gave him two golden napples.

Need some water.

How are we doing so far?

Which British dialect do you use when teaching?

Um, dialect.

Dialect and accent are two different things.

Okay.

In terms of dialect, I tend to use a more standard dialect.

I'm not going to use Yorkshire dialect.

Dialect refers to the words.

Accent refers to how you say something. depending on where you're from

or your background,

your education, and so many different things.

Okay.

In terms of my accent, I focus on teaching modern RP,

but I do incorporate elements of my own accent

because that's part of my identity.

It's where I'm from.

Okay?

And I also compare the two.

So, if there's ever something that is uh not RP, like for example,

with branches, okay?

I'm gonna say in the south RP they say branches

but do be aware

that in the north half the country 50% of the country say branches right

perfect golden apples remember what we do we take

that final consonant sound we move it over goldenapples golden apples should we move

about to to about

So,

we're not going to move it, but we're going to hold it.

It's a good question.

Where was that?

About to about Was that there?

Or was that just a random question?

I have a feeling it was in here, but maybe not.

Yeah.

About to about We hold it.

Yes.

I'm going to save this as a replay.

Please do not worry.

Loads of linking sounds.

Yes, we have a lot.

We have a lot in English.

A lot.

A lot.

A lot.

We link all the freaking time.

All the time.

We link all the time in English.

So, that's the first part.

Okay, let's scroll down a little bit more.

Ideally, I would like to finish this stream um soon.

I'd like to finish it at a quarter two.

So, let's see how we get on.

Okay.

The boy felt disappointed.

Felt disappointed.

Now here, remember I told you

if you have a consonant t d

or consonant,

we can remove the t, right?

I'm going to show you something.

What am I doing here?

The boy felt disappointed.

The boy felt felt disappointed.

The boy felt disappointed.

I'm not removing it.

I'm changing it to a glottle.

Stop.

Right.

Felt disappointed.

If I removed it, it would sound like fell.

Like uh the pasta fall.

Yeah.

The boy fell disappointed.

The boy felt disappointed.

The boy felt disappointed.

The boy felt disappointed.

You notice that there's a bit of a pause there

because I need the time for my my glottus,

the technical term.

I need the I need the time to close here.

Okay, so here what you have is uh two vocal cords vibrating away.

All right, your vocal folds, vocal cords, whatever you want to call them,

they're vibrating away.

And when you do a glottle stop, you you stop them, right?

They stop moving.

And you get them in words

or phrases for example like uh oh uh oh

and then you get

that uh oh and there's a closure

and that closure u oh that's the glottle stop

and we put that in words

and at the end of words like here the boy felt disappointed the boy

felt disappointed and you'll notice this in words for example like better city E

water.

Right?

So, it can happen in words,

but quite commonly it happens at the end of words as well.

And this is a case of that happening.

I have a full video all about the glottle stop

if you want to practice

that.

So, the glottle stop tends to happen when we have oh,

see if I remember lm. or a vowel.

That's the one.

Trying to remember these off the top of my head.

My goodness.

So, if you have and then a ty.

Okay.

So, if your word ends in lm

or n and then a vowel

or a vowel.

Okay.

L-m or a vowel.

And then you have a t at the end.

It doesn't matter what comes after.

Okay?

Doesn't matter what comes after.

We can glalilize the T, right?

If it's at the end of a word, LM or a vowel.

I should put that as like or not and.

It should be L-m like this like N- vowel and then a T.

So felt if it's a vowel, for example, cat becomes cat.

Uh, a n for example, can't becomes can't.

I can't go.

I can't go.

Yeah, you notice how I got glottalize it then.

Um, and then yeah, with m I can't think of one right now,

but it's not important.

See, it's not important.

It's not important.

Notice I use the glossal stop there.

It's not important.

That's a fly.

So, the boy felt disappointed.

The boy felt disappointed that he had only received two apples.

Received two apples.

I can cut that again.

Received two apples.

So remember consonant D consonant.

Cut the D.

Receive two apples.

Makes it so much easier to say once you start cutting sounds.

It's strange at first, but you will grow to love it.

Trust me.

You'll be like, "Oh, why wasn't I cutting sounds before?"

Makes it so much easier.

Yeah.

So the T the T had only had only the he had only received

two apples and we connect with

that what two wapples two apples.

The boy felt disappointed.

Uh the boy felt disappointed

that he had only

So I could put a break here.

The boy felt disappointed that he had only received two apples.

So we threatened.

Remove that H.

Add a W.

So we So we

So we threatened the Remove this threatened the threatened the tree.

I would probably add a pause there.

He threatened the tree and asked for more.

So with this asked, notice I'm not saying the C life hack.

Okay. instead of asked and asked for more.

If you're from the south of England, then you would say asked.

Okay, again another difference. 50% of the country say asked, the others say asked.

Right?

I say asked.

So an asked for more I cut the C.

Right?

So when we get certain consonant clusters s we can cut the middle one.

Right?

We can cut the middle one.

In this case, we cut the C.

Now, what happens?

Well, we also have consonant T consonant.

What else can happen, Emma?

Oh my goodness, Emma.

You're not going to tell me that we've got this consonant T consonant.

We're going to cut the T as well.

Yeah, we are.

We're going to cut that T.

We're just going to cut these

and we're going to say an ask for more.

So yes, it sounds like the word asks, right?

An ask for more.

Or if you're from the south, an ask for more.

And ask for more.

So we threaten the tree and ask for more.

So we threaten the tree and ask for more.

Yeah, we cut it.

Makes it so much easier.

So much easier.

Then we don't have like four consonants all together.

F.

Four consonants together is hard even for a native speaker.

So, let's cut some.

Okay.

The tree became mangry.

The tree became mangry.

Pause.

And showered and showered him with hundreds of tiny pine needles.

Pine needles. and asked for more.

The tree became angry and showered him with hundreds of tiny pine needles.

Right.

The boy cried out in pain.

In pain.

Imp.

Remember what happened with would it?

Uh would um what was it?

Would go.

Yeah.

Remember what happened with that?

When we had would go and I said would go.

Same thing happens here.

Impain.

Imp.

It's one of those three that changes.

Remember, t du n.

They change.

Okay.

In pain.

The boy cried out in pain.

The boy cried out in pain.

Whilst crying.

Consonant t consonant.

Cut that t.

Whilst crying.

If you're not sure what whilst is, it means while.

Okay, it's just more British.

Whilst crying, his younger brother rushed to help him.

Rushed.

Cut that.

Sh.

Yeah.

Consonant.

T consonant.

Rush to help him.

Help him.

Un carefully.

Un carefully.

We're going to change this to this.

Un carefully.

And then link it together.

and carefully started to pull out pull out each of the tiny pine needles.

So we so we didn't hurt his brother more.

So he didn't hurt his brother more.

Here the same what I mentioned with the felt,

I can also say didn't didn't hurt his brother.

I could use the glottle stop as well.

It's optional.

Doesn't matter.

Okay.

Whether you use it or not.

Did I miss anything else?

His younger brother um younger brother rushed to help him

and carefully started to pull out each of the tiny pine needles

so he didn't hurt his brother more.

When all the needles had been removed, so had been removed.

Strong form had been had been removed. weak form.

Use the weak.

When all the tiny Oh, the tiny needles.

No.

When all the needles had When all the needles had been removed,

the boy hugged his brother.

Hugged his brother.

Younger brother.

The boy hugged his younger brother and apologized.

And apologized to him.

Apologize.

Z consonant T consonant well consonant D sorry consonant Apologize.

Apologize.

Apologize to him.

Apologize to him or apologize to him.

If we remove the H.

Yeah, it's optional.

And apologize to him.

And apologize to him for always being so mean.

Here we'll get out

that R f for for always for always being

so mean and apologize to him for always being

so mean.

Yeah.

The magical tree saw the change in the older brother's behavior.

Long part there.

The magical tree saw the change in the older brother's behavior

and decided and decided to give to give both of the boys more golden

apples.

The magical tree saw the change in the older brother's behavior

and decided to give both of the boys more golden apples.

So every time I'm clicking I'm stressing the word right.

The moral of the story here is The moral of the story here is

The moral of the story here is pause.

To always be kind.

To always be kind.

The moral of the story here is Oh, not the is.

The moral of the story here is to always be kind because kindness does.

We're going to really stress

that does because kindness does pay off in the end.

We're really putting the stress here

because we really want to emphasize

that it does pay off.

Okay?

Because kindness.

Same here.

Consonant dconsonant even though it's within a word.

Caught it. kindness instead of kindness.

Kindness.

Kindness.

Because kindness does pay off.

We got that.

Y pay off in the end.

There again there.

Pay off in the end because kindness does pay off in the end.

And that's that.

In life, it's quite common

that we come across people who think

that they are better than you.

They appear arrogant and ridicule ridicu ridicule you.

A popular fable with this theme is one called the tortoise and the hair.

A hair is like a rabbit,

but it's larger and tends to have ears

which point backwards as opposed to upwards like a rabbit's.

A tortoise is also similar to a turtle,

but it lives on land and isn't aquatic.

The story of the tortoise and the hair goes like this.

One day an arrogant hair challenged the tortoise to a race.

The hair thought for sure

that he was going to win

and he was as he was much faster than the tortoise.

However, the tortoise accepted his challenge.

The race was simple.

Run from point A to point B as fast as you can,

and the first one to the end will win the race.

The hair felt arrogant

and smug as he knew he was going to find the race a breeze.

They both waited at the start line and then bang,

the race began and the hair shot off into the lead.

The tortoise ambled his way to the finish line.

Some moments later, the hair decided to take a nap

and wait for the tortoise to catch up.

So he found a nice shaded area under a lovely oak tree

and made himself comfortable.

Some time passed and the tortoise began catching up to where the hair had

stopped for his nap.

The tortoise then over overtook overlook.

The tortoise the tortoise then overtook the hair and laid across the finish line.

When the hair woke up,

he dashed to the finish line

and saw that the tortoise was sitting there waiting for the hair to finish

the race.

The smug look vanished off the hair's face

as he realized that the tortoise had beaten him.

So, the moral of the story is to not be too arrogant

and ridicule others who you think are not

as good as you.

Okay, so that's the story.

If there's any vocabulary that you don't know,

I highly recommend you take a moment just to quickly search it

because this isn't going to be a vocabulary focused lesson.

All right, we're going to go through

and we're going to analyze it together now from a phonetics perspective.

Okay, so here at the bottom, I also have a full phonetic transcript here.

Now, this is transcribed in uh phonms.

This isn't transcribed in alophones.

So, there's nothing specific here.

Um, it's basically just a a very simple phonetic representation of the story.

So, we'll get to that in a moment if we need to.

So, let's start up here.

So, I'm going to break it into chunks.

So, this is a really good technique

that you could do

when you're practicing your pronunciation is do something called chunking.

Okay?

And this is where you take um either uh sentences

or sections of sentences

and you say them

as one.

So instead of saying in life it's quite common,

you're kind of squishing them together.

So it's like in life in life it's quite common.

It's quite common.

Yeah.

So you're kind of learning it as as a unit.

Okay. instead of uh separate words that's called chunking.

Okay.

So the first part here we're going to join these two together this n.

So in life in life I might also um just be slightly egotistic here

and just make my face bigger.

Then you can see my my mouth is all I care about.

But yeah, in life.

In life.

So, a lot of people,

they have problems with um sounds

that come together that are pronounced in similar positions,

right?

And nah are in a very similar position,

but you can see I'm creating a seal here.

And the sounds coming out of my nose is a nasal sound.

Yeah.

N.

And then I switch this.

I hold it up.

Yeah.

And I switch it.

So it's just the tip of my tongue.

And then I release.

So what I mean is in life in life.

You see?

So I'm not saying in life in life.

It's quite common.

So what can happen with this uh t here?

Quite common.

We might change this t into a c sound.

Okay.

Quite common.

Quite.

So I'm pronouncing it here.

It's quite common in life.

It's quite common.

So have a go in life.

It's quite common.

It's quite common.

Here we've got the N and the together.

So, it's quite common.

Common.

You see what my tongue did then?

Yeah.

Quite common that we So, this n I'm not saying common that.

I'm not releasing it.

I'm holding it up there.

Yeah.

At the top of my mouth.

Common.

Then I slide it forward for the th common

that we It's quite common

that we in life.

It's quite common that we You see now we're starting to chunk.

In life, it's quite common that we or that we I glutilized it,

but you don't have to.

That we come across we come across.

So this m at the end of come

because of course this e here is silent.

Yeah.

I don't say come but come it ends with a m sound.

We're going to take

that m we're going to move it over to the start of the next

word.

So instead of saying come across, we're saying come across.

Come across.

It's quite common that we come across.

Come across people who.

So this who here we can also cut the H.

It's not necessary.

But sometimes what people do is they say people who think.

People who think.

So, we're going to move that L over here.

People who think.

It's quite common that we come across people who think.

You see what happens?

Yeah.

We're joining these together.

Joining these joining these and we're changing this sound and also connecting them there.

If you're not sure Yes, it's assimilation.

Yes.

If you're not sure what assimilation is, um,

it's basically where we take some sounds together

and we change one

or more of the sounds to make it easier to transition to the next

word.

It's difficult.

Well, that's cuz you need to focus more because you need to practice.

And this is stuff that people don't teach, right?

They don't teach this.

So then when you start speaking you sound like in life it's quite common

that we come across people who think they are better

and you stress everything.

Yeah.

And you try to pronounce every single sound because that's how people taught you.

That's how people taught you from the beginning.

But then when you get to a level where you're able to converse,

you're able to speak fine, you stumble across certain sounds.

And why is that?

because you're not taught connected speech and you're not taught to cut certain sounds.

And really, if more people did this,

it would really like it would change the game.

It seriously would change your life.

That sounds so dramatic, but really it would like change your life.

It would make it so much easier.

We can cut the wh sound, make it an ooh.

It doesn't become an o giovani.

It becomes like an ooh ooh.

Yeah.

Peoo.

Peoo.

Like an ooh. like this one.

Yeah.

With the with the dots usually,

but I would just make it a bit shorter instead of people who think

or people.

So, it's the same placement, but just without the um the length,

without the two dots.

This is a master class.

Exactly.

And if you want to be the master,

you got to pay attention in the class.

Really focusing on it.

I'm glad.

I'm glad.

I'm sorry I can't read your name

because it's in Korean

and I I want to learn Korean

but I haven't learned it yet.

So yeah, sorry I can't read your name.

Next year I'll be able to.

I want to learn Korean.

This is interesting.

Why are natives making language more and more complex to learn day by day?

I completely disagree.

Native speakers do this because it's easier to do.

What you're doing is complicating it. you are complicating it for yourself.

While if you learned connected speech from the very beginning

and if you learned about sentence stress,

if you learned about removing the sounds which is called ellipsis, okay?

If you learned this from the very beginning, it would not be complicated now.

It's not complicated stuff.

It's it's not it's just

because no one really talks about this

and no one teaches it.

This is going to make your life easier.

It's going to make it easier for you to speak.

Yeah, you're making it more difficult for yourself when you don't use connected speech.

When I teach beginners and I don't use connected speech, it's really,

really hard for me.

It really is.

I have to think a lot.

It's a lot of effort pronouncing every sound.

No, no, we don't want to do that.

Cut some sounds.

Make life easy for yourself.

Make it easier.

Why are you making it difficult for yourself?

Anyway, back to the text.

So, people who people who think they think they are.

So, these two here, we've got two vowels together.

So, if you've got two vowels,

there are three ways that we can link them together with yw and r.

Okay, they So, this one is going to link with a y sound.

That looks like an accent.

They see Why am I using my mouse?

So, I should just use my tablet.

I'm using the mouse.

I literally have a tablet here.

They please don't get confused with this.

This is not a J.

This is not a if you're a Spanish speaker.

It is a Y sound like um for example in uh in the word

yellow or something.

Ah, it's not letting me uh type

or I would have to use my mouse.

That's really annoying.

But yeah, it's like a Y sound.

Okay.

So, these two together, they Yeah.

Now, a we're not going to stress it.

We're going to weaken it.

We're going to pronounce the weak form.

So, this here we're going to instead of saying they are,

we're going to say they are.

Who think they are better?

Who think they are better?

But notice the stress

as well. who think they are better. who think they are better.

Yeah, notice the link.

We're weakening the R.

Better than you.

So altogether, listen carefully.

In life, it's quite common

that we come across people who think they are better than you.

How is that?

That's just the first sentence.

Ellipsis.

Yes, ellipsus.

I'll write it in the chat for you.

Like this.

Yeah.

Any connection between that we Where's we we we

that we that we I wouldn't no I wouldn't connect these two.

Would I comment that we that I would I would probably glottalize this?

That's meant to be a glottle.

Stop.

Looks like a two.

Um that way.

That way.

But that's not connecting anything.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Nothing there.

Nope.

We'll keep it simple.

We'll keep it simple.

She says, "Oh dear."

Yeah.

So the next one they notice this here.

What am I doing?

What am I connecting it with?

They appear.

There's a link in there.

It's the Y again.

They appearant.

Now if I say this word here in isolation appear

and then I say it together with the other word appearant.

What happens?

Got hiccups now.

What happens?

Usually appia is just with thewah.

Yeah.

Appear.

There's no R in there.

Not app.

Yeah.

We're not Americans, right?

appear just awah.

But when the next word starts with a vowel sound,

we're going to take that R and we're going to join it together.

That's a terrible R.

There we are.

That's a better one.

It's a very very tiny R.

Yeah, they appearant.

Now that is going to be quite difficult to say

if you're not used to doing the R bit,

right?

So practice the R.

Don't say arrogant like yeah

and try not to touch the top of your mouth

as well with your tongue.

A lot of students like arrogant arrogant appear arrogant

and they're touching the top

but really in English there are some accents where they do touch the top

of the of the mouth with the tongue

but really you the tip of your tongue should not touch the top of

your mouth.

Okay.

Your tongue should be flat right at the at the front should be flat.

Yeah.

The only thing that should move is the sides here.

Yeah.

These are the only bits that should come up,

but the tip of the tongue stays down.

Okay?

If it comes up, that's how you get what's called a tap or flap.

Yeah.

Or you get something called a trill, right?

So, if you say something like arrogant or arrogant.

Yeah.

Spanish speakers looking at you.

Okay.

Then um yeah, we don't usually use that one in modern RP.

Okay.

But there are some accents where they say like arrogant and stuff like that.

Italians as well.

Watching you watching those Italians.

If you are a Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Mandarin, uh Cantonese, Korean speaker,

may have missed some there.

I'm sorry if I did.

Um, be very careful of the R

because a lot of the time some speakers from uh some speakers of these

languages pronounce it like a L

and instead of saying arrogant you say like elegant elegant appeal elegant

and you got to be careful not not to say

as a l Yeah

because we have la in English

and you see the difference completely different Indonesians also yeah

but you don't pronounce it like a l in Indonesian Um,

you pronounce it like a like you would say arrogant.

Yeah.

So yeah, they appear arrogant.

So here arrogant, we're going to move

that t over and we're going to remove this d here.

So what you'll see a lot of the time is like for example a

really really famous dish in the UK,

fish and chips.

Yeah.

Now I hear many students saying, "Oh, I like fish and chips."

Yeah.

And oh, it sounds very very strong, okay, to to my ear.

So what we would do is instead of saying fish and chips,

we weaken this vowel.

So not fish and but fish.

Bishwa.

Yeah.

A.

See the difference?

Yeah.

Fish and chips.

And this here.

Remove that D.

Fish and chips.

And it becomes a hund times easier to say.

Yeah.

Fish and chips.

Same here.

Arrogant and ridicule.

Arrogant and ridicule.

They appear arrogant and ridicu.

I can't say ridicule now.

They appear arrogant and ridicule you.

They appear arrogant and ridicule you.

Yeah.

So, ridicule is like to mock someone, to joke at someone.

Not very nice with the th sound.

I have a video about the th sounds.

And there are two many people.

Oh my god.

And I've seen teachers do this as well.

No shade to the teachers.

I know I've been throwing lots of shade at teachers in this live stream,

but it's because they I've come across a lot of videos where they'll say,

"Oh, today we're going to teach the th sound."

And I'm like, which one?

Which one?

There are two.

There are two th sounds.

There's the voiceless and the voiced.

Yeah.

So, like this one, for example, here, they appear.

Make sure that you're not saying it like they appear.

Thanks for bringing that up.

Who was that?

Oh, it was Hugo.

Thank you, Hugo.

Or is I don't know if your name is pronounced Hugo,

but in English we say Hugo.

That's your English name now.

So, make sure you're not saying they appear they.

Make sure you're saying they.

So, put your tongue in between your teeth.

Yeah.

They appear.

They appear arrogant and ridicule you.

All right.

Dark L sounds like a long ridicule.

O.

There's no.

You either have or you sound

or you say what you're hearing is the vowel before it.

So the second one,

no doubt we won't get I don't think we'll get through all of this

today.

We if we can get to this part here of the story,

I will be very very happy.

But yeah, let's try.

I was very ambitious thinking we would get through the whole story.

But it's better to be uh very uh what's the word?

Quality over quantity.

Yeah, it's better to be thorough.

It's a good word.

Better to be thorough and specific than rush through it.

Yeah.

So, the next sentence, a popular fable with this, with this, not with this,

with this.

Join them together.

A popular fable with this theme.

So this S and th.

So this one with this, these are the voiced th ones.

This one here is a voiceless th.

That is terrible.

Let's try again.

There we are.

Okay.

So you got the a popular fable with this theme.

I really slowed it down then this theme.

So I'm moving my tongue back with.

Yeah, it goes back out again with this theme.

A popular fable with this theme.

With this theme a popular fable with this theme.

Yeah.

And with the s as well.

I find sometimes um you know a lot of videos they teach you like

oh make sure you use the tip of your tongue to do the s

right and they're like oh okay

but sometimes what happens instead of using the very tip of your tongue here

make sure you're using what's called the blade of your tongue here.

Okay here bit further up.

Yeah.

Um, we use the blade for the S.

But sometimes what happens is we actually use the sides of the tongue instead

of the the blade of the tongue.

So like when I do that with this,

I'm actually using the sides of my tongue.

And I'm just creating like a little tiny bit of friction at the top.

I need to make a video on that.

But yeah, with this theme.

So yeah, if you're finding it tricky,

try kind of using the sides of your tongue a bit more with this

theme is.

So we're going to move that m over.

So a popular fable with this theme is one a popular fable with this

theme.

Here actually I wouldn't join these together and I'll explain why.

So, here we've kind of got a bit of a break.

Okay.

A popular fable with this theme is one called the tortoise and the hair.

Yeah.

You see how there's like a nice natural little break in there?

So, because we have that little break, we're not going to connect them together.

Okay.

So, is one called one called?

So this N here, if you remember,

we changed this T here into a C.

Quite common here.

We're gonna change this N.

All right, we're going to change this N into an A very sexy sound.

I know.

So we've got is one cold.

One cold.

So, we're not saying one called one cold.

That's really hard to say, right?

Because there's a lot of movement happening, but one cold.

Wong cold.

Yeah.

We're going to uh what's the word that I'm trying to think of?

We're going to hold it.

I'm going to say cut it, but no.

No, I don't want you to cut.

We're going to hold it at the back.

W.

So, don't w Yeah.

Wold.

Wold.

The tortoise under the hair.