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Video Transcript Below:

Hello guys, hello boys and girls and welcome back to Robby’s Accent Adventure video blog, where we learn to speak like American English speakers.

Yes! I’m trying to sound like American currently and I’m putting on my general American pronunciation and in case you’re wondering how that’s possible, how we can achieve the same kind of results, you definitely may want to check out the Accent Genie program.

I was following the same principles outlined in the program and you’ll be repeating hundreds upon hundreds of sentences spoken out loud by a native English speaker and you’ll be repeating them and you’ll be focusing on the key sounds.

What I’ve done with those videos is I’ve gotten rid of all the irrelevant stuff. And you’ll be only focusing on the sounds that will actually enable you of sound like an American English speaker, right?

There are so many other courses out there but what they do is they analyze the whole speech and you’re focusing on too many details at the same time. So it’s way too overwhelming.

Anyway, let’s get down to today’s business which is contractions: I’ll, you’ll, he’ll, she’ll, it’ll, we’ll, they’ll.

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Hi guys and welcome back to Robby’s Accent Adventure video blog!

And in this video we’re going to look at the pronunciation of the following words: interesting, internet, interact, interview, right?

And this is typical for the American pronunciation. If you’re trying to speak like a British English speaker obviously, it’s not really the case. So this is specific to American pronunciation.

And for those of you guys who might not be familiar with me, I’m Robby and I’m a foreign English speaker. My national background is Latvian, it’s an Eastern-European country and I’ve been living in an English speaking country for 13 years now, right?

And I’ve been constantly speaking with myself practicing my spoken English and for a good few years now I’ve been trying to sound like an American English speaker and obviously it has helped a great deal. A few years ago I wouldn’t have been able to speak like this, right?

So what’s so interesting about the words interesting, internet, interact?

If you listen to the way I pronounce them, you’ll definitely notice that letter “t”, basically the “t” sound tends to all but disappear!

So it’s not the “internet”, it’s “INNERNET”.

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Here’s another video where I’m speaking with the General American Pronunciation, and this time around I’m talking about good American Netflix programs I’ve been watching lately.

Well, to tell you the truth, I’m actually speaking a little bit too fast in this video and that’s the reason why I’m not getting all American English sounds right in all words.

For the most part, however, my American English is just fine and I’m quite happy with my performance.

But in case you’re wondering how I can say such a thing without consulting with other people and getting their opinion on it – well, here’s the thing – I watched the video I recorded over and over again and I’m intelligent enough to spot any imperfections and mistakes I’ve been making.

The heck, ANYONE is intelligent enough to be a good judge of their own pronunciation provided that they know what sounds they have to FOCUS on:

• Dark and light ‘L’ sounds;
• The “Ash” sound;
• The ‘R’ sound;
• The ‘W’ sound;
• And a whole lot more!

On top of that, it’s also important to get the little details right such as using certain hesitation sounds and stretching words a bit as well.

So as you can guess, it’s a matter of practicing your speech and now I’m going to use a cliché:

If I can do it, you can do it TOO!

Anyhow, today’s video is about what Netflix shows I’ve been watching lately, and in case you’re wondering how watching Netflix can improve your American English pronunciation, here’s the deal.

You can SHADOW American Netflix programs and it’s one of ways you can improve your American pronunciation and also the overall English fluency.

That’s what I’ve been doing myself, so check out the video above to see what Netflix shows I recommend!

Cheers,

Robby 😉

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT BELOW:

Hello, guys! Hello, boys and girls, and welcome back to Accent Adventure video blog!

I’m Robby, accent learning enthusiast, English fluency expert, and your friend above everything else! And, now, I’m back with another Accent Adventure video blog.

To tell you the truth guys, I haven’t been publishing on this website for more than half a year now, which is a long, long time. And to be totally honest with you, I wasn’t sure for some period of time whether I was going to continue with this blog or I was just going to let it die a slow and natural death.

But, lately, I decided – why not? I just could publish a video every now and then to keep those of you happy who are keen on following my accent learning adventures, right?

And currently, as you may guess, I’m speaking with the General American pronunciation. But, funnily enough, some people think that I don’t sound like an American English speaker AT ALL, which is obviously not true. Yes, I know for a fact that anyone can tell right from the get-go that I’m a foreign English speaker, and I don’t sound exactly like a native English speaker, and I probably never will for that matter.

But, it’s not even my goal. I’m just trying to sound like an American. I am trying to nail the American English sound such as the distinct “R” sound, right? “Or”, “my problem”, “we’re partners, remember?”  – it’s one of my previous videos. That’s why I was using this particular phrase, right?

But, I’m just showcasing you what exactly I’m focusing on when trying to sound like an American English speaker. And I know for a fact that I’m getting the general feel of the pronunciation, if you like, when I’m speaking. And I got a comment recently saying that… Let me read it!

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For some non-native English speakers the very fact of speaking in English AT ALL would send shivers down the spine – let alone trying to sound like an American or British English speaker.

But even those who’ve achieved quite a decent level of English fluency and wish to master American or British pronunciation are quite scared to try and speak with their accent of choice in public due to embarrassment.

And it’s totally understandable ❗

I mean – some people are quite MEAN and won’t hesitate making some hurtful comments about your attempts to sound like a native English speaker ranging from:

“Why the hell would you want to sound like an American, you’re never going to become one anyway!”

and ending with:

“You sound stupid, stop trying to pretend someone you’re not!”

So if you’re one of those foreign English speakers aspiring to adopt a more native-like English pronunciation but you’re just AFRAID of putting on the accent of your choice in public because of other people’s reaction, please read this article and you’re definitely going to find out a few very useful tips on how to go about the whole accent learning thing! 😉

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“He’s got a good ear for accents – that’s why he’s so good at speaking like an American English speaker!”

“What? You want me to try and speak just like Robert de Niro in this film? Nah, I just don’t have a good ear for listening and repeating people’s speech…”

“Wow! You sound just like an Englishman, I admire your ability to mimic native English speakers! What? Me?! Go away! I’ll never be able to do that – I just don’t have what it takes to pick up an accent…”

I’ve heard such and similar statements quite often over my lifetime, and they all have one thing in common:

People believe that somehow they have to possess some sixth sense for English accent and pronunciation!

I’ve also heard my fellow foreign English speakers say things like: “American and British? I don’t even hear any difference between these two English speakers!” which falls under the same category of statements.

Surely picking up a native-like English speaker’s accent is very, very hard.

Surely you’ve got to be really smart to pull off something like that.

Surely you’ve got to be speaking with other English speakers who speak with that accent ALL THE TIME!

Well… Guess what?

I call BS on all of that! 😀

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Hi guys!
That’s me – Robby from AccentAdventure.com – and this time around we’re going to learn how to pronounce the following American phrase properly:

WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU?

The main focus here is on the sound created by the double TT in the middle of the word “matter” – it’s the so called FLAP T sound – and it’s actually much closer to the letter D than T!

That’s the reason why I’ve transcribed the flap T sound with the letter D or with a two letter combination TD in my American Pronunciation learning program Accent Genie, and as you can see in the screenshot below – the FLAP T sound in the word “fitting” is transcribed with the two letter combination TD (just because in this case it’s not as close to D as in the word “matter”).

But anyway – going back to today’s phrase WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH YOU? – it basically becomes “What’s the maDer with you?” because Americans transform the double TT into a sound which is much closer to D (with a little hint of “R” in it probably).

If you want to get it just right, however, please watch the video above where I’m looking at this phrase in depth and I’m also giving you a few useful tips on how to get the FLAP T sound just right.

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This is it!

I’ve finally found out everything about the “ash” sound in American English – and if you’ve also been wondering about the following problem:

Why is it that in some American English words the letter ‘A’ gets pronounced as [eə] despite the phonetic transcription describing it as [æ]?

… then you should definitely read the rest of this article and watch the video above!

Let’s take a very simple word such as “frank”, for example.

Any dictionary will tell you it’s pronounced as /fræŋk/ while in reality it’s to be pronounced as [freənk] – it’s almost as if the actual word is “frenk” instead of “frank”.

So, over the time I’d noticed that the “ash” sound [æ] is often pronounced as [eə] in American English, but I couldn’t figure out WHEN it’s happening – I mean, are the any RULES?

• I recorded the first video about it (watch it HERE) a year and a half ago – the conclusion was that you just have to learn which words are subject to the letter ‘A’ sound transformation.
• Another video followed a year later and the advice was – just gravitate toward the [eə] sound whenever possible and you won’t get it wrong! (It’s not actually such a bad piece of advice, by the way.)
• Then I recorded a video as a response to Greg’s comment where the main focus is on the word “family” – I pronounce it as [feəmli] whereas Greg sticks with [fæmli].

And then, when all hope was lost, I received a comment with a Wikipedia article link in – and it actually answers every question I’ve been having about the American “ash” sound ❗

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Initially I published a video on the American “ash” sound where I shared my observations in relation to how the letter ‘A’ is pronounced in certain words in American English.

Then, more than a year later, I published a follow-up on the original video where I’m talking about my latest revelations in connection with the same phenomenon – namely, certain words are transcribed as having the traditional (æ) sound in them while in reality the letter ‘A’ is pronounced more like (eh) in words such as “and”, “hamburger”, “animal” and a bunch of others.

The video above is a video response to a comment I received on the latest video where Greg points out a few things regarding the “ash” sound and how it’s pronounced in those words I’m bringing up as examples:

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