Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Improve Your Accent With This Sentence | British English Lesson

hello everybody this is Elliot from ETJ

English and today we have a classic etj

English lesson is a classic because

we're talking about phrasal verbs

expressions and we're combining those

with pronunciation amazing so today

we're looking at this sentence my friend

gave me a lift yesterday he picked me up

at the train station and dropped me off

at the airport because I needed to catch

a flight so why this sentence well

number one it has a few phrasal verbs in

it and phrasal verbs are an amazing way

of sounding more like a native too

because any sentence can actually help

you with your intonation and we're going

to talk a little bit about that today

we're also going to learn about some

connected speech how we can link our

words together but most importantly this

lesson like a previous lesson I've done

before should teach you that you can

take any sentence as long as it's a

decent length and you can make it into a

pronunciation learning experience just a

simple sentence out of a book you can

learn so much from just that one

sentence I practice this with my

students who've joined my course all the

time and it's an extremely effective

technique for both learning expressions

and phrasal verbs and of course

improving that pronunciation at the same

time so firstly let's take a look at the

the phrasal verbs in here we have gave

or give me a lift now to lift something

usually means to carry to pick something

up and carry it somewhere right a lift

can also be an elevator it's the British

way of saying an elevator was something

that we stand in that takes us up to

another floor right but also someone can

give you a lift now if someone gives you

a lift that simply means they are

carrying you in their vehicle or on

their vehicle if it's a bike to a place

that you need to go so they are

transporting you so for example if I

said to my friend can you give me a lift

that would simply mean can you take me

somewhere in your vehicle or on your

vehicle when we more often say this than

say for example can you take me here

please can you give me a lift is a bit

more friendly a bit more natural and

it's really really common so if someone

was giving me a lift they would first

need to pick me up and this is where we

come to our next phrasal verb to be

picked up of course again just like

lifting something we can pick up

something for example this pencil is on

my table I'm going to pick it up okay

but also someone could pick me up again

they could lift me carry me like I just

carried that pencil but also to pick

someone up could mean to collect them so

for example if I'm giving someone a lift

I would first need to pick them up

meaning drive to their place their

location to get them in my car so I can

then take them where they need to go

which leads me on to the next one which

is to drop someone off if I'm dropping

someone off that would be when we arrive

at their destination and they leave my

vehicle okay so someone's going to give

me a lift but to give me that lift they

need to pick me up and then when we

arrive at our location

they are then going to drop me off

outside or wherever and then finally to

catch something now you can catch a cold

meaning to get sick you can catch a ball

when somebody throws it at you

you can catch many things physically as

well but if I'm going to catch a flight

catch a train catch a bus that simply

means to use or yeah use the transport

okay so I'm going to catch a bus that

means I'm going to get on I'm going to

use the bus so let's start at the

beginning of the sentence my friend gave

me a lift

yesterday so my friend gave me a lift

yesterday me and AH me ends with a vowel

ah is a schwa sound okay it begins or it

is a vowel now if we have a word which

finishes with an e which is a smiling

vowel and a word which begins with a

vowel we're going to use a consonant and

the consonant we're going to use is a

yeah sound to join them together so it

becomes my friend gave me a lift

Meah a bit like the name mia mi a mia my

friend gave me a lift

yesterday let's also talk about the

pronunciation of yesterday I hear so

many students pronounce the word

yesterday wrong whether they're

pronouncing the are and they're saying

yesterday or there are many different

ways yesterday yes today yesterday my

friend gave me a lift yesterday next

part of the sentence he picked me up

from the train station he picked me up

it's happening again me yup so we're

doing what we call intrusive sounds

again the sound is appearing he picked

me up from the train station listen to

the word from from the train station

it we're not saying from the train

station we're actually saying from the

train station so the word from is being

pronounced as kind of like from from

from the train station the reason why is

because the word from is really not very

important in this sentence and there are

some of these words which we call

function words they're words which can

have a weak form because they're not

very important in a sentence so in this

case the word from is becoming from

because we want to say it fast to keep

the rhythm and to get to the stressed

words faster other words this happens

with our words like to becoming tough

for becoming it happens a lot and

we use the schwa sound mostly to kind of

reduce these words into a weaker form he

picked me up from the train station

train stay

great way to practice the a diphthong a

train station and of course station

finishes with a schwa stop sound station

shun-kun station okay so he picked me up

from the train station from the train

station if you're having difficulty

getting to the the from the then there's

a little tip I talked previously in one

of my lessons when we're pronouncing the

th sound really fast sometimes we can

just quickly tap the back of the teeth

so from the train station from the train

station

I'm actually very quickly tapping the

back of my teeth I'm not completely

pushing my tongue between my teeth for

that th sound and that is something

which natives do sometimes next part of

the sentence and dropped me off at the

airport and drops me off again me off at

or if you want to sound more native app

where we drop the T V at V and the

reason we're saying V and not the is

because Airport begins with a vowel

sound or a diphthong sound which is

still a foul and that means we're going

to be again pronouncing the as thee

because that's what we do when the next

word begins with a vowel we pronounce

that as thee so it's the airport now

we're linking again the the airport

we're producing a sound Airport

Bridget begins with the air diphthong at

airport now try it all together the

airport the airport it's quite a

difficult one again the word and at the

beginning of this sentence I could say

and dropped me off and dropped me off

instead of saying and dropped me off the

reason why is because and again not very

important in this sentence we could

class it as a

function word so we can drop most of the

word and pronounce it as a kind of

unsound and dropped me off instead of

under dropped me off because there's too

much going on there final part of the

sentence because I needed to catch a

flight because I needed to catch a

flight now because I so now we have a

different situation this is called

linking what we were previously doing

with Mia was intrusive sounds where we

create an intrusive sound but here we're

doing what we call linking and this is

when we have a word which finishes with

a consonant sound and the next word

begins with a vowel sound so we have

because which ends with a Z and I which

begins with a vowel so we're actually

going to use the Z at the end of because

to join to the I because I because I

needed to catch a flight again to is a

function word so we're pronouncing it as

- to catch a flight to catch a flight

again capture capture so the word catch

is joining with earth because it ends

with a consonant and it be the next word

is a vowel capture flight now finally

let's join the whole sentence together

and I want you to mimic my intonation

listen to my intonation and copy me

pause it if you need to okay I'm going

to read it off my screen because I have

a really bad memory okay my friend gave

me a lift yesterday he picked me up from

the train station and dropped me off at

the airport because I needed to catch a

flight so my intonation let's just

briefly go over intonation it's a very

complex topic and again you can learn

real details about this in my course but

just to give you a vague idea when we

finish speaking we take the tone down

that's the most important thing to know

it's how our listener knows that we've

finished speaking so at the very end of

this sense

because I needed to catch a flight catch

a flight we're going down at the end

because we want to show that listener

that we've finished speaking remember

that the stressed words so the words

which you think sound important in this

sentence we're going to raise the tone

now when we stress this is something you

really need to understand tone is more

important in stress than saying the word

louder or saying it more aggressively or

making it longer the most important part

of stress is just raising the tone

slightly on the stressed syllable of the

stressed word just giving it a bit more

of an emphasis really important to do

that so for example my friend gave me a

lift my friend gave me a lift I'm not

really saying friend and lift louder or

anything I'm actually just raising my

tone and I'm making the words just just

a bit stronger really that's all I'm

doing there's no need to say it

aggressively just to make the stress

hurt okay and the thing which makes the

stress and the tone all come together is

those function words making words weak

when they're not important saying them

nice and fast so that we can get to the

stressed words faster as I said I could

give you a massive intonation lesson on

all of this but intonation is a very

very complicated topic and everybody has

a different tone I have to work with you

direct me if you need help with

intonation this is why I offer a

whatsapp or WeChat service when people

join my course it comes with the course

people are able to send me voice

messages whenever they want and I give

them feedback on how they're doing in

the course their pronunciation the

vowels the consonants everything and

also tell them what's going right and

wrong with their intonation and how they

can improve it so as well as it being an

online course is also constant contact

with me a professional teacher and

accent coach so if you do want to join

you can just press the link below and

see more information about the course

I'd love to help you I really hope this

lesson helped you today it really does

show you how one sentence or one kind of

big little piece of speech big slash

little piece of

speech big little that doesn't really

make sense it's amazing how this can

help you with seeing how much is in the

language connected speech weak forms so

I really hope this lesson helped you

today and I look forward to reading your

comments below please give me a thumbs

up if you enjoyed the video and I will

see you next time cheers guys bye

[Music]