Syllable stress contrasts in English words to make our voice rise and fall sharply between words and changes in sounds. There are patterns within words to predict the rise and fall of your sound, and I'm happy to break one particularily useful pattern down for you here.
Listen in and repeat after me as we consider the rise and fall of syllable stress in some of the most commonly used phrasal verbs in spoken English.
Join the Patreon and change the sound of your spoken English!
https://patreon.com/Accentraining
Syllable stress contrasts in English words to make our voice rise and fall sharply between words and changes in sounds. There are patterns within words to predict the rise and fall of your sound, and I'm happy to break one particularily useful pattern down for you here.
Listen in and repeat after me as we consider the rise and fall of syllable stress in some of the most commonly used phrasal verbs in spoken English.
Join the Patreon and change the sound of your spoken English!
https://patreon.com/Accentraining
Welcome to the accent training podcast, a podcast where I teach you to use the sounds of the American accent in your own speech. My name is pat. I'm an accent coach from Toronto, living in Mexico. And at the moment, I'm in a very rural area, recording from my own car recording from my truck. You see the place where I'm living. Isn't exactly the ideal podcasting environment, because it's a health clinic. It's a health clinic with a small unit for a bedroom, and sometimes that bedroom is available and sometimes it's not available at this moment. It's not available. And so I need to record in my own truck to let my lovely wife sleep and allow her to work on creating a sun for me, cuz that's what we found out. My wife is pregnant. It's gonna be a boy and I'll tell you what. We are excited, excited to have a new young lad coming into this world. But anyway, this is what has sent me out to my truck to record this podcast episode. And I can't complain except for one thing I can complain about is the flies, the flies that followed me in here. You see, I came into my truck hoping to just hang out and relax, record a podcast episode. But a couple of flies flew in with me. A rather I should say buzzed in. They buzzed in with me now. I didn't notice them at first, but I sat back and relaxed and set up my recording equipment. Then just as I was about to hit record a fly, took a seat on my head and started to become a bit of a nuisance. What could I do about this? Well, I rolled down the window and I grabbed a piece of paper and I pushed them out or sort of, you know, swept them out. But they buzzed off. You can call it that when a fly leaves you beat it buzzes off, buzz off fly. Now everybody's lived through a similar experience. You get into your car or you close the door of your house or apartment and a couple of flies follow you in buzzing around circling your food and unwashed dishes. Very dirty, very annoying little creature. Why is this particular incident of any importance? Well, let me tell you my friend, the words that I use to describe this encounter were centered around frail verbs, frail verbs, verbs that require two or sometimes more words to express. The FRA verbs that I chose today are some very common ones that include a one syllable verb. Along with a preposition. I came into the car, the fly flew in. I just wanted to hang out and record. I set up my equipment. I rolled down the window and I swatted out the fly. Now for today's American accent lesson. I'm not going to talk about the pronunciation of each individual sound and each and every frail verb. That's ridiculous. That would be way too overwhelming. What I am going to talk about is the stress of frail verbs and how I apply that stress. You see syllable stress is the rise and fall of different units of sound. In language. The English language has contrasting stress. I've spoken about this in the past. Every time we have a rising syllable, it is followed by a flat quick quiet syllable and vice versa. Every flat and quiet syllable is followed by a rising syllable. Now syllables rise and fall in different degrees and it can be tough to predict if you're not completely familiar with the patterns of syllable stress. Well, my friend, I want to familiarize you with some specific patterns today to give you an edge over the competition. When it comes to English speech, we will consider the stress, the rise and fall of these extremely common, frail verbs and run through a ton of examples for you to develop this habit for yourself. Now we'll get to that in just a minute. But before we do, I'd like to remind each and every one of my listeners that I appreciate you. I appreciate your time. And I think it's incredible that you are taking time out of your day to improve your skills, especially to master the English language. Now, if you take your spoken English seriously, then you would do yourself a real favor to make sure that you have hit subscribe to this podcast. That way you will be notified every time that I release a new episode for you to learn from, you can count on a new episode coming about every once a week or so. And I do my best to get that episode out on Tuesdays for you. But sometimes I'll have episodes out twice a week. Sometimes my episode won't come out until Thursday. And so you wanna be notified as soon as a new episode is available. Make sure that you hit subscribe, let's reach your English speaking goals. And I will be here to teach you just what you need to know to make that happen. Speaking of teaching you what you need to know frail verbs are what I'd like to talk about next. Let's get into these now. As I said, there are common denominators. There are patterns that we can identify of spoken English to adapt to your own speech and change your accent. One of these common denominators is in verbs. You see when a verb has two syllables, that means that when a verb has two units of sound, that verb will usually not always, but usually be weak in the first syllable and stressed and rising in the second syllable. Some examples of this record, I'm here to record a podcast record or pretend, pretend like you know what you're doing. Pretend like, you know what you're doing? Notice that not only am I making the vowel sound the end, not only am I making it longer than in the PR PR first syllable PR pretend, but I'm also raising my tone of voice. I'm peeking it right up to contrast the weak UN stressed syllable. Now where do frail verbs fit into all this? Well, you see many frail verbs have only two syllables. And because these frail verbs are kind of considered, you know, as a concept to be one single concept, one single idea. We treat them with the same stress pattern as one single verb action word with two syllables. So let's read out a handful of FRA verbs here, just so you can start to get an ear for this. Because when you start to get an ear for this, you will be able to repeat it and eventually make this a habit that you do yourself naturally, without even thinking, repeat after me, come in, come in raising that tone of voice on that eye in the word in notice. Also I'm not making the end real long. I'm not going come in. The N is very short, but the eye is raising in the tone. The vowel sound is raising in the tone, getting stronger, come in, get up. We need you to get up, get up and help. Get up. Repeat that back to me, get up and help. Maybe some of you have children and your kids. Don't like getting up and helping tell'em get up and help. Get up, get up and help. Here's another one look up like on Google when you're gonna Google something, you look it up. Look up nearby restaurants. You can even practice that one with your Alexa or your echo device. Hey, Google, look up nearby restaurants or Alexa, look up nearby restaurants. A big part of me really hopes that people's echo devices just started looking up nearby restaurants. If that did happen, then I'm sorry. I'm just having fun here. I'll give you two more words here that these ones are useful at the hotels. These ones are useful for traveling. If you're checking into a hotel or an Airbnb as a frail verb, check in, I need to check in or with your flight. I need to check in with my flight check in. Now, if you are in a hotel and you go to the desk area, where you check in that area is called a check-in. I need to check in at the check-in notice that the stress is reversed. This is now a noun, uh, more on that later, but the stress is reversed. We're not saying I need to go to the check-in. I need to go to the check-in. I need to check in at the check-in. Repeat that back to me right now so that you're ready for your next vacation. Let's hear it. I need to check in at the check-in the next word here. Also relevant for your vacation. Check out. We need to check out before the checkout time again, as a noun, we call it the checkout time. I know it confuses things. Nouns are gonna be stronger in the beginning. The checkout time verbs are gonna be stronger in the ending checkout before the checkout time. So now I expect you're starting to get an ear for this. Let me read out a handful of longer phrases here, just to keep putting it to work, sit up and straighten your back. Everybody take care of your posture. Sit up, stressing that up, sit up and straighten your back and notice. By the way, when I'm saying that straight, straighten your back. I'm not saying straight 10, your back straight 10, but straighten your back. The T N becomes a glottal tea. We do that to control our stress. Check out episode number 49 or my video course on you to me and come to understand the glottal T better for yourself. Sit up and straighten your back. Another one here, log in with your email and password. Log in with your email and password log in notice. I'm still getting a clear a sound in that word log log in, log in, but I'm raising my tone for the in log in with your email and password. However, if you say what's your login information, what's your login information. Now we're reversing the stress login information. This is a now now log information. Log in with your login information. Here's another one here. I can hang out. Once I catch up on some work, I can hang out. Once I catch up on some work. Now I like this one, cuz it has two idioms in it. Hang out, catch up on some work. Hang out. This is to say, to chill with some people to relax, to spend quality time together. You're hanging out with some friends, hanging out with your family. You're not doing anything particularly important. Maybe you're playing video games. Maybe you're just chatting. Maybe you're watching a movie. That is how we hang out. Hang out, raising the stress on the out. And before you hang out with folks, catch up on your work. Let's hear that catch up on some work. Catch up. This means come to speed with everybody else. Catch not literally with your hand. When we say catch up, we're not saying reach your hand up and grab the air. That's ridiculous. Catch up on some work. Accomplish your work. Come to the same speed as where everybody else's. Maybe you had to take a week off work cuz you got sick or you took a vacation. You gotta catch up on some work. You need to dedicate time and get that work done. Sorry for reminding you about that. But now you know how to describe it. Now I've got one more idiom for you here. This idiom itself is not a frail verb, but the phrase that I'm gonna say contains a frail verb. It's no big deal. It's no big deal. Get over it. It's no big deal. This is the idiom. Get over it. Get over it. It's no big deal. Get over it. Now first I'd like to explain the phrase, get over it. The word over has two syllables over. Now the first syllable of the word over over is going to be stressed here. It's going to raise in the tone, the E in the word, get, get, get, get over it. Get over. It is a little flatter. It's not stretching out. It's not raising in the tone. It's just a quiet unstressed, eh, kind of sound contrasting with over. Get over it. Now beyond that, let me tell you about this idiom. No big deal. It's no big deal. That's bad grammar. We were taught to say, it's not a problem, right? It's not a problem. It's no big deal. That might sound awkward to somebody who's studied English for years, but that is a great alternative that the typical native speaker would use to say, it's not a problem. It's no big deal or else. Maybe you tell this to someone else in this context. It's really no big deal. Get over it. It's like, Hey, you're overreacting. You're overreacting. It's no big deal. Get over it. Now again, this is informal. This isn't a very professional sounding phrase, but this is something that you can use just to show that it's, it's really not a big deal. It's no big deal. Try it out the next time somebody apologizes to you. If somebody says, I'm sorry about that. Or if a Canadian tells you, I'm sorry about that, you can simply tell them it's no big deal. I'm fine. It's no big deal. It's like, I don't care. I'm not bothered. It's okay. No big deal. And there you have it. Folks. Syllable stress contrast. This is a big deal. This is one of the pillars of spoken English. This is something that separates even the most advanced English learners from a native English speaker. My wife is a brilliant woman. She's a doctor. She's literally a, and she has spoken English since she was three years old. She's about as advanced as it gets. When it comes to English, speech, English, grammar, English, she even knows more about English, literature and poetry than I do. But even with all that, her syllable stress contrast is one of those little tiny things about her speech that separates her from the typical American native English speaker. However you are now aware of it. And so you can either say, oh well I'm helpless. If a Stephanie couldn't do it, no one can do it. I'm helpless. Or you can take advantage of this unique opportunity that you have right now and start practicing this for yourself. Start using frail verbs this way, yourself, keeping the first syllable quick and quiet. And the second syllable raising in tone, build this habit for yourself and with the information I've given you today, you know that this isn't only for frail verbs. This is for verbs as well, all verbs with two syllables. So, okay. 99% of them because there are exceptions 99% of verbs with two syllables follow the same pattern. And my friend, you are now prepared to take that on for your own spoken English. So you want your English to stand out, do what other English learners are not doing and use the stress of native English. Speakers adapt this pattern to your own speech and you will be well on your way to achieving your goals. Now I gotta get going for today. Folks, it's late. It's still pretty hot in this car. There are no flies anymore, as I mentioned, and I'll buzzed off, but it's dark outside. And I'll be honest with you. I don't wanna turn on any of the lights in the car Because I have had times when I forgot to turn the light off and then the battery dies and then I go to turn the car on and it's got no battery. And you know, there's definitely a good Samaritan. I'm sure I've got a neighbor around here. That would be more than happy to help out, but I don't want to go through all that trouble. So I just didn't even turn the light on, but now the car is dark and it's hot. And, and I just wanna get back inside. I wanna make some dinner, relax. It's Sunday evening, Sunday, September 4th, 8:25 PM. And I'm just watching the sun tuck itself away behind the mountains, off in the distance. I'll tell you what folks rural Mexico is absolutely beautiful. Um, The mountains, the fields, you see animals that you you've only heard about in stories. Seriously, there are animals out here that I could have sworn. It was like a dinosaur, but as Stephanie has said, no, that's a type of bird. That's a bird. Isn't it not a dinosaur. I suppose they say birds come from dinosaurs, but I'm not an expert on any of that. However, I am an expert on dinner time and 8:26 PM is dinner time. So I'm gonna let you go for today. Thank you very much for your attention and listening to this episode all the way through I'm honored and make sure that you hit subscribe to this podcast and tell your friends about it so that more and more folks can learn to empower themselves and take control of their spoken English. Thanks for tuning in and have a good one folks.