American rhythm practice with a metronome exercise

Ready? Let's go. Hey everyone, it's Hadar. Today we are going to practice the rhythm of English. And when I say practice, I mean really practice. So make sure you are able to speak out loud. Close the door and let's get started. Rhythm in English is a tool designed to help you communicate what you want to say in a clear, effective way. The main thing I want you to know about the rhythm of English. And again, this is not a theoretical lesson. I have a lot of videos about rhythm that I'm going to link in the description below this video. But something that I want you to know about rhythm is that it allows you to highlight what matters. And usually what matters is content. Words, the content nouns, the verbs, the adjectives that the adverbs. So it highlights and emphasizes the content and it downplays and reduces everything else. And this is why you hear sometimes words are being fully pronounced and then other words are being reduced. For example, it's for the best. It's for the best. Best is fully pronounced. It's for the reduced and connected. It's for the best. I'm telling you, it's for the best. Now this happens in English because it's stress timed language. Stress timed language versus syllable timed language. And many languages are syllable timed. And this is why the concept of rhythm of English is very strange and foreign and artificial for a lot of speakers. Let me quickly explain the difference between syllable timed and stress timed. So in syllable timed languages, each syllable takes approximately the same amount of time to pronounce. And that kind of makes the rhythm even and regular. So, for example, if we have the phrase what do you want to do? Then the word what is going to sound like do. It's going to sound like to what do you want to do? Okay, what do you want to do? And I even used the pronunciation of English, but it sounded off because I was using syllable timed rhythm. What do you want to do? University? I do not want to talk to you. Okay. Syllable timed. Every syllable receives the same beat. In stress timed languages, stress falls on certain syllables, not every single syllable, but every other syllable or certain syllables. And the amount of time between the stressed syllables is roughly equal. It doesn't matter how many sounds there are between the stresses or how many other syllables, the rhythm is kind of the same. Now, to be able to do that, we are going to practice rhythm. Today, we are going to practice speaking on the same beat, no matter how many sounds come in between the stressed syllables. Now it's going to be a little artificial. It's not really how people speak, but it will help you understand this idea of reductions, how you take those small words and you squeeze them, you don't fully pronounce them. The difference between syllable timed and stress timed languages. And it's going to help you understand how this rhythm works and what to focus on when you speak. I'm going to say a short sentence with three words. People write stories, where each word is emphasized equally. And then I'm going to start adding words to this sentence. The people write stories. And we are going to try to keep the same rhythm and keep the same beat on those three words. People write stories. Right. For example, then the next sentence would be the people are writing the stories. So I keep emphasizing people write stories even though I have ing writing and I have the word are writing. But because I reduce it, I can fit it in and keep the same rhythm. But it gets interesting. We are going to use a metronome, which means that we are going to play a certain beat and we will have to follow the beat. At first we're going to start slow and then we're going to speed up and then we'll see how that feels. You trying to squeeze in certain syllables. Now if you want to try this at home, children, you can. It's not dangerous. Just go to your phone, Google metronome, and then you'll see a metronome and you can play with a speed and set the speed. We are going to start with 80 bpm. Okay, this is what it sounds like. Now we are going to say the keywords in this case. People write. So stories on the beat. Okay. People write stories. Let's do it a few times. People write stories. People write stories. And when you feel confident, we're going to start adding words. Look at the screen, follow me. Don't worry, we'll do it again after. If you mess up, it's going to be fine. People write stories. Stories. The people write stories. The people are writing stories. The people are writing some stories. The people will be writing some stories. The people will be writing some short stories. Good. Okay, Very good. So what did we do here? We started with a sentence with three words, people write stories. And then we ended with a sentence with eight words. The people will be writing some short stories. And. But the length of the sentence, the time that it took me to say the sentence from beginning to end was the same. That's only possible in stress timed languages. We're going to go faster. Okay, Because I think you can do it. If you want, you can pause and Then go back to the part where I was reading it and do it again in 80 bpm. But we are going to move to 90. People write stories. The people write stories. The people are writing stories. The people are writing some stories. The people be writing some stories. The people be writing some short stories. Good. Some short stories. That's a hard one. Look what I did here. To be able to fit it in, I had to reduce it. So it wasn't the people will be writing. But it ended up sounding like the people be writing will be writing, will be writing. Right. I'm reducing the will to. Okay. To be able to make it fit in. Do you think we can do it at 100? I'm not sure. I'm not sure I can do it. Let's give it a try. Okay. 99. 100. People write stories. The people write stories. Stories. The people are writing stories. The people are writing some stories. The people will be writing some stories. The people will be writing some short stories. How was it? I think I surprised myself. Let's do another set of sentences. Okay. Are you ready? Okay. So we start with guards, check gates. A lot of consonants here. And we're going to start with 80. Let's do it. And the idea is not to take yourself too seriously or me or this exercise. Okay? Just go with the flow and see what comes out and see where the resistance is. Let's do it. Guards, check gates. Guards, check the gates. The guards, check the gates. The guards have checked the gates. The guards will have checked the gates. The guards will have been checking the gates. Good. We used here the future perfect tense. The future perfect continuous tense that is hardly ever used. But we are doing it for the sake of practice. Let's go to 90. Okay. Ready? Three, two, one, go. Guards, check gates. Guards, check the gates. The guards, check the gates. The guards have checked the gates. The guards will have checked the gates. The guards will have been checking the gates. Good. Let's move on to 100. Are you ready? Take a sip of water. If you need. Swallow. Take a deep breath. You got this. I believe in you. Three, two, one, go. Guards, check gates. Guards, check the gates. The guards check the gates. The guards have checked the gates. The guards will have checked the gates. The guards will have been checking the gates. Okay. Very, very good. Very, very good. I'm very proud of you. Very proud of you for trying. Let's try one more. Cows eat grass. The first sentences are really silly, so bear with me. We're going to start with 90 this time because I think you can do it. Cows eat grass. Ready? Let's focus on reductions and keeping the content words, those three words always on beat. Cows eat grass. The cows eat grass. The cows eat. Eat the grass. The cows will eat the grass. The cows will be eating the grass. The cows will be eating the green grass. Very good. Moving up to 100. Can we do more? No. Okay, 100. Cows eat grass. The cows eat grass. The cows eat the grass. The cows will eat the grass. The cows will be eating the grass. The cows will be eating the green grass. Very good. Even if you weren't exactly with me on the beat, you still get a gold star. Really? Because this is weird. What it is that we're doing here is considered a little weird, but for people who are new to this concept of practicing rhythm, and obviously people don't speak like that. We are not robots. The rhythm is not always on the beat like a metronome, but it is kind of repetitive and the patterns are very, very clear when you listen to it and when you just try to hear that beat. Languages that are syllable timed are not robotic either. Okay? They're not. In those languages, people play with pace, go faster, go slower. There are some reductions, but where you put the initial rhythm is different or how you do it. And that is something that is exciting to practice. Now I have a question for you. Do you think that your language is syllable timed or stress timed? Let me know in the comments. Or if you're listening to this on the podcast, send me a DM on Instagram Hadar Accentsway and let's see if you're right. Have a beautiful, beautiful rest of the day and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.