How many times can I use gonna in a short conversation? Ha, [snorts] I challenged myself to write this conversation to show you how we use gonna in conversational English. My colleague Tom and I recorded this conversation. I'm gonna tell John we were here. You're not gonna tell John we were here. And then I thought this would be more interesting if I created AI characters to use our voices. I made this AI copy for myself and I used this fake guy for Tom. What do you think? Did we nail it? First, here's the conversation. Then we'll do a full pronunciation analysis. At the end of this conversation, you'll have a better understanding of the rhythm of spoken American English.

Here's the conversation. I'm gonna [snorts] tell John we were here. You're not gonna tell John we were here. I'm gonna tell John we were here cuz he's gonna know anyway. John's not gonna know we were here. He's gonna know we were here cuz he's gonna see that money's gone. He's not gonna see that. And if he does, he's just gonna think he lost it. He's not gonna think we were here. I still think I'm gonna tell him. Now let's look at the analysis. I'm gonna tell John we were here. So it starts pretty high. I'm gonna tell John. So tell is our main verb here. Gonna our helping verb. I'm gonna not stressed. I'm gonna tell We have a little bit

of a scoop up. I'm gonna tell John we were here. And then everything comes down after that. Tell John we were here. Little bit of stress on the word here. I'm gonna tell John we were here. But gonna said very quickly, gonna. Linked with I'm. I'm gonna See if you can do it that quickly. I'm gonna tell John we were here. And all of the energy volume comes down from that peak of stress when we scoop up for tell.

I'm gonna tell John we were here. You're not gonna Not gets quite a bit of stress. Not. And that is a stop T. We don't release t with that sound. We just have n not abrupt stop and then the G sound. You're not gonna Just like I'm was said very quickly here. I'm I'm You are your is also said very quickly. It actually reduces your becomes your with the schwa R sound. So just think of it as a Y sound and an R sound. Your

your You're You're You're not gonna tell You're not gonna tell. You're not gonna Then our unstressed word gonna just falling down in pitch. You're not gonna tell John we were here. So we have up down shape of stress on John. John we were here. I'm Rachel. I have a background in opera singing and I've been teaching the American accent to non-native speakers for over 20 years. Scan this QR code or go to rachelsenglish.com/free to get my free course, the top three ways to master the American accent. It will blow your mind. It will give you totally new ideas on how to get the sound you've always wanted.

John we were here. The word tell it's a verb, but it doesn't really get the stress the way John does in this sentence here. You're not gonna tell John. So not and John get the most stress here. You're not gonna tell John we were here. You're not gonna tell John we were here. Whereas in my sentence, I stressed the action, what I was gonna do. I stressed tell the most. Tom wants to make sure I don't tell John. So he's stressing the negative and the object, John. He doesn't want John to know. You're not gonna tell John we were here. I'm gonna tell John we were here cuz he's gonna know anyway.

I'm gonna tell John. So again, gonna helping verb not stressed, but tell and John both stressed. So I am going to pronounced I'm gonna gonna It's almost like there's not even really a vowel here. Usually in IPA, I would write this gonna with the uh as in butter vowel, but I do think sometimes it's said so quickly that it's more like a schwa. Gnna with kind of a feel that there isn't even a vowel there. Gnna I'm gonna tell John. I'm gonna tell John we were here. And here stress goes up. Here because I'm about to explain why. We were here.

We were both unstressed, said very quickly. We were here. We were here cuz he's gonna know anyway. All of that stress is our one word know. Cuz he's gonna know anyway. Everything else just sort of leading up to that peak of stress or falling away from that peak of stress. Because he is going to becomes Cuz he's gonna So because gets reduced, it's just k schwa z. Cuz The H gets dropped in he's. So now that's just the E vowel. Cuz he's and the apostrophe S makes a Z sound. Cuz he's gonna Cuz he's gonna know anyway. Links together very smoothly and not very clear. Know is our most clear stressed word, our main verb

there. Cuz he's gonna know anyway. John's not gonna know we were here. John's not gonna know we were Three stressed words there. None of them are gonna. John's not gonna know we were here. Everything else flatter in pitch, linking things together, less clear. Again, we have a stop T. Not gonna You're never gonna hear not gonna You'll never hear that true T release. It's always gonna be a stop T in this case when it's followed by gonna. John's not gonna know we were here. And again, we were said very quickly, a little bit unclearly. We were And then more stress and up down shape of stress

on here. We were here. He's gonna know we were here. So in this first part of the sentence, two stressed words. He's gonna know our main verb. Gonna know we were here. He's gonna know we were here. He's gonna know we were here. He's going to becomes He's gonna Again, don't think of putting a clear uh vowel in here. It's really more of a schwa because it's so fast, because it's said so quickly. gonna He's going to know we were here with that nice longer up-down shape of stress on our two stressed syllables. Know we were here. And again, we were

much faster, lower in pitch. He's going to know we were here. He's going to know we were here cuz he's going to see that his money's gone. So, we have our primary verb, our main verb stressed. And a noun, his money, our object. Going to, our helping verb again, unstressed. So, because he is going to is pronounced cuz he's going to Again, because is reduced. It becomes cuz. K consonant schwa Z sound, cuz. [snorts] And that Z links into the E vowel cuz we've dropped the H. Cuz he's That's also a Z. Then going to.

I'm going to write that with two schwas. cuz he's going to see that his money's gone. Cuz he's going to see then see a little bit longer, a little bit of an up-down shape of stress. This is usually the way our main verbs are. They are usually stressed. Let's look at the words that and his. that is

also unstressed and reduced. This is the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet for the TH. The A vowel changes to the schwa, th This T actually becomes a flap T linking together two vowels, the schwa and the I vowel because the H is dropped here. that is that his Here in conversation, that is The tongue is just a flap here. Just a quick bounce up and down against the roof of the mouth. That is that his money's gone. So, stress on the first syllable that has the as in butter vowel and then the second two syllables just come in as the voice falls off in pitch. Money's gone.

He's not going to see that. Okay, again, the negative word not, he's not, stop T. Going [snorts] to see that. And our main verb stressed. Up-down shape of stress, a little bit longer. Always a stop T followed by going to. Not going to, not going to. He's not going to see that. Going to said so quickly. Going to [clears throat] going to He's not going to see He's not going to see that. Now, the vowel here doesn't get reduced. We don't reduce it when it's at the end of a thought group. See that. That would be a little bit weird, so we keep the A vowel. See that Stop T.

It's still unstressed. It's quieter, lower in pitch. It's not that with an up-down shape of stress. It is flat, but the vowel doesn't change to the schwa. that See that. And if he does, and if he Little bit on if, and if he does [snorts] So, we have the word and reduced. and I would just write that schwa and not and but and if links into the word he with the H dropped and it's just the E vowel. It's really common to drop the H. You've noticed that here in he and in his. Not so much at the beginning of a thought group, but definitely in the middle of one. And if he does This word has the as in butter vowel just like money. Does. And if he does, he's just going to think

he lost it. He's just going to think he lost it. just Our two stressed words. Everything else flatter, quicker, lower in pitch. Going to becomes going to just going to said so quickly. It's very common in an ending T cluster to drop the T if the next word begins with a consonant. I'm just going to leave now. I'm just going to put this here. I'm just going to go see. Just going to No T. just going to think he lost it. Let's look at this word he.

It's in the middle of the thought group. Is the H dropped? just going to think he lost it. Yep, thinky. K linking right into the E vowel. Thinky. Think he lost it. Ending in a stop T. Lost it. think he lost it. He's not going to think we were here. Again, stress on not, he's not going to think we were here. Not, up-down shape of stress, more length, more volume, stop T. Not going to. Going to, flat in pitch. A little unclear. Definitely unstressed.

He's not going to. He's not going to think we were here. He's not going to. And then a little bit of stress on our main verb think. Think. He's not going to think we were here. Here, little bit of up-down shape of stress, and again, we were said flatly, said very quickly. We were here. We were here. I still think I'm going to tell him. I still think Stress on my adverb, I still think I'm going to tell him. And then the verb tell.

I still think I'm going to all flatter unclear going to going said very quickly I'm going to tell him. And then dropping the H in him, linking the L into the E vowel. tell him Now, let's take every sentence where we have a going to and let's play just the going to three times in a row. to I'm going to Let's listen to the whole conversation one more time. I'm going to tell John we were here. You're not going to tell John we were here.

I'm going to tell John we were here cuz he's going to know anyway. John's not going to know we were here. He's going to know we were here cuz he's going to see that his money's gone. He's not going to see that. And if he does, he's just going to think he's not going to think we were here. I still think I'm going to tell him. Don't forget to check out rachelsenglish.com/free to get my free course, the top three ways to master the American accent. Keep your learning going now with this video and don't forget to subscribe with notifications on. I love being your

English teacher. That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.