Albert
TV Shows and movie nightmare for English learners :(

Hi there!

Who agrees with me with this title? A few days ago I saw a trailer of Avengers Endgame. In certain part (near of the beginning) Tony Stark said: "They're not us"... looks like a such innocent and simple statement... but I didn't get it! I heard something a sort of mumble ending in "s" sound! Hahaha

So... if you guys have some tips to understand mumbles... please share here!!! Thank you in advance!

Apr 12, 2019 9:27 PM
Comments · 2
3
Good question, Albert. You didn’t include the link, but I found one on YouTube, and the line was:

“Some people move on, but not us. Not us.” (See link below.)

The trailer that I saw was not mumbled at all — believe it or not, it was slow and crystal clear. If the pronunciation was not what your were expecting, then you’re going to want to learn what (American) English really sounds like. Here’s the IPA — notice all the schwas (the schwa is the most common sound in all accents of English) as well as the lack of /t/ sounds:
/sʌmpɪipəlmʊuvɑn/ (dramatic pause) /bəʔnɑɾʌs/ (dramatic pause) /nɑɾʌs/


As I explain in my course description, the way you speak is the way you expect to hear, and it’s a lot easier to learn proper pronunciation (including prosody) ASAP (preferably before learning 10000 words and 1000 grammar points with bad pronunciation).
April 23, 2019

Thank you Phil... you are right... I saw the video again, I had the caption on, so there the subtitle said "they're not us"... and I read that and tried to apply to the voice... so, I guessed he was mumbling. As you wrote: I was expecting hear what I was reading. 

Thank you!

April 26, 2019