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Shadowing practice: Why Is Claire Mad at Phil? (Clip) | Modern Family | TBS

Listen to the line, then say it out loud
Line 1

Full transcript

  1. Hold still!0:00
  2. You can't move like that.0:02
  3. It's like cutting the hair of a cuckoo bird.0:04
  4. I'm sorry.0:06
  5. I'm just a little tense today.0:06
  6. I knew it.0:08
  7. Something happened.0:09
  8. Because when somebody works on a salon, they know when someone needs to talk.0:10
  9. Actually, you might be able to help me with this one.0:14
  10. Claire and I got into a huge fight last night.0:16
  11. I'm not even sure what it was about.0:18
  12. Was that why you didn't want to go to the mall with her?0:20
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  1. No, that was more about a weird mall habit that Claire has.0:23
  2. Oh, my God, that's good.0:27
  3. Oh, oh, go low, go low, go low, go low.0:29
  4. Oh, oh, oh, my God, Dad!0:31
  5. Dad, you gotta get one of these.0:34
  6. Oh, oh.0:36
  7. It is impressive how much Haley's earning.0:40
  8. She's over $500 already.0:42
  9. That's a lot of cheddar.0:44
  10. Why is everyone acting like she's the first 17 -year -old to have a job?0:45
  11. In other cultures, she'd have two kids already, and they'd have jobs.0:48
  12. You know, I stopped by the restaurant in a couple of towns, and she wasn't there.0:50
  13. When?0:54
  14. Uh, I don't remember.0:55
  15. I was at the mall for a movie.0:56
  16. Think.0:57
  17. I need details.0:58
  18. Okay, it was a romantic comedy.0:59
  19. My now ex friend Ruben recommended.1:01
  20. No, no, no, no.1:02
  21. The movie was a day.1:02
  22. Focus!1:03
  23. Okay, it was Tuesday, but I also ate there again on Saturday, and she wasn't there then either.1:04
  24. Oh, my God.1:10
  25. I bet she doesn't even work there.1:12
  26. Well, then where's all this money coming from?1:13
  27. Do you notice how every single night is just under $60?1:15
  28. Grandpa gave her $60 for her birthday.1:18
  29. She's just hanging around the mall all day, flashing the same cash every night and fooling my parents into buying her a car.1:21
  30. Hey, Dad!1:26
  31. Can we eat at Haley's restaurant tonight?1:28
  32. Hey, there's a good idea.1:29
  33. Great.1:31
  34. I'll text her.1:31
  35. Oh, God, no.1:34
  36. Oh, God, yes!1:37
  37. Oh, oh, God, yes!1:38
  38. Oh, get after it!1:41
  39. Oh, please.1:43
  40. I'm going for 15 more.1:45
  41. I think you got what you needed from that.1:46
  42. Oh, okay.1:48
  43. Thank you.1:49
  44. You know, maybe you do need to talk about this fight.1:52
  45. Phil?1:54
  46. How could you not know what she was mad about?1:55
  47. Because she didn't tell me.1:58
  48. She just freaked out.1:59
  49. I cannot believe you, Phil!2:00
  50. How could you?2:03
  51. What is happening?2:04
  52. What did I do?2:05
  53. Are you serious?2:07
  54. You are?2:08
  55. You don't know?2:08
  56. We've had this conversation a hundred times.2:09
  57. Yeah, no.2:10
  58. No, I'm not doing this again.2:11
  59. You tell me what you did.2:13
  60. Uh...2:16
  61. Uh...2:17
  62. What is it?2:17
  63. What?2:19
  64. No, Phil.2:20
  65. No.2:21
  66. No, no, no.2:21
  67. No, I'm going to get some air.2:22
  68. No, don't follow me.2:24
  69. Happy Valoran birthday!2:26
  70. Stormenoff.2:29
  71. Right out of your mom's playbook.2:30
  72. Hmm.2:32
  73. Where'd you go?2:32
  74. Well, as it turns out.2:34
  75. Not very far.2:36
  76. Phil!3:18
  77. Call the car!3:19
  78. Call it!3:21
  79. Call it!3:21
  80. It's me, you idiot!3:22
  81. What are you doing?3:24
  82. I'm sorry!3:25
  83. I thought you were a raccoon!3:26
  84. You thought I was a raccoon?3:27
  85. Because people look so much like raccoons.3:28
  86. Oh look, there's one now!3:30
  87. No!3:32
  88. No!3:32
  89. Wait a minute.3:36
  90. Not even crazy women go crazy for no reason.3:38
  91. What happened before the broccoli?3:41
  92. That's just it.3:43
  93. It came out of the blue.3:43
  94. I walked in the door, we were having a conversation about nothing.3:44
  95. Hey, honey.3:47
  96. Hi.3:47
  97. Sorry, I got stuck at the office.3:48
  98. How was your day?3:50
  99. It was good.3:50
  100. Oh, you know what?3:51
  101. Debbie stood me up for lunch.3:53
  102. Brute, right?3:55
  103. No, she called.3:55
  104. I didn't get a message.3:57
  105. Yeah, you did.3:58
  106. I left you one.3:59
  107. It's right there.4:01
  108. Uh -huh.4:04
  109. That's it!4:06
  110. How is she supposed to see this?4:07
  111. If you give me a message this tiny, I kill you.4:10
  112. But that's not when she got mad.4:13
  113. Also, I talked to the insurance company about that little accident that wasn't your fault because the brakes weren't working right.4:15
  114. That's not going to cost us as much money as I thought, so that's good.4:24
  115. That's it!4:27
  116. You insult a woman's driving and you use the air -bonings.4:29
  117. You do that to me and I kill you.4:32

A fast paced American sitcom scene for daily english conversation practice

This clip opens in a hair salon, where Phil admits to his stylist that he and Claire got into a huge fight last night and that he is not even sure what it was about. The scene then moves to the family living room, where Luke, Alex and Gloria trade quick lines about how much cash Haley is bringing home from her new job. It is rated B1, and the dialogue moves fast: 248 words per minute, faster than 94 percent of the clips in this catalogue, so you are hearing real conversational speed, not audio slowed down for learners.

With 129 lines split across several speakers, this scene works well for daily english conversation practice rather than a single voice reading at you. The American accent stays casual throughout, closer to a family kitchen than a newsreader's script, which is exactly the kind of speech you need for real speaking practice.

The language in this scene: a cuckoo bird, cheddar, and one gotta

A few lines here reward slowing down before you try them at full speed. The comedy sits in specific word choices, and the one reduced form in the whole clip is easy to miss if you rush past it.

  • "It's like cutting the hair of a cuckoo bird." is the stylist's opening line, comparing Phil's fidgeting to a bird. Practice the rhythm of the simile before you worry about the joke.
  • "Claire and I got into a huge fight last night." is Phil's confession. The stress falls on "huge fight", a useful pattern for english speaking practice with plain past tense.
  • "Dad, you gotta get one of these." carries the clip's one reduced form, gotta, spoken fast by Luke. Shadowing this line is a direct way to improve your english accent on that single reduction.
  • "That's a lot of cheddar." uses cheddar as slang for money. "In other cultures, she'd have two kids already, and they'd have jobs." is a longer conditional line worth slowing down for.

How to shadow this salon and living room scene line by line

Work through the clip in the order the lines actually appear, rather than jumping straight to the funniest one.

  • Start on line 3, "It's like cutting the hair of a cuckoo bird." Listen once, then repeat it at the same pace before moving on.
  • Take line 10, "Claire and I got into a huge fight last night." and repeat it five times, keeping the stress on "huge fight" each time.
  • Isolate line 17, "Dad, you gotta get one of these." and shadow it alone a few times, since it is the only reduced form in the clip.
  • Pair lines 21 and 23, "That's a lot of cheddar." and "In other cultures, she'd have two kids already, and they'd have jobs.", they sit close together in the scene.
  • Finish on the argument lines, 58 and 60, "How could you not know what she was mad about?" and "She just freaked out.", where the pace and frustration pick up together.
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