Learn English with Friends

Friends is an American sitcom about six friends in New York City that ran for ten seasons, from 1994 to 2004. Here you practise two official clips from the show’s channel one caption line at a time: hear a line, say it, record it and play your take beside the cast’s. Free, no account.

Try one line now“It's what the Japanese call unagi.” Listen once, say it back, then play your take beside the original. Free, no account.

Friends: Ross Explains Unagi (Season 6 Clip)TBS · start from the beginning

Video: Friends: Ross Explains Unagi (Season 6 Clip), from the TBS channel · watch it on YouTube
Length: 4 min · 58 caption lines
Speed: a typical line runs at about 200 words a minute by the caption timing
Accent: American (a sitcom set in New York City). A label for the variety of English, not a promise about anyone’s voice.
Practice lines: 10 on this page, each with the exact times of its caption line

What is Friends?

Friends is an American sitcom about six friends in New York City. It ran for ten seasons, from 1994 to 2004, and TBS publishes clips from it on its official YouTube channel.

Why practise with Friends?

Sitcom dialogue is everyday spoken English: short reactions, questions, jokes and interruptions, one speaker after another. TBS published the clips with human-written captions, so what you practise matches what is said. The two clips are short, 58 caption lines in the first, so you can finish one. A typical line runs at about 200 words a minute by the caption timing. The lines chosen below are single sentences from the first minutes of each clip; the captions do not say who is speaking, so listen to the clip to hear each voice.

Practice lines, with what to listen for

Each line is one caption line of the video, with its time. Press a line to open it in Sada, ready to record, then read the note under it before you listen.

Friends: Ross Explains Unagi (Season 6 Clip) · TBS

0:00 It's what the Japanese call unagi.
The word the whole clip is about. Listen for how “It’s what the” runs together into one quick beat, then for each syllable of “unagi”.
0:05 Isn't that a kind of sushi?
A question that starts with “Isn’t”. Listen for where the voice goes at the end, and compare it with a plain “Is that a kind of sushi?”.
0:23 Come on, Ross, we're sorry. Please tell us what it is.
Two short sentences, one after the other. Listen for the name at the start, and how “Please tell us what it is” is said.
0:29 Unagi is a state of total awareness...okay?
Listen for the pause before “okay?”, and for whether it goes up.
0:35 Only by achieving true unagi can you be prepared for any danger that may befall you.
A formal-sounding line: “Only by achieving true unagi can you be prepared…”. Listen for the stress on the first words and for how the sentence is built with “can you”.
1:08 Alright, you knew that was coming but that doesn't mean you have unagi.
A line with two halves joined by “but”. Listen for the pause at “but” and the stress on “have” in the second half.

Phoebe Or Phoebo? (Clip) | Friends · TBS

0:18 Are you two talking about the same baby?
A question about “the same baby”. Listen for where the voice falls, and whether “talking about” is said smoothly.
0:22 Hey, have you started thinking of names yet?
Listen for “have you” and for the “yet” at the end.
0:41 But it wouldn't hurt to have a backup, you know?
Listen for the tag “you know?” at the end: is it a real question or a soft ending?
2:24 Is it me or is "Veto" starting to sound really good?
A question with “Is it me or…”. Listen for the pause before the second half, and how “Veto” is said inside the quotation marks.

What to listen for

Three things to listen for in these lines. They are prompts for your ears, not claims about how anyone sounds.

Pauses: Comedy depends on timing. In “Unagi is a state of total awareness… okay?”, listen for the pause before “okay?”, then copy the gap as well as the words.
Linking: In “Are you two talking about the same baby?”, listen for “Are you” and “talking about” being said as quick, joined groups.
Stress: In “Only by achieving true unagi can you be prepared for any danger that may befall you”, listen for the words the speaker leans on to sound like a lecture.

Sada compares the words it recognises in your take, and their timing, with the caption line; it does not grade accent, pitch or individual sounds. How close a take sounds is for you to judge by ear, with the two playing side by side in Compare.

How to practise with Friends

Open the first line under “Practice lines” and play it two or three times before you record. This video is quick, so set the playback speed to 0.75× first and raise it later.
Press Record and say the line after the speaker (Repeat mode) or along with them (Shadow mode), then open Compare and play your take beside the original.
Read the note for that line, listen to the original once more with it in mind, and go again until Sada shows every word as recognised.
Move to the next line. When a few lines feel easy, say them one after another as a short passage.
Come back to the same lines on another day: Sada shows your first take against your latest, so you can hear the change.

Keep going

Sada is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Friends or TBS; names identify the video only. The video plays in YouTube’s own player from its official channel, Sada keeps no copy of it, and the lines quoted are the short caption lines needed for practice.

Questions people ask

Can I practise with official clips of Friends?

Yes. Sada does not copy or store the video: it plays the official upload from TBS in YouTube’s own player, and the words you practise come from that upload’s captions. Sada is not affiliated with Friends, and if an upload is later removed or stops being embeddable, it will stop working here too.

Will I sound like the cast?

Copying a speaker is a way to practise rhythm, stress, pauses and word choice; it will not give you their voice or accent. Sada checks which words it recognised and how your timing compares, and you judge the sound by ear.

Why only two clips?

These two have human-written captions and can be embedded. A third official clip was left out because its captions are written entirely in capital letters, so they would not show the text as it is normally written. The later part of the second clip also includes adult jokes, so the lines chosen here come from its start.

Do I need an account, and does it cost anything?

No account and no payment. Sada is free, it runs in your browser, and your recordings stay on your device.

Can I use a different video?

Yes. Paste the link of any YouTube video that has usable captions into Sada and practise it the same way; human-written captions work best.

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