
Learn the difference between speaking on the news and speaking to people in English
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Michelle Kaplan
This is an All Ears English podcast. Episode 2528 Breaking News don't speak like a news anchor in English.
Lindsay McMahon
Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast.
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Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American hosts, Lindsay McMahon.
The English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the.
New York radio girl coming to you.
From Colorado and New York City, usa.
And to get your transcripts delivered by email every week, go to allearsenglish.com forward/subscribe.
Is the cadence that an anchor person on the news uses, the same cadence that native English speakers use in everyday life. Find out today and get a chance to sample Michelle's anchor woman voice.
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Michelle, how are you today?
Michelle Kaplan
I'm doing well, Lindsay. How are you?
Lindsay McMahon
I'm feeling great.
Glad to be on the microphone recording. Michelle, where do you consume most of your news? Would you say that you consume a lot of news and if so, where.
Do you get it?
Michelle Kaplan
Good question. I think it's a I, I would say I do watch tv. I do watch, you know, I switch around between different news channels on tv. I also will read articles. I will, I mean, I don't want to, I don't want to say social media, that's a whole other topic. But I will, I will find out about things on social media and I take it with a grain of salt. And I might investigate a little further, right. Because there's so much on social media nowadays that is just really messing with everything. What do you think of it and where do you get your news?
Lindsay McMahon
100 yeah, grain of salt. Take it with a grain of salt. Great bonus for today, you know, not taking it seriously. Really not taking it seriously. I agree. I do stay away from social media for news and just kind of in general. Yeah. Sometimes also through Instagram for the dog videos, but that's pretty much it.
Michelle Kaplan
That's good.
Lindsay McMahon
I get my news definitely through podcasts. So I'm a big listener of the daily the Journal. The Wall Street Journal's podcast Vox today explained. These are some of the ones that I listen to on a daily basis. So that's really where. And then sometimes I'll have maybe CNN on, but I've been trying to get away from that. The talking Heads, you know, New York Times is always a tab open when I'm working, frankly, unfortunately.
So, yeah, that's what I do. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michelle Kaplan
So today we actually, we have a really interesting listener question. This is going to be a different kind of episode. I'm really excited for this. But before we get into it, I want to read you some results that we had a Spotify poll that we did a few weeks ago. So this was episode 2495. And it was. Is being a trooper praised in your culture? That was the name of the episode. So if you haven't listened to that one, definitely go ahead and do that. Lindsay, what was the poll?
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah, the question was, have you ever broken a bone? Interesting. And so what were our results, Michelle? We roll out the results. It looks like we have a pretty play it safe audience here.
Michelle Kaplan
Yes, was 25 of you have broken a bone. And no, was 74 and probably some decimal point. Right. Let's just say 75 for no. So, yeah, I forget. Lindsay, have you. I don't. I don't even want to jinx you. Yeah.
Lindsay McMahon
Oh, gosh. Don't jinx me. No, I haven't. Well, I had like a hairline. I don't think it was a break. It was like a little sprain of my wrist, but I think that doesn't count. So I'm going to say no, I've never broken a bone. I'm surprised. It's so, so low on the yes. Actually, I don't know. Everyone's broken a bone once in their lives in my head.
Michelle Kaplan
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So very interesting. Thank you so much for answering those qu. That question on Spotify. So, yeah, let's get to the question from the listener. Lindsay, would you like to read it?
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah. This is from YouTube, don't forget. Guys, another way to consume this show is over on YouTube. If you like to. If you'd rather learn that way through watching us and the gestures and seeing Michelle and I on video, that would be the way to do it. So go over, search for allers English on YouTube, hit the subscribe button. So this comes from KKKK T T2C 7D. Is there any difference between the way CNN speaks and the everyday American spoken accents? So I'm going to assume this listener is talking about the actual. Not so much the, the comment. Like, you know, they do the round tables at night. I assume that she. They're not asking about those people. I assume they're talking about the anchors, like the news anchors.
Michelle Kaplan
That's what. That's what I'm gonna take it as. So, yeah, and I took it more like not. This may not be a question of accent that you're wondering about it maybe about the word cadence.
Lindsay McMahon
Yes.
Michelle Kaplan
Right. Lindsay, what is like, what is the cadence?
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah, so the cadence is about the song. I mean, how something sounds, the rhythm, the flow, the ups and downs. And we just released our brand new pronunciation course, Talking. That's all about this, right? Yeah.
Michelle Kaplan
Right. So it's. It. We can talk about accent in just a second as well. But to me, that's really the difference. Not necessarily how they speak, like with their accent and changing anything about their actual accent.
Lindsay McMahon
Right.
Michelle Kaplan
But more so about just the certain special way, like we're gonna talk more about this, like how they actually sound. The song of what? That's how I always think of it as a song.
Lindsay McMahon
And I think there's a lot of secrets for our listeners in cadence and rhythm on how to be clear, less so in accents. Right. Because there's so many accents in the world and even in the US what is an American accent, Michelle? Is it, Is it. Is it a Michigan accent, which sounds very different from a Texan accent? Is it a New York accent, Boston accent? You know, what is an American accent? So we spend our time looking more at cadence and rhythm, to be clear, right?
Michelle Kaplan
Absolutely. Guys, make sure you hit the follow button wherever you are listening to Allers English to make sure you don't miss anything. If you're here on YouTube, hit the subscribe button, where however you like to listen, hit, follow, subscribe. Make it easy on yourself.
Lindsay McMahon
For sure. For sure. Good stuff. Yeah.
Michelle Kaplan
So, but yeah, I mean, Lindsay, when. When you see this question, I mean, do you know what this listener is asking? Basically, like, have you noticed that there's a special way that newscasters speak? Anchors?
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah, of course. And it's always fun. You can always. And sometimes you can imitate it a little bit and have fun with it. There is a newscaster cadence, for sure. Yes. I Don't think it's anything like a typical. I mean, if you went to a party and started talking like a newscaster.
No, we don't. We don't like that in everyday life.
Michelle Kaplan
No, exactly. So again, you know, maybe in talking heads, but certainly not, you know, maybe like when people are just having a conversation, they're speaking in a more realistic way, as Lindsay mentioned, but not when they're reading a news. A news story. They're broadcasting something.
So there's, you know, a. There's a special way of speaking if you are in broadcast news. And as far as accent goes, I would say that there might be a more standard accent. Like, kind of. Yeah, like, you don't. Like. For example, you don't typically hear reporters having huge New York accents or.
Lindsay McMahon
Right.
Michelle Kaplan
Yeah. Unless it's maybe in local. Local news. But for national. Like, you wouldn't necessarily. I don't think you would hear. I think it's just a little bit more standard, whatever that means. I think maybe Midwestern, I think is maybe the. More of the standard accent. I'm not sure.
Lindsay McMahon
The Midwestern standard for the US for news anchor, you think?
Michelle Kaplan
Yeah, I think they're. I think it's mostly trying to be like a. Like more neutral.
Lindsay McMahon
Interesting.
Michelle Kaplan
So, like, I don't know that you would hear, like, a heavy Boston accent. Like, maybe the person is from Boston, but maybe they kind of hide it a little.
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah. Sometimes when I think of a Midwestern accent, I think of some. I think of a very strong accent, like the Chicago accent. But I think I. I know what you're saying here, Michelle. My question is, when these news stations hire anchors, do they hire for the standard accent or do they train a regional accent out? Like, do you train. Do they train you to speak in a standard American accent and train out the regional accent for when you're broadcasting? I don't know. Yeah.
Michelle Kaplan
Which comes first, the chicken or the egg? I mean, if somebody is in broadcast school, is that something that they work on? I. I think probably they probably do work on this. Yeah. But I don't know. So. Yeah, but in general.
They speak very clearly with a lot of enunciation. Maybe a little slower, maybe a little deeper.
Controlled and really stressing the words. Right. Not mumbling through anything.
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah, for sure. I know. Michelle, you had an internship at a news station and you learned a little bit about this. Are there any secrets you're gonna tell us about today?
Michelle Kaplan
Well, I'll put on my news voice for you later. But, yeah, I mean, again, just kind of what I Said, you know, I remember speaking deeper, you know, pausing in certain places, really stress out the words. A lot of enunciation. Right. So maybe a little less connected speech, things like that. But you know, I'm sure if you ran into one of these, I mean, like for example, I mean, okay, so like, okay, let's talk about maybe Anderson Cooper.
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah.
Michelle Kaplan
The way he reads the news as a broadcaster is different than if you see. Hear him on the New Year's show. You know, like when they're doing that, you know, if you meet the two.
Lindsay McMahon
Guys are always joking around him. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michelle Kaplan
Andy Cohen.
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah.
Michelle Kaplan
So if you ran into Anderson Cooper on the street, he's not gonna speak the same way he does when he's reporting live from a hurricane. You know, like, it's not, it's not going to be the same way. You know, they may be more casual in real life, have a certain accent, more natural sounding, less controlled, more casual, more connected speech contractions. All of these things just a little less formal.
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah. And also the fact that they're reading off a teleprompter. Right. Usually when they're in studio. So I think that naturally lends itself to just really isolating the words outside of typical conversational English and it makes it a more stage based English.
Michelle Kaplan
Right, exactly. And yeah, exactly. About how formal the language is. So, so many different things to think about here.
Lindsay McMahon
But.
Michelle Kaplan
So for example, if I said like for All Ears English, I'm Michelle Kaplan. Right. So that would be if I'm reporting and at the very end. Or like, for example, here's another one. Today in New York City, a new hot dog shop opened and everyone is in line to try it. Right. You have.
Lindsay McMahon
And imagine you going to a party and saying that.
Michelle Kaplan
Right. Hello, I'd like to tell you about this new hot dog shop I tried.
Lindsay McMahon
They'd be like, michelle, are you okay? Like, what's happening? Oh, right, yeah.
Michelle Kaplan
I mean, it also goes along. I mean, even Lindsay, when we, when we, we use an announcer voice sometimes when we're doing the titles. This is an All Ears English podcast. You know, there's a different cadence. I'm not gonna say this is an All Ears English podcast. Hi, I'm Michelle. Yeah.
Right.
Lindsay McMahon
It's a title. It makes sense. It deserves to be a little bit elevated.
Michelle Kaplan
Right, right, right. And another thing that I always love is newscasters. You might hear they use a lot of puns and stories, like very cheesy type. Oh, yeah. It's always like, yeah, like at the end. It's especially of Human interest stories, there's always some sort of.
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I know what you're talking about.
Michelle Kaplan
Yeah. So funny. Yeah. But a lot of. A lot of fun to listen to.
Lindsay McMahon
But are those puns written into the script or do they make that up on the spot? Is that.
Michelle Kaplan
I think both. I mean, sometimes I think, I think again, it's more on the end of like more human interest stories. So like, you know, the, the fluffier.
Lindsay McMahon
Things like dogs rescued or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, right, right.
Michelle Kaplan
Exactly. So you might kind of, especially in local news, you might hear pretty. Some pretty cheesy things on the news when the stories are lighter. So kind of interesting. You can look out for those.
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah, really interesting.
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Indeed. All right, Michelle, so let's teach some idioms today. We've talked a little bit about what. So the answer for our listener is it's completely different. Right? I mean, that newscaster cadence is going to be very different. And it's. But it's not really about accent. They use a standard ACC usually, but it's more about delivery, rhythm, cadence. But don't go to a party speaking like a newscaster is kind of my takeaway so far in the.
Michelle Kaplan
Episode. Yes.
Lindsay McMahon
Exactly. Right.
Michelle Kaplan
Yeah. Don't Let that be the. Don't learn to speak like a newscaster unless you're actually going into that.
Lindsay McMahon
Field. Yeah. Don't shadow. I mean, it doesn't hurt to be able to do it, but don't use that as your primary material. If you're shadowing, use something like a podcast, like what we're doing here. It's a much more natural cadence going.
On.
Michelle Kaplan
Right? Exactly. Yes, exactly. So we're just going to talk about some expressions you might hear on the news that it is possible that some of these you might hear also in a different way, but they come from the news, so. Yeah, let's see. What's the first.
Lindsay McMahon
One? Yeah, so the first one here is breaking.
Michelle Kaplan
News.
Lindsay McMahon
Right. So people use this even just in casual life. And that's the funny part. So you'll hear this, you know, on CNN when there's. Yeah. It feels like.
Michelle Kaplan
Everything. Oh, I was gonna say that, too. On cnn, everything is drew. And then breaking.
Lindsay McMahon
News. It didn't used to be that way. I really think they've really. You know, they make a lot of money on the fact that everything is breaking news and everything's always red and.
Michelle Kaplan
Flashing. But what does breaking news even mean? I got. I realized we didn't.
Lindsay McMahon
Explain. I mean, I guess it means something new that just. They just learned. Right. Something that just.
Michelle Kaplan
Happened. Big new.
Lindsay McMahon
News. Especially election nights. Oh, my God. Talk.
Crazy. Like, we have enough new election update breaking. Like, it's. Oh, my gosh. It's like you. You feel crazy at the end. But. But. But how do we use this in everyday life? So if you don't want to bring your announcer voice to a party, but you maybe want to use the vocabulary. How do you do.
Michelle Kaplan
That? Yeah, you could say something like, breaking news. Cliff got.
Lindsay McMahon
Engaged. Yeah. Yeah. That's fun. That's fun because you're taking something that you're nodding to the news. Right. It's like a nod to the news, but you're applying it to your. Your social life. That's kind of cool, I.
Michelle Kaplan
Think. And you don't need to say it like a newscaster just because you take breaking news. You should, like. You don't need to be like, breaking news, everybody. Cliff got engaged. Right. You don't need to.
Lindsay McMahon
Do. No, no, no.
Totally.
Yeah. Your cadence was very. The first time you demoed it, it was clearly not using that announcer voice. Right, right, right.
Michelle Kaplan
Right. So the next thing is on the record or off the record.
So this is about if something can be officially quoted. Right. So you might hear somebody Say like source. A source is said off the record, right? It's a. It's. It's about if you're allowed to share the. Share exactly a quote.
Lindsay McMahon
Right? Yeah. I'm sure there are all kinds of laws or rules that journalists follow in terms of what they can report and what they can't and sources and all that stuff, so. But we do take this into our everyday life, too, right? Yeah. You know, maybe you might just say to your friend, off the record, I heard that, you know, Mike and Carrie are getting divorced.
Michelle Kaplan
Right?
Lindsay McMahon
Right. Yeah. Oh, no.
Michelle Kaplan
Yeah. But on the news, like, or. Or maybe a reporter might be talking to another reporter. They could say something like, I spoke to a reporting, but told him it was off the record, so don't.
Lindsay McMahon
Worry. Yeah, perfect. Okay, so that's one and then another. The last one, Michelle, is what, back to.
Michelle Kaplan
You. Right. And do we use this in regular life? Not so much. I mean, you could as a.
Lindsay McMahon
Joke. Yeah, you could as a joke, but you need to make it a joke. Right. So sometimes things mirror another environment so much that we actually need to make it a joke for it to work. Does that make sense? Yeah. It's so much about the anchor space. Back to you. That if you don't sort of say it in a silly way, people will be like, is she. Does she think she's on the news right now? Like, what's.
Michelle Kaplan
Happening?
There goes that girl who's always think. Always thinks she's on the.
Lindsay McMahon
News. Oh, God, this episode's cracking me up. It's cracking me up. So what would that sound like in a socially acceptable way, let's say, at a party? What do you.
Michelle Kaplan
Think? Oh, well, I mean, like, let's say we're all, you know, around and, and. And maybe you kind of interrupted someone. You interrupted this guy named Chris and you took the attention. Then you might just say, okay, sorry. Back to you, Chris.
Lindsay McMahon
Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, good stuff. So let's do a role play. Michelle, what are we doing in this role play here? Do we have.
Michelle Kaplan
Any. We are reporters. We are.
Lindsay McMahon
Reporters. Oh, okay. Let's see if I can do.
Michelle Kaplan
It. You have all this.
Lindsay McMahon
Experience. I don't.
Michelle Kaplan
Know. So, so here we go. I'm at the anchor desk, and you are on the scene. So you are out. Whatever.
Lindsay McMahon
Yeah. So I'm the one that gets to stand out in the hurricane.
Michelle Kaplan
Right? With. Yes, yes, exactly. Okay, here we go. All right. Okay, so we are going to take you over to Lindsay McMahon who has breaking news.
Lindsay McMahon
Lindsay. Thank you, Michelle. I just Spoke to a source.
Off the record who said, the shop.
On 33rd is officially closed down. We'll have more information as the night goes on. Back to you, Michelle. Okay. How was that? Give it a C minus.
Michelle Kaplan
Right? No, I thought that was good. No, but exactly. And like. But you did. You weren't speaking in the same way that you're used to.
Lindsay McMahon
Right? No, it wasn't the normal. It wasn't even the normal, normal cadence for this podcast. Right. There was something elevated about it. I mean, you are on stage and you are. You're right. You're punching each word a bit more. You're really being thoughtful about which words are going to get kind of elongated or get more emphasis in the.
Michelle Kaplan
Sentence. Yep, exactly. So really interesting. So let's go through this. I said, take you over to Lindsay McMahon, who is breaking news. And then I said.
Lindsay McMahon
Lindsay.
Michelle Kaplan
Right. They do that, too. They'll just. They'll just like, say the person's name.
Lindsay McMahon
Lindsay. Right, right. I always wonder about.
Michelle Kaplan
That.
Lindsay McMahon
Yep. And then I said, thank you, Michelle. I just spoke to a source off the record who said. And I just punched that a little.
Bit.
That's. That one of those key words. Who said, the shop on 33rd is officially closed down. Right. And I. I added some Memphis there. I added a little drama. Is officially closed down. Okay, what else did I say.
Michelle Kaplan
Michelle? Well, then you continued to share information, and then you said. Back to you.
Lindsay McMahon
Michelle.
Nice. Yeah. So I feel like it's a very clear answer for our listener here on this. What anchor. The way that anchors speak, Anchor people, anchor women, anchor men. Is not the way that people speak in normal.
Michelle Kaplan
Conversation. Right.
Lindsay McMahon
Exactly. And it's a great example. What you said earlier, compare Anderson Cooper on New Year's Eve when he kind of riffs with Andy Cohen for hours at a time. They are like, like, I don't know, they're like two little boys just, like, joking around. And the cadence is nothing like when he's On CNN at 8:00pm every night. Yeah, right. Yeah. As an anchor. Yeah.
Michelle Kaplan
Exactly. So. So it's very interesting, the different hats we wear, the different ways. I mean, I mean, there are probably tons of different ways that we can go further into even. I mean, you speak in a different way in many different contexts. It's not just about the news. I mean, you know, talking to, you know, your boss, talking to, you know, like. It's not. Like it. It's not. I think this is very stark, the difference. So not. Not everything is this much, but there are slight differences sometimes depending on who you're talking to level of formality. So many different things to, to listen out for. But I mean, this was such a good question and really good to kind of observe that there, it seems like this listener was observing that there's something different about the way they.
Lindsay McMahon
Talk.
That's a really important takeaway for our listeners here. I want to highlight what you said, Michelle. This could be an invitation to our listeners. You guys are at the right level to start to pay attention to cadence differences. As Michelle said, very stark difference. We hope you noticed it. But there are other environments. Let's say when you walk in to talk to your boss, then you walk out of your boss's office, then you talk to your co workers in the corner. Different cadence, right. Most of the time that's something that's a little more subtle, but you.
Should start to notice it, start to.
Hear it, listen for it in other people. That's going to be put you on the path to fluency.
Michelle Kaplan
Right? Exactly. All right, Lindsay, thanks for talking about.
Lindsay McMahon
This. Michelle, for your demo, your anchor woman demos. We love.
Michelle Kaplan
That. Thank you. And everybody. We hope that you've enjoyed this episode and that you have a great.
Lindsay McMahon
Day. I love it. So good. All right, Michelle, talk to you soon. You have have a good.
Michelle Kaplan
Day. All right, bye.
Lindsay McMahon
Bye.
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Episode Title: Breaking News! Don't Speak Like a News Anchor in English (AEE 2528)
Hosts: Lindsay McMahon & Michelle Kaplan
Date: December 10, 2025
Theme:
This episode addresses a listener question about the difference between the way American news anchors speak on TV and the way Americans converse in everyday life. Lindsay and Michelle break down the concept of "news anchor cadence," explore why you shouldn't model your spoken English on newscasters, and offer practical vocabulary and cultural tips for intermediate to advanced English learners.
Purpose:
To clarify the differences between newscaster English (pronunciation, cadence, rhythm, and vocabulary) and authentic, conversational American English. The hosts want listeners to strive for "connection, not perfection," and to avoid sounding overly formal or scripted in everyday communication.
Don’t Copy News Anchors to Sound Natural
Breaking news
On the record / Off the record
Back to you
For ESL Learners:
If you’re tempted to imitate a news anchor, remember: aim for conversation and connection! Reserve the news voice for fun role play or presentation practice, not daily communication.