Towards better Davening and Torah Learning
Most people have memories of being told when they were little, to say "thank you", and then being "coached" as to how to say it nicely, politely, correctly, etc. And then, more recent memories of teach our children the same things. As much as children don't like to be told, "Say thank you", "say you're sorry", etc. we hope that our training in that direction is character building. All this in long introduction to a close look at the proper pronunciation (and meaning) of the way we say Thank You to G-d every morning. Not the quick, Thanks, be right back after I wash, etc. But the full version of MODEH ANI, the one we append to either ASHER YATZAR or to Birkot HaTorah.

(the full text of ELOKAI NESHAMA can be found in the Hard copy of TT and in the PDF file)

First of all, The first word means "My G-d", it is a salutation, and if followed by a comma - which means pause. We don't say ELOHAI NESHAMA... we say ELOHAI <pause> NESHAMA SHENATATA BI... My G-d, the soul which you have placed in me is pure, T'HORA HI. Period. End of the first sentence. Native English speakers tend to shift too many accents to the earlier syllable. We should be careful. Not neSHAma, for soul, but n'sha-MA. Most of the words in this b'racha are MILRA, accented on the last syllable. Exceptions are marked with a circle above the accented next-to-the-last syllable. she-na-TA-ta, mi-ME-ni, l'fa-NE-cha. Because Hebrew has no neuter gender, and because n'sha-MA (soul) is feminine, when we say to G-d, You created it, we say a-TA v'ra-TAHHH, the HEI has a MAPIK in it and is therefore aspirated (sounded). There are 6 words referring to the soul that end in MAPIK/HEI and we should learn to sound them all. You created it, You formed it, You breathed it into me, and You preserve it within me, and You will in the future, take it from me, and return it into me at some point in the further future. We tend to rush b'rachot and prayers, especially the familiar ones. Try not to. You are talking to G-d. Say it like you mean it. Say it slowly. Say it correctly. Of course,this should go for all davening and brachot, Third sentence: KOL Z'MAN... as long as the soul is within me, MODEH ANI (finally, we get back to those words that we started our day with), I express my thanks before YOU, HaShem my G-d and the G-d of my forefathers, Lord of all works, Master of all souls.

Blessed are You, the One Who returns souls to dead bodies.

Note that in addition to being a bracha that thanks G-d for our being alive, this is also a statement of belief in the T'CHIYAT HAMEITIM, Revival of the Dead. This too should be in our KAVANA when we say ELOKAI, N'SHAMA.

Note the two BETs that lost their DAGESHes and became VETs. v'ra-TAHHH and v'kir-BI.

A word to those who daven in Ashkenazic pronunciation. Just because a TAV without a DAGESH is pronounced like an S rather than a T, doesn't mean that we can misaccent words. v'ra-TA becomes v'raw-SAWHHH, not B'RAW-saw. Etc. Etc.