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Welcome to the A To Z English Podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co -host, Social.
And today we have an interesting topic.
And, Social, I think I'll let you introduce the topic today.
Today we're going to be talking about contractions, Jack.
And I know that it's something we've talked about on the podcast before, but I think it's just so important because it's something that When students are learning English as a foreign language, it's something that they run into and are really confused about because it's not usually taught.
And it is in like a, you know, like in a flute.
I don't know how to explain it.
It's not usually taught in a way that it's in the same way that they're so colloquially and frequently used.
And oh, we define we explain what it what a contraction is yes.
Yes, definitely go ahead.
Go ahead. Um, a contraction is when we have like two words like I am.
And then we combine it into kind of one word like I'm.
I'm a student, I am just has a an apostrophe in between yes, right.
Exactly. It's like I plus Am, and then you you erase the a and you replace it with the contraction and you put them together so there's no more space between them so it's just I am versus I'm.
Right, exactly. Some common ones are I'm, you're, he's, she's, we're, they're.
I think we had There's other ones too.
Like with, uh, he has, he, uh, he's, uh, or, uh, he would heed, you know, something like that.
It is actually, which is interesting because it's, it's is, uh, yeah, it's a shirt for it is or, um, yeah, they're for, they are.
Yeah, exactly. We're, we are.
or not, didn't, for did not, you know, a lot of those.
Yeah, there's so many, so many contractions, right?
There's a lot of contractions, and they're very frequently used.
Like, almost everything we can turn into a contraction, we do as native speakers when we're speaking.
And you might see multiple in one sentence.
It would be weird if somebody...
if you talked to someone who never used contractions.
It would be it would make their speech sound super robotic and unnatural.
Yes, it would be like the uncanny valley effect of like speech. I am talking about.
Yeah, I don't know.
I can't think of it.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I did not do that is like that's suspicious.
You know, the thing is really?
Yeah. Yeah. If somebody talks like that, they might not be human.
they might be an alien or a non -native speaker.
So that's why it's important for you to learn contractions if you're a non -native speaker because that really makes your English sound so much more fluid and natural and just so much more like a native speaker and I've noticed that in listening as well for listening comprehension I remember we had a student before who said that when they hear English like native speakers talk to each other it sounds all run together and I thought that's that's because of contractions it's cuz it yeah contractions and reductions reduction is a an unofficial informal contraction like Wanna yes or didn't or you know
gonna gotta wanna Wanna yeah yeah all those so I so I think it's something that a lot of non -name speakers aren't familiar with so yeah practice using them in in your everyday speech for sure because and look up some common ones you know didn't, don't, I'm, whatever.
When we started writing our thoughts down on paper it opened up endless possibilities.
Ideas could grow beyond the borders of the mind and that changed the world.
Somewhere along the way we lost touch with paper.
Distracted by devices made for every purpose except for thinking and focus.
On edge waiting for the next notification.
But what if new technology didn't pull us away from paper but brought us closer to it?
Listen. That's not paper.
It's the sound of the new remarkable Paper Pro rewriting the future.
A paper tablet with a true color ink display, gentle reading light, and unheard of tactility.
With digital features for taking notes, thinking and organizing without any distractions.
Paper is about to change the world again.
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...for because all those, um, it'll just make your English sound so much more natural.
I think Jack, I think it would be really fun if we did, if we did a one podcast episode where we stated at the beginning, like we are going to try to go the whole podcast episode without using contractions.
I like that challenge.
Let's try that. I think that will be so fun.
Next week we'll do that for sure, 100%.
So tune in, students.
If you want to hear us try to go an entire episode without using contractions next week, I think it'll be very fun because you, as students and listeners, will be able to notice how unnatural our English sounds.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
It'll be a really good learning moment, think so i'm very excited for this.
No reductions, no no contractions next week, yeah and maybe we'll do an introduction, an episode on on some common reductions because today we're just focusing on contractions and a contraction this is these are formal, these are these are grammatically correct, reductions are not so what are what are like let's let's flip it to the other quickly and say what about in writing?
When are contractions okay and when are they not okay in writing?
I think they're okay almost all of the time obviously in super in super formal situations you might.
But really even in super formal situations like if you're writing you know, even if you're writing to like the president of your college, you're probably going to use I'm like I plus am.
Yeah, because it's a letter.
Yeah, I would save him like a research paper.
I wouldn't use contractions.
No, but I would because you wouldn't, didn't, didn't it?
You're you're gonna use it.
You're not going to say, did not every single time.
Yeah, that's interesting.
I guess I'm, I'm kind of torn between, um, I suppose it's probably, it's probably, um, it's probably okay now maybe at one time in the past it was wasn't but it was not yeah yeah it was yeah okay I mean maybe like a really super specific scientific research paper might not use contractions but even then like even especially for like the social sciences and psychology and stuff you still see I mean maybe like some some like chemistry papers something but it's really I mean contractions are just there everywhere that they're just such an integral part of the English language in the way that we speak
so I mean you'll see it always and I think it's also important like if you speak early deliberately without using contractions a lot of times people think you're lying Oh it sounds like a deceptive - yeah like there was there a psychology thing that came out of some years ago that was like if someone you know typically uses contractions and if you're talking to someone they typically use contractions and then suddenly like you're asking them about something and they're like no I did not do that like it's weird because it's not their typical pattern of speech. Oh so if you guys are gonna lie about something
make sure to use a contraction i didn't do it i didn't do it i was i wasn't there i would never do that yeah so um okay um let us know any questions you have about contractions in the comments down below students we love to hear from you guys we love to hear your questions make sure to shoot us an email at the a to z english podcast at gmail .com and make sure to join the WeChat group and we will see you guys next time, bye bye!
Bye bye! When we started writing our thoughts down on paper, It opened up endless possibilities.
Ideas could grow beyond the borders of the mind, and it changed the world.
Somewhere along the way, we lost touch with paper, distracted by devices made for every purpose except for thinking and focus.
On edge, waiting for the next notification.
But what if new technology didn't pull us away from paper, that brought us closer to it.
Listen. That's not paper.
It's the sound of the new remarkable Paper Pro, rewriting the future.
A paper tablet with a true color ink display, gentle reading light and unheard of tactility, with the digital features for taking notes, thinking and organizing, without any distractions.
Paper is about to change to the world again.
Get your paper tablet at remarkable .com today.
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