Hey guys, welcome back.
Today we're working on something that will instantly make your english sound more natural, more fluent and way more like a native speaker.
Because here's the truth if you are saying something like i have to go, i am going to go.
Did you eat?
Very clearly and very carefully, you sound correct, but you don't sound natural.
Native speakers usually don't say i have to go.
They usually say i gotta go.
Or did you eat?
They say Did you eat?
And no, these are not grammar mistakes.
These are called reductions and spoken contractions, and they happen because English is stress-timed language.
We rush small words, we blend sounds, we drop hard consonants, we soften T's and D's, we merge everything together.
And today I'm going to show you exactly how these changes happen and how you can start using them naturally so you can speak English faster, smoother and more confidently.
So let's jump right in.
And we'll start with this little phrase that people literally use every single day, a couple of times a day.
And it is, I have to go. which turns into I gotta go.
And people say I gotta go pretty much all the time.
It's a very common natural contraction that people literally use pretty much all the time in everyday spoken English.
Okay, so let's practice it together.
Repeat after me.
I gotta go.
I gotta go.
I gotta go.
I gotta go.
So in the word gotta, this is a soft D sound, like, okay, a flap T sound.
You just literally flap your tongue to the upper palate.
I gotta go.
It's a fast sound.
I gotta go.
Now, how does have to become gotta?
That's because instead of saying have to, you can also say got to.
Or you can say have got to.
This is like a very formal and kind of like already old-fashioned way to say this.
But because there's this option to say got to, I got to.
Got to obviously gets contracted to gotta.
Very logical.
There's also an option to say have to have to, because the word have is unstressed and the sound v becomes foo basically, and again two gets reduced to toe, and when we blend this together in a nice and smooth way, it sounds have to, i have to go, i have to go very common as well.
Okay, so the next phrase is i am going to go, i am going to go, which turns into i'm gonna go, I'm gonna go.
So basically going to turns into gonna because this little word to is unstressed.
So we basically turn it into to, to like T with a schwa sound.
And then the NG ending in the word going blends into the next word.
So when we blend this all together, it becomes gonna.
You know, like going the basically, but people prefer just to blend it all together and say gonna a lot faster, a lot easier.
It's a very common contraction.
Okay, repeat after me, i'm gonna go, i'm gonna go.
Now you can take it even step further and say i'm gonna go, gonna go here, everything literally blends together, i'm gonna go, instead of saying i'm gonna go.
Still, kind of clearly, you can blend this all together and literally say i'm gonna go, basically dropping go.
So you're just blending, i'm uh to no, and then go, i'm gonna go, I'm gonna go.
Yeah, you know, I'm gonna go.
It's also very common, but very casual, very informal.
Now, one important note here, we do not use these contractions in written English.
This is just for spoken English, for casual spoken English.
The next one will be let me go.
So here we will basically drop the T sound.
You can also say, let me go, making the T like a stop sound, but usually people just say, let me go.
So they basically drop the T. Let me go.
Let me go.
The same happens with the phrase, give me.
So we basically just drop the V and you get, gimme, gimme that, gimme that.
So let's practice saying that.
Just relax, feel very casual, very informal and say, let me go.
Let me, let me gimme.
Gimme that me that t and m and v and m, they blend together.
We naturally merge consonants when they're hard to pronounce separately.
Fast, it is easier to say lemme than let me okay.
So now let's practice saying this sentence give me a second.
How do you think it'll sound?
We will blend.
Give me, and it'll sound like gimme.
And then a second.
You can say a second or you can shorten it to just a sec.
Very, very common as well.
So give me a sec.
Give me a second versus give me a sec or give me a second.
So let's practice saying it.
Give me a sec.
Give me a sec.
Sounds very weird when you say it slowly.
Give me a sec.
Give me a sec, just give me a sec and I'll be right there.
Okay, now this one, wait a minute.
So here basically, all of these three words blend together, and what we get is wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
So the T becomes a FASD sound.
A is pronounced as a schwa sound because this is an unstressed word.
So this is basically just a, wait a, wait a.
Wait a, wait a, and then the word minute.
And the T at the end of the word minute is a stop T. Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Honestly, I've never heard anyone say wait a minute clearly in spoken English in like a casual conversation.
It's always wait a minute.
Okay, so say it with me now.
It's a very good pronunciation practice.
Wait a, wait a. It has to be a fast sound.
It's a flap T. Wait a, or fast D if you prefer.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute.
The next little phrase will be talk to you later.
Talk to you later.
So you can either reduce the word you to just ya.
Again, it's also very common to do that.
And to will be also reduced to just ta, ta, T in the schwa sound.
Talk to you later.
Or the most common way to say this will be talk to you later.
Talk to you later.
Why?
Because when we blend the T and Y sounds, we get a ch sound.
So T plus Y equals ch sound.
Talk to you later.
Talk to you later.
I'm gonna talk to you later.
And here we go.
I'm gonna talk to you later.
I'm gonna talk to you later.
Literally everything is reduced.
I'm gonna talk to you later.
The same happens when we blend the D sound and the Y sound and we get a J sound.
D plus Y equals J sound.
I will see you later.
So naturally, we'll contract I will to all, and then you to just, yeah, I'll see you later.
I'll see you later.
See you later.
And you know what?
You can pause this video if you need more time to practice.
Just take your time, repeat it a couple of times.
The next one will be, I don't know.
So people might say something like i don't know, i don't know like, pretty much very clearly, there will be a stop t at the end of the word don't, so you will not pronounce, you will just stop there i don't, i don't, i don't know, i don't know, i don't know.
An even more common way to say this would be i don't know, I don't know.
So the T is basically getting dropped and the D and N blend together and we get I don't know.
I don't know.
So let's practice saying this slowly first.
I don't know.
I don't know.
It's easy.
I don't know.
I don't know.
The next one.
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
You will definitely hear someone ask this question like this what are you doing?
Very clearly, because there's always time and place for everything.
You will hear it especially when someone is very serious or surprised.
What are you doing?
They really wanna emphasize this question, so that's why they pronounce every single word clearly.
But you will also hear a contracted version, which sounds like, Whatcha doing?
Whatcha doing?
So basically here are kind of like blends with you and disappears.
And then you becomes ya.
And then the T in the word what connects to the Y in the word ya or you.
And we get a cha sound.
The word doing, you can pronounce it like doing, being clear, or you can contract it also to doing.
Doing.
Dropping the G sound.
Very common.
So when we connect and blend everything together, it'll sound like whatcha doing.
Whatcha doing.
Doing.
Whatcha doin'?
So let's practice saying it.
Whatcha.
What are you becomes whatcha.
Whatcha doing?
Whatcha doing?
Sounds very informal, very casual, very friendly.
Now another way to ask this question would be what are you?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
So here the T in the word what becomes a fast D, What a, what a, what a R gets reduced to just the schwa sound and we connect these two words together and we get what a water, water.
And then you gets reduced to just yeah, and then all together it sounds like one weird blended word.
What are you, what are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
These two ways of asking this question are very common and it's just a matter of preference.
So let's practice saying this one what are you?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
What are you doing?
Now the next one, what do you want, will sound like what do you want?
So basically here, what are you and what do you?
When we reduce these two phrases, they sound the same in connected speech.
Basically, what are you, what are you and what do you?
What are you because what do?
We have two consonants together, so basically either one of them will sound like a fast d sound and one of them will get dropped, because we won't make it long, it's impossible, and we won't use both of them because it'll sound weird and you obviously gets reduced to just yeah and it basically sounds the same.
What are you, what are you?
What do you want?
What do you want?
What do you want?
What do you want?
Now I know a logical question would be, how do native speakers know what question you just asked?
And the answer would be based on the context.
They just know based on the context on what was said previously.
And also, if you ask this exact question, what do you want?
What do you want?
They know that this is what do you want because you won't say, what are you want?
This is grammatically incorrect.
And again, these are very, very common conversational reductions, specifically in American English.
Now let's learn and practice saying these little reductions.
So we've already talked about got to, which becomes gotta gotta, and we already know why.
And then we have this little phrase want to.
That becomes basically wanna in fast spoken english, or want to.
Sometimes people will say want to or wanna more common, i think, and this is how it sounds in a sentence.
For example i wanna go to the concert, i wanna, why not?
I want to, because it's kind of like uh, it's hard to say i want to, i want to, i want.
It sounds a little off.
That's why the t just gets dropped and we get wanna.
The next one will be aren't you?
This is usually how we would start a question, for example aren't you late?
And there you go.
I just naturally reduced aren't you to, aren't you?
When you learn to do this and you start using it, it just naturally happens.
You literally can't control this, aren't you?
Sounds um, forced and it's kind of a little hard to say it, especially fast.
And again, why aren't you?
Because the word you gets reduced to just you, and then, when we blend together t and y, we get a ch sound, and that's why it sounds like aren't you, aren't you?
And it's a lot easier and faster to say it like this, so let's practice it.
Aren't you, aren't you, aren't you.
Aren't you?
Aren't you late?
Aren't you late?
Okay, now let's work on blending together did you or do you.
We already know the rule.
The word you gets reduced to just you.
And then when you blend together the D and Y. we get J sound, J in this case.
So T plus Y equals J sound, D plus Y equals J sound.
Did you call her becomes, did you call her?
Did you, did you call her?
Did you, did you?
Or even faster, did you call her?
Did you call her?
Did you call her?
Did you call her?
Did you call her?
Did you finish?
Did you finish?
Did you finish?
Did you finish?
Or did you finish?
Did you do that?
Did you do that?
Did you do that?
Did you do that?
Do you know her?
Do you know her?
Do you know her?
I know, crazy, but this is how people speak.
Okay, now a little test.
Don't you becomes, drum roll, Don'tcha.
Don't you wish your girlfriend was like me?
Sorry about that.
Couldn't resist it.
But I think everybody knows this song, so that was kind of appropriate.
So anyways, let's get serious.
Don't you becomes don'tcha.
Don'tcha.
Don't you wanna go?
Don't you wanna go?
Like literally everything is reduced.
Don't you wanna go?
Don't you want to go?
Don't you wanna go?
Sounds a lot more natural, right?
Don't you wanna go?
Or this little very common phrase, I forgot about it.
Got you, got you, gotcha, gotcha.
Now we also have phrases like, Kind of or sword of.
Now of is almost never stressed in natural speech.
And it basically just gets reduced to the schwa sound, which is of.
And then we just blend these two little words together and we get kinda, because of gets reduced to the schwa sound which sounds like a Kinda kinda.
Or sword of becomes sorta, sorta.
I kind of want to go.
Oh, I forgot about this one.
We also have out of.
Out of.
You can definitely say something like, I'm out of here.
I'm out of here.
Out of.
You're basically pronouncing these two words together, although you also connect them and they sound smoothly, but you can hear them both.
Or you can reduce it to out of.
I'm out of here.
Out of.
The T becomes a fast D. I'm out of here.
Out of.
Out of.
Out of. auto i'm out of here it's it's fast it's easy i'm out of here sometimes people will say something like outa out of here also possible but usually it's just auto i'm out of here now again a little test let's connect these two words together supposed to I'm supposed to be here.
So when we blend these two words together, remembering the rule about the word to and how we contract it, we get supposed.
We have supposed.
And two, we have two consonants.
We blend them together.
Suppose de, suppose de with a schwa sound at the end.
Now let's connect these two words together.
Trust me.
Trust me.
I'm telling the truth.
Sounds a little bit forced, right?
Trust me.
So how would we connect trust me?
So we would basically drop the T sound because it'll be easier.
And because we have too many consonants here.
So trust me will become trust me.
Trust me, trust me, I'm telling the truth.
Okay, so let's go over these little rules once again.
In fast speech we reduce unstressed words like of to you and a or a.
We reduce them to basically just the schwa sound.
And obviously there can be more unstressed words.
These are just to name a few.
We link consonants to vowels.
We blend similar sounds.
We turn T or D into a soft, fast sound.
Or FASD sound as some prefer to call it.
Or flap T sound.
It's all the same sound.
And we drop hard sounds.
As I already mentioned, English is a stress timed language, which basically means that we rush the small words and we stress the important ones.
Again, these aren't grammar mistakes.
These are natural spoken reductions, so don't be afraid to use them.
In fact, I encourage you to use them.
We don't write them in formal English, but we absolutely use them in everyday conversations.
Now, already knowing the common reductions and rules, let's practice a couple of questions or sentences or phrases.
How are you becomes, how are you?
How are you?
How are you?
How are ya?
R gets reduced to just r and connects to how.
How r and you becomes ya.
How are ya?
How are ya?
Obviously you could say, how are you?
But how are ya?
I don't know, sounds more natural.
Where did you go becomes, where'd you go?
Where'd you go?
Say it with me.
Where'd you go?
Where'd you go?
Again, you can say, where did you go?
Did you, did you, where did you go?
Or where'd you go?
Where'd you go?
Even more contracted, even faster.
Where'd you go?
Where'd you go?
Where did you go?
Where'd you go?
Why did you do that?
Why did you do that?
Why did you, why did you, why did you do that?
Or why'd you do that?
Why'd you do that?
Why did you do that?
Why did you do that?
Say it with me.
Why did you do that?
Why did you do that?
Or even faster, very common as well.
Why'd you do that?
Why'd you, why'd you do that?
When are you leaving?
When-er, we connect when to are.
Are gets reduced to er.
When-er, when-er, when are you leaving?
When are you leaving?
When are you leaving?
When are you leaving?
Now these, I feel like these are very well known.
A lot of people know how to reduce these.
But again, we'll go through them.
Would you, could you, should you.
D plus Y.
Would you, could you, should you?
Would you go, would you go?
Could you pig that out, please?
Could you pig that out, please?
Could you pig that out, please?
Could you pig that out, please?
And then we have these would have, could have, should have, have is unstressed and basically gets reduced to just the schwa sound in this phrase, and this is what we get would have becomes water water, water.
With the fast d sound, water could have becomes cutter coulda or should have becomes shoulda.
So the sentence like this i would have told you gets reduced to i would have told you, I woulda told ya.
So everything gets reduced and blended together nicely.
I woulda told ya.
I woulda told ya.
Or you could say, I woulda told ya.
Told ya, also possible.
Told ya, more common.
I woulda told ya.
I woulda told ya.
Repeat it with me.
I woulda told ya.
I woulda told ya.
I would have told you.
Okay, now this phrase, I have no idea, gets reduced to, I've no idea.
I have gets contracted to I've.
It's a very common contraction.
And we get, I've no idea.
I've no idea.
Or you could just say, no idea.
I've no idea.
I've no idea.
I've no idea.
I've no idea.
I don't care will usually get reduced to, I don't care.
I don't care.
So it's a stop T here.
I don't care.
I don't care.
I don't care.
I don't want to.
I don't wanna.
Again, I don't stop T and want to becomes wanna.
I don't wanna.
I don't wanna.
I don't wanna.
I don't Wanna.
I don't wanna.
Again, stop T means that you don't pronounce the T sound completely.
So you don't say don't.
You press the tip of your tongue to the upper palate behind your top front teeth.
Don't.
And stop there.
I don't care.
I don't wanna.
I don't wanna.
I don't wanna.
I have just a few.
So the next one is I am trying to.
Oh my gosh, this one is such a good one.
Trying to becomes trying not.
Sorry, I got excited because I should have mentioned it before because it's so common.
But okay, we'll practice it in this phrase.
I'm trying to.
I'm trying to becomes I'm trying to.
I'm trying to.
So this reduction is super common.
Trying to.
When we connect these two words together, to is unstressed.
It basically becomes the schwa sound and the G gets dropped and we get trying to.
Trying to.
Trying to becomes trying to.
I'm trying to leave.
I'm trying to help.
I'm trying to.
Now, the last little test, let's try to reduce this little sentence.
I am going to try.
I am going to try.
I'm gonna give you a sec.
So we can reduce it to either I'm gonna try, I'm gonna try, or we can take it one step further and say I'm gonna try.
I'm gonna try.
I'm gonna try my best.
I'm gonna try my best.
Okay, guys, that'll be it for this video.
I really hope you enjoyed it.
This video was kind of improvised.
This is basically what a pronunciation lesson would look like with me if you took one with me.
So anyways, I really hope you enjoyed it.
I really hope that you got to practice a little bit.
You learned something new.
And if you need more practice, you can watch this video again.
You can pause where you need to and practice again and again with me.
The more you practice, the better.
Please remember this.
I've already mentioned this in my previous videos a couple of times, but I'm going to say it again.
There were words that I literally needed to practice saying like a hundred times in a row for many, many days in a row, because they were so difficult for me to pronounce, or sentences or phrases.
So don't get discouraged when you can't pronounce something right away or it doesn't sound perfect.
It won't.
You need practice.
Okay, thank you for watching again and I'll see you in the next one.
