Reductions & Contractions in English | Speak Faster and Understand Natives

[00:00:00]I'm going to let you in on something. A lot of English learners spend years learning English and then they listen to native speakers and think, "What on earth did they just say? They speak so fast." That's because many native speakers don't say I'm going to let you know or a lot of English learners. They say gonna, lot of, kind of, should, and so on. And if nobody's taught you about reductions in English, then English can sound really fast for you. So, by the end of this English pronunciation lesson, you're going to recognize and start using the most important reductions and contractions in natural spoken English. My name is Emma and welcome to my channel, Pronunciation with Emma, where I help English learners from around the world master British English pronunciation. I'm a Cambridge Selter qualified English teacher with a degree in linguistics, a master's degree in teaching English, and over 16 years of teaching experience. Okay, let's scooch over here. So, these words like gunner, wudder, and so on are called contractions or reductions. For this video, I'm going to call them reductions, but your teacher and other resources may call them contractions.

[00:01:14]Just know that we're talking about the same thing. So, what is a reduction? A reduction is when sounds in a word or phrase get compressed in natural fast speech. Just keep in mind that this isn't lazy or incorrect English. It's absolutely fine and everyone uses it in fast informal speech. In more formal speech, of course, you're going to use the full forms, the uncontracted forms.

[00:01:36]So you'll say going to, want to, and so on instead of going to and wanna.

[00:01:41]However, if you're using non-reduced forms all the time, especially in informal conversations, it can sound a bit too formal or even robotic. So let's start with the most common reductions.

[00:01:52]These are the ones with to, have, and of. Try repeating each one out loud after me as we go along. Number one, going to going to I'm going to call you later.

[00:02:08]W to want to.

[00:02:12]Do you want to grab a coffee?

[00:02:16]Got to or more commonly got to with the glottle stop.

[00:02:21]Got to I got to go now or more commonly I got to go now.

[00:02:28]Just know that when you use the glottle, stop here and say gota. It really sounds quite informal. So don't ever use this in a very formal situation. But in casual everyday speech, it's absolutely fine to use. Have to have to.

[00:02:44]You have to try this.

[00:02:48]Has to.

[00:02:50]Has to.

[00:02:52]She has to leave early.

[00:02:56]ought to or ought to ought to.

[00:03:01]You ought to see a doctor. You ought to see a doctor.

[00:03:07]Kind of. Kind of. It's kind of hard.

[00:03:14]Outer or more commonly outer.

[00:03:18]Out of Get out of here. Get out of here.

[00:03:25]sort of or sort of sort of I sort of agree. I sort of agree lot or lot.

[00:03:40]A lot of I've got a lot of work.

[00:03:45]I've got a lot of work.

[00:03:49]The next ones we're going to look at our modal verbs. Listen carefully and repeat. Keep in mind here that I'm going to read the words with the weak form.

[00:03:58]The weak form of these words uses the schwa sound. So in the example sentences, I'm going to read it with thewah because that's how we would naturally say them. Shoulda. So that's with the strong.

[00:04:11]Should have.

[00:04:13]I should have studied more.

[00:04:16]So should the weak form should. So it's a little bit softer. Could have could have.

[00:04:25]We could have won. So could could really really quick really relaxed. We could have won.

[00:04:35]Would would have I would have helped if I'd known.

[00:04:43]Might have or might have might have.

[00:04:48]She might have missed the bus. She might have missed the bus.

[00:04:54]Must have.

[00:04:56]Must have. He must have forgotten.

[00:05:01]Next, let's look at reducing the word you. This is less of a contraction and more a case of word stress and connected speech. In English, in order to speak more fluently, you must use weak forms of words. This is why words like to sound like t and u becomes y in rapid speech. In the examples that I'm going to show you with you, you'll see that the duh and y sounds combine and create this J sound. Now listen carefully.

[00:05:30]Did you? They come together. Did you?

[00:05:33]Did you? This is a feature of connected speech called assimilation, which basically means that we change a sound to make it easier to transition to another one. Here are some more examples for you. Listen and repeat. J.

[00:05:47]Do you?

[00:05:49]Did you like it?

[00:05:51]Did you?

[00:05:53]Did you? Did you hear that?

[00:05:57]Would you? Would you? Would you mind closing the window?

[00:06:04]Could you Could you Could you help me?

[00:06:10]Should you? Should you? Should you call them first?

[00:06:16]Keep in mind that we would never actually write these words in this way, but we do say them like this. Okay? So, these next reductions that I'm going to show you are extremely common in informal conversations. So, listen carefully and repeat. Let me let me let me check.

[00:06:36]Give me. Give me. Give me a second.

[00:06:42]Tell them. Tell them. Tell them I'll be late.

[00:06:49]So with this one, them in rapid speech becomes um. So tell them becomes tell them. Here's another example. I saw him yesterday. Imm.

[00:07:02]I told him earlier.

[00:07:04]So do you remember before we talked about the weak forms like you and to becoming y and t? Well, him and her also do the same. So him becomes him. Her becomes uh like for example I asked her to leave instead of I asked her to leave. I asked her to leave. Okay. Now let's look at and the strong form is and with a very open a but said quickly. We soften it and we remove the d at the end. An.

[00:07:37]This is why you'll sometimes see it written as an apostrophe n apostrophe as in rock and roll and fish and chips. And while we don't normally write it with the apostrophe in informal writing, you may see it written this way in books because it's trying to mimic the way that we speak. Or perhaps you'll see it on shop signs and things like that. So it's good to be aware of it and know what it means. So here are some more examples to practice. Listen and repeat and and come and sit down.

[00:08:09]Rock and roll. Rock and roll. I love rock and roll music.

[00:08:17]Okay, I've saved the most advanced ones for last for you. Double contractions.

[00:08:22]These are when two contractions combine in very fast informal speech. For example, in the sentence, I would not have done that if I were you, becomes I wouldn't have done that if I were you.

[00:08:36]Now, we would very very rarely actually write the double contracted form maybe in books and things like that to again replicate the way that we would say it, but we would actually say it this way.

[00:08:48]So, let's practice them together.

[00:08:50]Starting with modal verbs. Wouldn't.

[00:08:53]Would not have. I wouldn't have said that if I'd known.

[00:08:59]Couldn't. Could not have. She couldn't have done it alone.

[00:09:07]Shouldn't. Should not have. You shouldn't have driven.

[00:09:15]Wasn't must not have. he mustn't have seen the email.

[00:09:22]Keep in mind that have becomes of if the next word starts with a vowel sound or just simply uh if the next word starts with a consonant sound. So you can say I wouldn't have said that if I'd known or I wouldn't have said that if I'd known.

[00:09:38]Both are very common. I also want to add an interesting side note here for you.

[00:09:42]So in certain parts of England like Yorkshire where I'm from or the Midlands, we often reduce these even further and say won't have, couldn't have, shouldn't have, and even don't have for does not have. So instead of saying he doesn't have time, I could say he doesn't have time or I shouldn't have done that, you may hear I shouldn't have done that. So just keep that in mind if you ever go to Yorkshire or the Midlands. Now let's look at pronouns using would and have. I'd have I'd have helped, but I was working.

[00:10:19]You'd have You would have You'd have loved it.

[00:10:25]We' We would have We'd have arrived earlier, but traffic was awful. So, notice that I'm saying we'd have arrived. We'd have arrived earlier because arrived starts with a vowel sound. If you want to say weed arrived, sounds a bit clunky in English. So if the next word starts with a vowel, you add that v back in. We'd have arrived.

[00:10:47]But if you wanted to say something like we would have gone, then you would say would have gone. They'd have they' have told us if they knew.

[00:11:01]And again, you can say these like Ida helped, but I was working. You'd have loved it. And so on. Now lastly, let's look at there, would and have. There have there would have there'd have been more people if it was free.

[00:11:22]Now for the negative, don't worry, we don't triple contract this. So for there would not have, we would just say there wouldn't have. So there wouldn't there wouldn't have been time for example. We just contract the would not have to wouldn't. So there you have it. This is everything you ever need to know about how to pronounce reductions and contracted forms in English. There is also one extra word that I couldn't quite fit into any categories in this video which is I don't know. So in the sentence I don't know if I can go. Do you know how we would write this and reduce this? If so, let me know down in the comments. And remember, you don't have to use reduced forms in English, but they are essential if you want to speak more fluently and naturally and also understand fast English. Also, remember that I've created a free PDF cheat sheet with everything in this video. So, every reduction, every full form, every phonetic transcription, and every example sentence that I've included in this lesson, think of it as your cheat sheet for understanding fast English and speaking more fluently.

[00:12:29]Remember that you can download it completely for free using the link below in the description. [music] If you enjoyed this video, remember to give it a like and subscribe for more British English pronunciation lessons. I will see you in the next lesson.

[00:12:41]Bye-bye.

[00:12:47][music] [music]