British English Slang [Advanced Pronunciation Practice] - Reductions & Contractions

(gentle music)

- Hello everyone and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Do you ever feel confused, when you hear or see

phrases like gimme, hafta,

lotsa, sorta,

typa, frunna, (laughing) what do these all mean?

Well, they are quite a few to learn ,

they are reductions, or reduced words,

and you do need to know these words,

in order to understand natural conversation

and you might want to use these words

if you want to sound more like

a native speaker when you talk.

Before we get started, I would just like to thank

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Right, let's get started with the lesson.

So reductions, what are they?

They are reduced forms of words.

Normally two words, occasionally three words.

For example, the reduction, gimme,

is actually give plus me.

Gimme.

For example, gimme that pen.

Gimme that pen.

Give me that pen.

You will find that there are some commonly used words

that are often included in reductions.

Me being one of them.

Another example of reduction including me, is lemme.

Lemme.

For example, lemme come with you.

Lemme come with you.

Let me come with you.

Now you must never (laughing)

use these in formal situations, or formal writing tasks,

especially don't use these in exams,

unless you are specifically asked to use reductions

or slang language.

I would say that the most important part of this,

is that you understand them so that if a native speaker

uses one with you, you can understand and respond,

but if you are looking to sound like a native speaker,

then you might want to practise these.

Now let's move on to the second set of reductions

which is what plus is plus word.

The first one is, what is up.

What is up.

What do we say?

We say wassup.

Wassup.

Wassup with that?

Wassup with that?

What is up with that?

Another one is what is her, what is her?

We reduce this to whatser, whatser.

For example, whatser name again ?

What's her name again?

That is something that I would genuinely say,

in an informal situation,

however it would be unlikely to write this down.

I would just use this in spoken informal speech.

Spoken speech, obviously.

The masculine form of this, whatsis.

Whatsis.

What is his?

Whatsis phone number?

Whatsis phone number?

What is his phone number?

Again, I wouldn't write whatsis down,

but I would say it.

Right onto the third group of reductions,

we have word plus have.

Word plus have.

The first one is could plus have, coulda, coulda.

So instead of saying could of, we can say coulda.

You coulda told me that yesterday.

We also have might have, which reduces to mighta, mighta.

She mighta gone to the bank today,

she mighta gone to the bank today.

We also have must have, which reduces to musta.

Musta.

She musta taken the train, she musta taken the train.

And we have, should have, which reduces to shoulda.

I did a video on shoulda, woulda, coulda,

you should know about this.

I will link it down below or up in the sky somewhere,

if you want to watch that video,

because this is seriously important.

People need to learn how to use,

shoulda, woulda, and coulda.

Natives and non-natives alike.

An example for shoulda, shoulda done something.

You shoulda done something.

And the last one, would have, woulda, woulda.

I woulda gone, I woulda gone, but I was ill.

I woulda gone but I was ill.

Now the next group of reductions is word plus to.

Word plus to.

This next one is one you will hear so frequently,

it is going plus to, is gonna.

I actually did, back in the day, a whole video

on just wanna, and gonna, and people found it really useful

so I'm hoping this video is really going to

enlighten a lot of you, but yes, gonna is a reduction

that we use, all the time.

I'm gonna go to the shops.

Do you want anything?

I'm gonna go to the shops, do you want anything?

I really wouldn't say, "I'm going to to go the shops,

"do you want anything?"

I would say, "I'm gonna go to the shops, I'm gonna go"

it's much easier.

Another really common one, got plus to, got to.

This changes to gotta, gotta.

I gotta go, I gotta go.

Notice that I'm not saying, I got to go, I got to go,

I'm saying, "I gotta"

I'm almost saying it with a D sound.

I gotta go, gotta go.

Now what will we say for have plus to?

Have to, have to.

We would say, hafta, hafta.

So we change that V sound to a F sound

and then shwah at the tend.

Hafta.

Oh my god you hafta meet him.

You haft meet him.

And what about has plus to?

Has to, has to.

Well it changes to hasta.

Hasta, now a lot of non-native speakers

will find it quite hard to say the Z sound

in front to the T sound.

Hasta, hasta.

That's quite a hard combination,

because Z is voiced and T is unvoiced,

so even native speakers will change it to hasta, hasta.

She hasta believe him, she hasta believe him.

Another one, ought and to, ought to,

this changes to oughta.

Oughta.

You oughta call in sick.

You oughta call in sick.

Now this is more common in American English.

They say oughta, oughta and then (laughing)

sorry my American accent really needs some work.

It just, the combination of vowel

and consonants sound is slightly easier,

especially with their, the way they use D,

instead of T oughta, oughta, but we say oughta,

oughta and it sounds almost too posh.

So maybe this one isn't as commonly used in British English,

but I think you ought to know about it, anyway.

See what I did there.

And then the last one, a really really common one,

again I have explained before, it is, want to,

want to, this is wanna, wanna.

And in a third person singular it's wansta, wansta.

A lot of teachers forget about this one

and student's get really really confused,

and say, she wanna, when it should be she wansta.

I want to go to the cinema, she wansta to come with me.

She wanna come with me, is used, in a slang way,

but if you want to speak proper slang English,

then you should say, wansta.

It sounds more grammatically correct

because it's accounting for that third person singular.

Now the next group of reductions is word plus of,

these are really common.

So make sure you listen to this part,

because a lot of them aren't as obvious

as the previous group.

The first one is kind of, kind of.

We reduce this to kinda, kinda.

I kinda like it, I kinda like it.

This one I use all the time, I rarely say kind of,

I really often say, kinda.

It also works with the plural of kind,

kinds of, this makes, kindsa.

Kinda, I've got loads of kinds of teas in my cupboard.

I said, loadsa.

This is loads of, loads of, loadsa,

I got loadsa kinds of tea in my cupboard.

It also works for, lots of, lotsa, lotsa.

There are lotsa people here, there are lots of people here.

Also works for lot of, lot of.

This makes lotta, she's had a lot of boyfriends,

she's had a lot of boyfriends.

We also have, out of, which makes outa, outa.

I have to get outa here, I have to get outa here.

So I'm using hafta and I'm also using outta, out of.

We also have sort of, making sorta.

What sorta chocolate's that?

What sorta chocolate's that?

And type of, making typa.

It's a typa dark chocolate.

It's a type of dark chocolate.

And, a really weird one which we do use in spoken slang

but not in written slang, really,

it's front of which makes frunna, fruana.

Park in frunna the house.

Park in front of the house.

Right, now we have a huge group of reductions,

it is, word plus you.

There are so many reductions here,

most of them are commonly used,

so it's important that you know them.

The first one we have, is bet you, bet you.

This changes to betcha, betcha.

So when we join a T sound and a ye sound,

bet, you, we join it together as part of connected speech

and we make a cha sound.

Betcha, betcha.

I betcha can't guess how much that cost.

I bet you can't guess how much that cost.

We also have, don't you, making dontcha.

You might remember the Pussycat Dolls song

dontcha wish your girlfriend,

I'm not going to sing it, just because

it doesn't compliment my voice.

Yeah, dontcha.

Dontcha wish your girlfriend was hot like me?

(laughing)

And that's my example.

We also have, get you, which makes, getcha.

I'm gonna getcha next time I see ya.

I'm gonna getcha next time I see ya.

So we used, gonna, getcha.

To get someone means to,

it's like a threat to beat someone up.

And I also use the next one which is see you,

which changes to seeya, seeya.

Where are you? I can't seeya.

And we also have, got you,

which reduces to gotcha, gotcha.

I got you this for Christmas.

I got you this for Christmas.

Now, we don't use the rest of this list

in written English, this is just spoken slang,

so please note that.

We have how do you, which is, howdya, howdya.

Howdya like your coffee?

We also have, how did you in the past,

there's just a subtle difference here,

we say how'dja, how'dja.

How'dja do that?

How'dja do that?

We also have, how would you,

which is normally how'dya, how'dya,

there are really really subtle differences here.

How'dya do that?

How would you do that?

We also just have did you, which is, didja, didja.

For example, didja go to the gym today?

Didja go to the gym today?

We also have, what are you,

which is whataya, whataya, (laughing),

sounds weird to say on its own,

'cause it's always included as part of a full sentence.

Whataya doing, whataya doing.

Or what do you, which again,

is whadaya, whadaya think you're doing?

Whadaya think you're doing?

We also have, want you.

Which changes to wantcha, wantcha.

I wantcha in my office right now.

We have what did or do you,

which is what'dja.

We have when did or do you,

which is when'ja.

We have where did, or do you,

which is where'dya.

We have who did or do you, which is who'dya.

And we have why did or do you,

which is why'dya.

And would you reducing to wouldya.

Wouldya do me a favour, woudya do me a favour?

The last example that we have,

I'm sure you'll know it, and if you don't,

I'm honoured to be the teacher who teaches it to you.

It is don't know, which is dunno, dunno.

It can be spelt D-O-N-N-O or D-U-N-N-O.

I think D-U-N-N-O is slightly more common

and we don't even have to say I in front of it.

Dunno, dunno.

We can also say, I dunno, I dunno.

(laughing)

Right, that is the end of today's lesson.

I hope you enjoyed it.

I hope you learnt something.

I've given you a lot of information.

You do have some homework however,

you can't get away without homework.

I would like you to write five sentences

using new reductions that you've learnt.

If you've learnt something new in this lesson,

please use them.

I want to see very interesting sentences.

Try to make me laugh,

because I don't laugh a lot.

I live alone.

Well I do live with my fiance

but we live on a farm.

I don't see many people.

I don't get many opportunities to laugh,

so if you can make me laugh, you're doing well.

(laughing)

Right, don't forget to check out Skill Share.

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That's a great offer, so don't miss out

and don't forget to connect with me

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my Twitter and my personal Lucy Bella Earl channel

where I talk about everything that isn't English,

ie, my life.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

(gentle music)