FLUENT ENGLISH: Understand & Use Contractions like a Native Speaker

51,936 views ・ 2024-08-19

English with Ronnie


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Where'd you go?
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What are you doing?
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Do you have problems understanding people's questions in English?
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I do.
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And the reason is because we just kind of squish all the words together.
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We omit or don't say words when we ask questions, and it can be very confusing.
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I've narrowed it down to one super amazing example that I ran into.
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I was running over the weekend.
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My friend said, "Ronnie, why'd you buy that?"
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And I thought, "Oh, because I wanted to."
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And I thought, "Why'd?
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Oh, why'd? Homophone.
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Why did you?"
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So, in normal conversation, no one's going to say to you, "Excuse me, Ronnie, why did
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you buy that?"
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We would say, "Why'd?
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Why'd ya?"
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We'd change "you" to "ya".
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"Why'd ya buy that?"
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It works with our WH questions, which are who, what, when, where, why, and how.
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How'd ya?
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How'd ya?
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01:21
How'd ya?
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So, this is only for speaking.
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So, when you're writing beautiful tests or when you're doing things in your classroom,
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you have to know that this is grammatically wrong.
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You actually have to write the whole sentence.
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So, this lesson is called Apostrophe D.
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This is an apostrophe.
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It's a little squiggle at the top.
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If you want to call it a different name, that's fine.
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You can call it, like, a dancing worm in the sky, D, that's fine.
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But in proper English grammar, it's called Apostrophe D.
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Usually, apostrophes are saying, like, "Hey, we
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took some words out here just to make it difficult."
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And if they're grammatically correct, like these ones, they're called contractions.
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But this is actually not a contraction; this is
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just how we confuse you when we speak English.
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So, let's get to it.
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"Why'd".
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It's...
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As I said, it's a homophone for something that is not thin; it's wide.
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So, I would say, "Why'd ya?"
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"Why did you?"
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"Why'd ya?"
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"Why'd you buy that?"
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"How'd".
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"How'd you do that?"
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We don't say, "How did you do that?"
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We say, "How'd ya?"
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"How did ya?"
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"How did you do that?"
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"When'd".
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"When'd you want to go?"
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"When did you want to go?"
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"When did", "when did".
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We don't say, "When did", we say, "When'd".
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"When'd ya come here?"
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"When'd ya leave?"
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And the D is so fast that you might not even
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realize that people are saying it, and they
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say, "When'd go?"
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"Huh?
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What language are you guys speaking?"
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That's not in my grammar book.
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So, "Who'd", "Who'd you go with?"
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"Who did you go with?"
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"Uh-uh.
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Who'd you go with?"
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"Oh, I went with my friend."
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Be careful.
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Practice it, practice it, practice it, and then you can try and say it.
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But remember, with these things, it's more of
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your listening and understanding fast English
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than you actually producing it at the moment if you're a beginner.
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If you're more of an advanced speaker, let her rip.
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Try these.
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"What did", "What did", "What did", "What did you do?"
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"What did you do yesterday?"
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"What did you do?"
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"Uh-uh.
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What did", "What did you do yesterday?"
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And the last one, "Where'd", "Where'd you go?"
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"What?
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Where'd you go?"
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"Where did you go?"
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"Where'd you go?"
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So, let's try again.
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"How'd", "Why'd", "When'd", "Who'd", "Who'd",
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"Who'd", "What'd", that one's hard, "What'd",
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"What did you say?"
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I said "What'd", and "Where'd", "Where'd".
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So, you can practice these.
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But more importantly, listen when people speak.
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Watch these amazing things called television and streaming services.
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Anything you watch on whatever social media you're banging at the time.
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Listen to when native people speak, and you're
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going to hear this and go, "Oh my god, Ronnie's
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right.
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They didn't say 'did', they said 'duh'."
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Check that out.
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Now, the other one, as I said before, it's more grammar-based, I know.
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But it can be confusing, because we had...
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We have "I'd", "They'd", "You'd", "She'd", "He'd", and "We'd".
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Oh, "We'd", hello.
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But this doesn't mean "did" in this situation.
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When we put it with a subject, it can be one of two options.
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It can either be "would" or "had".
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And how are you supposed to know which one?
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Well, I'll tell you.
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That's why I'm here.
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Ronnie, teaching you some stuff.
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So, if we're going to use the verb "would", "I'd", we're always going to follow it with
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a base verb.
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Okay?
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And there's two major ways that we use it.
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One, everyone's favourite, conditionals.
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When we use conditionals, we might have a
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phrase at the beginning, and in this instance,
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this "would" here is "I would", but we don't say that.
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We don't say, "If I had a car, I would drive to school."
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We say, "If I had a car, I'd drive to school."
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And this is grammatically correct.
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Yes.
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So, oh, it's so much easier now.
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So, when you're using conditionals, you can definitely use this shortcut and put "I'd".
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But don't forget the "d", because sometimes students write it, and they say, "If I had
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a car, I'd drive to school."
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I'm like, "God, no, you forgot the 'd'!"
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Don't forget the "d".
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It's a whole part of it.
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We also use this for preferences.
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So, "I'd like a pizza."
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"I'd rather have", so we don't say, "I would rather have."
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We say, "I'd rather have."
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So, again, this is making your English sound faster.
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You get more fluency, you sound more natural.
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It's a wonderful situation for you to use.
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So, practice this.
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"I'd", "you'd", "he'd", "she'd", "we'd".
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I know you like that, "we'd".
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How do we know if "would" is the "d"?
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Let's try again.
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How do you know if the "d" is "would" or "had"?
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I told you with "would", we use the present tense of the verb or the base verb, but if
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we're going to use "had", it's going to be the past participle.
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PP in my brain means past participle, okay?
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Oh, I have to go pee-pee.
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Okay?
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So, what grammar do we use this in?
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Everyone's favorite, the past perfect.
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Example, "I'd eaten an apple."
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So, this is, we can't say, "I would eaten an apple."
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No, that's just wrong because the verb here is in the past participle.
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So, this has to be, "I had eaten."
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So, the number one easy way to identify if
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it's going to be "would" or "had" is to look
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at the verb.
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If it's a base verb, we know it's "would".
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If it's the past participle, we know that it's going to be "had".
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Can you think of a past participle verb?
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Okay.
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"Eaten", yeah.
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"Went", "gone".
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Good.
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So, "I had gone to the store, then I came back."
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"I'd gone to the store, then I came back."
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So, be very careful with your verb choice, and you're going to get this all the time
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in your grammar class or in your grammar tests.
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"Would" with the base verb, and "had", past perfect, with the past participle.
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"They'd", "you'd", "she'd", "he'd", "we'd".
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Practice this, ace your grammar tests, keep on following this wonderful YouTube channel
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for more information, and good luck with everything.
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How'd you do that?
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I don't know.
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