Understand THIS Confusing English Reduction | "Did You Say HIM or THEM?"

Aww yeah! I'm Ethan, your RealLife English Fluency  Coach, and I'm so excited about today's lesson we  

have a special opportunity because one of my  greatest inspirations as an English teacher,  

Rachel from Rachel's English, is going to give us  a special and exclusive lesson on native English. 

And quickly before I bring Rachel on  I want to tell you that if you are new  

here every week we help you to understand  fast native speech without getting lost,  

without missing the jokes and without subtitles. 

Rainvee says that her pronunciation  is getting better day by day. 

So without any further ado here  is the incomparable Rachel.

Thank you Ethan for having me on your  channel. I'm really excited to share  

a lesson with you on the  reductions of him and them. 

A reduction is a word where a sound changes  or is dropped, and English is full of them! 

Did you hear the one I just did? Instead of  saying and I said "in English is full of 'em" 

That's a reduction, we changed some sounds,  the word him can be pronounced without the h  

then it sounds like em. "I need to thank him for his help"

Dropping the h in function words like him, he, his  and her, for example, happens pretty frequently. 

This may be something you haven't  noticed before but when you start  

listening for it you'll notice it a lot. I like to use a search engine called Euglish  

to find examples in spoken English, let's go there  now to look at some sentences with this reduction.

"I asked him what was it like" - asked him, no h. "But we tracked him down we found him." - tracked  

him down, found him, no h. Let's hear a few more examples.

"Laughed at him" Can you try that  

with me now? "Laughed at him"

No  

H and link those two words together with a flat T.  

A simple flap of the tongue, if you don't  know much about a flap T come on over to my  

channel I have a bunch of videos on the different  pronunciations of the sounds of American English.

Now let's study the reduction of "them." One of  the ways Americans pronounce this is with no th,  

we change the vowel as well so them becomes em. Low in pitch said quickly it actually sounds  

just like the hin reduction. Let's listen to some sentences.

"Help him, help him." Try that: help him.

"Get them all, get them, get them"

"Paint thinner on them" - "on them" Okay, here are a few more:

So him and them sound the same when  they're reduced. Schwa M said quickly,  

linked on to the word before.

Now let's take the phrase "believe him"  and also the phrase "believe them." 

Listen to how they sound the same. For this I  went to getyarn.io. You can plug in a phrase  

and hear clips from TV and movies. I like  it because they loop each clip three times,  

so you can really pay attention  to the reduction you're hearing.

So these are all the "believe  him" and also some of the  

"believe them," but they all sound the same.

Let's do one more: "want them" and "want him." 

Now here you'll notice in all of these  examples the T in "want" is dropped. 

Yeah that's another thing about T pronunciations  in some cases we drop the T and we don't make  

that sound at all. It can happen after  an N like in the word "internet" and it  

happens a lot with the word "want" when the  next word begins with a vowel or diphthong. 

And in these two reductions  since we drop the first consonant  

they do start with a vowel. "Want him" becomes  "wan-em." "Want them" becomes "wan-em."

Try a couple of these with me. I'll say the  phrase then you say it and we'll repeat it  

three times in a row. I say it, then you say  it. Do try this out loud. Make sure you have  

a smooth connection between the words. Him and them should be shorter. Ready?

"Wan-em" "Thank-em" 

"saw 'em" And one more: "tell em"

Is it a problem that they sound the same? No,  don't worry about that. We'll know by the context. 

If him is referring to a man or them  is referring to two or more people. 

Studying reductions in American English can  increase your listening comprehension and can  

help you sound more natural speaking English. Thank you so much for studying with me.

I hope that so far you've been enjoying Rachel's  innovative approach to English pronunciation,  

which can greatly help you to speak  English more clearly and confidently.

You know, from the time when I  first started teaching English  

Rachel has been a huge influence for me. I used  to use her lessons all the time with my students,  

and not only that, but she has also been  an inspiration for how we teach connected  

speech in our course and our videos  here on learn English with TV Series. 

So as you can imagine I am thrilled to  announce an exclusive promotion that  

Rachel has for our community for her  innovative Rachel's English Academy. 

Would you mind sharing some more  about that with our audience Rachel?

Ethan, thank you so much for letting me  talk about my Academy with your students.  

My obsession, my passion is teaching American  English pronunciation and helping people like you,  

yes just like you, develop a natural  and confident speaking voice in English. 

Over 15 courses are included in  the Academy and they all focus  

on using your mind for training your  body to speak English effortlessly. 

You learn the details with your mind  but it's like the gym for your voice,  

the transformation is incredible. Listen  to what my student Sophie had to say.

It's like- it's like learning how to swim,  you know, before this Academy I only learned  

uh the theories, you know, how to move arms, how  to move your legs but I never dive into the water. 

But since I started to study in  this Academy I feel like my body's  

learning, I'm learning in the  water, I'm actually doing it  

and I love that aspect. I think the results  

is quite quick, my family, friends already  saw some difference and I'm really glad.

So dive in with me it's not enough to know about  the them reduction but you've got to train it into  

your own voice and your own body with the hundreds  of sound words we have in the Academy like this.

This really helps you focus in on the rhythm. Jump  on in and see for yourself. For all of you learn  

English with TV Series fans out there, to help you  get in I'm offering a discount that does expire.  

It's for %15 OFF your first month and it's TV15. We do have a 30 day money back guarantee  

if you don't love it. We have live  classes where I work with students,  

we have a really supportive online group where you  can post practice videos and get teacher feedback. 

I cannot wait to have you as a student. Sign up  now: RachelsEnglishacademy.com with the code TV15. 

Hurry and do it now so you  don't miss the discount.

I hope that you have enjoyed today's very special  lesson with Rachel and that it has opened your  

eyes and your ears to how we natives really speak. This could just be the beginning for you.  

Do you want to understand your favorite  series, movies, podcasts and even more? 

Do you want to be able to speak  clearly so that people understand you  

effortlessly? Then do not  miss this special opportunity  

that Rachel is giving exclusively to the  learn English with TV Series community. 

You can learn more and sign up by clicking  the link down in the description below.

Now it's time to go beyond the classroom  and live your English. Aww yeah!!