What is elision? Improve your English speaking and listening

92,245 views ・ 2022-01-18

Learn English with Cambridge


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

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Hello everybody.
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So, in today’s video we're going to be looking at a feature of natural
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English pronunciation.
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This is something that we use all of the time, and,
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in fact, something I've just naturally used right now.
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Being aware of it is definitely something that
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will improve your listening skills, and, possibly your speaking skills too.
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But, before we start, if you haven't subscribed to
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the channel yet, please do so now,
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so that you never miss out on any of our wonderful videos.
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So, now you're officially a subscriber of the channel,
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let's get on with the video.
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George, you've done so well and now you are so close to being our champion.
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To win, you just need to pronounce this last word correctly.
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Yeah, okay.
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01:05
Vegetable.
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I'm afraid that’s incorrect. George, you are eliminated. What?
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Vegetable.
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Four syllables.
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Vegetable. What do you mean I'm wrong? I'm not wrong, that’s right. It's four.
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So, what happened there? George was so sure.
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What did he do wrong? The answer is elision.
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So, elision is where syllables are removed from words during
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natural speech to make them either easier or quicker to say.
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For example, with this word here, this syllable is removed in
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natural speech, meaning that it's pronounced vegetable,
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with only three syllables and not four.
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Being aware of elision can help with your listening skills, as you now know
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that not all words have all of their syllables pronounced.
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It can also help improve your speaking by making you sound more natural.
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There are plenty more common words in English that contain this feature.
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For example, these four words.
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Listen to how they have a syllable removed in natural speech.
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So, the first one is pronounced with two syllables, favourite, favourite.
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The next one is pronounced with two syllables too, restaurant, restaurant.
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The next one is pronounced with three syllables,
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interesting, interesting.
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Finally, this word is pronounced with two syllables, history, history.
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My favourite restaurant has an interesting history.
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My favourite restaurant has an interesting history.
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Here are some other common words with syllables removed in natural speech.
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So now you know all about elision, where syllables are removed from
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some words in natural spoken English.
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Be aware of it, and listen out for it next time you're
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speaking to someone with a high level of English, or,
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if you're really ambitious, try and use it when you’re speaking English.
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So there you go, elision, something you may not
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have noticed before, but something I bet you'll
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notice from now on, and something you'll
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definitely see in all of our videos.
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So, again, just a reminder to please subscribe to the channel if you haven't
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done so already.
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To finish, I'd just like to say thank you for watching.
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I’ll see you next time for more language fun.
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