Learning English – Spoken English Pronunciation of the Most Common English Words

541,823 views ・ 2018-03-20

Rachel's English


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

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Today you’re studying the pronunciation of the 100 most common words in American English.
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This is video 2 in the series. If you didn’t see video one, click here to watch it now.
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It is important to understand what we’re doing here with studying reductions.
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We’re starting today with number 11, the word ‘it’. This word doesn’t reduce
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in a sentence, we don’t drop or change a sound, but it said very quickly. And the pronunciation
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of the T depends on the next word. If it begins with a consonant, this T is a Stop T: it,
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it, it. It won’t be. It, it won't. Very fast, it. If the next word begins with a vowel
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or diphthong, then this T is a Flap T, linking the two words together. It always, it always,
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it it it it, it always, it always. Said very quickly. It always. Nothing too crazy here,
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just say the word quickly. Not IT, but it.
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Number 12, one of my all-time favorite reductions: For. We almost never say it this way. We say
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‘fer’. Isn’t that funny? I had a student once who lived in America and was married
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to an American. She told her husband how she was learning about this reduction. And his
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response was, “that’s ridiculous". We don’t do that, we don't pronounce that fer.
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Then later, he did it, as he was speaking naturally, and she pointed it out. Most Americans
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aren’t even aware of these crazy reductions that we do. So, to make this reduction drop
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the vowel, ff-rr, fer fer. Say the word very quickly, low in pitch. Fer fer. This is for
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work. Fer. I made a longer video with more examples on the reduction of the word ‘for’,
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check it out if you want more detail here. I got it for my birthday. For for. What’s
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for dinner? For. In conversation, fer not ‘for’.
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Number 13: Not. Now, this word, in conversation, will very often be contracted n’t. Didn’t,
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doesn’t, can’t, shouldn’t, won’t, and so on. Notice I’m not releasing the
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T there, didn’t, but didn’t.didn’t. It’s an abrupt stop of air in the N to signify the T: didn’t,
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didn’t, shouldn’t, nt nt, nt, shouldn’t couldn’t, couldn’t. If we don’t use
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a contraction, then we’re often stressing it: I do NOT want to see her right now. In
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these cases, we’ll probably do a Stop T. Not. I do NOT want to see her right now. Not,
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stop the air, and then keep going. I do Not wanna. Not
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Number 14: on. This word doesn’t reduce. We don’t change any sounds like we did with
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‘for’. But, it is unstressed. You don’t want to say ON in a sentence, but rather,
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‘on’. On on. “Put it on the table.” On. When it’s unstressed, that gives good
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contrast to the longer, clearer stressed words ‘put’ and ‘table’, and this contrast
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is very important in American English. It's better than each word being longer and clearer.
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What would it sound like if ‘it, on, the’, were also stressed? Put it on the table. Put
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it on the table. Put it on the table. No, that’s not how we speak. Put it on the table. Put it on the table.
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That’s how we speak. Not ON, but on. Try that with me now. Low in volume, low in pitch,
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not very clear. On, on. Put it on the table.
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Number 15, the fifteenth most common word in English: with. There are two ways you can
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pronounce this word: with a voiced TH, with, with, with or an unvoiced TH, with, with.
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I don’t use the voiced TH. I think it sounds a little old-fashioned. I would stick with
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the unvoiced TH, with, with. Just like ‘on’, this word doesn’t reduce. None of the sounds
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change. But, it is unstressed. It will usually be pronounced like this: with, rather than
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WITH. “It’s with the other one” with the, with the, with the, with the, with the. Low in pitch.
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Notice I’m just making one TH to connect these two unstressed words, with the, with
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the, with the. It's the unvoiced TH. With the, with the other one. It’s with the other
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one.
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Number 16, he. Oh yes, this one reduces. Can I just say, we are already at 16, and we still
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haven’t seen one word that is stressed, that's a content word. Wow. When are we going
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to see it, and what is it going to be? I can’t wait to find out. But, back to 16, he. Fully
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pronounced, ‘he’, it's the H consonant and EE as in SHE vowel. But very often we
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drop the H, and have just the EE sound. What does he want? What does ee ee ee ee. We drop
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the H and we connect it to the word before: does he?, does he? What does he want? What
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would that sentence sound like if every word stressed? What does he want? What does he
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want? What does he want? No, that’s not natural English. What does he want? I have
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a video on dropping the H reductions. Click here or in the description below to see that
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video and to get more examples.
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Seventeen. As. Yep, this word reduces. It’s not pronounced AS in a sentence. That’s
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stressed. This word is usually not stressed. The vowel changes to the schwa and it becomes
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‘uhz’. AS, uhz. He’s as tall as me. Uhz—uhztalluhz. Uhztalluhz. Not AS, uhz,
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uhz. He's as tall as me. I have a video that goes over this reduction too. Click here or
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in the description below to see that and more examples.
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Eighteen. You. Another word that reduces. This word can be reduced to ‘yuh’. What
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are you doing? What are you. Yuh, yuh, yuh. You never have to do reductions, and you could
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definitely say “What are you doing?”, you, you, you. I’m not reducing that, I’m
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not changing the vowel, but I am still making it unstressed. ‘you’ instead of YOU. This
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word will usually be unstressed. That means, don’t pronounce it ‘you’, which is stressed.
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Pronounce it you. Or reduced you.
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Nineteen. Do. Our first content word. Content words are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
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They're usually stressed in a sentence. Our first stressed word! Sort of. Actually, this
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word can reduce. It depends on how it’s being used in a sentence. In a question, where
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there’s another verb, we often reduce it. For example, what do you think? ‘Think’
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is another verb. Did you notice how I pronounced ‘do’? What do you? What to, what to, what
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to do do. D plus schwa. Reducing DO like this is nice, natural English. I do have a video,
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there I’m stressing it, I do have a video because it’s a statement, not a question,
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I do have a video on the DO reduction. Click here or in the description below to see that
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video.
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Twenty. The word At. Preposition, function word, and yes, it reduces. In conversation,
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we often pronounce this word ‘ut’, with a schwa, instead of AT, with the AA as in
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BAT vowel. The T is a Flap T if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, and a Stop
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T if the next word begins with a consonant. If you’re not sure what a Stop or Flap T
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is, I do have a video on that, click here or in the comments below. Sample sentence:
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She’s at school. Ut. AT becomes ‘ut’. She’s at school.
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So now we’re twenty words in, and still all our words are usually unstressed or might
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reduce. We’ll have to keep looking for our first stressed all the time word.
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That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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