DO and DOES Reduction -- American English Pronunciation

479,496 views ・ 2015-04-07

Rachel's English


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

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In this American English pronunciation video,
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we’re going to study using DO and DOES as helping verbs,
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and their pronunciation.
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Do you know what a helping verb is?
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It’s a verb that helps the main verb of the sentence
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– so it’s not the main verb.
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It’s an auxillary verb.
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Let’s look at two examples:
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I do it all the time.
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What do you think?
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In one sentence, ‘do’ is the main verb;
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it’s the only verb.
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In the other sentence, it’s the helping verb,
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the auxiliary verb.
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Which is which?
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‘Think’ is a verb, it’s the main verb of that sentence.
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So ‘do’ is the helping verb in the second sentence,
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and the main verb in the first sentence.
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What do you notice about the pronunciation?
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In the first sentence, I pronounce it fully, do,
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with the OO as in BOO vowel.
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In the second sentence, it’s not as clear.
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What do you think?
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I reduce the vowel to the schwa, duh, duh.
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I say it as fast as I can.
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You might notice I’m dropping the T in ‘what’
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and reducing the vowel in ‘you’ to the schwa as well:
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what do you, what do you.
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What do you think?
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That makes the words in that phrase flow together,
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just like we want in American English.
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Content words are words we want to stress,
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words we want to fully pronounce.
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Verbs are content words, but helping verbs are not.
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These are function words,
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which are unstressed and sometimes reduced.
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Duh, duh.
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This same idea works with the word ‘does’.
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Fully pronounced, ‘does’,
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with the UH as in BUTTER vowel.
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But when it’s a helping verb, it’s pronounced ‘diz’,
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does, does.
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Different, right? It’s less clear, very, very quick,
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and we reduce the vowel to the schwa.
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The jaw doesn’t really need to drop - 'does'.
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She does accounting for the firm.
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What does he need?
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She does accounting, does, does.
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It’s the only verb, fully pronounced.
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She does, she does.
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What does he need?
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does, does, does.
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Unstressed, very fast.
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Need’ is the main verb here.
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Does, does.
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What does he, what does he.
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Notice I’m dropping the H in ‘he’, as we often do.
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What does he need?
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Let’s listen to a few more sentences
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with ‘does’ and ‘do’:
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Why does it do that?
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Which one sounds fully pronounced, ‘does’ or ‘do’?
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Why does it do that? Why does, does, does.
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That’s not fully pronounced.
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Do that, do that.
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‘Do’ is fully pronounced.
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Do is the main verb,
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and ‘does’ is the helping verb, does.
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How do you feel?
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Is ‘do’ fully pronounced?
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How do you feel?
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No. It’s reduced.
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‘Feel’ is the main verb, and ‘do’ is the helping verb.
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Did you notice that every time ‘do’ and ‘does’
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were helping verbs, they were making questions?
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And every time they were main verbs,
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they were making statements.
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Actually, they can be in a statement
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as an auxiliary verb too,
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but in those cases they are being added for emphasis,
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and so they will be stressed.
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For example: I do like them.
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‘Like’ is the main verb,
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but we add ‘do’ to add emphasis.
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>> You don’t like them, do you?
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>> I do! I do like them.
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It does work.
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‘Work’ is the main verb,
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but we add ‘does’ for emphasis.
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>> This thing doesn’t work.
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>> It does work, you’re doing it wrong.
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So, if ‘do’ or ‘does’ are in a question,
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try to reduce them.
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Link them to the words around them,
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and make them really fast.
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I hope this video has helped you understand
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when and how you can use
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‘do’ and ‘does’ as helping verbs.
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If there’s a word or phrase you’d like help pronouncing,
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please put it in the comments below.
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Don’t forget to sign up for my mailing list
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by clicking here or in the description below
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to keep up with all of my latest videos
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– it’s free.
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That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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