Do NOT say TO like TOO or TWO!

Native speakers think they know how they say this word.

And what about these?

To

Two

Too

Okay.

They say this word sounds like this word and this word.

They’re wrong.

99% of the time, Americans do not say ‘to’ for this word.

I’m going to show you how native speakers actually say this word, there are a couple

of different ways, and learning and using this reduction is going to help my non-native

students learning English sound more natural speaking English.

It’s also going to help you simplify so you can match the pace of fast, native English.

This is one of those things where native speakers swear they pronounce a word a certain way,

but they totally don’t.

Yes, I’m looking at you, native speaker of American English.

So, how is this word actually pronounced in spoken English?

I asked my friends John and Amanda, who just said this word was pronounced ‘to’, to

make up a sentence with the word in it.

We’re going to the playground.

I’m going to the playground too.

Yes!

Look at that.

I love this so much.

Native speakers out there are probably going, what, what’s the problem?

Neither of them pronounced this word ‘to’.

Amanda said tuh, tuh.

We’re going to the playground.

Tuh, tuh.

Let’s hear it in slow motion.

We’re going to the playground.

Tuh.

Not to.

If it was pronounced ‘to’, the way they said it was pronounced, the sentence would

be ‘we’re going to the playground.’

Now you might think, who cares?

This is a minor difference.

“We’re going [tu] the playground.”

versus “We’re going [tə] the playground.”

But actually, English has a lot of words like this.

Words whose pronunciation will change in a sentence.

They’re called reductions, and spoken English is full of them.

If it was just one word every once in a while, it probably wouldn’t matter.

But most sentences in spoken English have a reduction, if not more than one.

And so never pronouncing reductions really does affect the overall sound of speech.

It sounds more robotic, less natural, more choppy, even though students are taught “this

word is pronounced TO”..

Also, when you understand reductions as a non-native English speaker, it can really

help with listening comprehension.

When my students start using reductions regularly, it does transforms how they sound speaking

English.

If you want to know more about the OO vowel like in TOO and the schwa, like in this reduction,

download my free Sounds of American English cheat sheet here or in the video description.

It’s a quick reference guide that helps you quickly see the right tongue position.

Okay.

So today we’re going to go over different examples of To, how it’s actually pronounced in a sentence,

and I’m going to show you all sorts of native speakers using these reductions in conversational

English, interviews, major presentations.

The TO reduction is correct in all spoken English from major business meetings to chatting

with a friend.

Also, how are these two words pronounced in conversation?

We’ll cover all of this.

Let’s go back to John’s sentence.

I’m going to the playground too.

I love this because he used this TO and this TOO in the same sentence.

But now let’s listen in slow motion.

They are not pronounced the same.

They’re not TO and TOO.

I’m going to the playground too.

Going-duh-the.

So Amanda said ‘tuh’ in her sentence’.

Now John is saying ‘duh’.

Going duh.

Duh, duh, duh.

Going-duh-the, going-duh-the, going-duh-the.

Listen again

Going to the playground too.

“Tuh” and “duh” are the two reductions we use for TO.

But, depending on how this word links into the word before, it might even sound like

there’s no consonant.

I’ll talk more about that in a second.

How did John pronounce this word, TOO?

I’m going to the playground too.

Too.

So these words, TOO and TWO, don’t change in a sentence.

They’re still going to be TOO.

But this word TO will almost always change in a sentence.

But most English learners are taught these are all TO.

The thing is, we’re almost never pronouncing a word by itself.

We’re almost always speaking in sentences.

So to think this word is TO is not really useful, even though that is its full pronunciation.

In a sentence, we reduce it.

Here are four examples, not me, but other native speakers not thinking at all about

pronunciation.

They’re all going to say ‘tuh’.

Keep in mind it’s not tuuuuhhhh.

But tuh.

Very short.

We didn’t tell you everything you might have needed to make a decision.

Needed tuh.

Needed to make--

Next sentence.

It took me years to figure out what actually happened.

Years tuh,

Years tuh--

Sentence 2 “years to figure”

Next sentence

I got into it because I wanted to help people feel better.

To help, tuh.

Because I wanted to help--

Last example

It’s how I train my mind to be unconventional and to be creative.

Two examples there.

Mind to be, tuh, and to be creative, tuh, tuh

It’s how I train my mind to be unconventional and to be creative.

Definitely some people are going to comment here “You are teaching lazy English!

This is WRONG!”

I beg to differ.

This spoken English.

Most people just don’t notice they do it, that they use reductions.

I’m going to ask my parents now.

My dad is a retired professor in the college of Business at the University of Florida,

and my mom a retired librarian and curator of a special collection at the University

of Florida.

Both smart, educated people, native speakers of English.

My first question.

Dad, this is for you.

How do you pronounce these words?

To, too and two.

Do you do the same mom?

Yes.

Isn’t that funny?

The pronunciation we teach isn’t the one we actually use on a regular basis.

In their sentences, they both used the ‘duh’ pronunciation.

I’m going to the store to buy groceries.

We’re going to Gainesville today.

Going-duh, going-duh.

Now let’s see some examples of other native speakers naturally using the ‘duh’ pronunciation.

You might use the ‘duh’ pronunciation if the word before ends in a vowel or diphthong,

or a voiced consonant like M. Will you come “duh” the party?

Come to, come to, come to the party?

I’ve noted the continued importance of paying attention to children.

Attention ‘duh’.

Duh.

Attention to children.

We’ve cut down veteran’s unemployment by more than half, down to 4.2 percent--

Down duh.

Duh.

Down to 4.2--

Next example

How did you get them altogether and play nice so to speak

So duh.

So duh speak.

So to speak.

If you feel any stress about there being two different reductions of ‘to’, just stick

with “tuh”.

Make it fast, link it into the words around it, it will sound great.

Now, if the word before ends in T, you’ll just want to make one T sound, not two.

For example, “I thought to myself” – THOUGHT ends in a T. TO begins – we link with a

single T. So it can feel like we’re also dropping the T in ‘to’ and just linking

the schwa to the end of the word ‘thought.’

I thought to myself, thought tuh, thought tuh.

This also happens with words that end in D. Because one of the pronunciations is ‘duh’,

with a D sound, you can link the two words together, so it sounds like you’re just

adding a schwa to the word before.

A really common example is with the verb ‘need’.

You don’t need to do that.

Neeeeeduh.

One d sound linking the two words.

You don’t need ‘duh’.

You don’t need to do that.

Now we can’t talk about the TO reduction without talking about gonna, wanna, gotta.

Three phrases with a ‘to’ reduction built in.

GOING TO becomes ‘gonna’.

WANT TO becomes ‘wanna’.

GOT TO becomes ‘gotta’.

You should never write these reductions in formal writing, but it is okay to use them

in spoken English, even in more formal contexts.

I’m going to give you a few quick examples of each in more formal settings, like an interview

or giving a talk or presentation.

These people are not just chatting with friends, and even in these more formal settings, these

reductions are used.

First Gonna.

You’re gonna spend 800 dollars.

The first thing I’m gonna do is look up who I’m buying from.

It’s gonna be much easier for people to engage with.

Gonna!

Natural spoken English.

Now ‘gotta’.

And I’ve gotta say I’m still at it 40 years later.

We gotta get out of the crisis mentality.

You gotta make sure there's a strategy you can turn to.

Gotta.

That’s a Flap T, goooott, tt, tt, gotta.

The tongue just bounces on the roof of the mouth.

Gotta.

Now wanna.

In both ‘gonna and ‘wanna’ the T totally disappears, doesn’t it?

Some of us don’t want to think back to our childhoods,

So I want to share with you some things that I’ve found,

Ok, now, for all my non-native speakers of American English out there, who are working

on their accents, and interested in playing with this TO reduction, let’s give you a

small training session.

You know, you learn a concept like this, and you get it, and you might start to hear it,

but to change your habit, to reduce ‘to’ in a sentence naturally, without having to

think about it, takes time.

Changing a physical habit doesn’t happen overnight.

And actually training, to change pronunciation habits, is a huge part of my online school,

Rachel’s English Academy, where we have all the materials you need to train, as well

as teachers to give you feedback on your training.

If you’re interested, please do check out RachelsEnglishAcademy.com

Now let’s get to it.

You’re going to hear a sentence.

Then we’re going to break it down.

Notice if it’s True T or not.

Notice how fast it is, we’ll try, in the audio, to isolate just the reduction of the

word ‘to’.

You’ll hear it five times in a row, repeat each time.

Just focus on what you hear and matching that exactly, not what you think the word should

sound like.

Then we’re going to build that word back into the sentence.

So you’ll hear just the reduction and either the word before or after, and so on.

Each time, you’ll listen and repeat five times.

This is training, after all.

You’re going to have to simplify your mouth movements to do this.

You’re going to have to give up trying so hard, give up thinking so much about the mouth

positions and sounds, and just let your body take over.

Just let it be pure sound imitation, the way a kid learns.

Here we go.

I forgot to lock up.

To

Forgot to

It’ll be good to see you.

To

Good to

I’m about to leave.

To

About to

It’s a long way to go.

To

Way to

You’re about to find out.

to

About to

I love exploring language like this and helping my students reach their full potential through

English speaking confidence.

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Keep your learning going now with this video.

I love being your English teacher.

That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.