Do NOT say the T in N'T Contractions!

77,820 views ・ 2020-09-15

Rachel's English


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

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Contractions.
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You can't sound natural speaking American English if you never use contractions.
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We are out of bananas and milk.
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We're out of bananas and milk.
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We are out. That's not natural.
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We're out! That's natural.
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Today, we're going to work on accent training when it comes to contractions
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and we're going to focus specifically on one kind: N apostrophe T contractions.
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These are the ‘not’ contractions and there are a lot of them,
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and three different ways to pronounce them.
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Actually, four.
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Do you know all of them?
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We're going to go over everything to make sure you know the most natural pronunciations,
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so as you learn English, you'll learn the best spoken English.
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And then we'll quiz you to make sure you get it.
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As always, if you like this video, or you learned something new,
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please like and subscribe with notifications.
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First, let me name all of the N apostrophe T contractions that we have in English,
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then we'll go over all the different ways they can be pronounced.
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We have: isn't, aren't, wasn't, weren't, haven't, hasn't, hadn't,
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won't, don't, didn't, doesn't, wouldn't, couldn't, shouldn't, and can't.
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That's a lot, isn't it?
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First we're going to take don't as our study word.
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Do not. Don't.
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Don't do that.
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Don't say that.
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Don't follow me.
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Don't cry.
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The pronunciation you probably learned for these words is: don't,
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which is what I was just saying when I listed the words, don't, with a full T sound.
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That's actually the least common pronunciation.
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A more common pronunciation is what I did in those sample sentences, don't cry.
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And that's a stop T. Don't. Don't. Don't cry.
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It's not that it's dropped, that would be don--, but it's: don't, don't, that abrupt stop of air,
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that signifies us the stop T, we just don't release it. Don't. Don't. Don't cry. Don't bother.
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Let's go to Youglish and look at an example of the phrase: don't bother, with a stop T.
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Don't bother. Don't bother.
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Do you hear that stop? It's not: don't bother,
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and it's also not: don bother. It's: don't bother.
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We would never say it: don't bother, unless we were really exaggerating.
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Don't bother.
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It's a stop. Don't, don't, don't bother.
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Let's look at: don't do.
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Do you hear that stop T?
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Don’t do-- So clear. Don't do.
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Can you do that?
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Can you stop the air? Don't do.
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Don't do. Don't do it.
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So the true T, almost never done.
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The stop T, very common.
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But you know what else is common?
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Dropping the T sound completely. No T at all, no stop, just the N.
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We already looked at don't bother with a stop T.
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Now let's look at an example with a dropped T.
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Don—bother. Right from the N to the B with no stop, no break, no T.
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This is another common pronunciation.
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Let's look at three examples of: ‘don't need’ with a stop T, and three with no T.
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First, the stop T.
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Now, with no T sound at all. A dropped T.
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By the way, I’m going to the website Youglish here.
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You can type in any phrase and get a lot of examples of places where these phrases pop up on YouTube.
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When should you drop the N?
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And when should you not drop the N?
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You know, there are no rules here. You can do either one.
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Whether the next sound is a consonant, don't mean, or don't mean, or a vowel, don't even, or don't even.
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You'll hear examples of both.
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Here are some phrases where I’m going to drop the T.
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I don't even know.
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I won't even be here.
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Dropped T.
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Another common pronunciation of N apostrophe T contractions.
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That leaves us with one more pronunciation: CH.
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When a word that ends in a T is followed by the word ‘you’ or ‘your’ or this ‘you’re’,
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we sometimes make that T a CH sound when we link.
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Don't you think so? Don't you, don't you, ch—
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Do you hear that CH? Don't you?
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The N is still there, but the T is now a CH sound.
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Won't your boss be upset? Won't your— ch ch ch-- won't your—
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Now, we're going to look at ‘don't you’ three ways:
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with a CH, with a stop T, and dropped.
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Now, we're going to quiz you.
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The more you understand what you're hearing, not just the words, but
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how the words are pronounced and used in a sentence,
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the more natural you'll sound when you're speaking English.
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So you'll hear a contraction, you'll figure out which of the four pronunciations you hear.
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First, it'll be a little bit easier. You'll hear each example three times:
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once at regular pace, once in slow motion,
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and once again, at regular pace.
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We'll go over the answers at the end of the video.
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This is a 10-question quiz.
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And now, a quiz that's a little tougher.
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You'll hear each example twice but no slow motion version.
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Now, let's check your answers.
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You'll hear each segment five times with the answer on screen.
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See if you can hear the right T pronunciation and hear how they're all different.
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Maybe repeat out loud the last couple of times.
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Try out these different pronunciations to sound more natural.
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Now, a great exercise for you to do is take one of the words, and add one more word to it, like: isn't it?
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Or isn't that? Then go to Youglish, plug it in, and just hit that next arrow over and over,
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listening to 10, maybe 20 examples.
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You'll notice a lot of stop T's, and a lot of dropped T's,
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and it's a great way to get native-like pronunciations of these contractions.
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Don't rely on what you learned before. What you learned was isn't, isn't, but it's isn't, stop T, that's right.
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I make new videos on the English language every Tuesday here on YouTube,
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all aimed at helping you sound more natural and be more confident speaking American English.
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Please subscribe with notifications and keep your studies up right now with this next video.
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Also check out my academy if you really want to focus step by step on improving your spoken English.
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Rachel’s English Academy.
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That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English!
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