Speak English Fluently | Pronunciation – the word THEM | Pronunciation Guide

Rachel: In this American English pronunciation video, you're going to visit my cousin Brad's

farm.

You’ll learn reductions like the reduction of the word them and how 'want to' becomes

'wanna'.

You'll hear the phrase "a lot of' pronounced 'a lotta'.

And you'll hear an example of the reduction of because and you are.

Rachel: So Brad, how often do you feed 'em?

Brad: Twice a day.

Sorry about the wind here, guys.

Here was our first reduction.

Did you hear it?

The reduction of THEM.

It’s really common to drop the TH in this word and change the vowel to the schwa.

When you do this reduction, make sure you link it on to the word before.

There should be no break between words.

“Feed them” becomes “feed ‘em”, feed 'em in conversational English.

Feed ‘em.

It’s like an unstressed syllable at the end of “feed”.

Rachel: So Brad, how often do you feed 'em?

So Brad, how often do you feed 'em?

So Brad, how often do you feed 'em?

Brad: Twice a day.

Twice a day.

Let’s look at this short sentence to study stress.

Do you notice that some words are longer and some are shorter?

They’re all one-syllable long, but “twice” and “day” are much longer than “a”.

They have an up-down intonation: Day, day.

“A” is flat and said very quickly.

It's unstressed.

The other two words are stressed.

This contrast between stressed and unstressed is important in American English.

If everything was stressed and longer, it would sound more like this: twice a day.

Twice a day.

That’s not normal English.

Twice a day.

Brad: Twice a day.

Twice a day.

Twice a day.

Have you ever seen a cockfight Brad?

Brad: No, I don't want to.

Do they have 'em around here?

Did you hear another “them” reduction in that small conversation?

Listen again.

Do they have 'em around here?

Do they have ‘em around here?

Here the word ‘them’ refers to “cockfights”.

It's the plural pronoun and it's pronounced “em”.

Linked to the word before, it sounds like “have ‘em, have ‘em”.

Do they have 'em around here?

Do they have 'em around here?

Do they have 'em around here?

Yeah! a lot of guys from Washburn got arrested a couple of years ago for big cockfight ring.

Big, big betting?

Yeah.

Rachel: So you guys had a lot of rain you were saying?

Here was another reduction: of.

A lotta rain.

The phrase “a lot of” is common in American English, and it’s common to change the word

“of” to “uh”, a lotta.

Notice what happens to the T: it changes to a Flap sound because it comes between two

vowels.

That helps link the two words together.

A lotta.

Only “lot” is stressed here, the two other words are unstressed.

Uh uh uhlotta, uhlotta.

Try that.

A lotta.

Rachel: So you guys had a lotta rain you were saying?

So you guys had a lotta rain you were saying?

So you guys had a lotta rain you were saying?

Oh, it's been terrible!

Brad: You wanna play with 'em?

This wind is making it a little hard to hear, but did you hear what my cousin said?

Brad: You wanna play with 'em?

You wanna play with 'em?

You wanna play with ‘em?

There’s the “them” reduction again, referring to the chickens.

With ‘em, with ‘em, with ‘em.

He also reduced “want to” to “wanna”.

This is really common, Americans do it all the time in spoken English.

It’s not improper English.

You wanna play with ‘em?

Brad: You wanna play with ‘em?

You wanna play with ‘em?

You wanna play with ‘em?

Rachel: No I'd..

Brad: Okay, you can grab ‘em out of there and play with 'em.

Rachel: You can grab ‘em out of there.

Another them reduction!

Grab ‘em, grab ‘em.

Brad: You can grab ‘em out, You can grab ‘em out, You can grab ‘em out of there and play with 'em if you want.

Rachel: No, I do not wanna hold one of those.

I just used the “wanna” reduction.

Did you hear it?

I do not wanna hold, I do not wanna hold, I do not wanna hold one of those.

Rachel: It's huge!

How much does that cow weigh?

About 1400 pounds.

Rachel: Wow, 1400.

Weigh.

This is a homophone.

That means it sounds exactly the same as another word.

Do you know what word is?

“Weigh” is pronounced just like “way”. Way.

Different word, different meaning, different spelling, but same pronunciation.

We have a lot of homophones in American English.

Click here to see a video I made about homophones.

Rachel: It's huge!

How much does that cow weigh?

About 1400 pounds.

Rachel: Wow, 1400.

Yeah,

Rachel: Hey Ian.

Ian: Hey.

(laughing)

Rachel: No, that's not how you said it.

You said "I sold 3 of 'em."

I sold 3 of 'em before we went into winter.

Because I knew I was gonna be short on feed.

Here, my cousin is talking about his cows, and I made him say it again so I could get

it on camera.

Do you hear the THEM reduction?

I sold 3 of 'em

Three of ‘em.

Three of ‘em.

Try that.

Three of ‘em.

I sold 3 of 'em.

I sold 3 of 'em.

I sold 3 of 'em before we went into winter.

Because I knew I was gonna be short on feed.

Good job.

Rachel: I don't think I was meant to be a farmer.

You wanna feed 'em Ian?

You just heard two reductions that we’ve already learned in this video.

What are they?

Rachel: You wanna feed 'em Ian?

You wanna feed 'em Ian?

“Wanna” and “em”.

Do you want to feed them.?

You wanna feed 'em?

I dropped the word DO, turned “want to” into “wanna”, and used the “them”

reduction.

You wanna feed ‘em, Ian?

Ian is my brother.

Rachel: You wanna feed 'em Ian?

You wanna feed 'em Ian?

You wanna feed 'em Ian?

Cows spend lot of time in there.

Rachel: Who?

The cows do.

Rachel: Oh, uhuh.

Rachel's Dad: Do you uh, keep 'em in there during the winter?

My Dad made the “them” reduction too!

Did you hear it?

Rachel's Dad: Do you uh, keep 'em in there during the winter?

keep 'em in there during the winter?

keep 'em in there during the winter?

Keep ‘em in there.

Keep ‘em, keep ‘em, just add that unstressed syllable to the end of the word before.

Keep 'em.

My dad also dropped the T in “winter”. It became 'winner'.

Did you notice that?

Rachel's Dad: keep 'em in there during the winter? during the winter? during the winter?

keep 'em in there during the winter?

Actually, I noticed my cousin Brad did this earlier too.

Did you notice?

Winter became winner.

Brad: Before we went in to winter.

Before we went in to winter.

Before we went in to winter.

Americans sometimes drop the T when it comes after an N. “Winter” sounds like ”winner”.

Other common examples of this: center, interview, international, internet.

Rachel's Dad: keep 'em in there during the winter or do they still go out somewhere?

Brad: They go outside.

They, they're actually outside even when it's snowing.

Because when I come to feed 'em, they have snow on their backs.

Rachel's Dad: Oh.

Because when I come to feed ‘em.

THEM reduction, also, my cousin Brad reduced “because”.

It became “cuz”, cuz,.

Cuz when I. Cuz when I.

Brad: Cuz when I come to feed 'em, Cuz when I come to feed 'emCuz when I come to feed

'em, they have snow on their backs.

Rachel's Dad: Oh.

Rachel: Brad thanks for showing me your farm.

Brad: You're welcome!

You’re welcome.

This is a really common phrase.

We don’t say “you are”, you are welcome.

we don’t generally say “you’re” fully pronounced, but we reduce it.

Yer, yer.

You’re welcome.

You’re welcome.

Brad: You're welcome!

You're welcome!

You're welcome!

You studied a lot of reductions today.

Reductions are a part of natural spoken English, but I don’t recommend using them in writing.

It’s not professional.

But please, please, use them when you speak.

It will sound great!

Did you like learning this way?

Click here to see more real life English videos.

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

Great, thank you.

Rachel's Dad: Your head wasn't in the square.