How Natives Really Speak: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

14,995 views ・ 2017-02-28

RealLife English


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

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Aww yeah, RealLifers, what is going on?
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Today I have a really awesome and exciting lesson on COULDA, WOULDA, and SHOULDA!
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So COULDA, WOULDA, and SHOULDA, are actually the contractions of the contractions of
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COULD HAVE, WOULD HAVE, and SHOULD HAVE.
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"Could Have” contracts into “Could’ve” and “Coulda.”
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“Should have” becomes “Should’ve” and “Shoulda.”
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And “Would Have” becomes “Would’ve” and “Woulda.”
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Now while many people will tell you this is totally colloquial, slang, not correct,
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we actually use this in everyday language, we use this in presentations,
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in all formal and informal English situations.
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You cannot, however, use this in formal writing.
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It’s okay to use SHOULDA, COULDA, and WOULDA in informal text messages or chats.
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So Coulda, Woulda, and Shoulda, or also the pronunciation of “Could Have” “Would
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Have” and “Should Have” are used across the English language in a variety of senses,
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but today to start with I wanted to focus on COULDA, WOULDA, SHOULDA as an expression.
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This expression really helps us understand why Shoulda, Coulda, and Woulda are known
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as the modals of lost opportunity.
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We all know people who need to hear this expression.
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The people who always lament or complain or cry about lost opportunities.
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They imagine their lives in what “COULDA been” in what “SHOULDA been,”
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in what “WOULDA been,” the people who always live life in terms of thinking
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about lost opportunities, who always live in the hypothetical, who always say, “oh,
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I could have done better if I had studied harder,” or “I should have done this,”
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or “if I had only known, I would have done this.”
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So “Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda” is more like “you know, Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda, but
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you didn’t- so let’s get down to action, let’s change our lives now.”
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Okay now let’s look at the crazy pronunciation of “Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda.”
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How do we get COULDA from “Could’ve” or SHOULDA from “Should’ve” or WOULDA
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from “Would’ve”- or what about “A-LOT-A” from A LOT OF.
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Well, the truth is this is a rule, it’s a tendency, it’s a pattern that happens
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across all native, American, especially, connected speech.
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Okay, so the pattern is, whenever we have the “UV" (sound) which is present in the word OF,
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or the ‘VE contraction with HAVE on many words, like COULD'VE, it’s reduced to “A,”
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and you see this in COULDA, from COULD’VE, or WOULDA from WOULD’VE, or SHOULDA from
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SHOULD’VE, but you also see this in other words, like for example, A LOT OF becomes
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“A LOT A,” ONE OF THESE becomes “ONE A THESE.”
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I’M OUT OF HERE becomes “I’M OUTA HERE.”
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Okay, if that wasn’t crazy enough, things are about to get really crazy with the negative
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forms of WOULD NOT HAVE, SHOULD NOT HAVE, and COULD NOT HAVE
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which become WOULD’NA, SHOULD’NA, and COULD’NA.
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So to understand how you can take COULD NOT HAVE and make it COULD’NA, you have to understand
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how this reduces, how this contracts on different levels.
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On the first level, COULD NOT HAVE, you can easily make this into a contraction.
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I COULDN’T’VE.
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I COULDN’T’VE.
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If you look at COULDN’T’VE, you have that NT contraction, which is similar to, for example,
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how native speakers use INTERNET, and how we reduce that to INNERNET, so COULDN’T’VE
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easily becomes COULDN’VE and as I was just explaining with WOULDA, COULDA, and SHOULDA,
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the ‘VE sound is often reduced to “A,” so COULDN’VE easily becomes COULDN’A,
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so in this sense all of these contractions, it’s the same thing.
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The pronunciation on this one is not as simple as SHOULDA, COULDA, and WOULDA, but let me
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actually give you some examples now for you to practice and imitate me.
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So, for example:
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I WOULDN’A DONE THAT
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YOU SHOULDN’A DONE THAT
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HE COULDN’A DONE THAT
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Aww yeah, I hope you enjoyed that lesson.
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On a final note, I really wanna encourage you to open your ears and open your perception
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to the way that native speakers really speak- in the TV shows, the movies, the music you
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listen to, and these youtube videos.
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Notice how we cut our words, how we connect them, how we reduce them.
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This is much different than we learn in the grammar books, and it’s gonna constantly change.
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So liberate yourself from the way that you expect native speakers to speak, and have
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fun paying attention and open your mind to the way that we really do speak in real life.
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If you DUG (enjoyed) this lesson, I really encourage you to give it a like, give it a
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share, and if you find this channel valuable, subscribe- it really helps us get the word out.
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Also, if you wanna go deeper into some of these awesome pronunciation lessons then we
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have a really great awesome 3 part mini-course using some really dynamic hilarious friends scenes
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to teach you exactly what we learned today.
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Aww yeah!
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