How to Speak FAST in ENGLISH | The 15 Most Common Reductions

Hmmm… what to listen to next…

Hey Siri. Play “I’ve got a feeling.”

You might be thinking, “why didn’t she just type  it into her device?”. Sure, that would have been  

so much easier. But what I was demonstrating  is that there is a huge difference in how  

we write certain words or phrases and how  those words actually sound when we speak. 

Many English learners want to pronounce  each word clearly, to get the pronunciation  

perfect – which is not a bad goal to have, but  most native English speakers don’t do this.

We use reductions all the time in TV, movies,  music and in daily conversations. These reduced  

words are often said very quickly and flow  into each other so their pronunciation changes.

You might not have been taught this in school,  but one of the best ways to improve your English  

fluency is to practice with reductions as  this will help you speak more naturally and  

understand spoken English more easily. So our lesson today will focus on 15 of  

the most common reductions and how to use them. Most of them are in the Top 100 most common words  

in the English language, so it’s definitely useful  to know them. At the end of the lesson, we’ll show  

how these reductions can be grouped into 8 easy  to remember categories, so they’re easy to learn.

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First, it is important to know the difference  between reductions and contractions.

Contractions, like reductions, are a  shortened form of a combination of words.  

However, with contractions we usually use an  apostrophe (‘) to represent the missing letters  

as in They Are becomes  They’re, We Have becomes We’ve.

Where reductions are considered informal,  

meaning they’re not really appropriate  for business or academic discussions. 

Contractions are acceptable in both formal and  casual conversations. Native speakers often use  

both contractions and reductions in the same  sentence and this can make it sound as if we’re  

speaking really fast but actually, we’re just  leaving out certain sounds and connecting others.

As I go through the list of common reductions,  it’s a great opportunity for you to practice your  

listening skills. Also, see if you can hear which  words are contractions and which ones are reduced.

Alright, so first we’ll look  at single word reductions:

Since we’ve just covered the difference  between reductions and contractions,  

I thought it would be great to look at a  contraction that can also be further reduced.

When a word ending in “nt” links with a word  beginning with a vowel sound, the final “t”  

is silent. So won’t becomes won’. For example:  “She won-apologize, even though she was wrong”.

The reduced form of the word you  is ya. As in, “How’ve ya been?” 

Could you hear that the vowels  in you become a schwa sound? 

If you’re sending an informal text, it is very  common to use the reduced spelling as well.

If the word you comes after a word  that ends in “nt”, the sounds merge  

and the ya becomes a cha. As in,  “Why doncha go home? Ya look sick.”

When we say the word for, it is pronounced fer.  For example: “My sister bought this fer me.” 

Note that, if you’re using this word in written  form, you should not change the spelling.  

Also, don’t use this reduction  when referring to the number four.

With words ending in -ing we often  pronounce them without the “g”  

sound so they become, somethin or nothin.  For example: “I’ve got somethin for ya.”

The next three reductions are really short, so  listen closely or you might actually miss them:

This is already a very short word, but we  change the word to, and it usually sounds like  

tuh. So you could say, “I’m goin  tuh the beach tomorrow”. Again,  

you need to reduce the “g” sound  at the end of the word going.

This is certainly one of the shortest  reductions on our list today. When reduced,  

the word and is replaced with an en sound. For  example: “I like peanut butter-en-jam sandwiches”

The words of and are, become uh when  reduced. So all you hear is the schwa sound.  

For example: “He is the typ-a guy who loves  adventure.” and “When-a ya goin home?”

When a word ending in “t” is followed  by a word beginning with a consonant,  

the final “t” of the first word is often silent  or sounds like a “d”. So but would simply be buh. 

For example: “He likes Winter,  buh-dee-doesn’t enjoy the rain”. 

Or “I jus’ realized thad- I-  lef my keys in the restaurant.”

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Okay, so when we reduce the word them, the  “th” sound is silent and all we hear is  

‘em. As in “I love this band, but  I haven’t seen ‘em in concert yet”.

These are words where in their reduced  form, the first two letters fall away.  

So because becomes ‘cause. and until becomes ‘til.  

For example: “He's not goin’ out tonight  ‘cause he has to work ‘til midnight.”

Now, we’ll have a look at reductions that  consist of several words. You will notice  

that many of these reductions are connected to  the words we’ve covered earlier in the lesson.

This is probably one of the most common  reductions on our list. Do you remember when  

we spoke about words ending in -ing losing the  “g” sound? And we spoke about to becoming Tuh?  

Well, this is a combination of those,  but two additional things happen. 

The vowel sound is further reduced, so the  “i” in Goin disappears and becomes Gon. 

And tuh simply becomes a.  

This is important to remember as it will apply to  other reductions we will see later in the lesson. 

When a reduction includes the word to, we usually  repeat the last consonant of the word before to.

So in this case, going to is  reduced to gonn + a = gonna.  

For example: “He said he was gonna do it today.” 

Very often, gonna is further reduced to  unna, which means that the “g” falls away,  

and we only pronounce the schwa “uh” + nna as  in “I’m-unna let you know the results tomorrow”.

Music is one of the best ways to become  familiar with reduction in English. Do you  

have a favorite English song? Let us know down  in the comments. We’d love to hear from YOU.

As mentioned earlier, when reduced, words  ending in -nt lose the “t” sound. Also,  

when a reduction includes the word to, we usually  repeat the last consonant of the word before to. 

So, want becomes wann. Then we add  the reduced form of “to” which is “a”

Therefore, want to changes  to wanna. So we would say,  

“I really wanna go to the beach this weekend.”

The words should have, could have and would have  are often reduced to shoulda, coulda and woulda.  

Similar to the reduction of the word of,  the word have is reduced to the schwa sound,  

a. For example: “She coulda gone to the  party, but she woulda got into trouble.”

When we reduce give me, the -ve at the end  of give falls away so all we hear is gi. So  

when we say the two words together, we  add an additional m sound to make gimme.  

As in, “Could ya gimme a hand with my bags?”

When we reduce let me, we use the reduction  we previously discussed, which is when a word  

ends in “t” and is followed by a word beginning  with a consonant, the final “t” of the first word  

is usually silent. So all that remains of let is  le. When we combine this with me, we have lemme.  

“On my birthday, my friend wouldn’t lemme  see the gift she bought until after dinner.”

The final reduction on our list is one that  hopefully, after watching our RealLife English  

lessons, you won't have to use often  when you’re asked questions in English. 

So when we reduce don’t, similar to  the previous explanation, the “t”  

sound falls away. The “o” in don’t  takes the schwa sound, so we only hear  

dun. In the word know, the letters “k”  and “w” fall away and we’re left with no. 

When we add these together, we get dunno. As in,  “I dunno when I last saw a movie at the cinema.”

Today we looked at 15 of the most common  reductions and how you can use them.

Do you remember all of them? 

Well, here’s a quick summary of the  groups of reductions we covered today.

I hope that this lesson has made you feel more  

comfortable and confident using  reductions when speaking English.

If you enjoyed this lesson, please like and  share this video with anyone who is learning  

English. But before you go, check  out this next video on Modal Verbs: