10 Reductions for Natural English Pronunciation

Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Are you ready to improve your pronunciation

and your listening skills? Let's do it. One of the keys to understanding natural fast

English is to know more about reductions and linking that happen when native speakers are

speaking quickly. When you can understand these reductions, a whole new world opens

up to you, and you'll catch and hear words that you never heard before. Do you know another

benefit of improving your listening skills? Well, when you know those reductions, you

can improve your pronunciation too, because you can use them in real life. Are you ready

to talk about 10 common reductions in English? Actually, technically there are 14, because

ironically, I couldn't reduce this list to only 10.

In any case, a reduction means that there are some letters in common words that we just

don't say when we're speaking quickly. Native speakers don't talk like this. In fact, we

cut off sounds. We reduce sounds. We push words together, and that's what we're going

to be talking about today. So are you ready to get started with our first common reduction?

Let's do it. How is this word pronounced? Is it your? Occasionally,

you're going to hear that in slower English, but in fast English, you're going to hear

your. Your. I have your phone. Your boss called today. You could say, "I have your phone,"

but do you see how many more muscles that takes? Nah, let's reduce it and make it simpler

for your muscles and say, "I have your phone. I have your phone. Your boss called today."

Your. My mouth is hardly moving when I say this. Your boss. Your boss called today.

Make sure that you say all of these sample sentences with me during today's lesson, exercise

your speaking muscles, because at the end of this lesson, I'm going to be putting all

10 together in one big challenge sentence that I want you to be able to say. So practice

them step by step with me. Let's say those two sentences together. I have your phone.

I have your phone. Your boss called today. Your boss called today.

Let's move on to reduction number two. How do you say this word? Is it our? Our? You

might hear this in a slower, clearer speech, but in fast conversation it just sounds like

the letter R. Our. Our. He has our dog. He has our dog. Our car broke down. Our car broke

down. Our car broke down. Can you say those two sentences with me? Practice saying just

the letter R. Forget O and U, just say R. He has our dog. He has our dog. Our car broke

down. Our car broke down. The third reduction is actually these three

words, because they go together. Three different pronouns. Hmm, how can we say this sample

sentence? Should you say, "I have his phone. I have his phone." It's okay, I mean when

you're speaking clearly and maybe a little slowly, you might pronounce the H, but in

spoken fast English we're going to cut off the H and just say, I have his phone, I have

is phone. I have his phone. I have is phone. What about with her? I have her phone. I have

her phone. Er, er, the H is gone. I have her phone.

How about this sentence? Should you say, "I gave it to them? I gave it to them." It's

okay, I mean it's understandable, because you're saying every sound, but like the previous

two words, we're going to cut off that first sound and just say, "I gave it to them. Im,

Im, that T-H is gone. I gave it to them. I gave it to them.

Now I want to let you know that with his, her, and them, we're typically going to cut

off that first sound when there's other words before that pronoun. If you said, "His phone

is on the table," you're not going to cut out the H in his, because there's no words

before that. Instead, it's used to link with the previous words, but if there's no previous

words, then you need to say "His phone." But you can say, "I have his phone," because "I

have" comes before "his phone." I have his phone, I have his phone. If you'd like to

check out some more of these pronoun reductions, I made a video up here about how to speak

English fast, so you can check out some of those other tips. Before we go on to the next

reduction, let's say those three sentences together. I have his phone. I have his phone.

I have her phone. I have her phone. I gave it to them. I gave it to them. How did you

do? All right, let's go onto the next reduction. What about this contraction? This contraction

is two words put together, that's the definition of a contraction. They are creates they're.

Hm, is that the best, most reduced way to say it, they're? No. Instead, the Y is just

going to be kind of glossed over. We can say "They're. They're." The Y is a little bit

forgotten, and it sounds the same as T-H-E-I-R, or T-H-E-R-E. There. Look over there. There.

Let's look at this in a couple of sentences. I think they're coming in the mail. I think

they're coming in the mail. If you said, "I think they're, they're coming in the mail,"

with that clear Y sound, it's okay, but when native speakers speak quickly, you're not

going to hear that. You're going to hear, "I think they're coming in the mail. I think

they're. They're coming in the mail." Or, "They're eating all the cake. They're eating

all the cake." Now really, you're just going to have to pick up on context clues to know

if this is T-H-E-R-E, "Look over there," or if it is, "They're eating all the cake," because

the pronunciation is the same. They're eating all the cake, save some for me! They're. Let's

say those two sentences together. I think they're coming in the mail. I think they're

coming in the mail. They're eating all the cake. They're eating all the cake.

All right, let's go on to the next reduction. We have another contraction. Did plus not

creates this word. Should you say "Didn't? Didn't." Yeah, it's okay, it's clear. But

when native speakers are speaking quickly, you're not going to hear all of those sounds.

Instead, you're going to hear, wait for it, "Didn't. Didn't." It's really two cut-short

sounds: di-nn. And that "nn" is going to be in your throat. What in the world is happening

with this word? Well, first of all, the second D, did, did, we're going to just stop that

short in your throat. Di, di, di. The end is going to be pronounced nn, nn, but my tongue

is at the top of my mouth because I need to form that T sound without any air passing

through. Didn't, didn't, nn, nn. My tongue is at the top of my mouth, I didn't say "Didn't,"

I didn't make that final puff of air. Instead, my tongue is stopped at the top of my mouth.

Can you say that word just by itself with me? Didn't. Didn't. Didn't.

Let's put it in a sentence. He didn't know the answer. He didn't know the answer. Why

didn't you clean your room? Why didn't you clean your room? It's pretty essential to

know if this is a positive word, did, or a negative word, didn't, which is pronounced

di-nn, but it can be pretty hard to hear that final negative part, because the T is stopped

short in your mouth. So when you're used to hearing this reduction, hopefully after today's

lesson, you'll feel a little bit more comfortable picking up on if it's a positive sentence

or if it's a negative sentence. Let's say those two sentences together. He didn't know

the answer. He didn't know the answer. Why didn't you clean your room? Why didn't you

clean your room? Okay, let's go to the next one. Our next reduction

is this word. Should you say "That, that," with a clear "ah" sound? Well, in daily conversation

we often change that vowel sound to be an E. Theh, eh, eh. Notice how my tongue is flat

here. That, That, that. Let's look at some sentences. I think that it's sunny. I think

that it's sunny. I think theh, eh, eh, that it's sunny. You might hear, "I think that

it's sunny," but it's a little bit more difficult to create those muscles to make an "ah" sound.

I think that it's sunny. And instead reductions are using lazy, relaxed style pronunciation,

so we use an "eh" sound instead. I think that, I think that, eh, eh, let's go to the next

sentence. She told me that the test was easy. She told me that the test was easy. That,

eh, eh. She told me that the test was easy. Let's say those two sentences together. I

think that it's sunny. I think that it's sunny. She told me that the test was easy. She told

me that the test was easy. Okay, let's go on to our next reduction. What

about this lovely sentence? It's not exactly just one word that's reduced, but we often

say this whole sentence together, so I want to help you reduce it and understand all of

the different reductions for it, because in this situation there's not just one reduction,

there are multiple. The first one, the most clear is, I don't know. I don't know. Listen

carefully for the T sound, which makes this contraction negative. I don't know. Did you

hear it? Nope. Instead, my tongue is stopped at the top of my mouth, this is called a stopped

T, it happens all the time. We just talked about it a moment ago with didn't. And here

you're going to say, "I don't know." So your tongue is stopped at the top of your mouth

at the end of this word. You're not saying "I don't." Instead, just "I don't know. I

don't know." I don't know. I don't know. These reductions are going to gradually get more

and more casual. The next one is, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. What's the

weather like today? I don't know, I haven't gotten out of bed yet. I don't know. Or you

can cut off the D sound and say, "I don't know." I O know, I O know, I don't know. What's

the weather like? I don't know, I haven't gotten out of bed yet. I don't know.

But can we reduce this even further? Yes. You can just add three similar sounds and

say, "Uh-uh. Uh-uh." Unbelievably, every native speaker will absolutely understand if you

say, "Uh-uh." Especially if you do that kind of gesture with your shoulders. It means,

"I don't know," but you didn't say I, you didn't say don't, you didn't say know. You

just said, "Uh-uh, uh-uh." This is very casual, so don't say this to your boss. If he says,

"When's the project going to be finished?" "Uh-uh." You might lose your job. It's really

casual, it usually means "I don't care," too, "I'm kind of detached from this situation."

"What's the weather like today?" "Uh-uh, I'm sick today, don't ask me, uh-uh." You are

just moving your shoulders and using your intonation to say, "I don't know." Okay, let's

go back and practice all of these reductions together. I don't know. I don't know. I don't

know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. Uh-uh. Uh-uh.

All right, let's go on to our next reduction. Next we have this common word, and. And. Which

sound do you think we're going to cut out here? Well, there are two common reductions.

The first one is an, an. We're cutting out that final D. But we can also simply say N.

Just the letter N. N. Let's look at some sample sentences. He had cake and ice cream yesterday.

He had cake and ice cream yesterday. Here we're just saying A-N. He had cake an ice

cream yesterday. Do you see how that lets us link, an ice cream, an ice cream, instead

of and ice cream? You're just saying cake an ice cream. Cake an ice cream. To use simply

the letter N here, I feel like it doesn't sound completely different than an, but you

might hear people say, "He had cake N ice cream yesterday." He had cake N ice cream

yesterday. He had cake N ice cream yesterday. Let's look at another sentence. I bought bread

and eggs, oh, and some chocolate. Hmm. I bought bread and eggs. Oh, and some chocolate. In

all of these I'm using an. Notice how my mouth widens a little bit to say that A vowel. I

bought bread an eggs. Oh, and some chocolate. But if we want to say just N, N, you can say

I bought bread and eggs. Oh, N some chocolate. So my mouth isn't widening that much because

I'm not saying, "An," I'm just saying N. You've got two options. Let's say both of these sentences

together. He had cake and ice cream yesterday. He had cake and ice cream yesterday. I bought

bread and eggs. Oh, and some chocolate. I bought bread and eggs. Oh, and some chocolate.

Okay, let's go to our next reduction. Our next reduction is this word: to. But as

you can imagine, we don't say "to." Instead, there are two different ways that we can reduce

this. You could say to, ah, with an "ah" vowel. Or you can simply say t, t, just that T sound,

t. Let's look at some sentences. She gave a present to me. To me, to me. I'm just saying,

t plus me. To me. To me. She gave a present to me. She gave a present to me. She gave

a present to me. Do you see how fast that is? When you learn these reductions, you're

going to be able to hear those and hopefully eventually you'll be able to use them yourself,

but it's going to help you pick up on words and phrases that you didn't hear before because

maybe you were expecting someone to say, "She gave a present to me," to me, with that full

vowel, but instead we just say "She gave a present to me." To me, so short.

What about this sentence? It's polite to say thank you. It's polite to say thank you, to

say, to say. It's polite to say thank you. You might hear some people say "It's polite

to say," It's polite to say, to, to say, it's polite to say thank you, but I feel like it's

a little bit more common just to simply have t, t, to say. To me. It's polite to say thank

you. Let's say those two sentences together. She gave a present to me. She gave a present

to me. It's polite to say thank you. It's polite to say thank you. Great work. Let's

go on to our final reduction. Or is it our final reduction? Let's go.

The next reduction is this word or these two words together: going to, going to. There

are a lot of different ways that we can reduce this and because we talk about the future,

something that we're going to do in the future, a lot, this is a super common reduction. Let's

take a look at some sample sentences so that you can practice a couple of different ways

to reduce this. "I'm going to study this lesson." Okay. This

is every word very clear and very understandable, but native speakers don't speak like that.

So our first most common reduction is to say, "I'm gonna study this lesson." Going and to,

together, make gonna. The word to changes into just a. I'm gonna study this lesson.

I'm gonna study this lesson again because these are a lot of reductions and I feel like

I need to practice it again and again to actually understand them in daily conversation. Great.

I'm gonna practice this lesson. I'm gonna to study this lesson every day. What if you

wanted to say it even faster? What sound can we cut out? Well, cut out the G and say, I'm

unna study this lesson. I'm unna study this lesson. I'm unna study this lesson. I'm unna

study this lesson. What are you doing today? Oh, I think I'm unna study this lesson again.

I'm unna. I'm unna. Can we reduce this even further? Yes. The

answer is yes. We can always reduce things further, right? So we could say, I'm a study

this lesson. This one is less common, but you still will hear this. If someone says,

"Hey, what are you doing this afternoon?" "Oh, I think I'm a study this lesson a little

bit more." I'm a. It's not quite as common, but you're definitely gonna hear this occasionally.

The most common are I'm going to, with that clear G, or I'm unna, with the G cut out.

What about this sentence? "When are you going to go?" Yeah, it's okay, very clear, but not

quite so natural. You could say, "When are you gonna go?" When are you gonna go? When

are you gonna go? Or you could say really quickly, "When are you unna go?" I feel like

it's less common to cut out the G when you have you as the subject because that's a lot

of vowels together. You unna. You unna go. But you will occasionally hear that. It's

more common to use unna with I'm. I'm unna go. And when you have the word you, you can

stick with you. You gonna go. When are you gonna go? When are you gonna go?

Let's practice those two sentences together. I'm gonna study this lesson. I'm gonna study

this lesson. Let's say it without the G. I'm unna study this lesson. I'm unna study this

lesson. And our second sentence, when are you gonna go? When are you gonna go?

Before we go on to our big challenge sentence, I'd like to give you three bonus reductions

that I talked about up here in this lesson, but I felt like they needed to be included

in a reduction lesson as well. They are, want to, have to and have got to. Hmm. How can

we reduce those? Well, we just talked about gonna, so let's say, wanna, hafta, gotta.

Let's take a look at some sentences. I wanna study English. Want to are reduced to wanna.

I wanna study English. I hafta study English. Have and to are reduced to hafta. I hafta

study English. Or I have got to study English. This is really strong. That can be reduced

to I gotta study English. I gotta study English. Gotta. So here, we have wanna, hafta, gotta.

Can you say those sentences with me? I wanna study English. I wanna study English. I hafta

study English. I hafta study English. I gotta study English. I gotta study English. Great

work with all 10 or we could say 14 of these reductions.

Are you ready for a challenge sentence? Are your pronunciation muscles ready for a challenge

sentence? Let's look at this nice long sentence that uses all of the reductions we just talked

about. We're going to practice it a couple times and I hope that you can say it out loud

with me. Let's look at it. All of the keywords that we talked about are

in yellow, so make sure that you note those ones. Let's say this a little bit slowly at

first so that you can pick up on all of the things we talked about. I saw his note to

my husband, but I didn't know that your dog and cat were also gonna sleep in our house.

So we can imagine in this situation that someone is gonna spend the night at your house, but

they're also bringing their dog and their cat. Let's say this a little bit faster. I

saw his note to my husband, but I didn't know that your dog and cat were also gonna sleep

in our house. Let's say it one more time. I saw his note to my husband, but I didn't

know that your dog and cat were also gonna sleep in our house. How did you do with this

challenge sentence? I hope that it exercised your pronunciation muscles well.

And now, I have a question for you. Which one of these reductions was new for you? Let

me know in the comments. I'm curious to hear what you have to say. And of course, if this

was a lot to learn, feel free to go back and practice this lesson again. Thanks so much

for learning English with me and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here

on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download my free ebook,

Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker. You'll learn what you need to do

to speak confidently and fluently. Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more

free lessons. Thanks so much. Bye.