UNDERSTAND NATIVE ENGLISH: How English Really Sounds!

Well, hey there, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.

Today we are going to practise saying ten of the most common

English words.

Now of course, I'll show you how to pronounce them correctly,

but even better,

how native speakers actually pronounce these words

naturally when they speak.

So this lesson is going to help you to understand

fast talking native English speakers,

but it will also help you to sound more relaxed

as you begin to speak English fluently.

But to do that I need you to practise with me out loud.

Can you do that?

When I say the most common words in English,

I'm talking about the ones that occur most frequently.

And in English, these are function words,

the words that exist to make our sentences

grammatically correct,

articles, prepositions, pronouns,

and even some really simple verbs that we use every day.

Now because they are so common and they're used so often,

native English speakers use them quite quickly

and very efficiently when we say them,

which means that the pronunciation of a

word that you learned from a dictionary

or from your English teacher

may not be exactly how it sounds when spoken

at a natural pace by a native English speaker.

Let's get started with at.

Now, sometimes you will hear this word stressed.

At.

You need to be here at three o'clock.

And by stressing at in that sentence, I'm adding emphasis.

I'm making the meaning stronger.

You need to be here exactly at three o'clock,

not before, not after, at three.

But most of the time when you hear this word, it's unstressed.

It's not stressed.

And that strong vowel sound

reduces to a schwa.

I'll meet you at the car.

I'll pick you up at eight.

The verb do conjugates, doesn't it?

So it can be do or does depending on the subject.

What you need to remember is that when do is the main verb

in our sentence. It's usually stressed.

I do it often.

But as an auxiliary verb,

it's helping the main verb in our sentence

and then it becomes a grammatical word. It usually

reduces down.

Do you want to come?

Try it.

If you're using does instead of do, it also reduces.

Does becomes...

Does she need to see it?

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As a pronoun,

you can be stressed when we need to clarify

who is doing something.

I didn't ask you. I asked her!

But we don't always emphasise you. Often you just hear it as..

Do you know who did it?

I'll meet you there.

As can be stressed as well.

I guess it didn't take as long as last time!

But usually this is an unstressed word,

so it sounds more like...

So again, we're using our

schwa sound for that unstressed vowel sound.

It wasn't as hard as I thought.

Try it now.

Now there is a pattern to look for here and more importantly

to listen for.

And that is the way that words that start with a vowel sound

often link to the last sound of the word before it

when spoken naturally.

And that link happens when there is a consonant sound

at the end of that word.

As starts with a vowel.

So this is a perfect opportunity to highlight it for you.

It wasn't as hard as I thought.

Try it.

Okay, so let's talk about grammatical words that start with

the letter H,

like he, him, her

and even have and has.

All of these words are often pronounced without the H sound.

when speaking quickly.

Does he want to come?

I'll ask him if you want.

But remember,

if you are using this reduced form

and you are not pronouncing the H,

you must link the to the word before it.

I'll ask him if you want.

Try it.

I want to buy a car.

Try it.

Okay, let's try the verb have or has now.

So just like the verb do, we conjugate have,

depending on the subject.

Sometimes it's has.

So when this is the main verb in a sentence,

it's stressed and both have and has

use the

vowel sound.

But just like the pronouns we talked about, sometimes

native speakers will drop that H sound when speaking quickly.

She has three dogs.

I have two.

Now have is another one of these special verbs. It's an

auxiliary verb.

It is an auxiliary verb in all of the perfect tenses,

which is why it is such a common word in English.

Usually when it's the main verb in a sentence, it's stressed,

but it's unstressed when it's an auxiliary verb in a perfect tense.

And when it's spoken, we often use contractions.

I have becomes I've.

We have

becomes we've.

He has becomes he's.

Now it can be stressed when it's an auxiliary verb

if we're trying to emphasise that something is true.

I've been to India.

No you haven't.

I have, I have been to India!

Here's a good one.

Grammatically,

but is used in several different ways

and it can be stressed.

So when it's stressed it's pronounced,

but.

I'll help you, but I need a favor first,

more often than not,

but is usually unstressed and the pronunciation changes.

So instead of but, it becomes,

but.

But I don't want to.

Try it.

They ate it, but they didn't like it.

Now it's unusual to hear this word stressed

unless you are referring to the number four.

For is usually unstressed. And again,

it's that vowel sound that reduces to the schwa.

Instead of for, you hear

And in my accent,

you don't hear the pronunciation of that final R.

The ending is just the vowel sound.

I bought this apple for you.

Can you get one for me?

Try it.

Of is almost always unstressed.

Instead of saying,

of,

reduce or relax that vowel sound down to a schwa.

Would you like a cup of tea?

Do you notice how that consonant sound at the end of cup

links to of and that vowel sound?

Would you like a cup of tea?

Of course, how could we forget it?

Ninety-nine per cent of the time when you hear it

being spoken in English, it's unstressed.

So when I just said it,

then I was stressing it, emphasising it,

so you knew which word I was talking about.

But it doesn't usually sound like this.

It usually sounds like..

Again, that schwa sound, you've got to relax.

You've got to get into this sound and relax with me.

And usually we use a stop T at the end here.

So the air is not released.

Instead of

we catch the air

so that we can move quickly onto the next sound.

So you will often just hear it being pronounced as

You should be able to say it quite quickly

when you don't have to release the air.

I want it now.

Get it out of the car.

Goodness,

there are lots of reductions and linking happening in that

sentence, aren't there?

Get it out of the car.

Understanding how these really common English words actually

sound when they're spoken in natural English

is really important.

To understand native speakers when they're talking fast,

they're talking quickly,

you need to know how these sounds reduce down

and they link together when spoken.

So I'm super glad that you hung around to watch this lesson

all the way through.

Make sure you bookmark this video or you save the playlist

because you need to come back and review it

with me a few times.

Keep coming back to practise with me again and again.

Now I have another video just like this one coming out soon with

ten more common English words

so that we can practise their natural pronunciation together.

So make sure you subscribe,

you come back and check out the next video.

But in the meantime, if you want to learn more about

linking and naturally spoken English,

check out this series right here that I made for my students.

You are absolutely going to love it.

I'll see you in there.