Subtitles section Play video
-
Contractions.
-
You can't sound natural speaking American English if you never use contractions.
-
We are out of bananas and milk.
-
We're out of bananas and milk.
-
We are out. That's not natural.
-
We're out! That's natural.
-
Today, we're going to work on accent training when it comes to contractions
-
and we're going to focus specifically on one kind: N apostrophe T contractions.
-
These are the 'not' contractions and there are a lot of them,
-
and three different ways to pronounce them.
-
Actually, four.
-
Do you know all of them?
-
We're going to go over everything to make sure you know the most natural pronunciations,
-
so as you learn English, you'll learn the best spoken English.
-
And then we'll quiz you to make sure you get it.
-
As always, if you like this video, or you learned something new,
-
please like and subscribe with notifications.
-
First, let me name all of the N apostrophe T contractions that we have in English,
-
then we'll go over all the different ways they can be pronounced.
-
We have: isn't, aren't, wasn't, weren't, haven't, hasn't, hadn't,
-
won't, don't, didn't, doesn't, wouldn't, couldn't, shouldn't, and can't.
-
That's a lot, isn't it?
-
First we're going to take don't as our study word.
-
Do not. Don't.
-
Don't do that.
-
Don't say that.
-
Don't follow me.
-
Don't cry.
-
The pronunciation you probably learned for these words is: don't,
-
which is what I was just saying when I listed the words, don't, with a full T sound.
-
That's actually the least common pronunciation.
-
A more common pronunciation is what I did in those sample sentences, don't cry.
-
And that's a stop T. Don't. Don't. Don't cry.
-
It's not that it's dropped, that would be don--, but it's: don't, don't, that abrupt stop of air,
-
that signifies us the stop T, we just don't release it. Don't. Don't. Don't cry. Don't bother.
-
Let's go to Youglish and look at an example of the phrase: don't bother, with a stop T.
-
Don't bother. Don't bother.
-
Do you hear that stop? It's not: don't bother,
-
and it's also not: don bother. It's: don't bother.
-
We would never say it: don't bother, unless we were really exaggerating.
-
Don't bother.
-
It's a stop. Don't, don't, don't bother.
-
Let's look at: don't do.
-
Do you hear that stop T?
-
Don't do-- So clear. Don't do.
-
Can you do that?
-
Can you stop the air? Don't do.
-
Don't do. Don't do it.
-
So the true T, almost never done.
-
The stop T, very common.
-
But you know what else is common?
-
Dropping the T sound completely. No T at all, no stop, just the N.
-
We already looked at don't bother with a stop T.
-
Now let's look at an example with a dropped T.
-
Don—bother. Right from the N to the B with no stop, no break, no T.
-
This is another common pronunciation.
-
Let's look at three examples of: 'don't need' with a stop T, and three with no T.
-
First, the stop T.
-
Now, with no T sound at all. A dropped T.
-
By the way, I'm going to the website Youglish here.
-
You can type in any phrase and get a lot of examples of places where these phrases pop up on YouTube.
-
When should you drop the N?
-
And when should you not drop the N?
-
You know, there are no rules here. You can do either one.
-
Whether the next sound is a consonant, don't mean, or don't mean, or a vowel, don't even, or don't even.
-
You'll hear examples of both.
-
Here are some phrases where I'm going to drop the T.
-
I don't even know.
-
I won't even be here.
-
Dropped T.
-
Another common pronunciation of N apostrophe T contractions.
-
That leaves us with one more pronunciation: CH.
-
When a word that ends in a T is followed by the word 'you' or 'your' or this 'you're',
-
we sometimes make that T a CH sound when we link.
-
Don't you think so? Don't you, don't you, ch—
-
Do you hear that CH? Don't you?
-
The N is still there, but the T is now a CH sound.
-
Won't your boss be upset? Won't your— ch ch ch-- won't your—
-
Now, we're going to look at 'don't you' three ways:
-
with a CH, with a stop T, and dropped.
-
Now, we're going to quiz you.
-
The more you understand what you're hearing, not just the words, but
-
how the words are pronounced and used in a sentence,
-
the more natural you'll sound when you're speaking English.
-
So you'll hear a contraction, you'll figure out which of the four pronunciations you hear.
-
First, it'll be a little bit easier. You'll hear each example three times:
-
once at regular pace, once in slow motion,
-
and once again, at regular pace.
-
We'll go over the answers at the end of the video.
-
This is a 10-question quiz.
-
And now, a quiz that's a little tougher.
-
You'll hear each example twice but no slow motion version.
-
Now, let's check your answers.
-
You'll hear each segment five times with the answer on screen.
-
See if you can hear the right T pronunciation and hear how they're all different.
-
Maybe repeat out loud the last couple of times.
-
Try out these different pronunciations to sound more natural.
-
Now, a great exercise for you to do is take one of the words, and add one more word to it, like: isn't it?
-
Or isn't that? Then go to Youglish, plug it in, and just hit that next arrow over and over,
-
listening to 10, maybe 20 examples.
-
You'll notice a lot of stop T's, and a lot of dropped T's,
-
and it's a great way to get native-like pronunciations of these contractions.
-
Don't rely on what you learned before. What you learned was isn't, isn't, but it's isn't, stop T, that's right.
-
I make new videos on the English language every Tuesday here on YouTube,
-
all aimed at helping you sound more natural and be more confident speaking American English.
-
Please subscribe with notifications and keep your studies up right now with this next video.
-
Also check out my academy if you really want to focus step by step on improving your spoken English.
-
Rachel's English Academy.
-
That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English!