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In a recent video, I said, "I like that phrase, ts'a good one." I reduced the word "it's" to
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simply the TS sound, ts, ts. There are two other words that can reduce to this sound.
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In this video, you'll learn all about it.
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First, let's watch the clip I mentioned in the intro.
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>>I like that phrase. Ts'a good one.
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It's a good one, it's a good one. You've probably noticed that native speakers will contract
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"it is" and say "it's". So, that's the IH vowel and the TS cluster. But of course, as
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I've just pointed out, we may also drop the vowel altogether, and leave it to just ts,
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ts. "It is" becomes "it's" becomes "ts". Let's listen again.
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Ts'a good one. [3x]
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Other examples: it's alright, it's ok. What do you notice? It's alright, it's ok. The
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TS sound links directly to the next word, there is no break, and that must happen if
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we're going to reduce "it is" to "it's" or even "ts". Ts'okay. So, it's like the TS cluster
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begins the next word. Or should I say, ts'like. Ts'like the TS cluster begins the next word.
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Try it: ts'alright. ts'okay. ts'funny.
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What else can be reduced to simply TS? "What is" becomes "what's", can become "ts". Take
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for example the sentence, What's his name again? Ts'is name again? Notice how I'm dropping
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the H in the word 'his'. This is a pretty common reduction. I've made a video on dropping
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the H. So, this leaves us with 'iz' - the IH sound and the Z sound for the word 'his'.
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Notice that the TS connects right up into that. Tsiz, tsiz, ts'is name again, ts'is
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name again? Other examples: what's going on? ts'going, ts'going, ts'going on? Or, ts'up?
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ts'up? I'm guessing you've heard that one before.
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I said there were three words that could reduce to this. So what's the third? "That is" becomes
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"that's", can become "ts". So, you might hear "That's nice" reduce to "ts'nice", ts'nice.
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So if all three of these words can reduce to 'ts', how do you know which word it is?
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Well, we're talking about function words here, they don't affect the meaning of a sentence,
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so you don't need to worry about it.
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Unless you have a very minimal accent, it's probably best to pronounce the contraction:
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that's, it's, what's. However, it's good to know what's going on when you hear it. Or,
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should I say, ts'good to know, ts'good to know what's going on.
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Normally, I would say, "That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English". But do
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you know what I'm going to say today?
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Ts'it! And thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
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Don't stop there. Have fun with my real-life English videos. Or get more comfortable with
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the IPA in this play list. Learn about the online courses I offer, or check out my latest
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video.