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I shouldna gone to bed so late last night.
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Huh? Shouldna...?
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Me too. I'm so tired. I feel like I'm gunna fall asleep.
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Gonna? What?
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(chatting)
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It takes time and practice to be able to understand and speak English like a native speaker.
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But there are some simple techniques that you can use to make your pronunciation sound more natural!
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Let me teach you three tricks that you can start using today to sound more like a native speaker!
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Contractions
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The first trick is to use contractions.
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Let's look at a few of the most common ones that English speakers use.
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The first three examples are: shoulda, woulda, and coulda.
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The original forms of these phrases are: should have, would have, and could have.
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We can shorten these to: should've, would've and could've.
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But to make them even easier to say, we often make the "have" or "ve" sound into an "uh" sound.
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So we say: shoulda, woulda, and coulda.
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So, instead of saying: I should have...
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You can say: I shoulda...
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I shoulda...
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Um, excuse me?
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Where's my drink?
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What? Sorry, I shoulda bought you one.
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Instead of saying: I would have...
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You can say: I woulda...
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I woulda...
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What? I woulda bought one if you had asked.
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Instead of saying: I could have…
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You can say:I coulda...
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I coulda...
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What? OK. I coulda bought you one anyway!
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"Shoulda, woulda, coulda" is also a phrase in English.
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We use it to say that there's no need to dwell on what you shoulda, would, or coulda done.
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Or to say that someone is making excuses.
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What?
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Shoulda, woulda, coulda!
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You can also shorten the negatives of these phrases.
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So "should not have" becomes "shouldna."
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"Would not have" becomes "wouldna."
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And "could not have" becomes "couldna."
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Shouldna, wouldna, couldna.
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Three more common examples are: gonna, wanna, and gotta.
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The original words are: going to, want to, and got to,
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but when we squish these words together,
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"going to" becomes "gonna,"
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"want to" becomes "wanna,"
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and "got to" becomes "gotta."
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Gonna, wanna, gotta.
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So, if you wanna sound more natural,
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instead of saying: I want to...
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You can say: I wanna...
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I wanna...
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Hey, we should go see a movie later.
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Uhh... But I wanna get dinner with my mom tonight...
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Oh, umm... Your mom.
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Yeah.
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Instead of saying: I'm going to…
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You can say: I'm gonna...
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I'm gonna...
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Sam! You're employee of the month!
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What? Really? I'm gonna call my mom and tell her!
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Yeah, ma, I got it again!
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Yeah, employee of the month!
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Ten months in a row.
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I know!
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Instead of saying: I've got to…
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You can say: I've gotta…
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I've gotta...
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And we also often leave out the "ve" sound, so we say, "I gotta."
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I gotta...
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Hey Sam, can I borrow your pen?
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Oh... I gotta ask my mom...
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Come on!
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I'm telling my mom!
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Connected Sounds
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The second trick is to connect sounds.
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We connect sounds between different words to make them easier to say.
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We often do this when one word ends in a consonant sound,
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and the next word begins with that same sound, or a very similar sound.
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Rather than saying these sounds twice, we blend them together.
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For example, rather than saying "black coffee,"
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and pronouncing the "k" sound twice,
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we would say "blackoffee," with one "k" sound.
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"Blackoffee." "Blackoffee."
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Similar sounds, like "t" and "d," are also often connected.
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So instead of saying "iced tea," with both the "d" sound and the "t" sound,
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we would say "icetea." "Icetea."
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Want anything to drink?
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Yeah, I'd like some iced tea.
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Sure.
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Actually, I'll have black coffee.
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We also often connect sounds when one word ends in a consonant and the next begins with a vowel.
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For example, instead of saying "not at all,"
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we say "notatall."
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We don't pronounce every syllable, we blend the sounds together.
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"Notatall." "Notatall."
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Sorry about that.
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Not at all.
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Omitted Syllables
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The third trick is to omit certain syllables within words.
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We often leave out the "uh" sound when it's unstressed in a word with more than one syllable.
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For example, instead of saying "Choc uh late,"
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we say "choc late."
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So, the "o" in the middle, which makes the "uh" sound, is omitted.
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"Choc late." "Choc late."
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And, instead of saying "cam uh ra,"
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we say “cam ra.”
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So, the "e" in the middle, which also makes the "uh" sound, is omitted.
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"Cam ra." "Cam ra."
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And, instead of saying "lab uh r uh tory,"
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we say "lab r tory."
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So both "uh" sounds are omitted.
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"Lab r tory." "Lab r tory."
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This chocolate cake looks so good.
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Stop! Don't eat it yet! I need to find my camera.
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Sorry. I'll just watch some Dexter's Laboratory.
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Thanks for watching!
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Please leave a comment below letting us know what else you'd like to learn.
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And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!
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I'll see you next time, VoiceTubers!