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  • 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