Name: Informal Contractions
Uploaded: 2017-11-28T16:10:25.000Z
Duration: 3 min 55 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

and this is part two of the connected speech series.

Adverbs of manner

Connected speech is used when you're speaking quickly and casually

and it can help your American English sound more natural.

Today, we'll be discussing informal contractions.

Can you hear the differences between the formal and casual sentences below?

In the following story, pay attention to the underlined words

and see if you can hear the informal contractions.

I wanna surprise my sister for her birthday.

I coulda gotten her a dog, but she already has a cat.

I woulda bought her a car, but it's too expensive.

Instead, I am gonna make her a big birthday cake.

Phrases like "gonna," "wanna," "hafta" are called informal contractions.

They are often used in casual spoken American English

They are formed by combining words to shorten them

Practicing these can help you sound more natural

and become better at understanding fast casual speech.

Here are some examples of informal contractions with "to."

There are also examples with modal verbs plus "have."

In the following story, try to pronounce the underlined phrases

Press pause at each page to practice at your own pace.

I wanna surprise my sister for her birthday, so I've gotta buy her a present.

Instead, I'm gonna make her a big birthday cake.

in part three of the connected speech series.

This is American English. Thanks for watching.