IAMCB/vanessa · Datasets at Hugging Face

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	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.
	Well, when you know those reductions, you can improve your pronunciation too because you can use them in real life.
	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.
	Occasionally you're going to hear that in slower English, but in fast English, you're going to hear your.
	You could say, I have your phone, but do you see how many more muscles that takes?
	Let's reduce it and make it simpler for your muscles and say, I have your phone.
	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.
	You might hear this in kind of slower, clearer speech, but in fast conversation, it just sounds like the letter R. R. R. He has our dog.
	Practice saying just the letter R. Forget O and U, just say R. He has our dog.
	The third reduction is actually these three words because they kind of go together, three different pronouns.
	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 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.
	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.
	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.
	Is that the best, most reduced way to say it?
	Instead, the Y is just going to be kind of glossed over.
	The Y is a little bit forgotten and it sounds the same as T-H-E-I-R or T-H-E-R-E.
	If you said, I think they're, they're coming in the mail with that clear Y sound, it's okay.
	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.
	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.
	Well, first of all, the second D, did, did, we're going to just stop that short in your throat.
	But my tongue is at the top of my mouth because I need to form that T sound without any air passing through.
	It's pretty essential to know if this is a positive word, did, or a negative word, didn't, which is pronounced didn't.
	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.
	Should you say that, that, with a clear ah sound?
	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.
	And instead, reductions are using lazy relaxed style pronunciation, so we use an eh sound instead.
	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.
	Listen carefully for the T sound, which makes this contraction negative.
	You're not saying I don't instead, just I don't No.
	These reductions are going to gradually get more and more casual.
	You can just add three similar sounds and say, uh, uh, uh.
	Unbelievably, every native speaker will absolutely understand if you say, uh, uh, uh, especially if you do that kind of gesture with your shoulders.
	This is very casual, so don't say this to your boss if he says, when's the project going to be finished?
	You are just moving your shoulders and using your intonation to say, I don't know.
	We're cutting out that final D, but we can also simply say an. just the letter N. N. Let's look at some sample sentences.
	He had cake and ice cream yesterday.
	Do you see how that lets us link and ice cream? and ice cream.
	Instead of and ice cream, you're just saying cake and 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 and ice cream yesterday.
	But if we want to say just an, an, you can say, I bought bread and eggs, oh, and some chocolate.
	So my mouth isn't widening that much because I'm not saying an, I'm just saying an.
	You could say ta, ah, with an ah vowel, or you can simply say too. just that T sound, t.
	I'm just saying t plus me, to me, to me.
	You might hear some people say, it's polite to say, it's polite to say, to say, it's polite to say thank you.
	But I feel like it's a little bit more common just to simply have to say to me, it's polite to say thank you.
	And because we talk about the future, something that we're going to do in the future a lot, this is a super common reduction.
	Let's take a look at some sample sentences so that you can practice a couple of different ways to reduce this.
	This is every word, very clear and very understandable, but native speakers don't speak like that.
	So our first most common reduction is to say, I'm gonna study this lesson.
	Going and to together make gonna.
	I'm gonna study this lesson again because these are a lot of reductions and I feel like I need to practice it again and again to actually understand them in daily conversation.
	The most common are I'm gonna with that clear G or I'm unna with the G cut out.
	Or you could say really quickly, when are you gonna go?
	I feel like it's less common to cut out the G when you have you as the subject, because that's a lot of vowels together.
	You wanna, you wanna go, but you will occasionally hear that.
	Before we go on to our big challenge sentence, I'd like to give you three bonus reductions that I talked about up here in this lesson, but I feel like they needed to be included in a reduction lesson as well.
	They are want to, have to, and have got to.
	Well, we just talked about gonna, so let's say wanna, hafta, Let's take a look at some sentences.
	That can be reduced to, I gotta study English.
	Great work with all 10 or we could say 14 of these reductions.
	Let's look at this nice long sentence that uses all of the reductions we just talked about.
	All of the key words that we talked about are in yellow, so make sure that you note those ones.
	Let's say this a little bit slowly at first so that you can pick up on all of the things we talked about.
	I saw his note to my husband, but I didn't know that your dog and cat were also gonna sleep in our house.
	So we can imagine in this situation that someone is gonna spend the night at your house, but they're also bringing their dog and their cat.
	I saw his note to my husband, but I didn't know that your dog and cat were also gonna sleep in our house.
	I saw his note to my husband, but I didn't know that your dog and cat were also going to sleep in our house.
	Of course, if this was a lot to learn, feel free to go back and practice this lesson again.
	Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
	The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.
	Let's do it. Is it your? Your.
	I have your phone. Nah.
	I have your phone. Your boss.
	So practice them step by step with me. I have your phone. I have your phone. Let's move on to reduction number two.
	He has our dog. Our car broke down. Our car broke down. Our car broke down.
	He has our dog. Our car broke down. Our car broke down. Hmm.
	I have his phone. I have his phone. I have his phone. What about with her? I have her phone. I have her phone. Er, er. The H is gone. I have her phone.
	That TH is gone. I gave it to him. I gave it to him.
	I have his phone. I have his phone. I have her phone. I have her phone. I gave it to him. I gave it to him. How did you do?
	No. We can say, there. There.
	I don't know. I don't know. Did you hear it? No.
	Let's go. Going to, going to.
	You are in Asheville, North Carolina visiting me and we are about to meet at a cafe.
	While you're sitting at the cafe waiting for me, you notice a newspaper sitting on the table.
	You pick up the newspaper and you see an article and think, oh, this is so interesting.
	I get the general idea, but goodness, there's so much in this that I don't understand.
	You can click on the link in the description to download the free PDF worksheet today.
	Alright, let's get started by reading this article that has to do with helping the homeless population here in Asheville.

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.

Well, when you know those reductions, you can improve your pronunciation too because you can use them in real life.

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.

Occasionally you're going to hear that in slower English, but in fast English, you're going to hear your.

You could say, I have your phone, but do you see how many more muscles that takes?

Let's reduce it and make it simpler for your muscles and say, I have your phone.

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.

You might hear this in kind of slower, clearer speech, but in fast conversation, it just sounds like the letter R. R. R. He has our dog.

Practice saying just the letter R. Forget O and U, just say R. He has our dog.

The third reduction is actually these three words because they kind of go together, three different pronouns.

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 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.

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.

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.

Is that the best, most reduced way to say it?

Instead, the Y is just going to be kind of glossed over.

The Y is a little bit forgotten and it sounds the same as T-H-E-I-R or T-H-E-R-E.

If you said, I think they're, they're coming in the mail with that clear Y sound, it's okay.

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.

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.

Well, first of all, the second D, did, did, we're going to just stop that short in your throat.

But my tongue is at the top of my mouth because I need to form that T sound without any air passing through.

It's pretty essential to know if this is a positive word, did, or a negative word, didn't, which is pronounced didn't.

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.

Should you say that, that, with a clear ah sound?

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.

And instead, reductions are using lazy relaxed style pronunciation, so we use an eh sound instead.

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.

Listen carefully for the T sound, which makes this contraction negative.

You're not saying I don't instead, just I don't No.

These reductions are going to gradually get more and more casual.

You can just add three similar sounds and say, uh, uh, uh.

Unbelievably, every native speaker will absolutely understand if you say, uh, uh, uh, especially if you do that kind of gesture with your shoulders.

This is very casual, so don't say this to your boss if he says, when's the project going to be finished?

You are just moving your shoulders and using your intonation to say, I don't know.

We're cutting out that final D, but we can also simply say an. just the letter N. N. Let's look at some sample sentences.

He had cake and ice cream yesterday.

Do you see how that lets us link and ice cream? and ice cream.

Instead of and ice cream, you're just saying cake and 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 and ice cream yesterday.

But if we want to say just an, an, you can say, I bought bread and eggs, oh, and some chocolate.

So my mouth isn't widening that much because I'm not saying an, I'm just saying an.

You could say ta, ah, with an ah vowel, or you can simply say too. just that T sound, t.

I'm just saying t plus me, to me, to me.

You might hear some people say, it's polite to say, it's polite to say, to say, it's polite to say thank you.

But I feel like it's a little bit more common just to simply have to say to me, it's polite to say thank you.

And because we talk about the future, something that we're going to do in the future a lot, this is a super common reduction.

Let's take a look at some sample sentences so that you can practice a couple of different ways to reduce this.

This is every word, very clear and very understandable, but native speakers don't speak like that.

So our first most common reduction is to say, I'm gonna study this lesson.

Going and to together make gonna.

I'm gonna study this lesson again because these are a lot of reductions and I feel like I need to practice it again and again to actually understand them in daily conversation.

The most common are I'm gonna with that clear G or I'm unna with the G cut out.

Or you could say really quickly, when are you gonna go?

I feel like it's less common to cut out the G when you have you as the subject, because that's a lot of vowels together.

You wanna, you wanna go, but you will occasionally hear that.

Before we go on to our big challenge sentence, I'd like to give you three bonus reductions that I talked about up here in this lesson, but I feel like they needed to be included in a reduction lesson as well.

They are want to, have to, and have got to.

Well, we just talked about gonna, so let's say wanna, hafta, Let's take a look at some sentences.

That can be reduced to, I gotta study English.

Great work with all 10 or we could say 14 of these reductions.

Let's look at this nice long sentence that uses all of the reductions we just talked about.

All of the key words that we talked about are in yellow, so make sure that you note those ones.

Let's say this a little bit slowly at first so that you can pick up on all of the things we talked about.

I saw his note to my husband, but I didn't know that your dog and cat were also gonna sleep in our house.

So we can imagine in this situation that someone is gonna spend the night at your house, but they're also bringing their dog and their cat.

I saw his note to my husband, but I didn't know that your dog and cat were also gonna sleep in our house.

I saw his note to my husband, but I didn't know that your dog and cat were also going to sleep in our house.

Of course, if this was a lot to learn, feel free to go back and practice this lesson again.

Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.

Let's do it. Is it your? Your.

I have your phone. Nah.

I have your phone. Your boss.

So practice them step by step with me. I have your phone. I have your phone. Let's move on to reduction number two.

He has our dog. Our car broke down. Our car broke down. Our car broke down.

He has our dog. Our car broke down. Our car broke down. Hmm.

I have his phone. I have his phone. I have his phone. What about with her? I have her phone. I have her phone. Er, er. The H is gone. I have her phone.

That TH is gone. I gave it to him. I gave it to him.

I have his phone. I have his phone. I have her phone. I have her phone. I gave it to him. I gave it to him. How did you do?

No. We can say, there. There.

I don't know. I don't know. Did you hear it? No.

Let's go. Going to, going to.

You are in Asheville, North Carolina visiting me and we are about to meet at a cafe.

While you're sitting at the cafe waiting for me, you notice a newspaper sitting on the table.

You pick up the newspaper and you see an article and think, oh, this is so interesting.

I get the general idea, but goodness, there's so much in this that I don't understand.

You can click on the link in the description to download the free PDF worksheet today.

Alright, let's get started by reading this article that has to do with helping the homeless population here in Asheville.