She couldn't've have known you were coming, she really should've said something, I wish
I could've helped more, I wouldn't've told her if i'd known it was a secret
welcome back to love english in today's lesson contractions that's right today
we will be looking at english pronunciation essential english pronunciation we're going to
be looking at contractions when two or more words are essentially squeezed together where we omit
certain sounds in order to make the sentence flow more naturally this is an essential way to sound
a little bit more natural and native when you speak you might have perfect grammar excellent
pronunciation but without a few contractions you're going to sound a little bit unusual so
if you haven't already you should have subscribed to the channel click that notification bell and of
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and tips and tricks to help you learn english so without further ado let's get on with the lesson
Now there are a lot of contractions in english i'm your we're etc and i'm not
actually going to focus on all of these today i'm going to be focusing on some of these words
that's right modal verbs because over the next few weeks we will be looking in more depth at
modal verbs and the grammar associated with them like conditionals so today we'll be looking at
will would could should may might can and the less commonly used modal verbs shall and ought yes
i'm going to throw those two in because although they're not commonly used i would say it is useful
to know the contractions that we use with them so many of these contractions they are in formal
english remember guys in formal english which means we would use them in spoken english and of
course in informal writing so text messages emails depending on how formal the email needs to be
and general correspondence that is not too formal what you wouldn't want to do
is use contractions in a report an essay a formal letter no no no avoid that entirely
now getting right into it will and shall these are two that i've kind of separated from the
rest because in fact the negative form is quite different to how other negative forms are formed
now will is a modal verb that some students actually do find difficult to pronounce they think
it sounds similar to want want so often i explain the difference as won't o like don't and want
like font as in the type that you use which kind of style of font you would use when you type
so o is the sound it's a strange one it's an irregular but that's how we form the negative
will not and certainly this one is commonly used it is rare that you will hear someone say
will not unless they're trying to be emphatic i will not let you speak to me like that there
you can see there's a purpose behind not contracting the two words but most of the
time i won't be able to see you tonight i won't be able to see you tonight sounds much more
natural now xiao is a modal verb that we would rarely use in fact i would even say it's a little
bit old-fashioned shal is a slightly more formal version of will often used in requests and offers
shall i open the window you shall go to the ball cinderella it really does sound a little bit
old-fashioned and unusual in this day and age but you still might come across it and it's important
to note that just like will won't shall is an irregular we wouldn't say shalt we say
shant shant i shan't belong i shan't be long i shall not be long i won't be long again it's
unusual i shan't be long sounds very formal and old-fashioned but just in case you watch any of
these kind of old dramas on netflix english dramas you might want to know what chant means shall not
i shan't bother asking if you've done your homework
now just like will and shal i also want to look at this modal verb yes simple but essential can
can now interestingly in american english can fine in british english can okay so it's that ah sound
but in british english when we contract it with not what do we say it changes to
can't ah that longer sound can't but in american english can't can't i have noticed sometimes when
non-native speak they might not clearly pronounce that t at the end so sometimes for me when i'm
listening i can't tell the difference whether they are saying can or can't because i don't at the end
now there is not a big difference in pronunciation here if you prefer to use can't rather than
can't the more british version that is totally up to you there is no problem with being understood
in this way just make sure you do add that t sound at the end can't can't can't can't
as well as this pure negative i can't do that she can't do that we could also contract it with have
so for example i can't have locked the door properly i can't have locked the door properly so
we're talking here about the past that basically you've made a mistake and you don't think you
correctly did something instead of saying i can't have locked the door i can't have i can't have
or i can't have can't have so listen carefully to that contraction we've got the not and the have
their contracted and we're going to look at plenty more of these rather more complicated contractions
in just a moment now moving on to three of the most common modal verbs that we would
often contract they are contracted quite a lot particularly in the use of conditionals
would could and should now before i even start contracting these words let's make sure you are
pronouncing them correctly although all of these modal verbs contain an l the l is not pronounced
it is silent so would literally sounds like wood as in a forest a tree the material and
it's exactly the same for should and could there's an ud sound if you really want to benefit from
this lesson i expect you to be listening and pronouncing the words and contractions
as i go along if you need to shut the door and make sure no one's listening because you think
they're going to think you're crazy go for it but really guys practice makes perfect so come on
would should and could no l it's silent once we've got that perfected we can start to look at some of
the contractions in third conditional would should and could are contracted with the auxiliary verb
have i would have she would have we would have now with the third conditional if you would like
to refresh your third conditional grammar then i recommend you have a look at this lesson now
or at the end of the lesson might be better and just refresh your grammar knowledge but
essentially with the third conditional part of that conditional sentence the hypothetical results
in the past with third conditional contains would have would have gone should have gone could have
gone and there you can see we would use the subject plus would plus have and then we would
have the past participle what we then do to make it sound much more natural is contract have and
would have and could and have and should so it sounds something like this would have should have
could have i would have gone i should have gone i could have gone sometimes when you're listening to
native speakers speak you might not even hear the of sound it can become even weaker particularly in
more informal relaxed situations so what you might instead hear is woulda coulda shoulda
woulda coulda shoulda i woulda gone i coulda gone i shoulda gone
so here's where the pronunciation gets a little bit more complicated with the third conditional
the second part of third conditional when we're looking at the hypothetical result
in the past again i'll remind you check out the grammar lesson at the end of this video
then we would have the subject the modal verb not have plus the past participle okay
there's a lot to remember in that but for now we're just looking at the pronunciation
now i did mention earlier that this is an area of english that many english native speakers
both probably american and english will make a grammar mistake with when they write
in fact also if they're using this in the positive form should have could have would have
i shouldn't have done that i should have done that i couldn't have done that i could have done
that i wouldn't have done that i would have done that now what happens we speak so fast so quickly
that of often sounds a bit like of of and say what i will sometimes see on facebook in text
messages is i should have gone i could have helped i would have done that bad grammar really really
bad grammar okay guys so don't make that same mistake don't make the mistake that many english
native speakers will make there is no such thing as should of could of would of it's should have
would have could have the contractive form of have now back to it let's add that negative not
in the middle and see how it sounds she shouldn't have come to the party she shouldn't have come
to the party of she shouldn't have shouldn't have okay sometimes you want to break that down and it
might actually be easier for you to squeeze into that one contraction because we're contracting
three words here should not and have could not have becomes couldn't have couldn't have and
you can see as well that t sound often becomes a little bit weaker couldn't have couldn't have
so it doesn't have to be couldn't have it does become a little bit weaker i couldn't
have done that i couldn't have done that couldn't have you shouldn't have said that
should not have shouldn't have would not have wouldn't have wouldn't have i wouldn't have told
her if i'd known it was a secret i wouldn't have told her if i'd known it was a secret
now of course we also have the modal verbs may might and must and these also can be contracted
in the same way but perhaps not as relaxed as some of the others may have i may have forgotten
to turn the lights off before we left may have i might have forgotten to call sorry might have
and of course must must have must have she must have really enjoyed your cooking if she gave
you a cool the next day must have now negative contractions in the simplest form we take not and
we add it to the end of the modal verb so could not becomes couldn't would not becomes wouldn't
should not becomes shouldn't must not becomes listen carefully to this mustn't mustn't there
could potentially be two t sounds there but there are not we take must and we change it to musc
so essentially we're pronouncing the second t but not that first one it becomes silent not mustn't
if that's right sounds strange but mustn't mustn't you mustn't do that you shouldn't do that he
couldn't do it he wouldn't do it now interestingly we can say mightn't might and i might have
bothered she mightn't like that but mayan no we wouldn't use that i've not really come across
that at all mayent sounds very unnatural and not common english he might not have he might not have
he mightn't have he mightn't have and again would we write this no we'd speak it but we wouldn't
write it he mightn't have known if she hadn't told him he mightn't have known
how to ask you out he might have known how to ask you out he might have known how to tell you
he mightn't have known how to tell you he might not have known might have known must not have
here we go again and remember that silent t it's not mustangtiv it's muscle
mustn't have mustn't have he mustn't have had time to call he mustn't have had time to call
so it's not mustn't have mustn't have but mustn't have muscentif now i did mention ought didn't i
ort it's a weird-looking word and you might not even be familiar with how to pronounce it clearly
but essentially ought is a very formal form of should so when we're making suggestions when
we're talking about obligations ought you ought to have gone you ought to have gone notice there
we do have the preposition to ought to you need to keep that two there it's essential
so just as we would contract should have we can say ortov he ought to have gone
he ought to have gone it does sound a little bit more unusual because again it's not commonly used
and ought is essentially much more formal in use you could say you ought not have done that
but very strange and just like should have we could contract order so ought to in this case the
uh sound is actually the two becoming much weaker and contracted and you can see with all of those
we're actually using the schwa to sound more relaxed and natural woulda coulda shoulda orta
i order have called aorta have called you could even go down and say i ought to have called
but again don't stress too much about that one it's not so commonly used and there we have it
plenty of contractions to perfect your english sound more natural and native and
of course improve those very important listening skills but if you want to understand the grammar
a little bit better if you want to both speak perfectly naturally and accurately
then make sure you do click that subscribe button because we have got a very fun filled
maybe not so fun lesson on modal verbs and conditionals coming up very soon
why not try checking out my conditionals lesson here for all the conditionals in one lesson
amazing and of course we'll also be looking at mixed conditionals very soon along with
modal verbs some essential grammar to really help you boost your english