Hmmm… what to listen to next…
Hey Siri. Play “I’ve got a feeling.”
You might be thinking, “why didn’t she just type it into her device?”. Sure, that would have been
so much easier. But what I was demonstrating is that there is a huge difference in how
we write certain words or phrases and how those words actually sound when we speak.
Many English learners want to pronounce each word clearly, to get the pronunciation
perfect – which is not a bad goal to have, but most native English speakers don’t do this.
We use reductions all the time in TV, movies, music and in daily conversations. These reduced
words are often said very quickly and flow into each other so their pronunciation changes.
You might not have been taught this in school, but one of the best ways to improve your English
fluency is to practice with reductions as this will help you speak more naturally and
understand spoken English more easily. So our lesson today will focus on 15 of
the most common reductions and how to use them. Most of them are in the Top 100 most common words
in the English language, so it’s definitely useful to know them. At the end of the lesson, we’ll show
how these reductions can be grouped into 8 easy to remember categories, so they’re easy to learn.
But before we start, in case you’re new here, at RealLife English our goal is to guide you on your
language learning journey beyond the classroom and into the real world. So each week we create
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First, it is important to know the difference between reductions and contractions.
Contractions, like reductions, are a shortened form of a combination of words.
However, with contractions we usually use an apostrophe (‘) to represent the missing letters
as in They Are becomes They’re, We Have becomes We’ve.
Where reductions are considered informal,
meaning they’re not really appropriate for business or academic discussions.
Contractions are acceptable in both formal and casual conversations. Native speakers often use
both contractions and reductions in the same sentence and this can make it sound as if we’re
speaking really fast but actually, we’re just leaving out certain sounds and connecting others.
As I go through the list of common reductions, it’s a great opportunity for you to practice your
listening skills. Also, see if you can hear which words are contractions and which ones are reduced.
Alright, so first we’ll look at single word reductions:
Since we’ve just covered the difference between reductions and contractions,
I thought it would be great to look at a contraction that can also be further reduced.
When a word ending in “nt” links with a word beginning with a vowel sound, the final “t”
is silent. So won’t becomes won’. For example: “She won-apologize, even though she was wrong”.
The reduced form of the word you is ya. As in, “How’ve ya been?”
Could you hear that the vowels in you become a schwa sound?
If you’re sending an informal text, it is very common to use the reduced spelling as well.
If the word you comes after a word that ends in “nt”, the sounds merge
and the ya becomes a cha. As in, “Why doncha go home? Ya look sick.”
When we say the word for, it is pronounced fer. For example: “My sister bought this fer me.”
Note that, if you’re using this word in written form, you should not change the spelling.
Also, don’t use this reduction when referring to the number four.
With words ending in -ing we often pronounce them without the “g”
sound so they become, somethin or nothin. For example: “I’ve got somethin for ya.”
The next three reductions are really short, so listen closely or you might actually miss them:
This is already a very short word, but we change the word to, and it usually sounds like
tuh. So you could say, “I’m goin tuh the beach tomorrow”. Again,
you need to reduce the “g” sound at the end of the word going.
This is certainly one of the shortest reductions on our list today. When reduced,
the word and is replaced with an en sound. For example: “I like peanut butter-en-jam sandwiches”
The words of and are, become uh when reduced. So all you hear is the schwa sound.
For example: “He is the typ-a guy who loves adventure.” and “When-a ya goin home?”
When a word ending in “t” is followed by a word beginning with a consonant,
the final “t” of the first word is often silent or sounds like a “d”. So but would simply be buh.
For example: “He likes Winter, buh-dee-doesn’t enjoy the rain”.
Or “I jus’ realized thad- I- lef my keys in the restaurant.”
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Okay, so when we reduce the word them, the “th” sound is silent and all we hear is
‘em. As in “I love this band, but I haven’t seen ‘em in concert yet”.
These are words where in their reduced form, the first two letters fall away.
So because becomes ‘cause. and until becomes ‘til.
For example: “He's not goin’ out tonight ‘cause he has to work ‘til midnight.”
Now, we’ll have a look at reductions that consist of several words. You will notice
that many of these reductions are connected to the words we’ve covered earlier in the lesson.
This is probably one of the most common reductions on our list. Do you remember when
we spoke about words ending in -ing losing the “g” sound? And we spoke about to becoming Tuh?
Well, this is a combination of those, but two additional things happen.
The vowel sound is further reduced, so the “i” in Goin disappears and becomes Gon.
And tuh simply becomes a.
This is important to remember as it will apply to other reductions we will see later in the lesson.
When a reduction includes the word to, we usually repeat the last consonant of the word before to.
So in this case, going to is reduced to gonn + a = gonna.
For example: “He said he was gonna do it today.”
Very often, gonna is further reduced to unna, which means that the “g” falls away,
and we only pronounce the schwa “uh” + nna as in “I’m-unna let you know the results tomorrow”.
Music is one of the best ways to become familiar with reduction in English. Do you
have a favorite English song? Let us know down in the comments. We’d love to hear from YOU.
As mentioned earlier, when reduced, words ending in -nt lose the “t” sound. Also,
when a reduction includes the word to, we usually repeat the last consonant of the word before to.
So, want becomes wann. Then we add the reduced form of “to” which is “a”
Therefore, want to changes to wanna. So we would say,
“I really wanna go to the beach this weekend.”
The words should have, could have and would have are often reduced to shoulda, coulda and woulda.
Similar to the reduction of the word of, the word have is reduced to the schwa sound,
a. For example: “She coulda gone to the party, but she woulda got into trouble.”
When we reduce give me, the -ve at the end of give falls away so all we hear is gi. So
when we say the two words together, we add an additional m sound to make gimme.
As in, “Could ya gimme a hand with my bags?”
When we reduce let me, we use the reduction we previously discussed, which is when a word
ends in “t” and is followed by a word beginning with a consonant, the final “t” of the first word
is usually silent. So all that remains of let is le. When we combine this with me, we have lemme.
“On my birthday, my friend wouldn’t lemme see the gift she bought until after dinner.”
The final reduction on our list is one that hopefully, after watching our RealLife English
lessons, you won't have to use often when you’re asked questions in English.
So when we reduce don’t, similar to the previous explanation, the “t”
sound falls away. The “o” in don’t takes the schwa sound, so we only hear
dun. In the word know, the letters “k” and “w” fall away and we’re left with no.
When we add these together, we get dunno. As in, “I dunno when I last saw a movie at the cinema.”
Today we looked at 15 of the most common reductions and how you can use them.
Do you remember all of them?
Well, here’s a quick summary of the groups of reductions we covered today.
I hope that this lesson has made you feel more
comfortable and confident using reductions when speaking English.
If you enjoyed this lesson, please like and share this video with anyone who is learning
English. But before you go, check out this next video on Modal Verbs: