How to Pronounce Contractions in American English

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about some

common contractions and I’m also going

to introduce their pronunciations

hopefully this can help you sound a bit

more natural I’ve divided today’s lesson

into a few key groups so let’s take a

look at each group individually and then

talk about some more general

contractions ok let’s get started with

the first group the first group i’ve

classified as the to be contractions so

these are M R and is related

contractions especially when this

subject is a person so let’s review

I am contracts to I’m I’m so I am I’m

I’m you are contracts to your remember

this is why oh you ' are e not why oh

you are that’s the possessive form your

your we are contracts to we’re weird

weird is the pronunciation we’re they

are contracts to their there they are

there

there he is contracts to he’s he’s he’s

she is contracts to she’s she’s it is

contracts to it’s it’s this one has an

apostrophe it’s it’s no apostrophe is

the possessive form something belonging

to an object its and finally that is

contracts to that’s that’s okay so

here’s our first group let’s move on to

a little bit more challenging perhaps

using wood to make the contracted form

also I’ll talk about the past tense and

the negative form here too so first I

would I would contracts to hide hide you

would contracts to you’d so you’ll see

we just keep this D sound here I’d you’d

we would becomes we’d we’d they would

becomes they’d they’d he would become

heed heed she would becomes she’d it

would becomes it’ld this one’s tricky

it’ld itted it it is the pronunciation

it it that would becomes vatted vatted

that’d be crazy that our be impossible

it would be good if it would be good

that it it it so these are all the

present positive forms of contractions

with wood

however when you make a negative form

you just need to use wouldn’t wouldn’t

to do that so wouldn’t is would plus not

when you attach wouldn’t to your subject

you don’t need to make any change to the

sound of the subject just make the

change here would be not part so I

wouldn’t you wouldn’t we wouldn’t they

wouldn’t he wouldn’t she wouldn’t it

wouldn’t that wouldn’t but so there’s no

change to the subject pronunciation

we’re only making the change here so

that’s for negative when you want to

make the past tense when you want to use

wood with a past tense expression we

just use wood plus half I’ll put this

here so wood plus half becomes would’ve

would’ve becomes the pronunciation here

so again there’s no action will change

to the subject like I mean the

pronunciation of the subject of the

sentence we just attach would’ve so this

would become I would have you would have

we would have they would have he would

if she would have it would if that would

have so we’re just changing this part

here would plus half to create the past

tense so this is a maybe a key point

with wood and the same thing applies to

could and should

so with could and should we use the same

rule so I couldn’t if I could have for

example I shouldn’t if I should have

same thing there so that’s a quick

overview of the pronunciation of

contractions with wood and a little bit

about could and should as well with a

past form and the the negative form to

so let’s continue on to the next group

which uses will will so first we have I

will which we contract to aisle next is

you will which becomes you’ll we will

becomes wheel

they will becomes Vale Vale he will

becomes he’ll he’ll she will she’ll

she’ll it will tricky becomes it’ll

it’ll it’ll that one’s tricky

it’ll and then finally will not will not

remember in the negative form will not

is won’t and maybe one more just to

match the others

that’ll that’ll that will that will that

will becomes battle so these are some

common contractions with will please be

careful especially with this it and that

those might be difficult to say

it’ll battle okay now though let’s go on

to kind of some general ones I just made

a big group of general sounds to

consider in American English these are

kind of the pronunciations we use in

everyday speech so let’s look at the

first one what to want to becomes wanna

what do you want to do wanna wanna what

do you want to becomes what do you want

to similarly going to becomes gonna

there’s very soft and sound gonna gonna

I’m gonna gonna

and sometimes in fast speech we’ve

dropped the G sound I’m gonna I’m gonna

I’m gonna becomes Amana as well okay can

not can not becomes can’t can’t I can’t

I can’t can opt sounds quite formal it’s

not incorrect but it sounds quite formal

next one let us let us usually we say

let’s let’s so to do something together

a suggestion and let me let me becomes

lemme hmm let me borrow your pen let me

use your computer lemme lemme give me

similar to lemme becomes gimme give me a

minute

give me your lunch for example give me

give me and let me we use those

okay the next this is a little bit more

broad when you need to use the present

perfect tense we have this these two

patterns are quite common the subject

this is very simple subject plus half or

subject plus hat plus has sorry so

subject plus have or subject plus has so

for example i you we they have he she it

has for example so when the subject is

for example i when we attach half to

this we just make it a sound i’ve we’ve

you they’ve there’s a V sound I’ve been

to France you’ve eaten that they’ve

never been here for example it’s this

sound I am however when we use has

because the subject is he she or it we

make an S sound so for example he’s just

becomes s he’s he’s never been there

she’s never even that it’s never been

found for example just a simple s sound

but when we use have it’s a sound I’ve

I’ve so please try to use that okay

on to the next group again some kind of

similar points they just sort of change

depending on the subject mm-hmm first

one had not had not so I had not heard

this news for example this becomes

hadn’t hadn’t hmm hadn’t hadn’t

similarly has not has not so again a

present perfect example but this is a

negative has not is hasn’t hasn’t here

have not again a present perfect example

this time a negative haven’t I haven’t

finished my homework yet

I haven’t finished teaching this lesson

yet so hasn’t haven’t hadn’t this is a

past perfect expression yeah okay good

let’s go on to the last group again

quite similar expressions with some very

small changes so here I have somebody is

or has I have a slash here because we

use the same

for both of these so somebody is and

somebody has we use the same

pronunciation which is somebody’s

somebody’s so somebody’s in the room is

somebody is in the room somebody has

taken my bag for example somebody’s

taken my bag somebody’s in the room both

of these use that s pronunciation

somebody’s so how do you know the

difference you have to listen for

grammar one and just context as well so

somebody’s in the room grammatically

somebody has in the room is not correct

that’s an incorrect sentence for grammar

therefore we know the correct sentence

if somebody is in the room

somebody has taken my bag somebody’s

taken my bag I know somebody is taking

my bag is grammatically incorrect so my

brain therefore applies has in that

situation so we need to think about this

when we’re listening as well it takes

practice I think to get the hang of it

so similar here just as we did with

somebody we use the same rule for

someone and something so someone’s

someone is becomes someone’s and someone

has also someone’s same thing with

something something is and something has

both become some things hmm something is

not right something’s gone wrong so we

used the same pronunciation but these

are two different grammar points so you

need to listen to the grammar of the

whole sentence something’s gone wrong

gone is the past participle form

something’s gone wrong so I know it must

be something has gone wrong something is

wrong wrong is just an adjective

something is wrong I know therefore it

must be is not has so listen for the

grammar of the sentence overall to find

the correct meaning all right but those

are quite a few common contractions I

hope that they were helpful for you and

don’t forget to review this part with

could and should as well this would bit

here of course if you have any questions

or if there are some other contractions

that you have question

is about like how to make them or the

pronounciation please let me know in the

comment section of this video of course

if you have other questions or other

feedback please feel free to let us know

about that too

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will see you again soon bye bye

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