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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very much for watching this lesson and I
will see you again soon bye bye
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