How to Pronounce gonna and gotta Reduction and Linking in American English
In this American English pronunciation video,
I’m going to make a steaming bowl of ramen
noodles. Of course, we’ll also study pronunciation,
and we’ll see a lot of reduction in action,
like ‘gotta’, ‘gonna’, them, and can. Stay
tuned, it’s going to be a blast.
This video is actually not entirely about
American English pronunciation. It’s by request
from my mother because when I was with her
over Christmas I was telling her how much
I love to make ramen noodles. And she thought
that was sort of gross. Did you notice? I
made a flap T out of the T in ‘sort of’. This
is because it comes after an R, before a vowel
sound. Sort of. We’ll want to link the D to
the next word, which begins with a vowel,
sort of, sort of, so it sounds more like one
word than two separate units. Sort of.
Let’s listen again.
Sort of gross. [3x] –ramen noodles. And she
thought that was sort of gross.
I assured her it’s not gross. Not the way
I make it! So this video is for her: how I
make my ramen noodles. Now I was also on vacation
with my aunt. A-U-N-T. I know that aunt is
not the number one pronunciation for that
word. Most people pronounce it aunt. I use
aunt. So let’s look: mom, aunt, ramen. They
all have that AH vowel, but each one of those
words spells the AH vowel differently. Ok,
let’s get cooking.
First, I take the bowl that I’m going to eat
my ramen soup in. Fill it up. It’s got to
be kind of big. Do you remember in the Thanksgiving
video when we reduced “I have got to” to “I’ve
gotta”, or, “I gotta”? It’s happening here.
“It has got to”: I’m reducing it to “It’s
gotta, it’s gotta”. Listen again.
It’s got to be kind of big. [3x]
Maybe leave about an inch at the top. I’m
going to put it on high. Did you notice? I’m
gonna. I’ve reduced “I am going to” to “I’m
gonna”. Of course, use of ‘gonna’ is very
prevalent in everyday spoken American English.
I’m gonna. The first syllable has the G consonant,
‘uh’ as in ‘butter’ vowel, a nice, clean N,
and the second syllable, the schwa. The first
syllable is stressed, gon-, and the second syllable
unstressed, -a. Gonna, gonna. Listen again.
I’m going to put it on high. [3x]
Oops. Wrong burner. You’d think I would know
by now. OK. So. While that’s heating up, let’s
talk about the vegetable situation. Come over
here camera lady. So I’m going to use mushrooms,
I have some frozen green beans, and carrots.
Um, I love to use bok choy but I don’t have
any. I’m going to garnish with a little cilantro.
And you know what? I’m remembering that in
my freezer, I have some chopped up onions
that I already fried one time when I made
an absolutely ridiculous amount of fried onions.
So I’m actually going to chip off a little
bit of that to throw in as well.
Ok, so, I’m going to chop up my mushrooms.
I’m going to try to be careful not to loose
any finger parts in the process. I’m not exactly
gifted in the kitchen. I have lost finger
parts in the past.
Don’t make them too small. Did you notice?
I reduced the word ‘them’ to the schwa-M sound:
um, um. Because in this pronunciation the
word ‘them’ begins with a vowel, and the word
before, ‘make’, ends with a K, I’m going to
make sure that those two words link and feel
like one unit — make ‘em, make ‘em — rather
than two separate words. Listen again.
Don’t make them too small [3x], because we
are going to be eating this with chopsticks.
It’s got to be a grabbable size. Ok, I’m also
going to put in a carrot. Carrots, I like
to cut them on the diagonal, because again
it makes them bigger. Did you notice? Two
more cases where the word ‘them’ was reduced
to ‘em. I like to cut them on the diagonal,
cut them, cut them. We’re taking the final
letter of the word ‘cut’, we’re attaching
it to the word ‘em, ‘em, and because the T
now comes between two vowels, I turned that
T into a flap, or, a light D sound. Cut them,
cut them. Also, the phrase “it makes them
bigger, makes them bigger.” Again, ‘them’
reduced to ‘em, ‘em. Also did you notice,
I reduced the word ‘because’ to simply cuz,
cuz. The K, schwa, Z sound. Cuz it makes ‘em,
cuz it makes ‘em. And, as usual, when you
reduce something, you link it to the words
that come around it. Cuz it, cuz it, cuz it
makes ‘em. The Z sound links to the next word
‘it’. Listen to the phrases again.
I like to cut them on the diagonal, because
again it makes them bigger, easier to grab
with a chopstick. Ok, so then I’m going to
use the frozen green beans from Trader Joe’s.
And my frozen onion, which actually, when
I made it, I had fried in grease from ground
beef. What? She just gave me, camera lady
just gave me a face that was like “that’s
gross.” And you know what? It’s not gross.
It just — it makes it more tasty. Ok. I’m
guessing that the water is boiling. So I’m
now ready to head over to the pot. Just a
quick note: did you see how much the jaw dropped
in the word ‘pot’? And you can see a dark
space in the mouth because the tongue is pressed
down in the back. Just the way the AH vowel
should be.
It’s not boiling. I need to be patient.
So, to make my broth, I’m not just going to
use the packet that came with the ramen of
course. I will use some of it, but I’m going
to supplement— Hey! Another ‘gonna’. I’m
gonna supplement. I’m gonna supplement. But
I’m going to supplement with fish sauce, soy
sauce, sugar, some fresh lemon, and probably
a little fresh pepper as well. It’s boiling.
In goes the ramen. I give it just a few seconds
to start to break up. Even though these are
frozen, it’s ok to throw them right in. Did
you notice how quickly I said the word “it’s”?
I reduced it by dropping the vowel altogether,
and attaching the TS sound to the next word.
Tsokay, tsokay. This was very fast of me,
quite casual. It’s ok to throw them right in.
And now all the vegetable that we’ve chopped
goes in. Mmm, tasty. Break up the noodles
a little bit. Ok, I’m going to put in my sauce
ingredients. Little fish sauce, just a few
drops. Little soy sauce, just a few drops.
Little sugar. That wasn’t enough. There we
go. Where did my ramen packet go? There it
is. And then maybe half of this. Ok. Lemon
juice. Oops, don’t want that seed to fall
in. Ok, so there it is. I’m going to mix it
up, I’m going to let it go for not very long.
Just maybe two minutes before my next step.
We’re going to put an egg in this guy. Ok, so,
I take my egg. Get it all nice and good and
cracked. Can you see? Can you see? I reduced
the word ‘can’ to cn, cn. That’s because,
in this sentence, it’s a helping verb. ‘See’
is the main verb. Helping verbs will usually
be unstressed. And ‘can’ likes to reduce when
it’s unstressed to cn: K sound, schwa, N.
Cn, Cn. Can you see? Listen again.
Can you see? [x3] —in there?
Then, just split it open, dump it right in,
put on the lid, turn off the heat, boom!
So now I’m going to dump the ramen into my
bowl, and I have this little spoon because
I’m going to hold up the egg, so that the
egg doesn’t get crushed in the process. So
I dump it all. And now I’ll put the egg in.
And now, if I want a runny yolk, I just leave
it as it is. If I want the yolk to be more
cooked, then what I’ll do is I’ll pick up
some noodles and sort of cover it. And that
will cook it. So that maybe when I’m half
way through, or towards the end of my bowl
of ramen, I have a delicious yolk that’s mostly
cooked. Mmm, I love it. Ok, last thing, going
to garnish with a little bit of cilantro.
Not a must, just because I had it. And there
you go, mom, auntie, a bowl of ramen.
As a thanks for being my camera lady, I’m
going to let my friend Sara eat this delicious
bowl of ramen.
What do you think Sara?
It’s delicious.
I know I’m no master chef. And probably a
lot of my students can make a much better
noodle dish than I can. I’m obsessed with
noodles right now, so please send me your
recipes! Post a photo to my Facebook page,
or maybe even post a video of you making your
noodle dish. I can’t wait to get some recipes!
That’s it, and thanks so much
for using Rachel’s English.