In this American English pronunciation video, we're going to talk about how to reduce and

link the word 'to' and 'the' together, in a sentence, like this: to the.

I've spent quite a bit of time in my videos talking about reduction and linking. And today,

I want to take the specific case of linking the words 'to' and 'the', and talk about how

to simplify the mouth movement when we're reducing these words, linking them, and making

them very, very fast.

The first thing I want to point out, is that there doesn't have to be any movement in the

lips or the jaw: we can articulate this with just the tongue. To the. So, what are we doing

here. The word 'to' will reduce to either the true T-schwa sound, or the flap T-schwa

sound. But for both of them, the tongue position will be the same. So the tongue tip is up

at the roof of the mouth, tt, tt, tt, with the jaw quite closed and the teeth pretty

much together: tt, tt, dd, dd. And I can make that sound just by moving the tongue, the

jaw doesn't have to move: tt, dd, tt, dd. Now, to make the TH for the word 'the'. I

do not need to bring the tongue all the way through the teeth. I can just bring it down,

so it's touching just behind, where the teeth come together. To the. Let's look at this

up close and in slow motion.

The word T-H-E is pronounced with the EE vowel when the next word begins with a vowel or

diphthong. For example, to the other side, to the east. In these cases as well, all the

articulation will happen with the tongue.

It will probably take a good bit of time and drilling to get this new way of saying 'to

the' into your habit. But it is worth doing. Because when we simplify the mouth movement,

it means it's going to be easier to say it quickly in speech. And when we reduce and

pronounce these unstressed words very quickly like this, it provides a nice contrast for

the stressed words, which are much longer, and have a lot more shape. As you drill these

two words, put them into sentence fragments, and eventually sentences. To the. To the store.

To the restaurant. I'm going to the restaurant. It will really help you to integrate that

into your everyday speech.

That's it, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.

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在这个美式英语发音视频中， 我们将讨论如何

在一个句子中将“to”和“the”两个词减少和链接在一起 ，例如：to the。

我在视频中花了很多时间 谈论减少和链接。 而今天，

我想以 连接“to”和“the”这两个词的具体情况为例，谈谈

当我们减少这些词时如何简化嘴巴的运动 ，把它们连接起来，让

它们变得非常非常快。

我要指出的第一件事是，嘴唇或下巴 不必有任何运动

：我们可以 只用舌头来表达。 到。 那么，我们在这里做什么

。 “to”这个词将减少 为真正的 T-schwa 声音或拍打 T-schwa

声音。 但是对于他们两个来说，舌头的 位置是一样的。 所以舌尖

在嘴巴的顶部，tt，tt，tt ，下巴完全闭合，牙齿

几乎在一起：tt，tt，dd，dd。 我 可以通过移动舌头来发出这种声音，

下巴不必移动：tt，dd，tt，dd。 现在，为“the”这个词制作 TH。 我

不需要把舌头一直 穿过牙齿。 我可以把它拿下来，

所以它就在后面，牙齿 合在一起的地方。 到。 让我们

近距离和慢动作看一下。

当下一个单词以元音或双元音开头时，单词 T-H-E 以 EE 元音发音

。 例如，在另一边 ，在东方。 在这些情况下，所有的

发音都将发生在舌头上。

可能需要花费大量时间和 练习才能将这种新的“

对”说成您的习惯。 但这是值得的。 因为当我们简化嘴巴的动作时，

这意味着在讲话中更容易快速地说出来 。 当我们像

这样快速减少和发音这些非重读词时 ，它为重读词提供了很好的对比

，这些词更长 ，形状也更多。 当你练习这

两个词时，将它们放入句子片段 ，最后是句子。 到。 到商店。

去那间餐厅。 我要去餐厅。 它将真正帮助您将其

融入您的日常演讲中。

就是这样，非常 感谢您使用 Rachel 的英语。