English Reductions Advance Pronunciation Practice
Hello, hello.
Welcome to today’s live English lesson, here
on the Speak English With Vanessa YouTube
channel.
I’m so glad that you’re here to learn English,
to improve, to participate and to enjoy it.
That’s the goal.
Today we’re gonna be talking about an important
pronunciation point and this is useful for
your own pronunciation, but it’s also useful
for understanding other people, for understanding
native speakers, for understanding movies
and TV shows.
So pronunciation overall, is useful for your
own speaking, but it’s very important for
communication.
So today we’re gonna talk about the concept
of reductions.
Reductions comes from the word reduce, reduce
means to make something smaller or shorter
and that’s what native speakers love to do.
Whenever we speak, we’re always making our
words shorter and quicker, maybe lazier.
An easier way of talking, so that we can say
more in a short amount of time.
So that’s what we’re gonna talk about today.
If you’re joining me live for this lesson,
welcome.
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You can benefit a lot from this.
If you’re new here, I’m Vanessa, welcome.
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We have some members who are here with us
live already.
Hello Tra from Vietnam, wonderful, from Paraguay,
Iran, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, Palestine,
Turkey.
Thanks so much for joining me.
We have a wonderful international community
and that’s the cool thing about language,
about English, is that it combines us and
connects us and unifies us.
It doesn’t matter, our background or native
language, we can all have a common passion,
communicating in English.
So today we’re gonna get started with one
of the most common reductions, today we’re
gonna talk about three.
The first two are more simple and the third
one is gonna be something that we use more
often in slang or in casual speech.
So it’s not something that you write, but
it’s something that we use when we speak a
lot.
My first question for you is, today after
you watch this lesson, what are you gonna
do?
I said that pretty quickly, let me say that
one more time.
After this live lesson, after you watch this
lesson, what are you gonna do today?
I said, what are you gonna do today?
Gonna … is there an English word that’s
gonna?
No, this is our first reduction.
So when you type, when you write your answer
in the chat box, in the comments, you can
use a shortened version, I’m gonna write a
version on my clipboard here, so that you
can see.
But typically when you’re writing something
professional, you need to write the full two
words, in this case, you need to write the
full word.
But for speaking, that’s why it’s a reduction.
So my question is, what are you gonna do after
this lesson?
Now here we have our main word that we’re
talking about, gonna.
What do you think gonna means?
What does gonna mean?
It’s gonna mean two words and their quite
important.
Gonna is going to.
You might notice this as a version of the
future tense.
When we talk about the future, you could say
will, I will go swimming today.
I am gonna go swimming today.
So it’s a way to talk about the future, but
if you wanna say it fast, like a native speaker,
we always say gonna.
Oh, I’m gonna go to the store.
I’m gonna go to work.
I’m gonna sleep because it’s really late at
night in my country.
What are you gonna do?
Junie here, who is live with me, says, “I’m
gonna write a résumé.”
Sioshi says, “I’m gonna drink a glass of
wine and go straight to bed.”
Beautiful, so here we’re talking about things
that are gonna happen, things that will happen
in the future.
I wanna note that when we use gonna, when
we use these reductions, what happened to
this word?
What happened to, to?
Where did to go?
A lot of my English students sometimes add
to when they’re practicing reductions for
the first time.
So I want to make sure you don’t make this
mistake.
A lot of my English students might say, “I’m
gonna to go swimming.
I’m gonna to drink a glass of wine.”
Well, that’s what this A is.
The to has turned into this A, has changed
and become this A here.
So we don’t need to add to because it’s already
combined in this reduction.
So make sure that when you’re using a reduction,
this T, T, to sound is gone.
It’s already combined, so you don’t need to
repeat it.
Let me read a couple more of your wonderful
sentences.
What are you gonna do after this live lesson?
“I’m gonna go shopping.”
Resa says, “I’m gonna read papers for my
thesis.”
Oh, lots of studying.
“I’m gonna go to the gym.”
Great Tamara, I hope that it’s useful for
you.
Ameer says, “I’m gonna replay this lesson
again.”
Excellent idea, take some notes, writes some
sentences down, repeat them out loud, repeat
them with me.
I’m gonna, what if we wanna use this in a
negative way?
We’re gonna talk about each of these reductions
in a positive and a negative way.
How could we change an answer to be negative?
Let me write a sample for myself and if you
wanna write also a negative sentence.
What are you not gonna do after this lesson?
What are you not gonna do?
For me, it’s the morning, so I could say,
“I’m not gonna go back to sleep.”
I’m already awake, it’s the morning, I’m probably
gonna eat breakfast, I’m gonna take a walk,
start my day.
So for me, we can add this negative word,
not.
I’m not gonna, right before gonna.
I’m not gonna go back to sleep.
It’s 09:00am, it’s not really a good time
to go back to sleep.
Maybe 09:00pm would be a good time.
Great, thank you so much for all of your wonderful
sentences.
Maisaki says, “I’m not gonna have dinner.”
Oh, maybe for you, dinner is finished or maybe
you’re not hungry.
“I’m not gonna play a video game."
Thank you Bach, interesting sentence.
“I’m not gonna watch TV.”
Maybe you’re gonna do something else, like
study English.
Not gonna, make sure we’re using that negative
version right in front of this.
As I mentioned before, just a quick little
review.
Don’t write G-O-N-N-A, don’t write gonna in
your professional in emails.
This is only for conversation or when you’re
writing with your friends or when you’re writing
with a family member.
Whenever I write an email to a family member
or someone I know, it’s not a big deal to
use gonna, G-O-N-N-A, instead of going to
because this is the proper way to use it.
But this is gonna be our casual way, so make
sure that you use this in conversations.
Business conversations, no problem, you can
use this in any conversation, business conversations,
with your friends, with your grandma, with
your cat, with anyone.
But we don’t write this in business situations,
so it’s pretty flexible, except for writing.
You need to make sure that you write the full
version, if you’re writing something professional.
Let’s go to the second reduction, the second
reduction … I have a question for you, another
question.
Tell me, where do you wanna visit in the world?
Let’s imagine someone gives you $100,000 and
you can visit any country, where do you wanna
visit?
Maybe you could visit that country, especially
with that large amount of money.
Maybe you could visit that country for a month
or you could go to really amazing restaurants
every day.
But where do you wanna visit in the world?
For me that’s a really difficult question
because my list is really long and it’s always
growing, but the good news is, nowadays it’s
pretty convenient to travel, we just need
some extra money and some free time to be
able to go around the world.
So I’m gonna write my question here, where
do you wanna go in the world?
You have a lot of choices, there’s a lot of
amazing places.
Here is our key reduction, what do you think
that this reduction means?
Wanna, wanna, we’ve got a lot of great sentences
here.
Ola says, “I wanna go to the US.”
Sankbo says, “I wanna visit Hawaii.”
Khan says, “I wanna visit Vanessa.”
Well, my city is quite nice.
It’s not exactly New York, but it’s real America.
Myles says, “I wanna visit Korea.”
Oh, a lot of people say Hawaii, interesting.
Hector says, “I wanna visit Mars.”
Yes, do it.
I’m really curious what Mars is like.
At least you can visit outer space, I think
it would be amazing to see the earth from
space, which means you don’t have to go too
far away.
But you still have to get in a rocket and
experience strange sensations, but that would
be amazing.
I think I wanna see earth from space.
Maybe that’s my answer here because there’s
too many countries on my list.
Who knows, what is wanna?
What does wanna mean?
Wanna stands for two words, just like gonna,
we’ve combined want to, want to.
So what happened to, to?
Where is to in this reduction?
Well, same as gonna, it has become this uh
sound at the end.
This shwa uh sound, so we don’t need to add
to.
No, don’t add to afterwards because we already
have to.
So a lot of you are already writing beautiful
sentences using wanna correctly.
Make sure we don’t have to and just like gonna,
we’re gonna use this in every kind of conversation
and in more casual writing, not professional
writing.
But you can use this spoken, at work, you
can use this in your presentations, but don’t
write this at work.
I recommend writing want to, when you’re writing
more professional style emails or presentations.
Let’s take a look at some of your wonderful
want to, wanna sentences.
“I wanna visit Canada again.”
Great, “I wanna learn how to write correctly.”
Oh beautiful, “I wanna visit your hometown.”
Oh well, it’s a lovely place.
I hope that you get a chance to do it someday.
Wanna, something that you wanna do, wanna,
wanna.
And if you’ve noticed so far, we always have
a verb afterwards.
It was the same with gonna, gonna plus a verb
and this is gonna be typical.
We’re always gonna have a verb afterwards.
Let’s take a look at the third reduction.
Now the third reduction is gonna be a little
bit different, gonna be.
If you notice, I use these reductions all
the time.
Gonna, wanna and the third reduction, can
you guess what we’re gonna talk about today?
The third one is a little more casual.
So for this one, we’ve got a couple of different
options.
I wanna ask you a question and I wanna see
how you answer it, I’ll give you a little
hint too.
My question is, what do you have to do to
improve your English skills?
What do you have to do to improve your English
skills?
There are two reductions that we can talk
about for this question.
The first one is a little more clear and straightforward
because I already used that word in this question.
I already used have to, have to.
So you could say something like, “Oh, I hafta
practice every day.”
This is our first reduction and it’s the most
clear because it’s pretty much the same thing
that we talked about before.
We have a and to, but I really wanna focus
on a second reduction that has a similar meaning,
but it’s not in this question.
Typically, the second reduction that I wanna
talk about here, is used in statements.
We don’t often use it in a question, can any
of you guess what we’re gonna talk about for
the second reduction that has a similar meaning,
but it’s more casual, something that we use
in statements.
I’ll give you a hint, it starts with a G,
starts with a G. What do you think?
Well, let me write a sample sentence and see
if you can guess what this means, what this
stands for.
I gotta practice every day.
Oh, what do you think that this reduction
means?
It actually stands for three words, so previously
we talked about reductions that have two words,
going to, want to, have to.
But this one means the same thing as have
to, it’s a necessity.
I have to practice every day, I need to practice
every day.
But with this reduction it’s actually three
that we’re combining.
Can anyone guess?
A lot of you said got to, Khan has the correct
answer.
Khan says, “Have got to.”
Oh, lovely, lovely guess.
So here we have, have got to, where is have?
Because this follows a similar pattern as
the other reductions.
Got to, to becomes the A, and then we’ve got,
got.
Pretty clear compared to other ones, but what
about have?
What happened to have?
Well, as I mentioned, when native speakers
are talking quickly, we often like to cut
out things, throw them away, reduce them,
speak quickly.
That’s exactly what’s happening, so in this
situation, have is gone.
Is this possible?
Can we actually cut out important verbs?
Well, yeah, we can.
In this situation it’s understood, it’s understood
and the word understood means that it’s implied
or understood.
This is a challenging concept in English because
it means that in the sentence, you’re not
gonna hear and you’re not gonna see each word.
One word or some words are completely cut
out of the sentence, but native speakers already
understand that it should be in that sentence.
So they already understand that it needs to
be there, but when we speak or in some situations,
when you write, it’s cut out.
So here is the perfect example of implied.
Something that’s implied because I could say,
“I have got to practice every day.”
Or, “I’ve gotta practice every day.”
You can say that, no problem.
We can add, I’ve, I’ve gotta practice every
day.
This is great, but you’re gonna hear a lot
of native speakers cut that out.
I gotta practice, I gotta, I gotta practice
every day.
So for you, if you feel comfortable saying,
“Today, oh, I gotta pick up my sister from
school and then I gotta go to the grocery
store and then I gotta think about what to
eat for dinner and prepare for my family.”
If you feel comfortable using gotta by itself,
excellent.
Go ahead, it just is the same as hafta, but
it’s really strong.
So if you feel comfortable using this, excellent.
If you’re uncertain, I recommend listening
and watching to a lot of material.
A lot of material that is from native speakers
because you’re gonna hear them use this all
the time.
Native speakers use, “I gotta go.”
It means, I have to go, I have got to go,
I need to go, I need to leave, see you later
everyone.
This is really common and the more that you
hear it, the more you’re gonna feel comfortable
understanding it.
The first step is to understand it when native
speakers use it.
Second step is to use it yourself and that’s
what you’re doing.
Let’s take a look at some of your sentences.
What do you have to do to improve your English?
I gotta … Hibo says, “I gotta practice English.”
Jenny says, “I gotta prepare my presentation
in English.”
Oh, Marcella says, “I gotta practice English
with Vanessa.”
I hope it’s useful for you.
Gabriela says, “I’m gonna see an old friend
and I wanna buy him a gift, so I gotta find
something pretty special or I have to find
something pretty special.”
Beautiful sentence, using all of these reductions.
Lovely, lovely, so make sure that when you
use gotta, it’s the same as hafta, I hafta
do something, it’s a necessity.
Something, maybe it’s not so fun all the time,
but it’s important for your life, it’s a necessity.
All right, let’s take a look at a final sentence
that we can say altogether, if you are still
watching this live or in the replay, congratulations.
I hope that you’ve learned a lot, let’s combine
our knowledge and use these three reductions
to make a wonderful sentence, to say altogether
and practice pronunciation, practice memory
and repetition.
And I’m gonna say the sentence and I want
you to write it down or write it in your notebook
or just say it out loud.
We’re gonna practice this together, so it’s
kind of a mini listening practice.
Try to hear exactly what I’m saying, are you
ready?
Let’s say this English sentence together,
what should we say?
How about … oh, I got a good one.
I gotta good one, I gotta … gotta good one.
We could say, “I wanna improve my English,
so I’m gonna study and I gotta do it now.”
Can you write this full sentence?
I wanna improve my English, so I gotta study
and I’m gonna do it now.
I wanna improve my English, so I gotta study
every day and I’m gonna do it now.
Great, maybe earlier I switched those, it’s
okay.
I wanna improve my English, so I’m gonna study
and I gotta do it now, beautiful.
Let’s say this slowly.
Prepare our pronunciation, prepare your mouth
muscles and I hope that this quick repetition
will help you to say it correctly and also
start to feel more comfortable.
All right, let’s say I wanna improve my English,
so I gotta study and I’m gonna do it now.
Let’s say it quickly, I wanna improve my English,
so I’ve gotta study and I’m gonna do it now.
We could … I’ve gotta study or we can cut
it out.
I wanna improve my English, so I gotta study
and I’m gonna do it now.
In fact, you are doing it now because you’re
watching this lesson and participating.
All around the world, if you are in Vietnam,
Brazil, Egypt, Russia, France, Chile, wherever
you are, I hope that you’re saying this sentence
out loud with me.
I wanna improve my English, so I’m gonna study
and I gotta do it now.
Repeat this and enjoy this concept because
native speakers use it all the time.
Thanks so much for learning with me today
and if you enjoyed this live lesson, feel
free to come again for the next live lesson,
which will be Tuesday and Thursday at 09:00am
Eastern time, that’s the New York time zone.
I hope you can come again, next time will
be on Tuesday.
We’ll be talking about another important concept
that I hope you can learn a lot from and if
you wanna continue learning with me right
now and expand your English knowledge, if
you wanna improve, you’re gonna do it, I know
you can and I recommend reading my free ebook,
called Five Steps To Becoming A Confident
English Speaker.
This free ebook has helped thousands of English
learners to know the next step because there’s
a lot of places, a lot of paths you can take
to improve your English, but that can be kind
of overwhelming.
It’s great to have choices, but sometimes
too many choices is overwhelming.
Wow, that’s a really loud motorcycle, I hope
it wasn’t too loud for you.
So if you would like to continue to learn
English with me, I recommend reading my free
ebook.
I’ll put a link in the description and here
on the screen at the end of the lesson.
You’ll be able to read the free ebook and
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You’re gonna improve, you gotta do it, I hope
you wanna do it.
Let’s learn together.
Thanks so much for joining me and I’ll see
you the next time.
Bye everyone, talk to you later.