Hey guys, welcome back. Today we're working on something that will instantly make your English sound more natural, more fluent, and way more like a native speaker. Because here's the truth. If you are saying something like I have to go, I am going to go. Did you eat? Very clearly and very carefully, you sound correct, but you don't sound natural. Native speakers usually don't say I have to go. They usually say I got to go or did you eat? They say did you eat? And no, these are not grammar mistakes. These are called reductions and spoken contractions. And they happen because English is stress timed language. We rush small words. We blend sounds. We drop hard consonants. We soften T's and D's. We merge everything

together. And today I'm going to show you exactly how these changes happen and how you can start using them naturally so you can speak English faster, smoother, and more confidently. So let's jump right in. And we'll start with this little phrase that people literally use every single day a couple of times a day. And it is I have to go, which turns into I got to go. And people say I got to go pretty much all the time. It's a very common natural contraction that people literally use pretty much all the time in everyday spoken English. Okay, so let's practice it together. Repeat after me. I got to go. I gotta go. So in the word gota, this is a soft D sound like okay, a flap T sound. You just literally flap

your tongue to the upper pallet. Du. I got go. It's a fast sound. I gotta go. Now, how does have to become gota? That's because instead of saying have to, you can also say got to. Or you can say have got to. This is like a very formal and kind of like a really old-fashioned way to say this, but because there's this option to say got to, I got to. Got to obviously gets contracted to got to. Very logical. There's also an option to say have to. have to because the word have is unstressed and the sound v becomes f basically and again to gets reduced to and when we blend this together in a nice and smooth way it sounds have to. I

have to go I have to go very common as well. Okay so the next phrase is I am going to go I am going to go which turns into I'm going to go. So basically going to turns into gonna because this little word to is unstressed. So we basically turn it into t to like t with awa sound and then the ng ending in the word going blends into the next word. So when we blend this all together it becomes gonna you know like going the basically but people prefer just to blend it all together and say gonna a lot faster a lot easier. It's a very common contraction. Okay repeat after me. I'm going to go. I'm gonna go. Now you can take it even step further and say I'm gonna go. Here everything literally blends together.

I'm going to go instead of saying I'm going to go still kind of clearly you can blend this all together and literally say I'm go. Basically dropping G. So you're just blending I'mma to n and then go. I'm going to go. I'm going to go. Yeah. I know I'm going to go. It's also very common but very casual, very informal. Now, one important note here, we do not use these contractions in written English. This is just for spoken English, for casual spoken English. The next one will be let me go. So here we will basically drop the T sound. You can also say let me go making the T like a stop sound, but usually people just say let me go. So they basically drop the T. Let me go. Let me

go. The same happens with the phrase give me. So you basically just drop the V and you get give me, give me that, give me that. So let's practice saying this. Just relax. Feel very casual, very informal and say let me go. Let me give me that. T and M and V and M. They blend together. We naturally merge consonants when they're hard to pronounce separately fast. It is easier to say let me than let me. Okay, so now let's practice saying this sentence. Give me a second. How do you think it'll sound? We will blend give me and it'll sound like give me and then a second. You can say a second or you can shorten it to just a sec. Very common as well. So, give me a sec. Give me a second versus give

me a sec. Or give me a second. So, let's practice saying it. Give me a sec. Sounds very weird when you say it slowly. Give me a sec. Just give me a second. I'll be right there. Okay. Now, this one. Wait a minute. So, here basically all of these three words blend together and what we get is wait a minute. Wait a minute. So the T becomes a fast D sound. A is pronounced as a schwa sound because this is an unstressed word. So this is basically just a wait a and then the word minute. And the t at the end of the word minute is a stop t.

Wait a minute. Honestly, I've never heard anyone say wait a minute clearly in spoken English in like a casual conversation. It's always wait a minute. Okay, so say it with me now. It's a very good pronunciation practice. Wait a wait. It has to be a fast sound. It's a flap t. Wait a or fast d if you prefer. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. The next little phrase will be talk to you later. So you can either reduce the word you to just y. Again, it's also very common to do that. And two will be also reduced to just t and thewah sound. Talk to you later. Or the most common way to say

this will be talk to you later. Why? Because when we blend the t and y sounds, we get a ch sound. So t + y equals ch sound. Talk to you later. I'm going to talk to you later. And here we go. I'm going to talk to you later. I'm going to talk to you later. Literally everything is reduced. I'm going to talk to you later. The same happens when we blend the D sound and the Y sound and we get a J sound. D plus Y equals J sound. I will see you later. So naturally we'll contract I will to and then U to just yeah. I'll see you later. See you later. And you know what?

You can pause this video if you need more time to practice. Just take your time. Repeat it a couple of times. The next one will be I don't know. So people might say something like I don't know. Like pretty much very clearly. There will be a stop t at the end of the word don't. So you will not pronounce t. You will just stop there. I don't know. An even more common way to say this would be I don't know. So the t is basically getting dropped and the d and n blend together and we get I don't know. So let's practice saying this slowly first. I don't know.

It's easy. I don't know. The next one, what are you doing? You will definitely hear someone ask this question like this, what are you doing, very clearly because there's always time and place for everything. You will hear it especially when someone is very serious or surprised. What are you doing? They really want to emphasize this question. So that's why they pronounce every single word clearly. But you will also hear a contracted version which sounds like what you doing? What you doing? So basically here R kind of like blends with you and disappears and then u becomes yah. And then the t in the word what connects to the y in the word y or you and we get a ch sound. The word doing you can pronounce it like

doing being clear or you can contract it also to doing dropping the g sound. Very common. So when we connect and blend everything together, it'll sound like what you doing? So let's practice saying it. What you what are you becomes what you doing? Sounds very informal, very casual, very friendly. Now another way to ask this question would be what are you? What are you doing? So here the t in the word what becomes a fast d. What a w. R gets reduced to just the schwa sound and we connect these two words together and we get what? And then u gets reduced to just yah. And then al together it sounds like one weird blended word. What are you? What

are you doing? What are you doing? These two ways of asking this question are very common and it's just a matter of preference. So let's practice saying this one. What are you? What are you doing? Now the next one, what do you want? Will sound like what do you want? So basically here what are you and what do you when we reduce these two phrases they sound the same in connected speech basically what are you and what do you what are you because what do we have two consonants together so basically either one of them will sound like a fast d sound and one of them will get dropped because we won't make it long it's impossible and we won't use

both of them because it'll sound weird. What? And you obviously gets reduced to just ya and it basically sounds the same. What are you? What do you want? Now, I know a logical question would be how do native speakers know what question you just asked? And the answer would be based on the context. They just know based on the context on what was said previously. And also if you ask this exact question, what do you want? They know that this is what do you want because you won't say what are you want. This is grammatically incorrect. And again, these are very common conversational reductions

specifically in American English. Now let's learn and practice saying these little reductions. So we've already talked about got to which becomes gota and we already know why. And then we have this little phrase want to that becomes basically w to in fast spoken English or w sometimes people will say w to or w to more common I think and this is how it sounds in a sentence for example I want to go to the concert I w to why not I want to because it's kind of like uh it's hard to say I want to sounds a little off that's why the t just gets dropped and we get wanna the next one will be aren't you this is usually how we would start a question. For example, aren't you late?

And there you go. I just naturally reduced aren't you to aren't you? When you learn to do this and you start using it, it just naturally happens. You literally can't control this. Aren't you sounds um forced and it's kind of a little hard to say it especially fast. And again, why aren't you? Because the word you gets reduced to just y. And then when we blend together t and y, we get a ch sound. And that's why it sounds like aren't you. Aren't you? And it's a lot easier and faster to say it like this. So let's practice it. Aren't you? Aren't you late? Okay, now let's work on blending together. Did you or do you? We already know the rule.

The word U gets reduced to just Y. And then when we blend together the D and Y, we get J sound. J in this case. So T + Y equals true sound. D + Y equals J sound. Did you call her becomes did you call her? Did you? Or even faster, did you call her? Did you finish? Or did you finish? Did you do that? Do you know her? I know, crazy, but this is how people speak. Okay, now a little test.

Don't you becomes Drum roll. Don't you wish your girlfriend was like me. Sorry about that. Couldn't resist it. But I think everybody knows this song, so that was kind of appropriate. So anyways, let's get serious. Don't you becomes Don't you wanna go? Don't you wanna go? Like literally everything is reduced. Don't you want to go? Sounds a lot more natural, right? Don't you want to go? Or this little very common phrase, I forgot about it. Got you. Gotcha. Gotcha. Now, we also have a phrases like kind of or sort of. Now of is almost never stressed in natural speech and it basically just gets reduced to the schwa sound which is of. And then we just blend these two little words together

and we get kind of because of gets reduced to the schwa sound which sounds like a kind of or sort of becomes sort of I kind of want to go. Oh, I forgot about this one. We also have out of. You can definitely say something like I'm out of here. I'm out of here. Out of. You're basically pronouncing these two words together. Although you also connect them and they sound smoothly, but you can hear them both. Or you can reduce it to a. I'm out of here. The t becomes a fast d. D. I'm out of here. It's it's fast, it's easy. I'm out of here. Sometimes people will say something like out of here. Also possible, but usually it's just ought to I'm out of here. Now again, a little test. Let's connect these two words together. Supposed to.

I'm supposed to be here. So when we blend these two words together, remembering the rule about the word to and how we contract it, we get supposed. We have supposed and to we have two consonants. We blend them together. Supposed with awah sound at the end. Now let's connect these two words together. Trust me. I'm telling the truth. Sounds a little bit forced, right? Trust me. So how would we connect trust me? So we would basically drop the T sound because it'll be easier and because we have too many consonants here. So trust me will become trust me. Trust

me. I'm telling the truth. Okay. So, let's go over these little rules once again. In fast speech, we reduce unstressed words like of, to you, and a or a. We reduce them to basically just the schwa sound. Uh, and obviously there can be more unstressed words. These are just to name a few. We link consonants to vowels. We blend similar sounds. We turn T or D into a soft fast sound D or fast D sound as some prefer to call it D or a flap T sound D. It's all the same sound and we drop hard sounds. As I already mentioned, English is a stress timed language, which basically means that we rush the small words and we stress the important ones. Again, these aren't grammar mistakes. These are

natural spoken reductions, so don't be afraid to use them. In fact, I encourage you to use them. We don't write them in formal English, but we absolutely use them in everyday conversation. Now, already knowing the common reductions and rules, let's practice a couple of questions or sentences or phrases. How are you becomes how are you? R gets reduced to just R and connects to how. How are and you becomes yah. How are you? Obviously, you could say how are you? But how are you? I don't know sounds more natural. Where did you go becomes where did you go? Say it with me. Where did you go? Where'd

you go? Again, you can say where did you go? Did you? Where did you go? Or where did you go? Even more contracted. Even faster. Where'd you go? Where did you go? Where'd you go? Why did you do that? Why did you do that? Or why'd you do that? Why' you do that? Why did you do that? Say it with me. Why did you do that? Or even faster, very common as well. Why' you do that? Why' you Why' you do that? When are you leaving? When are we connect when to are r gets reduced to when are you leaving?

Now, these I feel like these are very wellnown. A lot of people know how to reduce these, but again, we'll go through them. Would you? Could you? Should you? D plus Y. Would you? Could you? Should you? Would you go? Could you pick that up, please? And then we have these would have, could have, should have. have is unstressed and basically gets reduced to just the schwa sound in this phrase. And this is what we get. Would have becomes would. Would with the fast d sound would have. Could have becomes could have. Or should have becomes should have. So the sentence

like this I would have told you gets reduced to I would have told you. So everything gets reduced and blended together nicely. I would have told you. Or you could say I would have told you. Told you. Also possible. Told you. More common. I would have told you. Repeat it with me. I would have told you. Okay. Now, this phrase, I have no idea, gets reduced to I've no idea. I have gets contracted to I've it's a very common contraction and we get I have no idea. I've no idea. Or you could just say no idea. I've no idea. I have no idea.

I don't care will usually get reduced to I don't care. So, it's a stop T here. I don't care. I don't want to. Again, I don't stop T and want to becomes wanna. I don't want to. Again, stop T means that you don't pronounce the T sound completely. So, you don't say don't. You press the tip of your tongue to the upper pallet behind your top uh front teeth. Don't and stop there. I don't care. I don't wanna I don't want to. I have just a few. So, the next one is I am trying to Oh my gosh, this one is such a good one. Trying to becomes trying to. Sorry, I got excited because I should have mentioned it before

because it's so common. But okay, we'll practice it in this phrase. I'm trying to. I'm trying to becomes I'm trying to. So, this reduction is super common. Trying to. When we connect these two words together, to is unstressed. It basically becomes thewa sound and the g gets dropped and we get try. China. Trying to becomes China. I'm trying to leave. I'm trying to help. I'm trying to. Now, the last little test. Let's try to reduce this little sentence. I am going to try. I'm going to give you a sec. So, we can reduce it to either I'm going to try. Or we can take it one step further and say I'm going to try. I'm going to try

my best. I'm going to try my best. Okay guys, that'll be it for this video. I really hope you enjoyed it. This video was kind of improvised. This is basically what a pronunciation lesson would look like with me if you took one with me. So anyways, I really hope you enjoyed it. I really hope that you got to practice a little bit. You learned something new. And if you need more practice, you can watch this video again. You can pause where you need to and practice again and again with me. The more you practice, the better. Please remember this. I've already mentioned this in my previous videos a couple of times, but I'm going to say it again. There were words that I literally

needed to practice saying like a hundred times in a row for many, many days in a row because they were so difficult for me to pronounce or sentences or phrases. So, don't get discouraged when you can't pronounce something right away or it doesn't sound perfect. It won't. You need practice. Okay. Thank you for watching again and I'll see you in the next