Want to speak naturally? Use reduced forms!

Want to (wanuh) speak naturally? Use reduced forms!

By Bonnie Engel Lee, Ph.D.

You might be wondering what reduced forms are even though we use them every day. According to Jane Morley of the English Language Institute at Ann Arbor, these words make up nearly 60% of the spoken English in daily use. When said in isolation, most of these words have stronger forms but weaker forms are used in the context of a phrase or sentence spoken in the natural rhythm of conversation.

The words we typically “reduce” can be grouped into grammatical categories. Here are some examples of the words we “reduce”

pronoun forms-he, him, she, her, they, their, your, me, my, mine, us, I

verb forms-can, could, would, may, am, are, been, will, had, have, is, was

negatives-not

prepositions-to, from, in, of, by

conjunctions--and, with, that, but

articles-a, an, the

adjectives-some,

When we say “and” in conversation, instead of saying each sound in the word, we might say, “en” or even “n”. Try saying a few of the following sentences and listen to how you say “and”.

• cream and sugar (kreem‘n shuger)
• coffee and tea (kawfee “en” tee)
• salt and pepper (sawlt ‘un pepper).

The articles “a”, an” and “the” are almost always reduced in naturally- sounding speech. Saying them as they are spelled makes it sound as if you are reading the words.

Here are a few to try.

• It’s an easy thing to do. (Its un eezee thing tuh do).
• I have to buy a book for school. (I havtuh buy uh book fer skool).
• I smell the aroma of fresh bread. (I smell thuh aroma uhfresh bread).

Since the “v” sound in the word “of” adjoins the “f” sound in fresh, we typically drop the “v”.

By now, I’m sure you are getting the idea. So, here are a few sentences that might be more challenging. How do you think you would say these? Which words are reduced?

• It’s an easy as pie.
• I would have been happy to do that job.
• Don’t you know where I live?
• Did you see a movie last night?

Hint: After a “t” sound, the word “you” is pronounced “chew” or “chuh”. After a “d” sound, the word “you” is pronounced “jew” or “juh”.

Thinking about “reduced forms” is one way to make your “voice over” sound natural.

If you have any voice or speech questions for the “Speech Doc”, feel free to

email them to speechdoc@gmail.com