The 100 MOST COMMON WORDS in ENGLISH

Rachel's English

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You’re probably over-pronouncing all of the first 27 most common words in American English. So today

we’re going to study the American pronunciation of the 100 most common words in English. In these

100 simple words, you are going to learn so much about the American accent, rhythm, and melody.

I’m Rachel and I’ve been teaching the American accent and English listening

skills to non-native speakers for over 15 years. Check out Rachelsenglish.com

to learn more about improving your spoken English.

To start, let’s look at 1-10, the most common, most important,

most used words in the English language. We’ll learn what exactly a reduction is,

and how it will help you understand fast English and speak more natural American English.

The number one most common word in American English is THE.

In a sentence it will become the, the.

Very fast with a schwa. This is when the next word begins with a consonant.

For example, “the most”, the, the most.

It's usually pronounced with the EE vowel, the, the, the.

If the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, for example, “the other”, the, the, the.

The most important thing about the pronunciation of

this word is that it should be said very quickly.

The cat. It should never be THE CAT, THE CAT.

Always ‘the cat’. The, the, the very fast.

The next word is ‘be’, and I assume this means the verb TO BE, conjugated.

I am, you are, he is, she is, it is, we are, they are.

The important thing to know about these pronunciations is

that they will almost always be said in a contraction, ‘I am’ becomes I’m, I'm,

I'm. Said very quickly, I’m.

Sometimes you’ll even hear as just the M sound: M’sorry.

M’sorry, mm, mm, mm. This is a natural pronunciation.

YOU ARE, you’re, reduces to ‘you’re’. Super fast. basically no vowel. You're, you're.

You’re gonna be okay. You’re, you're. Very fast. HE IS becomes ‘he’s’.He's.

SHE IS is she’s. She's. IT IS, it’s, it’s, it’s.

Sometimes we reduce this even further we change a sound, we dropped the vowel.

We say just ‘ts’. Ts, ts. ‘ts cool! ‘ts awesome! Ts.

Have you ever heard that? ‘Ts cool. ‘Ts raining.

It's a common reduction.

WE ARE, we’re, becomes ‘we’re’. We’re running late. ‘we’re’, ‘we’re’.

Very fast. THEY ARE, they’re becomes ‘they’re’.

Very fast, the vowel changes, they’re. They’re okay. They’re, they’re.

Word number three: to.

Almost never pronounced this way, to.

We use a reduction: the vowel changes to the schwa. To, to, said very quickly.

And sometimes, the true T at the beginning changes to more of a D sound, or a Flap T.

“Let’s go to the beach.”

Go to the. Go to. Go to.

How is ‘to’ being pronounce there? To, to, go to. A flap of the tongue,

and the schwa. Said very quickly. Go to. Go to the beach.

It’s nothing like TO, is it? OF.

Again, we don’t fully pronounce this word. It’s not OF, it’s of.

Schwa, very light V, said very quickly. And actually,

you’ll often hear this word without the ‘v’.

Then it’s just the schwa, and we pronounce it this way in phrases ‘kind of’ and ‘sort of’.

For example, I’m kinda tired. Kinda. Kinda, uh, uh, uh. Schwa, very fast. Kinda.

Ok, we’re only four words in, but let’s review.

I’m going to put up a sentence. Look at it, find the reduction,

and then say the sentence with the reduction. Say the reduction very quickly.

Here's one sentence:

I am remember becomes I'm.

How quickly did you make that first word?

I'm running late. I'm running late.Try it as just the M sound.

Mmm, mmm. M'running, M'running. M’running late.

Sorry guys, I’m running late. So natural.

When you learn the reductions in American English,

and you start to really use them in your speech, you gain a native feeling. Also,

understanding Americans becomes easier because you can start to identify the reductions.

One more for you to try out loud now: I want you to try reducing the word ‘to’.

Look at it, think about it, now try it out loud. “I know how to do it.” How to, how to, how to.

I’m making that the Flap T and the schwa. Are you? Try it again. How to, I know how to do it.

Alright, we’ll keep going with number 5:

Another word that we rarely fully pronounce. There are a couple of different ways to reduce this.

We’ll start with the full pronunciation, and we’ll reduce from there.

AA vowel followed by N consonant: the tongue

is lifted in the back for AA, Aaaa.

Then relaxes before the N. Aa-uh, aa-uh, aa-uh.

So it’s not a pure AA sound. Aa-uh, aa-uh. And, and, and, and, and.

First reduction is just dropping the D. “An’, An’and I think it will be okay.”

An, An' I, An’ I. No D, just the N into the next word. An' I think it will be okay.

Another reduction, more common, is to just say the N sound, “N’. N' I think it will be okay.”

N’, N', just straight from the N into the next word.

N' I, N' I think it will be okay.

Cookies and cream, salt and pepper, black and white, up and down, left and right.

All of these, I’m just making a quick N sound, linking the two other words.

Okay, we’re actually going to do 6 and 32 together, because they’re related.

They're the articles A and AN.

Now, we don’t say A and AN.

We say ‘a’ and ‘an’. Schwa. Very fast, very little movement for the mouth.

A, a, a coffee. A, a or An, an example. An, an. A, an.

We don’t drop or change a sound here. We don’t reduce. But it is still unstressed.

This mean it should be really short, less clear. Instead of saying ‘IN’, we would say ‘in’.

“He’s in love.” In, in.

“She’s in a hurry”. In, in, in.

So be careful. It’s not IN. That sounds stressed. It’s ‘in’.

Number 8: THAT.

You know what I realize? I already have a video for a lot of these reductions.

I have a video on the pronunciation of THAT and how we really pronounce it in a sentence.

So I’ll give a brief description here,

but I’ll also link to that and other related reduction videos in the video description.

THAT is a word that can be used lots of different ways in American English.

And in some cases, in many cases, we reduce the vowel from AA to the schwa so THAT becomes ‘that’.

Now the ending T: the pronunciation of that sound depends on the beginning of the next word.

If the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong,

it’s a Flap T: That I, d d, d that I.

If the next word begins with a consonant, then it’s a Stop T. That she.

That, that That she. I know, it’s a little confusing.

Check out my video on the word THAT for a longer explanation and more examples.

But just note that we often don't pronounce this word,

that. We often reduce it so it has the schwa that.

Number 9: the verb HAVE.

Just like the verb ‘be’, this will often be used as a contraction in

spoken English, which is already a reduction.

We’re already changing sounds for that:

I HAVE becomes I’ve, I’ve I’ve I’ve I’ve. “I’ve been wanting to see that.” I’ve I’ve.

YOU HAVE becomes ‘you’ve.’

HE HAS becomes ‘he’s’.

He's he's. You’ve you’ve. He’s been waiting. He's.

Here’s something interesting: the pronunciation of the HAS contraction.

With ‘he’ and ‘she’, it’s pronounced

as a Z. Hiz.

Hiz been, hiz been.

But with Shes shiz shiz. But with it, its, it’s been raining, then

it’s an S sound. It's. He’s, Z it’s, Ss S. WE HAVE becomes ‘we’ve’,

we’ve’ we’ve’ and THEY HAVE becomes

‘they’ve’ which sounds like deiv when it's unstressed.

Number 10: the pronoun I.

Usually said very quickly, it’s not “I” but “I”. I think so.

I, I, I. I think, I.

If you’re speaking really quickly, you can maybe get away with something more like ‘aa’ than ‘I’.

I think so. Aa aa aa. I think so.

When it’s said so quickly, you can’t really tell if I’m doing the full diphthong I or not.

Wow. There were a lot of reductions there. Maybe you already knew some of

these reductions. If you did, please let me know which ones you already knew in

the comments below. Let’s look at the next set of 10. There will be more reductions,

more opportunities to smooth out your spoken English.

One thing that will make it easier for you to hear reductions in fast,

conversational English is listening practice and training. I have a free

course where you can do this training. Transform the way you hear English

and the way you speak English. Visit Rachel’s English.com/free to get this,

Top 3 Ways to Master the American Accent. I’ll also put the link in the video description.

We’re starting today with number 11,

the word ‘it’. This word doesn’t reduce in a sentence, we don’t drop or change a

sound, but it said very quickly. And the pronunciation of the T depends on the next word.

If it begins with a consonant, this T is a Stop T: it, it, it. It won’t be. It, it won't. Very fast,

it. If the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, then this T is a Flap T,

linking the two words together. It always, it always, it it it it, it always, it always. Said

very quickly. It always. Nothing too crazy here, just say the word quickly. Not IT, but it.

Number 12, one of my all-time favorite reductions:

For. We almost never say it this way. We say ‘fer’. Isn’t that funny? I had a

student once who lived in America and was married to an American. She told

her husband how she was learning about this reduction. And his response was,

“that’s ridiculous". We don’t do that, we don't pronounce that fer.

Then later, he did it, as he was speaking naturally, and she pointed it out. Most

Americans aren’t even aware of these crazy reductions that we do. So, to make this

reduction drop the vowel, ff-rr, fer fer. Say the word very quickly, low in pitch. Fer fer.

This is for work. Fer. I made a longer video with more examples on the reduction of the word ‘for’,

check it out if you want more detail here. I got it for my birthday. For

for. What’s for dinner? For. In conversation, fer not ‘for’.

Number 13: Not. Now, this word, in conversation,

will very often be contracted n’t. Didn’t, doesn’t, can’t, shouldn’t, won’t,

and so on. Notice I’m not releasing the T there, didn’t, but didn’t. Didn’t. It’s an abrupt stop of

air in the N to signify the T: didn’t, didn’t, shouldn’t, nt nt, nt, shouldn’t couldn’t,

couldn’t. If we don’t use a contraction, then we’re often stressing it: I do NOT

want to see her right now. In these cases, we’ll probably do a Stop T. Not. I do NOT

want to see her right now. Not, stop the air, and then keep going. I do Not wanna. Not.

Number 14: on. This word doesn’t reduce. We don’t change any sounds like we did with ‘for’. But,

it is unstressed. You don’t want to say ON in a sentence, but rather,

‘on’. On on. “Put it on the table.” On. When it’s unstressed, that gives good contrast to

the longer, clearer stressed words ‘put’ and ‘table’, and this contrast is very

important in American English. It's better than each word being longer and clearer.

What would it sound like if ‘it, on, the’, were also stressed? Put it on the table. Put it on

the table. Put it on the table. No, that’s not how we speak. Put it on the table. Put

it on the table. That’s how we speak. Not ON, but on. Try that with me now. Low in volume,

low in pitch, not very clear. On, on. Put it on the table.

Number 15, the fifteenth most common word in English: with.

There are two ways you can pronounce this word: with a voiced TH, with,

with, with or an unvoiced TH, with, with. I don’t use the voiced TH. I

think it sounds a little old-fashioned. I would stick with the unvoiced TH, with,

with. Just like ‘on’, this word doesn’t reduce. None of the sounds

change. But, it is unstressed. It will usually be pronounced like this: with,

rather than WITH. “It’s with the other one” with the, with the, with the, with the, with the. Low

in pitch. Notice I’m just making one TH to connect these two unstressed words, with the, with the,

with the. It's the unvoiced TH. With the, with the other one. It’s with the other one.

Number 16, he. Oh yes, this one reduces. Can I just say, we are already at 16,

and we still haven’t seen one word that is stressed,

that's a content word. Wow. When are we going to see it, and what is it going to be? I can’t

wait to find out. But, back to 16, he. Fully pronounced, ‘he’, it's the H consonant and EE

as in SHE vowel. But very often we drop the H, and have just the EE sound. What does he

want? What does ee ee ee ee. We drop the H and we connect it to the word before:

does he?, does he? What does he want? What would that sentence sound like if

every word stressed? What does he want? What does he want? What does he want? No,

that’s not natural English. What does he want? I have a video on dropping the H reductions.

Click here or in the description below to see that video and to get more examples.

Seventeen. As. Yep, this word reduces. It’s not pronounced

AS in a sentence. That’s stressed. This word is usually not stressed.

The vowel changes to the schwa and it becomes ‘uhz’. AS, uhz. He’s as tall as

me. Uhz—uhztalluhz. Uhztalluhz. Not AS, uhz, uhz. He's as tall as me. I have a video that

goes over this reduction too. Click here or in the description below to see that and more examples.

Eighteen. You. Another word that reduces. This word can be reduced

to ‘yuh’. What are you doing? What are you. Yuh, yuh, yuh.

You never have to do reductions, and you could definitely say “What are you doing?”,

you, you, you. I’m not reducing that, I’m not changing the vowel,

but I am still making it unstressed. ‘you’ instead of YOU. This word will usually be unstressed. That

means, don’t pronounce it ‘you’, which is stressed. Pronounce it you. Or reduced you.

Nineteen. Do. Our first content word. Content words are nouns,

verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. They're usually stressed in a sentence. Our

first stressed word! Sort of. Actually, this word can reduce. It depends on how it’s being used in

a sentence. In a question, where there’s another verb, we often reduce it. For example, what do you

think? ‘Think’ is another verb. Did you notice how I pronounced ‘do’? What do you? What to, what to,

what to do do. D plus schwa. Reducing DO like this is nice, natural English. I do have a video,

there I’m stressing it, I do have a video because it’s a statement, not a question,

I do have a video on the DO reduction. Click here or in the description below to see that video.

Twenty. The word At. Preposition, function word, and yes, it reduces. In conversation, we often

pronounce this word ‘ut’, with a schwa, instead of AT, with the AA as in BAT vowel. The T is a Flap T

if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, and a Stop T if the next word begins with a

consonant. If you’re not sure what a Stop or Flap T is, I do have a video on that, click here or

in the comments below. Sample sentence: She’s at school. Ut. AT becomes ‘ut’. She’s at school.

Now let’s look at the next set. Again, almost all unstressed words,

including, yep, more reductions.

We start this video with ‘this’. This is number 21 in the most common words

in English. It’s not usually going to be pronounced THIS. It’s usually going

to be pronounced a lot more quickly than that, unstressed. This. This.

“This is what I’m talking about.” This, this, this. Sometimes it’s more stressed,

“Not that one, this one.” It depends on how it’s being used.

But much of the time, this word will be unstressed, said very quickly: this.

22: But.

This word is usually going to be unstressed. In those cases I would probably write it phonetically

with a schwa. “I wanted to stop in, but I was already running late.” But, but, but,

but, but I, but I. The T here links into the next word with a Flap T if the next word begins

with a vowel or diphthong. If the next word begins with a consonant, then it’s a Stop T.

“We wanted to stop by, but we were already running late.” But, but, but we, but we. There,

it's a stop T. Said very quickly. Unless someone is exaggerating on purpose:

You won’t hear this word with a True T.

23: His.

Oh, this one is fun. This one does have a reduction. It’s really common

to drop the H in this word. What’s his name? What’s his? What's his?

HIS becomes ‘iz’. Said very quickly, reduced. This is much more natural than

making it sound stressed, fully pronounced: What’s his name? What’s his name? Hmm, that

doesn't sound right. "What's his name?" sounds much better. I have a video on

dropping the H reductions, so click here or in the description to see more examples.

24: By.

This word doesn’t reduce, none of the sounds change or are dropped,

but it’s usually unstressed and said very quickly: We’ll be right by the door. By the,

by the, by the-- unstressed, not too clear. But we need this contrast of

stressed and unstressed to sound natural when speaking English.

25: From.

This is often said very quickly, and I would write the vowel phonetically as the schwa: from,

from. When the schwa is followed by the M, it gets absorbed by the schwa, so what I’m saying is,

you can say the word so quickly that you’re not even trying to make a vowel: frm, frm, frm.

I’ll be back from work at three. From, from work. Very fast. If I said this

sentence with each word being clear, no reductions, what would it sound like?

I’ll be back from work at three. I’ll be back from work at three. Pretty robotic,

not natural. Even though reductions might seem wrong, they might seem lazy,

they’re right, because they’re part of a bigger picture. Rhythmic contrast in English.

26: They.

Let’s just start out with a sample sentence. They already left. They already left. Unstressed. Said

very quickly. They, they, they. Sounds don’t really change, it doesn’t reduce,

but it’s unstressed. They, they. Man, we're on number 26 of the most common words in English

and so far, every single one either reduces or is often unstressed.

When will we get to our first real content word? We'll see.

27: We.

It's just like the pronoun 'they'. Not usually stressed in a sentence.

We, we. We already left. We, we, we. Said quickly. We already left.

Not a reduction, we don’t change or drop a sound, but unstressed.

We. We already left.

28: Say.

Oh my gosh, this is a content word. This is a verb and it is usually stressed in a

sentence. It took us 28 words to get here. If this doesn’t show you the importance of using

reductions and speaking with a rhythmic contrast, making some words unstressed and less clear,

I don’t know what will. The first 27 of the most common words in English are that way.

Let’s put it in a sentence.

What did he say?

He said he’s running late.

Say, said. Stressed, longer, clearer. Up-down shape of intonation: say.

S consonant, AY diphthong. We need jaw drop for that. Say.

There’s something interesting about ‘say’, ‘said’, and ‘says’. The diphthong changes.

Check out a video I made on that change by clicking here or in the description below.

29: Her.

Okay, we’re back to a word that reduces. It’s very common to pronounce this word with no H. It

becomes ‘er’. What’s her name? Er, er, er. When we drop the beginning H, we take the word and attach

it to the end of the word before. What's her. What's her name? There are several words where we

drop the H, I have a video on that. Click here or in the description below to see more examples.

30: She.

Unstressed. You could probably even reduce it by dropping the vowel,

and just making a quick ‘sh’ sound. Let me try that in a sentence. We don’t

think she knows. We don’t think she knows. I’d say that works.

So you can put a quick ‘ee’: I don't think she knows. Or you can drop the vowel:

I don't think she knows. And it sounds pretty much the same.

She knows. She knows.

The next set of 10. More reductions, more smooth linking.

We start this video with number 31, and yes, it’s a great reduction.

You might have learned that the pronunciation of this word is ‘or’,

like it would rhyme with ‘more’ or the number ‘four’. But ‘more’

and ‘four’ are content words. That means they will often be stressed in a sentence,

given more time. ‘Or’ is a function word. That means it’s not stressed in the sentence. It’s

not one of the most important words, and it’s said very quickly. Remember,

English is a stress-timed language. That means all syllables are not equal in length.

We have long syllables and short syllables, and speaking with that contrast is really important

in sounding natural in American English. So ‘or’ isn’t pronounced ‘or’ in conversation,

that’s too long, it’s too clear. We need it to be shorter. It’s actually ‘or’, said very quickly,

low in pitch. It can also be reduced. Then it’s pronounced ‘or’, the vowel reduces to the schwa.

You don’t have to try to make the schwa, it gets absorbed by the R sound. Just make an R. Rr--

Let’s put it in a sentence:

Would you like white or brown rice?

White or brown?

Would you like white or brown rice?

White or brown?

white-rrr rr-- rr-- rr-- rr-- Just an R sound linking these two words.

I’m leaving Monday or Tuesday.

Monday-rr. Monday-rr. Rr-- rr-- Monday or Tuesday. Just an extra R sound between. Great rhythmic

contrast. If you’re just jumping into the series, you may be thinking, how important are reductions,

how frequent are reductions? Out of the 31 most common words in English that we’ve studied so far,

only one is always stressed.Thirty are usually unstressed or reduced. So there’s your answer.

Most common words: What’s 32?

The indefinite article ‘an’. An. Unstressed,

it reduces to the schwa, an-- an-- we actually already covered that one when

we learned about the indefinite article ‘a’ or 'a' back in video one of this series.

33: Will.

If this is the only verb in the sentence --

–then it’s stressed. But most of the time it’s not the only verb,

it’s used to indicate something in the future. I like fishing. That’s right now,

present. I’ll like fishing when I learn more about it.

This is the future. The word ‘will’ is usually written and

spoken in a contraction. I’ll like fishing when I learn more about it.

“I will” becomes “I’ll”, but I reduced it. I'll-- I'll--

I’ll like fishing—just like the word “all”, said very quickly.

I’ll, I’ll, I’ll.

I’ll like fishing when I learn more about it.

What other WILL contractions might you hear?

You’ll, we’ll pronounce this more like ‘yull’.

He’ll, in a sentence, this will sound more like 'hill' or ‘hull’.

He’ll be coming by at three. He'll. She will. She’ll. This can be reduced:

she'll or shull. She’ll have the report ready soon. She'll.

“It will” becomes “it’ll”, with a Flap T. This is

just like the word “little” without the L. These are both tough words,

and I have a video on the word ‘little’ which might make this contraction easier to pronounce.

I’ll put a link here and in the description below. This schwa-L ending, the contraction

of WILL, can go at the end of any third person singular noun: “the dog” becomes “the dog’ll”:

The dog’ll need to be walked soon. “Tuesday” becomes “Tuesday’ll”.

Tuesday’ll be better. “John will” becomes “John’ll”. John’ll be here soon.

Note: in writing, these might show up as a misspelling, as not a word.

But this is how we speak. This contraction, this reduction of will. If it’s a pronoun,

like “she’ll”, then it’s not considered a misspelling. But this

is a case where how we speak English is different from how we write it.

It’s common to reduce, and say: John'll. “John’ll be here at

three” rather than “John will be there at three.”

We will, “We’ll”, You might here this as: we'll or wull.

Two different reductions.

“They will”, “they’ll”, often reduce and sound like “thull”. They’ll be hungry

when they get here. Third person plural, again, if you write this as a contraction,

it will show up as a misspelling, but speaking this way is very common.

“The kids will” becomes “The kids’ll”.

The kids’ll be tired. The kids’ll be tired. A dark L at the end of

the word. Wow. There was a lot to talk about with the word “will” because of

the way it contracts and reduces with so many different words!

A possessive pronoun. This is my boyfriend. My shirt’s too big.

We don’t reduce it, we don’t change or drop one of the sounds,

but it is unstressed. This is the word’s most common use.

But, it can be used another way. It can be used as an expression or an interjection to show surprise:

Maybe it's even showing a little disapproval. My! In these cases,

it would be stressed, it would be longer, it would have the up-down shape of stress.

Number 35 in the 100 Most common words list: one.

It’s a little word, but it has a lot of different uses. As a noun

or an adjective, it will probably be stressed.

We’re looking for one teacher to join our team.

But it can also be used as a pronoun, and in that case you might hear it reduced. Instead of “one”,

it will be ‘un’. I need a new phone, this one’s going to die.

This un— this un— this un— This one's going to die. This one’s going to last longer,

but that one’s cheaper. That un—this un--

Did you notice the pronunciation? This un—that un— nn—nn—nn--

The apostrophe S is for the contraction IS. This ‘uns’, that ‘uns’.

Now, you don’t have to pronounce this this way, you can say “this one’s,

that one’s”. But you’ll definitely hear Americans occasionally reduce the word to ‘un’.

Number 36. The word ‘all’.

This one, I would say, is usually going to be stressed and a little longer.

It’s most commonly used as an adjective, or a noun, or an adverb.

Did you eat all the cake? We’ve been having all sorts of problems.

So here we are, number 36.

The 36th most common words in English, and this is only the second word that

doesn’t have a reduction, or isn’t unstressed in some cases.

The other one was “say” back at number 28.

What does this mean? Many of the most common words in English

are words that are unstressed or reduced. If you ignore these,

you can never sound natural, because they are everywhere. And chances are,

when you learned the words, you did not learn the reductions,

and you did not learn how to make them unstressed. So we’re trying to fix that now. Let’s keep going,

number 37. The word “would”. I’m actually going to also work on 67 at the same time,

the word “could”. And I’ll throw in as a bonus, a word that's not on the list, the word “should”.

Actually, as with many of the reductions on this list,

I’ve made a video that goes over these pronunciations. Should I just put it in

here? Would you like to see it? Should. Would. It is a good one, it’s useful! Let's watch!

These words all rhyme. The pronunciation is simpler than it looks. The L is silent. So

they all have their beginning consonant, the OO as in Book vowel, and the D sound.

They rhyme with 'good', 'hood', and 'wood'. Yes,

'would' and 'wood' are pronounced the same. They're homophones.

So this is the pronunciation of these words in full. But as you know,

Americans like to reduce less important words in a sentence to make the important

words stand out more and these are three words that can be reduced. As with many reductions,

we change the vowel to the schwa and speed up the word.

You'll hear Americans go further though and drop the D.

I noticed I did this when I was doing a Ben Franklin exercise on some of my own speech.

Should we get dinner?

Should we get dinner?

One of the things I noticed is I'm dropping the D sound.

Shou we— shou we--

Should. Should.

Just the SH sound and the schwa. The lips are flared and the teeth are together. Sshhh—

the tongue tip is pointing up to the roof of the mouth but it's not

touching it. Sshhhuuu—shhu— Then, for the schwa, everything relaxes

and you go into the next sound: shuh-- shuh-- shuh we-- Should we call her? Should we. Should we.

Should go. Should go.

Now, if the next sound is a vowel or a diphthong, I wouldn't drop the D.

It would be too unclear to go from the schwa into another vowel. So for: Should I? Should I? For

example, I make a really quick flap of the tongue for the D. Should I. Should I. Should I say that?

Should I try it?

Should I call him?

If dropping the D seems like too extreme of a reduction for you,

you certainly don't have to do it. Just keep 'should' unstressed, really quick:

should, should, should. Now, let's look at 'could'. The K sound is made when the back

part of the tongue comes up and touches the soft palate in the back. K, k, k, k.

Could we try later?

Could we? Could we? Again, just dropping the D. K sound, schwa, next word.

Could we? Could we?

Saying it with a D when the next word begins with a vowel or a diphthong.

Could I? Could I come back later?

Could I? Could I? So just a nice, short, could.

Finally, would.

For the W sound, the lips are in a tight circle, and the back part of the tongue lifts.

Ww—ww—wuh-- Would we want to do that? Would we? Would we?

Would we want to do that? Or with a really quick D sound. Where would I go? Would I--

Would I-- Would I-- So you can reduce these words by changing the vowel to the schwa.

You can reduce them further by dropping the D, unless the next sound is a vowel or a diphthong.

Actually, we’re going to do 38 and 39 at the same because they’re homophones!

What are homophones? Words that are spelled differently and have

different meanings but that are pronounced exactly the same.

38 is ‘there’ and 39 is ‘they’re’. If homophones seem confusing to you,

you’re not the only one. I actually have a very long video that goes over many homophones in

American English, you can click here to see it, or check the video description. There,

they’re. Fully pronounced, we have “there”. But, both of these can reduce.

The word ‘there’ can be used lots of different ways, and a common way is the phrase “there is”

or “there are”. These phrases will often be in contraction, “there’s” and the “there’re”. But

these contractions can reduce when we say them. Then it becomes “thurs”

and “thur”. There’s a good reason why I can’t tell you. There's a good reason--

There’s, there’s, there’s. It has the schwa rather than the EH vowel. It’s

said more quickly. The contraction “there are” gets even less clear,

it’s really just one syllable “thur”. R reduces, and we lose it. It has the same

sounds as the reduced “there”, so it blends in. There’re lots of reason why I can’t tell you.

There’re lots. There're. There're. There’re lots of reasons.

What about the contraction “they are”, “they’re”? Yes, that also reduces. It

might not be pronounced “they’re”, but instead, “thur”, with the schwa.They’re in the kitchen.

Thur, thur. They’re in the kitchen. And the last word for this video, number 40,

“what”. This word can reduce. Fully pronounced, it’s “what”, and the T is a Flap T if the next

word begins with a vowel or diphthong: what are you going to do?What are, what are. Rrrr— Flap.

The T is a Stop T if the next word begins with a consonant:

What were you thinking? What were, what were. Stop T.

But, if the next word begins with a D, then we can reduce the word ‘what’ by dropping the

T. Make the vowel a schwa. So the word ‘what’ becomes a very quick “wuh, wuh”. “What did” and

“what do” are common word combinations where we do this. What do you think?

What do, what do, what do. The word ‘what’ is simply ‘wuh’. What did you

say? What did, what did, what did. Again, the word ‘what’ is simply ‘wuh’, wuh.

The next set of 10. Getting into some stressed words now, but still, some reductions.

Today, were starting with number 41, the word 'so'.

Does this word reduce? Yes it does. Fully pronounced, it has the OH as

in NO diphthong. So, so. I don't think so. So. Your hair looks so good. So.

But you'll hear it reduced to 'suh' when its used as a filler word at the beginning

of a sentence. As a filler word, the word doesn't really have meaning.

For example: So what do you think? So what do you think? So. So. So you're

going to need another one. So. So. You'll definitely hear Americans do this.

Hey, we found another word that doesn't reduce. This word will be stressed. We're

on number 42 of the 100 most common words in English, and this is only the third

word that generally is always stressed. How amazing that so many words are unstressed or

reduce! For this word, we have the UH as in BUTTER vowel and the P consonant, Up.

Up. P is a stop consonant, which means we stop the air, up-, and release it,

pp. The release is very light. Up, up. Sometimes we don't release stop consonants,

like if it's at the end of a thought group:

There I'm not releasing the P. What's up? Also we

often skip the release if the next word begins with a consonant sound:

What's up, Mom?

What's up, Mom? My lips came together for the P, but then when they parted,

rather than pp, the light escape of air, I just went right into the M sound. I think

'up' is so common because its used in so many phrasal verbs.

Crack up, break up, throw up, act up, creep up, butter up, burn up, bone up, just to name a few.

There are so many phrasal verbs in English. At the beginning of 2017,

I made a new video every day going over phrasal verbs. Click here to

see that collection, or see the link in the video description.

Number 43: Out.

Oh, this is funny. This is another word that is common in phrasal verbs.

Work out, figure out, burn out, black out, block out, stand out, bring out. Not surprising that

some of these phrasal verb parts are showing up on this list. There are a bunch without.

And this word doesn't reduce. We have the OW diphthong, ow, and the T consonant, out. Out.

And just like P, T is a stop consonant. We don't usually release it: tt-- if it comes at the end of

a thought group, or if the next word begins with a consonant. Let's look at some examples: Watch out!

End of the phrase, an unreleased T. Watch out.

I cut off the air, so it's not: watch ow.

Watch ow. That would just sound like there was no T. But with the abrupt stop, watch

out! Without the falling intonation, it sounds like a T to us. Watch out. You cant back out now.

Out now. There, the T was followed by a word beginning with a consonant,

another Stop T. Out now. Out now.

T is special: if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong, then we flap it. A single rra--

against the roof of the mouth. For example: Get out of here. Out of, out of. Ra-- ra--

A flap T to connect the two words. And did you notice the reduction of OF? Yep,

that's just the schwa. 'Of' is word number 4 in the 100 most common words in English list.

Number 44. The word IF.

This word is usually a conjunction and then, it's unstressed. It's said very quickly.

Call me if you get lost.

Call me if you get lost.

Call me if you get lost.

Here, its part of a string of unstressed words.

Low in pitch, flat, said quickly. If, if, if. Me if you-- me if you-- call me if you

get lost. You might even hear the word reduced at the beginning of a sentence,

just the F sound attached to the next word, no vowel:

If you want leave, that's okay. If she doesn't care, that's okay.

Ff, ff, ff, if you wanna. If she-- ff-- Reduced.

Number 45, the word about.

This word can be a preposition, an adverb,

or an adjective. It doesn't reduce, none of the sounds change.

Sometimes its stressed in a sentence, for example, I was out and about and thought

I'd stop by. About, about. Its longer and it has more volume, a higher pitch: out and about.

But it can also be unstressed:

It’s all about the timing.

It’s all about the timing.

About the, about the, about the, it's lower in pitch and volume,

and a little less clear than when it was stressed, about. It’s all about the timing.

About the, about the, about the. So, it can be unstressed,

but nothing changes, it doesn't reduce.

Since its a two-syllable word, it still has one syllable that's stressed,

that's a little clearer, even when the word is being used in an unstressed way.

Okay now, I did make a mistake here when I was originally filming it.

There is a reduction for about and it's "bout".

Can you hear me? How bout now? How bout, how bout. Bout.

You will hear native speakers do that, dropping the schwa.

Number 46. The word 'who'.

We already talked about one question word, and that is the word 'what'. That word can reduce,

we do drop the T if the next word begins with a D.

But generally, question words don't reduce. Generally, they're stressed.

Who does she think she is?

When 'who' begins a question, it doesn't reduce. It's the H sound and the OO as in BOO vowel.

Who, who. But sometimes we use the word 'who' in the middle of a sentence. Then it can reduce.

For example: Anyone who wants to come can come.

Anyone who wants.

Anyone who wants.

Did you notice how I reduced that? I dropped the consonant! It was just the OO vowel. Oo,

anyone who. Anyone who wants. This is a reduction you might hear Americans do.

Number 47: The word 'get'.

A verb, this word is a content word and is generally stressed in

a sentence. So this is the 5th word we've found in our list of the 100

most common words in English that I feel confident I can say is always stressed.

Just 5 out of 47! Wow!

Unstressed and reduced words are so common! Let's talk about the pronunciation. G consonant,

EH as in BED vowel, and the T. We already talked about an ending T in out. The same

rules apply here because the T comes at the end of the word, just after a vowel

or diphthong. If the word ends a thought group or is followed by a consonant, it will be a Stop T.

Example: I'll get the biggest one. Get the, get the, get the. Abrupt stop.

I'll get the biggest one. If the next word begins with a vowel or a diphthong,

then you will flap the T: I don't get it. Get it, get it, ra--, ra--

I don't get it. Do you hear the Flap? Get it. I don't get it.

Number 48. The word 'which'.

This word can be stressed or unstressed, depending on how it's being used in a

sentence. But nothing changes, it doesn't reduce. So, stressed, it's: which.

Which do you want? Which, which. Up-down shape of stress. Which, which. But unstressed,

it's lower in pitch and flat: which, which. The movie, which I saw last night, was terrible.

The movie which I-- which, which, which, which. Unstressed there, flat. Which. Which.

Let's talk about the pronunciation. It begins with WH. This can be pronounced two ways:

first, a pure W sound. This is how I've been pronouncing it. Ww, ww, which,

which. The other way is to pronounce it, I think is more old-fashioned,

with a: hh-- hh-- hh-- sound before. A little escape of air first.

Which. Which. Do you hear that? HH, hh, which. This is actually how my Mom pronounces WH- words,

and I made a video with her about these two possible pronunciations. Click here

or in the description below to see that video. W, IH as in SIT vowel, and CH.

Which. Which stressed, and which, which, unstressed.

Quick question: Did studying this word make you think of any other words?

Which and witch are homophones when you use the clean W for which.

That means they're two totally different words,

different spellings, different meanings, but they have the same pronunciation.

Number 49: Go. A verb.

Let's conjugate it: I go, you go, she goes, just add a light Z at the end: goes, goes,

goes. He goes, we go, they go. Yes, in this form, I would say, this word is always stressed!

The G consonant and the OH diphthong. Go. Jaw drop,

then lip rounding for the diphthong. Oh. Go, go. Goes.

But you know what? There's another conjugation for this word: the –ing form. Going.

I'm going to go to the store.

I'm going to go to the mall.

There I'm using the –ing form and the infinitive.

Going to go. Now, if you've seen any of my real-life English videos,

or any of my speech analysis videos,

then you know the phrase 'going to' is very common, and you know, we do reduce that.

What do we reduce it to? Do you know?

Going to. Let me say that in a sentence again:

I'm going to go to the mall. I'm gonna go. There, did you hear it? Gonna-- gonna-- gonna--

I'm going to go to the mall. Right. It's 'gonna'. One of

the most common reductions in all of English.

Now, occasionally I get a comment from someone saying,

'gonna' is not proper English. Hmm. Not true. I would never tell anyone to write it.

Ok? Don't write it!

But its perfectly natural and normal in spoken English. It's proper. It's a

beautiful reduction! I made a video several years

ago where I took a couple of presidential speeches. And I found examples of gonna.

So even world leaders giving important speeches to large groups of people use this reduction.

If you're interested in seeing that video, click here or in the description below. What's the

pronunciation of gonna? First syllable is stressed. We have the G consonant,

the UH as in BUTTER vowel, N, gun-- gun-- gun-- and then the schwa in the unstressed syllable.

Uh-- uh-- Gonna. Gonna. If you have not already noticed this reduction, now that you've learned

it, you're gonna hear it all the time. It's everywhere. Gonna. You're gonna hear it.

Number 50. Wow, we're halfway down the list.

What is number 50? Me.

A pronoun, which is a function word, which means it will generally be unstressed in a

sentence. It doesn't reduce, we don't change any of the sounds,

but it's flat in pitch, said quickly compared to the other stressed words in the sentence.

He gave me his number. Gave and number are stressed, the rest of the words, unstressed.

He gave me his number. Me his, me his, me his, both flat in pitch,

unstressed. Said very quickly. Do you hear how I'm reducing the word

'his'? Dropping the H? Wow, did we cover that? Yeah, we did. That was number 28.

Next set of 10. More question words, more verbs. But still,

some VERY important reductions. Kin you guess any them? Kin, kin, can you?

Number 51: the word WHEN.

This word definitely reduces. Fully pronounced,

it’s the W sound, the EH as in BED vowel, and the N consonant. When. You may be thinking,

I’ve heard this word pronounced differently. You may have heard it pronounce hhwen.

WH- words can be pronounced with a “hh” sound before the W. It’s not necessary,

and it’s not my preference. I think, just keep it simple, just use a clean W sound. When.

But in a sentence, this word can be unstressed and said more quickly. Then you could write the

vowel with the schwa or the IH as in SIT vowel in IPA. “When” becomes: when, said very quickly.

If you don’t know what IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet is, I have a playlist of

videos that goes over that. Click here or in the description. Let’s look at some example sentences.

When are you going to stop by?

When, when are you— I said that very quickly,

unstressed. When, when, when are you going to stop by?

Another sentence: It was better when we were kids. When, when,

when, when, when we were, when we were, Unstressed. Said very quickly.

It was better when we were kids.

You see, we don’t want every word in American English to be fully pronounced,

when. Some of the understandability of English depends on the contrast of stressed

and unstressed syllables, clear and less clear.

Let’s look at number 52, the word ‘make’.

Now, this is a stressed word. We have two categories of words in American English:

Content Words and Function Words.

Content words are nouns, verbs, like this verb ‘make’, adjectives,

and adverbs, and content words are what are generally stressed in a sentence.

“Make”: M consonant, AY diphthong, and the K sound, is usually stressed in a

sentence. Make. Make. It has an up-down shape. That’s the stressed shape of intonation. Make.

That’s different from: when, when, when, which was flatter in pitch and lower.

Make, longer, shape of stress, more clear.

Sentences: I’ll make you one. Make. Make. It would make things easier.

Here, we have a beautiful reduction.

It’s the word ‘can’. If ‘can’ is a main verb, then it’s not reduced. Who can

help tomorrow? I can. Also, it doesn’t reduce if it’s a noun: a can of soup.

But most of the time, ‘can’ is a helping verb,

not a main verb, and that means it reduces. We change a sound.

Let’s go back to the example:

Who can help tomorrow?

In the question: Who can help tomorrow? ‘Help’ is the main verb. ‘Can’ is the

helping verb. Did you hear how I pronounced it? Who can help tomorrow? Who can help?

It’s no longer ‘can’, but ‘kn’. Who can— Who can help? Short,

flat, no vowel. We write it in IPA with the schwa. Kn, kn, kn. Try that.

Kn, who can help?

‘See’ the main verb, ‘can’ the helping verb. Kn, kn. I can,

I can see you. That’s quite a reduction. Very common.

Number 54: The word ‘like’.

This word can be used lots of different ways, so it can be an adverb, a noun,

or an adjective, which would mean it’s stressed, or it can be a preposition or

conjunction, which means it will be a function word and is unstressed.

However, even when it’s unstressed,

this word does not reduce. Let’s look at an example where it’s stressed. I don’t like it.

I don’t like it.

Here, it’s stressed. Like. Like. Up-down shape of stress. But what about this sentence? He

acted like nothing happened. He acted like— like, like, lower in pitch, much faster.

He acted like nothing happened.

He acted like nothing happened.

Like. Unstressed. None of the sounds change so it doesn’t reduce,

but it’s pretty different from the stressed version. Like, like. Like, like, like.

One more example, and this is a really common use of

the word. We use this when we’re telling a story, something that happened to us,

and we’re talking about what someone said or someone’s reaction.

For example: Yesterday I saw Jim walking home from school, and I was like,

“Do you need a ride?” And he was like, “No, I’m just going to walk.” I was like,

he was like, she was like, you were like, like, like, like, like, like.

All of these are examples of ‘like’ unstressed.

Number 55: Time.

Now this word, a noun, an adjective, a verb, is always a content word.

That means it will likely be stressed. This is

only the 6th word in this list so far that is always stressed.

We’re on number 55.

That’s crazy. So if you thought every word you spoke needed to be clear and fully pronounced,

I hope this series is helping to change your mind.

This word is pronounced with the True T, because it’s stressed, and it has the AI

as in BUY diphthong, and don’t forget that M. Time. Lips have to come together. Time.

There is no case where the lips don’t come together for the M. Always. Time, time.

Crisp, clear True T, teeth come together for it: ttt— time,

up-down shape of stress. Let’s look at a sentence.

What time is it? Time. A noun. Or, you do sit ups for a minute,

and I’ll time you. Time, time. There, it’s a verb, still stressed, same pronunciation.

Another word, the seventh word, that will generally always be stressed.

There is not a case where it would usually reduce or be unstressed. No. No. Up-down shape: No.

And please don’t ever forget the lip rounding that goes into this diphthong: oohhh.

No. I have no idea. He voted ‘no’ on the sugar tax.

No, no. That was a simple one, wasn’t it?

57 is interesting. The word ‘just’. It’s either an adjective or an adverb,

and those are both content words, so it will generally be stressed.

And for the most part, we don’t reduce stressed words. They’re important. We

only reduce and say quickly the words that are a little less important, the function words.

BUT. This word is interesting because it has a T, and T has its own set of funny

rules. If you’ve seen many of my videos, you know them. I talk about the T pronunciations

a lot. If the T comes between two consonants, we often drop that T.

Well, that’s a reduction. Let me show you what I mean.

When the word ‘just’ is followed by a word that starts with a consonant,

there is a good chance that a native speaker will drop the T,

and just say: jus. Jus’ instead of ‘just’. I just thought, why not?

Just, just, just thought. Just thought— just— The ST ending is followed by TH,

the T comes between two consonants, we drop it:

jus’ thought, just’ thought. I just missed the bus.

I just missed—

just missed the bus—S-T-M, drop the T. Jus’ missed, jus’ missed, I just missed the bus.

Now, if ‘just’ is followed by a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong,

don’t drop the T. Just make it a light, True T.

For example, it’s just Alex. Just Alex— just, tt, tt, just Alex.

It’s just Alex.

Number 58, another word that reduces. This one is a function word:

him. And just like number 9, “have”, number 16, “he”, number 23, “his”,

number 29, “her”, we often drop the H and link this to the word before.

For example, I gave him another one. Gave ‘im, gave ‘im, gave ‘im. A very common reduction.

We do this with these function words that begin with an H. Simply schwa-M. Gave ‘im. Gave ‘im.

Another example: We want him to succeed. Want him, want him.

Wait, what’s happening to the T in ‘want’? I’m dropping the H,

so it doesn’t come between two consonants. Well, we’ll find out soon,

because that’s number 93 on the list of the 100 most common words in English.

59: Know.

You’re thinking, wait, we already did that. That was number 56. Yes, but,

different word. ‘No’ and ‘know’ are homophones. That’s right. That means they sound exactly the

same, even though they are two different words and they’re spelled differently.

A verb. Usually stressed in a sentence. N consonant, OH diphthong:

know. However, with really common phrases, we often make some reductions,

like how ‘going to’ becomes ‘gonna’. And with the really common phrase “I don’t know”,

we make a reduction. I dunno, I dunno, I dunno. And, this can sound like the last

sound is not OH: I dunno, I dunno, I dunno, I dunno, o, o, o, o, o, o.

It’s more like a quick ‘uh’ there.

Certainly not: know, oh, oh, with a full and stressed OH diphthong.

I don’t know.

Number 60, the last word for this video, the word “take”.

Usually a verb, sometimes a noun, it’s a content word. And generally,

it’s going to be stressed in a sentence.

Just like ‘time’, it’s a one-syllable stressed word that begins with a True T,

tt, AY, then the AY diphthong, and the K sound.

Take. Sentences: Can you take me there?

Take, take, take.

Or, I need to take it back.

Longer, up-down shape, more time, a stressed syllable.

In this set, we’ve got some words that are tricky to pronounce, like YEAR and PEOPLE.

Number 61 is the word ‘people’.This is the first time we’re starting one

of these videos with a word that is NOT an example of a word that will be unstressed.

This word is a noun, a content word, and generally, it will be stressed.

Now, this is a tricky word. And I don’t have too many videos where I go over the

specific pronunciation of a single word, but I do happen to have one where I talk about this word,

so I’ll put in a clip here that will go through the pronunciation, step-by-step.

It’s a two-syllable word with stress on the first syllable. Da-da. People.

It begins with the P consonant sound, lips are together for that, pp-.

Then we open into the EE as in SHE vowel, pe-, pe-. So the tongue tip is down here,

but the front part of the tongue is stretching up towards the roof of the mouth, pe-, pe-.

Now we have the P, schwa, L sound. This is unstressed, so it's going to be low in pitch and

very fast, -ple, -ple, -ple. People. So the lips will come together again for the P. People. -ple.

Then we go into the schwa/Dark L sound. Don't worry about making a separate schwa sound,

just go straight into the Dark sound of the Dark L. So, to make that sound,

your tongue will pull back, so the back part of the tongue here is shifting towards the

throat a bit, people, ull, ull. And that's how we get that dark sound.

Now, it should be very short because it's unstressed, people, people.

The second half of the Dark L involves bringing the tongue

tip to the roof of the mouth. People. But you can actually leave that out.

A lot of people will just make, people, ull, the Dark sound to signify the Dark

L and not necessarily bring the tongue tip up. People,

people. Let’s do a couple of example sentences with people. I’m a people person. People,

people. Up-down shape of stress, longer, more clear than the unstressed words:

I’m a-- I’m a-- I’m a people person. What does ‘people person’ mean?

It means that I’m very social. I like interacting with a lot of people,

I’m very outgoing, I’m an extrovert. I have room for three more people in my car.

People, people. Stressed.

Is it as clear as ‘people’?

No. It’s the word ‘into’. ‘Into’ is a preposition. And prepositions

are function words, which means they’ll generally be unstressed i n a sentence.

Let me show you what I mean. I ran into my teacher at the movies.

I ran into my teacher at the movies. Ran, teach-,

mov-. These are the stressed syllables. All the others, including the word ‘into’, unstressed.

Less clear, low in pitch, flatter, given less time. Into. If it was clear and fully pronounced,

it would have that up-down shape of stress, into, and a True T.

The final vowel would be the OO as in BOO vowel. Into. But that’s

not how I pronounced it. I ran into my teacher.

Into. Into. Into.

A couple things are different. First of all, it’s not stressed so it’s flat in pitch, low in pitch.

Second, two sounds have changed. The T sounds more like a D, and the final vowel is the schwa.

Into. into. Into. into.

So instead of ‘into’, it’s: into, into.

This T is not following the rules of T pronunciations. The rules are,

after an N, we can drop a T completely, but if not,

it’s a True T. But many Americans will say ‘into’ more of a D or Flap T sound connected to the N.

If you only learned the stressed pronunciation of this and every word in American English,

your English wouldn’t sound too natural, because we use so many reductions so frequently.

Number 63: the word ‘year’.

A noun, a content word. This is a word that will generally be stressed

in a sentence. No reduction here. Year. Year. Up-down shape of stress.

Longer, clearer than the unstressed words in a sentence will be. A lot of people

have problems with the pronunciation of this word because of the Y sound. Year. How is it

different from ‘ear’? I actually have a video on that. Let me put in a little clip here.

‘Year’ and ‘ear’ are exactly the same except for the Y sound.

The main vowel is the IH as in SIT vowel, but I do feel like we squeeze it a little bit,

so it sounds a little more like EE. IH, ear. EE, ear. Ear. Let’s take a look.

First, the word ‘ear’. For the IH or EE vowel,

the jaw drops just a bit, and the corners of the lips pull out wide,

just a little. The tongue tip is down here, touching the back of the bottom front teeth.

The front part arches towards the roof of the mouth without touching it.

Next is the schwa-R sound.

Look for the tongue pulling back as the lips flare. The tongue pulls back and up, with the

tip pointing down so it’s not touching anything. Now, let’s take a look at ‘year’. The jaw dropped

a little bit more here. Why? To accommodate the movement of the tongue. While the tip is down in

the same position for the next vowel, the middle part of the tongue actually touches the roof of

the mouth and pushes forward a bit. yy, yy. At the same time, the throat closes off down here,

yy--, yy--, yy--, to add a different dimension to the sound. Ee, yy, ee, yy. Let’s watch the

Y several times to see that motion of the tongue pulling down from the roof of the mouth: yy, yy.

Now, the lips flare and the tongue pulls back for the R.

Now let’s compare the beginning position of

these two words. ‘Ear’ is on the left and ‘year’ is on the right.

Notice that the jaw has dropped more for the forward motion of

the tongue on the roof of the mouth for ‘year’.

Also, the corners of the lips are more relaxed than for the initial vowel in ‘ear’,

where they pull slightly out. You can see this from the front as well.

The jaw has dropped more for the tongue movement. So, we have the tongue movement,

which is different for the Y, as well as the Y sound in the throat, yy.

This is how we want to start the word ‘year’: yy,

yy, year. Now I’ll say the minimal pair several times.

Can you hear the difference?

Let’s do a sentence or two. We’re going to Italy this year. Year.

Year. It’s the last word in the thought group, and naturally in American English,

our energy and our pitch goes down in a sentence, so the ending word is often

less clear, even if it’s stressed,even if it’s a content word like ‘year’.

But it still has the length of a stressed syllable. We’re

going to Italy this year. Year, year.

A little bit of that up-down shape of stress. What year were you born?

Year, year. There the word ‘year’ is closer to the

beginning of the sentence, so it’s a little clearer.

Number 64: Another great reduction.

The word ‘your’. This is related to the word ‘or’, which was number 31.

Fully pronounced, ‘your’ and ‘or’ rhyme with ‘more’ or ‘wore’. But they’re

almost never fully pronounced. They’re almost always reduced in a sentence,

‘yer’, ‘er’. So the vowel changes to the schwa.

Stressed: Your. Fully pronounced, longer, up-down shape of stress.

But in a sentence: yer, yer. Unstressed, low in pitch, said quickly.

Sample sentence: What’s your name? Yer, yer, yer.

Yer name. Can I borrow your car? Yer, yer, yer. Borrow your car? In this question:

Can I borrow your car? Can I bor-- car-- Those are the two stressed

syllables. ‘Can’ and ‘your’ reduced: can--, your--, and ‘I’ is unstressed.

Can I borrow your car?

What would it sound like if they were all stressed? If

they were all said very clearly, fully pronounced?

Can I borrow your car?

Can I borrow your car?

Can I borrow your car?

Can I borrow your car?

Completely unnatural.

Can I borrow your car?

It’s so important to learn about reductions, and learn about the unstressed pronunciation of words,

so that you can sound more natural, more relaxed,

and be more easily understood. You’re in the right place for this. Okay, let’s keep going.

Number 65: Good.

This is our first word in the 100 most common words in English list

that’s primarily an adjective. An adjective is a content word. Content words are nouns,

verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. And content words are what are generally

will be stressed in a sentence. Good. Good. Up-down shape. Good.

Longer, clearer. The O here represents the UH sound, like in push, or book.

Good. Uh. The D is a stop consonant, and stop consonants have two parts,

a stop of air, and a release. Good. Good. Stop and release.

But with stop consonants, it’s common to skip the release. Then,

the D becomes a lot more subtle. I want to show you what I mean. Good. ddd--

My tongue is lifted into position for the D, and my vocal cords make a sound.

Dddd. Good. Good. Good.

Do you hear it at the end? It’s clearer on its own.

But of course, we never use it that way. It’s always part of a word or sentence.

And that can mean it’s harder here: good, good, ddd--, good.

Pronouncing your D this way will help your English sound natural.

If you’re linking the D into a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong,

then it will sound like a flap. Let’s look at an example.

I feel good about the project.

Good about, good about.

Goo-- ddd-- Good about.

There, the next word begins with a vowel sound,

so I flap the tongue and connect the two words. Good about.

It’s a good restaurant. Good—dd—restaurant.

There, I make a very quick D sound in the vocal cords, before going into the R.

Good restaurant.

66, the word ‘some’.

This word generally reduces and can be said very quickly in sentences.

It depends on how the word is being used. For example, if it’s being used to show that

something was great, or unique, like, “That was some party!”, then it’s fully pronounced.

Also, if it can be switched out for the word ‘certain’, then it’s stressed:

Some days I work from home, and some days I go to the office.

Fully pronounced: some, some. Up-down shape, length, UH as in butter vowel. But usually,

it’s not stressed, it’s actually reduced. Then it’s more like: some,

some, some. Flat, low in pitch, said very quickly, and the vowel reduces to the schwa.

Some. Some. Some.

We pronounce it this way when we use ‘some’ to mean an unknown amount,

or unit, or thing. Some water.

May I have some water?

We need some more volunteers. Some, some. Some more.

Some. Said very quickly, low in pitch, flat: some.

Stressed: some.

Unstressed: sum. Number 67, the word “could”.

Actually, we’ve already gone over this word.

We did that when we talked about ‘would’, number 37.

Number 68. Another word that reduces, the word ‘them’.

A pronoun, which is a function word. Fully pronounced, the word has the voiced TH,

which I know is a tricky sound, the EH as in BED vowel, and the M consonant. Them.

I have good news for you if the TH is one of your hardest sounds:

This reduction involves dropping the TH. So,

let me give you an example sentence. We gave them the tickets.

We gave ‘em money.

Gave ‘em. Gave ‘em. You might be thinking, wait, we already studied ‘gave ‘im’, and it was when

we were talking about “him!” Yes. Both ‘him’ and ‘them’ sound the same when reduced. So,

“we gave him money” will sound just like “we gave them money.” It doesn’t matter that

they sound the same. We use a pronoun when we’ve established who we’re talking about.

So these two pronouns sounding the same shouldn’t add any confusion to your conversation. You can

pronounce it quickly with the TH: them, them, them, them. But you’ll also hear

it with the TH dropped, and this is something you can do in conversational English too.

Number 69: See.

This is a verb, a content word, and generally yes, this will always be

stressed in a sentence. We’re on number 69 here of the 100 most common words in English,

and there have only been a handful of words where it’s never stressed.

Wow. Unstressed words? So common.

Reductions? So common. See is a simple word, just two sounds,

the S consonant and the EE as in SHE vowel. See. See. Stressed with an up-down shape: see, see.

And it will be one of the longer syllables in a sentence. I didn’t see you there. See. See.

Or: The CEO asked to see me. See.

Number 70: the word ‘other’.

This word can be used as an adjective, a noun, a pronoun, so, this word can be

both a content word and a function word. It can be stressed or unstressed. For example,

stressed: I don’t love it, on the other hand, it is cheaper.

Other. Other. Or, I read about that just the other day. Other. Other.

It’s usually stressed, but it can be unstressed. For example,

Someone or other will help out. Someone or other. Or other, or other, or other, or other.

Other, other, other.

Lower in pitch, a little mumbled, less clear. However, I don’t change any

of the sounds so it’s just unstressed, not reduced. In the stressed syllable,

we have the UH as in BUTTER vowel and voiced TH, oth, oth.

Just the very tip of the tongue comes through the teeth for that TH. Oth,

th, th, th. Other. Then the schwa R ending in the unstressed syllable. Other.

In the next set of 10, and you’ll learn another important reduction.

Today, we start with number seventy-one, and that’s the word ‘than’.

Fully pronounced, we have voiced TH, AA as in BAT, followed by the M consonant.

When AA is followed by N, we relax the back of the tongue and change the sound: thaaa— thaa— than.

Than. Aa-uh, aa-uh. So it’s not aahh thaaan, thaaan, but

‘than’, aa-uh, aa-uh, aa-uh. There’s an extra sound in there from relaxing the

back of the tongue, sort of like an UH vowel. Thaaaa— Than. Than. Than. But we don’t need to

focus too much on the full pronunciation of this word since it is a word that reduces.

Remember, when a word reduces, that’s called a reduction, and that’s when we

change or drop a sound. So rather than saying ‘than’ in a conversation, it will be ‘thn’.

We change the vowel to the schwa, which is absorbed by the N, so you don’t even

need to think about making a vowel there. Than, than, than, from the TH to the N.

We use this with comparisons: she’s taller than I am, than, than, than I am.

They’re older than we are.

Than, than, older than.

Taller than, older than, than, than, than.

A reduction, not a fully pronounced word. If you go around fully pronouncing every word,

it will not sound natural, so you need to know and use these reductions.

Number seventy-two, a very similar word, ‘then’. THAN is used with comparisons, and THEN is used

with timing, sequences, and if/then statements. It got really dark, then it stormed all night.

Or: if we go grocery shopping, then we can cook dinner. You won’t always hear it reduced,

but often you will. I reduced it in both of those sentences. Fully pronounced,

it has the EH vowel. Theh— THEN.

But reduced, we change it to the schwa. Then it sounds just like ‘than’ when we

reduce it. Then, then. It was really dark, and then it stormed all night. Then, then, then.

And then it, and then it, and then it.

And then it stormed.

Those three unstressed words together are not very clear: and then it.

‘And’ reduces, ‘then’ reduces, ‘it’ is said quickly with a Stop T.

Some people might think, that’s very unclear,

that’s not good English, but I want to stress that it is.

Good English is made up of a contrast between stressed words

and unstressed words. You have to have the unstressed words for this contrast.

And then it stormed all night.

And then it stormed all night.

If we go grocery shopping, then we can cook dinner. Then we can cook dinner, then we can,

then we can, then we can, then we can then we can. Do you hear that ‘can’ reduction?

That was number 53.

It’s interesting that our first two in this video, two different words,

sound exactly the same when they reduce. THAN and THEN both become ‘thn’. That’s okay. This is true

of a few other reductions as well. Because of the context of the sentence, there isn’t confusion.

Number 73, the word ‘now’.

This is one word that doesn’t reduce. It’s an adverb,

and adverbs are one of four kinds of content words: adverbs, verbs, nouns, and adjectives.

We generally don’t reduce content words, or make them sound unstressed. Generally,

these are stressed in a sentence. This is what provides that contrast

that I was talking about being so important in American English.

Stressed and unstressed or reduced. Long and

short. NOW has the N consonant and the OW diphthong. For the diphthong,

we start by dropping the jaw, then let the jaw come up as you round the lips, ow, now.

Now. For the N, keep the tongue nice and wide as it lifts for the sound, nnn, now. Now.

Number 74, the word ‘look’.

What part of speech is the word ‘look’? It’s a verb most of the time.

It can also be a noun: She gave me a look. Noun, verb,

these are both content words. Stressed words. And yes, this word will be stressed in a sentence.

There are six different pronunciations possible

for the letters O-O. I made a video about all of the possible pronunciations recently,

I’ll put a link to that video at the end of this video, also, in the description below.

In this word, the pronunciation of OO is ‘uh’ like in ‘push’. Uh, uh,

luh, look, look. It’s not ‘Luke’, oo, oo, where your lips round more.

Luke. The lips are more relaxed: uh, look, look.

Number 75: the word ‘only’.

This is another content word. At the beginning of this 100 word series, most of the words we

were covering were reductions. Now we’re getting down the list, we’re getting a lot more content

words. I can tell you one mistake that I hear all the time with the pronunciation of this word.

Instead of ‘only’, people will say ‘only’. Uh, uh, uh, uh. The vowel is

more like the AH as in Father or the AW as in Law.

But the correct pronunciation is a diphthong. That means we change the mouth position. Ohh.

Jaw drop then lip rounding. Oh,

oh Only. So make sure your mouth isn't staying stationary. Oh, oh, only.

Only, oh, oh. There has to be that movement, jaw drop, then lip rounding. Right after the

Oh diphthong, a flat, wide tongue goes to the roof of the mouth for the N, only, then light L,

IH vowel, unstressed, only. Another possible mistake here is to make the unstressed syllable

too relaxed. Then it sounds like: only, ih, ih, ee, ee. It should be ee. The tip of the

tongue is down but the front part is arched reaching towards the roof of the mouth. Ee.

If it's too far away from the roof of the mouth, then it sounds like IH instead of EE.

You're the only one. If only it were true.

Number 76 the word ‘come’.

This is a verb. So yes, it's a Content word. And generally, we don't reduce this

or make it unstressed in a sentence. It's one of the stressed words. Oh, Come on.

Why don't you come over for dinner?

It's the K consonant, the UH as in butter vowel, and the M consonant.

This vowel is very relaxed. If there's any tension in the back of your

tongue, it will sound different. Cuh, uh, come. Keep it relaxed.

Not with an apostrophe. That's the contraction ‘it is’. This word is showing possession. It's

pronounced just like IT apostrophe S but it has a different meaning and is grammatically different.

Where's the remote? It's in its usual place.

Here, I used IT apostrophe S as a Contraction, it is,

and then also without the apostrophe showing possession, the usual place of the remote.

It's not unusual for Americans to drop the vowel and just make this the TS cluster.

There I'm using the contraction ‘it is’. Ts. Ts. It's gone.

This can also happen with the possessive ‘its’

though it might be a little less common. Let's look at an example.

Where's the remote?

Its usual place.

Its usual place.

There I'm just making the TS sounds. But usually, this word is not at the

beginning of a sentence, then I would pronounce the vowel. Its, its, its, its.

The watch is in its case. Its. Its. Its. Said quickly. So even though I'm not dropping the

vowel, It's still unstressed. I'm saying it very quickly. This is not a stressed word.

Number 78, the word ‘over’.

This is usually a preposition. That's not a Content word. So usually this

word won't be stressed. It will be unstressed. But no sounds reduce.

We don't change or drop anything. Just like ‘only’ we start with the

OH diphthong, jaw drop, then lip rounding. Oh. Oh.

A quick v schwa R, ver, ver, ver, ver. Unstressed. The schwa is absorbed by the R so you don't need

to try to make a vowel in that second syllable. Just make a quick, low simple R sound.

Ov— rrrrr— Over.

Over. For the V sound at the bottom of the lip comes up to

gently vibrate on the bottom of the top front teeth. Over.

We jumped over the creek.

We jumped over the creek. ‘Jumped’ and ‘Creek’ are stressed.

The rest of the words, including ‘over’ are unstressed. We jumped over the creek.

We jumped over the creek.

We traveled all over Italy.

Over. Over. Over.

Over. Unstressed, less clear than ‘all’.

All over—Flatter in pitch, less clear.

Number 79, the word ‘think’.

A verb, a Content word, a word that is usually stressed. Fully pronounced.

This word is tricky to pronounce. It's got that unvoiced TH at the beginning.

The only way to make the sound is to bring the tongue tip through the teeth. The air

should flow, there should not be a stop. Th, th, th. But rather, thhh.

Flowing air. Two common mistakes would be to make an S instead.

Sink. Or a tea instead: tink.

Try to avoid these substitutions and get comfortable with the TH

sound. Th—th— Now an IPA, this would be written

phonetically with the IH vowel. Ih— But when IH it is followed by NG,

it changes. It becomes more like: ee-ih-ee.

Let's compare this with the word ‘thin’. The first two sounds are the same. TH,

IH vowel. In ‘thin’, it's followed by the N sound. And in ‘think’, it's followed by the NG sound,

which as I said, Changes the vowel. So let's start with ‘thin’. Thin, ih, ih, ih. Thin.

And now, ‘think’: thing, thi, thing, thing, thinnggg, thin. Ee, ih, ee, ih.

Do you hear how the vowel sound is different?

Thiiiink. Think. Think. So even though it says IH, it’s a lot more

like EE in real life. You may say why is this letter N the NG sound?

There's no letter G. That's true. When the letter n is followed by the letter K,

Then the pronunciation of n is usually the

NG sound: nggg--- where the back of the tongue

touches the soft palate. This is also where the K sound is made.

Nnggkkk, nnggkkk. Think.

Other examples. Sink. Siiinnggkkk.

Bank. Bannngggkkk.

So both of these words, the N represents the NG sound.

Number 80, the last word for this video, the word ‘also’.

This is an adverb and generally it's stress in a sentence. I also want to get coffee. Or,

that was also a problem. I want to make sure you know

not to fully pronounce that L. It's a dark L because it comes after the

vowel in the syllable.

Don't lift your tongue tip for this L. Make a dark sound with the back

of your tongue. Ohhlll, ohhll, ohhlll. Lifting the tongue tip it brings a sound

forward and tends to mess people up. It's a dark sound.

Ohhlll, ohhll. Back of the tongue doing the work,

tongue tip can stay down. This word ends with an OH diphthong.

It's an unstressed syllable. So there won't be as much jaw drop or lip rounding.

Still make sure your lips around a little bit to

give us that feel. Also. Alllso. I also want to get coffee.

Now it’s time for the next set of 10. And we’re STILL not done learning reductions

We start with number 81.

The word ‘back’.

A noun, a verb, this is a content word and

will usually be stressed in a sentence. Please step back.

Or, it was moving back and forth.

Please step back.

Back and forth. Stressed. Back. We have the b consonant, the AH vowel,

and finally, the k sound. The back of the tongue lifts to

touch the soft palate and is released. Kk— back.

Back. Careful with the vowel AH. The back of the tongue stretches up. Ah. And the jaw

drops. You might also lift your top lip a little bit, back, ah, back. Back.

Number 82, the word ‘after’.

This word can be a content word or a function word depending on how it's being used. So it could be

stressed or unstressed. We don't reduce this word though, we don't change or drop the sound.

Let's look at an example. It's raining so we can't go to the beach.

Well, let's go to the movies.After all, I already took the day off.

After all. After. After.

It has that same AH vowel in the stressed syllable, doesn't it?

Next, we have an F, then a really soft t sound:

aft— after. It's a True T but not as sharp or strong as it would be at the beginning of

a stressed syllable like time. Ttt- time. So a soft t, then a quick schwa r ending.

Flat, low in pitch, said quickly.

Often this word will be unstressed. For example,

in the phrase ‘after all’ I could stress ‘all’ instead of ‘after’. Now it sounds like this:

after all, after, after, after, after, after, after, after, after, the stressed syllable in

the stressed version is longer and has more of an up-down shape of a stressed syllable.

After. Unstressed. After, after, after. It's flatter, less clear,

a little bit more mumbled. Let's look at another sentence.

He left after everyone went to bed.

Left after. Left after.

After. After. After.

Unstressed let's leave after dinner. Leave after. After. After. After.

Unstressed. ‘Leave’ and ‘dinner’ are stressed. Let's leave after dinner.

Let's leave after dinner.

After. So the unstressed words are less clear, said more quickly, and are flatter and lower

in pitch. The contrast is the stressed words which are longer, stressed syllables, and an

up-down shape in that pitch, in that intonation. That contrast is what makes good English.

Number 83, use.

This is one of those words it's pronounced differently depending

on the part of speech. As a noun, ‘use’, the final sound is an S. As a verb ‘use’,

the final sound is a Z. Lots of words change like this depending on part of speech.

For example, ‘house’ the noun ends in the S sound,

and ‘house’ the verb ends in Z. Address, can have first syllable stress.

That's the noun. But the verb has second syllable stress.

Both nouns and verbs are content words which means they’re stressed in a sentence. They both

begin with the JU diphthong. Ju, ju.Tongue tip presses the back of the bottom front teeth and

the middle part of the tongue presses forward along the roof of the mouth. Yy-you-yy-you.

Then, the lips round. Juuuu— juu— ‘use’ with an s or ‘use’ with a z.

What's the use? A noun, or: I’ll use it later. A verb.

Word number 83 and this is the 19th word that is reliably stressed in a sentence.

That means we've covered a lot of words that can be unstressed or even reduced.

What about number 84? Nope this is another content word. The word

‘two’. This word is interesting because it's a homophone. That means it shares

a pronunciation with a different word. It sounds just like t-o-o.

The number two. I like it too.

Exact same pronunciation. You might say this is just like t-o that's

also pronounced ‘two’. Not really. Fully pronounced,

sure. But we don't fully pronounce the word ‘to’. That one reduces so it's usually ‘te’, and

not truly a homophone with t-w-o. We learned the ‘to’

reduction back in the first video in this series.

It's number three in the most common words of American English list.

So the number two, t-w-o will be fully pronounced in a sentence.

Its pronunciation is simple. A True T and the OO vowel which has

quite a bit of lip rounding: two. The OO vowel is tricky because you don't

want to start with your lips in a tight circle.

Let them be more relaxed to start, then come in.

The game is at two thirty. Two.

Number 85, a question Word, the word ‘how’.

We already studied ‘What’ at 40, ‘Who’ back at 46, ‘which’ at 48,

and ‘when’ at 51. Question words are generally Stressed. Let's look at a few example Sentences.

How tall are you?

How hungry are you?

In all three of these Sentences, ‘how’ was one of the words that was stressed.

How tall are you?

How hungry are you?

These words are longer, clearer, and have the up-down shape of stress.

How tall are you?

How hungry are you?

For this word, we have the H sound and the OW as in now Diphthong.

Make sure your H isn't too heavy. How. How.

Or dropped: ow, ow. A light easy H,

how, then jaw drop, and back of the tongue lifts. How. Then lips round.

Number 86 the word ‘our’.

Now, this is a function word and it will reduce. So when I’m saying the word on its own and giving

it its full clear pronunciation, our, our, it's not really how we would be pronouncing that in

a sentence. But you might think full, clear, that's good! That's how I want to pronounce

things. But remember, good English is made up of contrast. More clear and less clear words.

So we have to have the less clear words for good contrast, for good English,

for the English to sound natural and understandable. It's ironic sometimes we

have to pronounce things less clear for English overall to be more clear and more natural.

This is a pronoun and pronouns are function words. That is the less

clear words. Let's look at some example sentences.

What time is our meeting? Our, our, is our, is our. What time is our meeting? Our, our, our.

Now, I can say it with the other pronunciation with the AW,

R pronunciation. What time is our meeting? Awr, awr, awr.

What time is our meeting? Awr, awr, awr. Our or awr.

Really they sound almost the same, the two reductions,

because I’m saying them so quickly and that's really what matters.

Saying it quickly, flat, low in pitch, so that the word is less clear, so that it doesn't sound

at all like the stressed version. So that's what we want, a definite unstressed feeling.

Not ‘our’ but: our, our. It's our son's birthday tomorrow. It's our son’s— our, our, our, our.

Listen to how different that is from ‘son’s’ which is stressed. Our son’s, our son’s.

Number 87, the word ‘work’.

Work is a verb that's a Content word and that's a word that will

be stressed in a sentence. So this one is longer, clearer, has the up-

down shape of Stress.

Now I know this is one of the hardest words out there. All of the words with

the R vowel is going to be a tough word for most non-native speakers because they feel

like they should make a vowel and then an R. Well let's learn this right now.

In American English, this symbol is always followed

by R and the two symbols together make just one sound. Rrr— Wo— rrrk.

Don't drop the R sound and make it something like: wok, wok, wok.

That's not clear enough. We want the R and we want the up-down shape. Ww— orrrkk. Work. Work.

The biggest problem for people is how to make this R. The lips round

but they're not as rounded as they were for the W. So they will relax out some:

were, Wor. Wor. The tongue movement is simple. The tip is forward for the W and then the tip

pulls back and up a bit. It's not a huge movement and your jaw drops just a bit.

Wor. Wor. Wor. Work.

If you know you're not getting the right sound,

one thing to do is to make sure you don't drop your jaw. Focus only on the tongue.

I have a video with some illustrations of this vowel, I’ll put a link to that

video at the end of this one. If you struggle with this word or vowel,

you'll definitely want to check it out. Let's look at this word in some sentences.

We'll work it out.

She doesn't work Mondays.

Number 88, first. Interesting another word with this R vowel you see the

letter I and you try to do a vowel but don't. Don't do it. Just the r sound.

Ff— rrr— st.

Ff— rrr— st.

Make your f, pull back the front of the tongue, don't drop your jaw: fir, fir, and the ST cluster.

Make your s with your teeth together, then lift the tongue tip to touch the

roof of the mouth, which stops the air, then release everything to make the t.

As you release the tongue, the teeth part and the air comes through.

Sst - First. First of all. First. First. We have a True T in that ending cluster.

If you've seen in many of my videos,

then you know that the pronunciation of the t can change depending on the next word.

Here, it's an ending cluster ST. A True T,

unless it's followed by a consonant. Let's look at two examples.

First, I want to try this.

First, john wants to try this.

First, I want to.

First, I want to.

There, it's followed by the diphthong AI and I’m making a True T. First, ttt. First,

I want to. And the next sentence:

First, John wants to try this.

Here, I’m linking into a word that begins with a consonant and I’m not making a t sound.

So when we have an ending ST cluster followed by a

word that begins with a consonant, it is very common to drop the t sound.

So this is a content word that means we normally stress it in a sentence but because of this t,

we do sometimes make a reduction by dropping the t for a smoother connection into the next word.

Number 89, the word ‘well’.

We use this word in lots of different ways, as an adverb,

an adjective, or a noun. They're all content words where we'll stress it.

Things are going well.

I wish him well.

Well, w consonant, EH as in bed vowel, and the dark L. Well, uhl, well.

The dark l is made with the back of the tongue pressing down and back a little bit. Uhl, uhl.

You don't lift your tongue tip unless maybe you're

going to link into a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong.

Well. Well. Well. Up-down shape of stress.

But this can also be an interjection and then it's often unstressed. We use this a

lot at the beginning of sentences. Well, I want to leave by 7:00.

Well, I want to leave.

Well, I want to leave.

Well, well, well.

Well, I want to.

Well, I want to.

It's really just the w and a quick dark sound. Wuhl, wuhl, wuhl, wuhl.

I've dropped the EH vowel, turned it into a schwa, which sort of gets lost

in the dark l. Wuhl, wuhl, wuhl. Try that with me.

Wuhl, wuhl, wuhl.

Well, I want to.

Well, I want to.

Well, I want to.

Well, I want to leave by 7:00.

Well, that's not what she said.

Well, that's not what she said. So this word can

definitely reduce depending on how it's being used.

Number 90, the last word for this Video, the word ‘way’.

This is fun. This reminds me of a video I just made for my online school, Rachel's English

Academy, where my dad and I are talking about my way, your way, the best way, the wrong way.

This is a noun and it’s stressed in a sentence. It's fully pronounced and

has the up-down shape of stress. Way. W consonant, AY as in say diphthong. Way.

We've had lots of words beginning with W in this video.

Lips come together into a tight circle for that W. Www— way.

Then the ay as in say diphthong. First, jaw drop.

Wa— way.

Then, the jaw relaxes up as the front of the tongue arches towards

the roof of the mouth. The tip stays down. Way, way. Get out of the Way.

We need to find a way to solve this Problem. You've come a long way.

The final 10 in the 100 Most common words. We have

learned so many reductions so far. Do you think we’re done? No.

In this final video, we do have a couple of great reductions.

But our first word, number 91, isn't a word that reduces.

The word is 'even', and this is an adjective, an adverb, or a verb.

So a content word, usually stressed in a sentence. But as I wrote sample sentences,

I was thinking about how sometimes even content words seem unstressed because

there are so many other stressed words that are more stressed in a sentence.

First, let's study word stress.

It's a two-syllable word, with stress on the first syllable, the EE vowel. Ee. Even, ee.

The tongue tip is down, touching the back of the bottom front teeth,

and the top front part of the tongue arches towards the roof of the mouth, ee.

The corners of the lips may pull out a bit.

Then we have V, schwa, N. When the schwa is followed by N, it's absorbed by it,

so you don't need to try to make a schwa sound, then an N sound.

You can think of just going straight from V right into N,

vn, vn, vn. It's flat, low in pitch, and said very quickly.

It's an unstressed syllable.

Even in our stressed words, unstressed syllables are fast,

less clear. Even, even. Let's look at some sample sentences.

I didn't make much money, but I did break even.

Even numbers can be divided by two.

In both of these sentences, the word was longer and clearer.

But let's look at two other sentences. This one's even better.

Here, THIS and BETTER are more stressed, the flow goes UH-uh-UH. This one's even better.

BETTER is much more important than EVEN, so I stress that more. This one's even better.

This makes 'even' feel unstressed.

This one's even, even, even.

This one's even better.

Do you hear how it's flatter and doesn't have the up-down shape? This one's even,

even, even, even, even, even, better.

That means it's unstressed.

I don't even know what to do.

I don't even know what to do.

Even, even, even.

I don't even know.

I don't even, even, even, even.

Unstressed, less clear than KNOW and DO.

I don't even know what to do.

Even, even, even. This makes EVEN feel unstressed.

The contrast with the longer, up-down shape of those stressed syllables. So when should

you make sure to make it stressed?I would say when it's a verb or a phrasal verb.

But if it's an adverb describing a verb, or an adjective describing another adjective, then

you can make it unstressed. Because the verb or adjective it's describing will be more stressed.

Stressed or unstressed:

Number 92. The word NEW.

This is an adjective. It’s a content word, it’s stressed. If you look it up,

depending on the dictionary, it might say that this word has two pronunciations.

That’s not really true. We only use one, and it’s N consonant and oo vowel new, new.

The dictionary might give an alternate pronunciation, new,

with the EW diphthong like in ‘few’, new, but I really have not heard anyone use that

pronunciation in conversational or business or even more formal English. New. New.

You don’t want to start with your lips in a tight circle for OO, nooo, nooo,

that’s not quite right. Start with your lips more relaxed, then bring them in for the OO vowel.

New, new, new. Let’s look at some sample sentences.

There's a new idea.

I lost my new camera.

She has a new book coming out.

New, new, up-down shape of stress, a little longer,

it’s one of the more clear words in the sentences.

Number 93, the word ‘want’.

Now, we mentioned this when we were looking at number 58, the word him,

in the sample sentence, “We want him to succeed.”

So when do re-visit that sample sentence. But first, let’s talk

about is it a content word or a function word.

Will it generally be stressed, or unstressed in a sentence. It’s,

a verb, or it can also be a noun. Those are content words, so this word is usually stressed

in a sentence. With stressed words, we don’t really reduce, we don’t drop or change a sound.

But every once in a while we do, and ‘want’ is one of those words. It’s a content word,

it’s stressed, but still, it’s not uncommon to drop the T at

the end. Let’s look at our sample sentence, We want him to succeed.

Want him, want him.

Want is stressed, but there’s no T. I’m dropping the H in him,

a very common reduction, and we link the two words together, want him, want him, want him.

It’s common to do this when the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong:

I want everyone to be there.

No T. Want everyone, want everyone.

We want her to do to better.

Want her, want her.

Dropping the H, ‘want’ is now followed by a vowel, and so I dropped the T.

Want her, want her. I want another one.

Want another, want another. Dropped T.

In all of these sentences it was stressed, longer,

with the up-down shape of stress. But, at the same time it was reduced.

The T was dropped. What if the next word begins with a consonant?

Then we make that a Stop sound. Just like with N’T endings, it’s a nasally stop sound

because of the N, want, want, nt, nt, nt, nt, nt. So as you’re making the N,

you make an abrupt stop by the air stopping airflow.

And that the stop sound.

I want this one, want, nt, nt, nt, want.

Ok, we’ve talked about the ending a lot, what about the rest of the word?

It begins with the W consonant, then you have your choice of two vowels,

AH as in FATHER or AW as in LAW,

according to the dictionary.

Let’s try them out, AH, Father, AH, wa-, want. Want. Or AW, LAW, want, want.

Want or AH, LAW, AH, Want, Want, want.

Those both work, but I also hear a lot of Americans saying ‘want’,

ah, law want. This is what I do, with the UH as in BUTTER vowel.

Waa--, want, want.

I don’t want that, want, waaa--, want. Want.

So you have your choice of three vowels.

You’re also probably familiar with the reduction ‘wanna’. This is want + to,

and we drop the T. I think in this reduction,

it’s especially common to use the UH vowel, wanna, wanna. I know, they ‘wanna’ see you.

Wanna. So a stressed word, but we might reduce it.

Number 94, a function word that does often reduce, the word ‘because’. Just like with the word ‘want’

the stressed syllable here might be pronounced with the AH as in FATHER vowel, because,

the AW as in LAW vowel, because, or the UH as in BUTTER Vowel, because. Because, because, because.

But this words is a conjunction, a preposition,

that is, a function word, and so we often reduce it.

We say it really quickly and not too clearly, and we change it,

even the stressed syllable, to be the schwa.

Because, because, because,

because, because, because.

OR we go even further, and we drop the first syllable, cuz, cuz.

You’ve probably seen people write C-U-Z,

I don’t like that. I don’t like writing reductions, though it’s really common.

But speaking reductions, that’s great.

That’s wonderful English. Let’s look at a few example.

We’re late ‘cuz’ there was a traffic jam. Cuz, cuz.

Late cuz. Or I could say, we’re late because there was a traffic jam.

Because, because, because.

Either way, one syllable or two, it’s unstressed, reduced, not fully pronounced.

They’re staying home ‘cuz’ of the storm.

She’s grounded ‘cuz’ of her grades.

‘Grounded’ means in trouble, facing restrictions,

usually this is something parents do teenagers for breaking rules or bad behavior.

The ‘cuz’ or because reduction.

Number 95, the word ‘any’.

This word can be stressed or unstressed in a sentence, but it doesn’t reduce.

We don’t drop or change a sound,

we just make the quality different to make it stressed or unstressed:

We would stress this word when using it as an adjective describing a noun:

any kid would love that.

What kind of kid?

At any rate, that’s a good deal.

Any kid, any rate.

Otherwise, it can sound unstressed: Do you feel any better?

FEEL any BETTER?

Feel any, any, any, any, any.

There it’s not that up down shape here compared to FEEL and BETTER: Feel any better?

any, any, any, any.

Lower in pitch and flatter. Unstressed

We also use ‘any’ for an unknown amount.

Then it sounds unstressed: Do you have any money?

Have any, any, any, any. Do you have any time?

Any, any, any, said quickly, flat and low in pitch.

The pronunciation: We have the EH as in BED vowel, EH, eh-n,

the N consonant and an unstressed EE. Any, any.

Number 96, wow, we’re getting close to the end!

Number 96 is ‘these’. This word can be stressed or unstressed,

depending on how it’s being used, but we don’t reduce it.

Voiced TH, EE vowel, weak ending these. I want to point out that when this word is unstressed,

I’ll even say any time it doesn’t begin a thought group, it’s common

to cheat the pronunciation of the TH a little bit.

It still sounds like a TH to us, but we’ll make it without bringing the tongue tip through the teeth:

These, these. We make it like this. These, these, these.

The tongue tip is just behind the teeth, the, the, the, these,

then it pulls down for the E vowel. You might see my tongue behind the teeth, the --, these,

these, but I’m not really bringing it out. tttttthhhhese, these.

Instead It's these, these, these. This is an important shortcut for non-native

speakers since so many of them struggle with the full pronunciation of the TH sound.

Th, th, th, thse, these, the tongue tip isn’t at the roof of the mouth, and it's not pointing down.

It’s pressing the backs of the teeth and then pulling away. These,

these. Let’s look at some examples.

First, sentences where they’re not stressed:

Everyone wants one of these.

These, these, these.

We need these to be cut in half.

These, these, these. Simple TH pronunciation where

the tip does not come thru. Now lets make it stressed, like at the

beginning of the sentence:

These are great.

These people need help.

These, these, tongue tip is coming thru and we have that up-down shape,

a little longer, a little clearer. These.

Number 97, give.

This is a verb, and verbs are content words, which means they’re stressed and they don’t reduce.

Except certain ones can reduce, and this is one of them.

Give, G consonant, IH vowel, V consonant.

I’ll give you that for your birthday. Give.

Stressed, fully pronounced. We’re going to give her a discount.

Give, give, again stressed and fully pronounced. But with ‘me’, it’s common to reduce this.

It’s still a verb and it’s still stressed, but we drop the final V sound: Gimme that.

Gi-- stressed, but no V.

Gimme, Gimme that.

In fact, sometimes you might see it written GIMME. Gimme, gimme, gimme. Gimme that.

Can you gimme more time?

So the G-I syllable is still stressed, gi --

even though we’re dropping the final V.

This is just like ‘want’. It’s a content word, a stressed word,

and yet, in certain cases, we drop the final sound.

Isn’t it interesting?

As you study how Americans really speak, you see that the full pronunciation often isn’t

the most natural or common pronunciation. If all you learned was the book pronunciation,

you’d have a pretty hard time putting sentences together naturally.

That’s what this video series is about. Getting you to see it’s not always about

a full, clear pronunciation in English. Let’s keep going.

Number 98, the word ‘day’.

This is always a noun, and it is always stressed. We don’t reduce it!

Out of all of the most common words that we’ve studied so far,

almost 100, this is only number 25 that is never unstressed or reduced.

Wow! D consonant, AY as in SAY diphthong.

First drop your jaw, a-, then arch the top front part of the

tongue towards the roof of the mouth. And the jaw relaxes up.

I need another day to finish.

What day is he coming back?

Let’s call it a day.

Day, day, up-down shape of stress, longer clearer. That last sentence,

let’s call it a day, is an idiom that means, let’s stop doing what we’re

doing. It usually refers to work. For example, if I’m working late at night,

David might come up to my office and say,

Rachel, why don’t you call it a day?

Number 99, the word ‘most’.

This can be several different parts of speech, but all uses are content words.

So this word is generally stressed. But it still might get a small reduction,

and that’s because of the ending cluster.

This is just like number 88, first, or number 57, just.

When the word is followed by a consonant, it’s common to drop the T.

Most people like it.

It’s the most challenging part.

Most challenging

Most challenging

Most people, most challenging.

We drop this T because it comes between two consonants and sometimes we do that

to make speech smoother. To make the transition between two words smoother.

If the word is followed by a word that begins with a vowel or diphthong,

or at the end of your thought group, then do make the T: I got most of the questions right.

Here it's followed by a vowel.

Most of the, most of the, most, and I'am making a T.

M consoant, OH diphthong, mo-.

Jaw drop then lip rounding Mo-, most.

Then the ST cluster.

Number 100! The final word! Us.

This word is a pronoun, a function word, and so it’s not normally stressed. It’s unstressed.

They took us to the movies.

Took us, us, us, us.

They gave it to us for our anniversary.

Gave it to us, us, us, us, us.

You could write this in IPA as schwa-S. Fully pronounced,

it’s UH as in BUTTER – S. US, but unstressed, us, us, us.

If it’s the last word in a sentence, I would stress it: This belongs to us.

Us, up-down shape of stress. But usually, us, us, us, unstressed. Flat in pitch said very quickly.

Do you really need reductions? What if you clearly and fully pronounce each word?

Let’s look at some conclusions from studying these 100 most common words in English.

When I gathered the 100 most common words in American English,

I wasn't thinking about going beyond that; I wasn't thinking about 200 or 500,

but after I finished it, I got curious: what does the next 100 look like?

Do we have more content words? So I decided I was going to expand upon

that video series and put it here in the academy,

and what that means is I started looking for a list of the top 500 words in American English.

Now I found a list that I really like, but it's not the same list

as the top 100 words that I used when I did that original course.

So what does this mean? I took this new list which I really like and I

looked at the top 100 words. It was very similar to the list I used but

a little different so in this video I'm taking 14 words that are included in the

top 100 words of my new list that weren't included in the list that I already did.

So we'll call the list we'll cover today filling in the top 100. There are 14 words on this list.

So my goal is to do the top 500 and I'm really curious to see what this means for my students.

If you study the 500 most common words in English you really get to know the pronunciation and what

they sound like in a whole sentence you study a lot of sentences to to get to know the various

meanings for each word how will this impact your English I've got to think that it would make you

speak much more confidently so I'm really excited to dive into these next set of words with you.

The first word is more this word will be stressed in a sentence it's a content word.

This word has either the a as in law vowel or the o diphthong. Remember when the a as

in law vowel is followed by r it changes it gets more closed it's not a but it's o, Mo,

more. So the lips round a little bit more the tongue pulls back a little bit more.

As this word is stressed it will have that up down shape more and the r comes as the voice

falls down. If you're pronouncing this with the O diphthong, it sounds more like more,

more. I think this pronunciation is less common I wouldn't actually recommend it.

You may hear it I personally think it's a little bit strange. More, more, more.

Next we have very an adjective or an adverb this

word adds intensity and I think because of that we tend to stress it even more.

I'm very tired do you hear how much I held on to that beginning V sound? That really helped

me to stress it so there's a big difference between I'm tired and I'm very tired very

adds so much intensity so go ahead and feel free to play with really stressing this word.

So here we have the e as in bed vowel followed by R. Again, the r does change

the vowel here. It comes after the vowel in a stressed syllable pure e as in bed is e e

plus r a er er. That's not how we pronounce it it's not there but it's there. So the vowel

there e e has a lot less jaw drop. Very, then a pure e. Very also watch the ending e vowel some

people make it too relaxed and it sounds like I ver make sure your tongue stays high, very. e e

e very the word find this is a verb a content word and it will be stressed in a sentence.

We have the I diphthong find, but pay attention to that ending D. When

it comes between two consonants we will drop it like in the word finds,

finds. I'm not making a D sound there it's right from the n Sound into a light Z.

This would also happen if we were linking this word into a word that begins with a

consonant like in the phrase “I found my book.” I found my, found my. You do not need to worry

about the D there. But when it's followed by a vowel we will make a d. For example in the

phrase “find out”. Find, find out. There I'm making a D sound as I link to the next word.

Also in the word findings. There I've added a suffix and it starts

with a vowel and I am making more of a D sound. Findings, findings.

The word “where”.

This word will often be stressed in a sentence and

just like with very we have the a as in bed vowel plus r.

This is just like very where we had a plus r in the stress syllable, very where,

where, where, where. So it's not e, but it's e e, less jaw drop. Where, where.

Some people will pronounce wh words with a light escape of air, where, where,

but most people now have dropped that I suggest you just do a clean W sound to begin where, where.

Thing. That's a noun a content word, usually stressed in a sentence. Unvoiced th tongue tip

must come through the teeth then the I as in sit vowel followed by the NG consonant. When

this vowel is followed by the NG consonant it does change. It's no longer a pure I that would sound

like thing, thing. But this word is pronounced thing. When I is followed by NG it changes to more

of an e vowel that is the tongue arches higher it's closer to the roof of the mouth. Thing,

thing, things. That will be a really light z sound at the end when it's plural. Sometimes

a plural Z is so weak so light that it sounds like a very weak S without the voice.

take as much of the air out of that as you can. Things.

This word is also the ending of several common words: something, nothing, anything, everything.

In those words, it's unstressed, so it's going to be something, thing, thing, flatter and pitch,

and said with a little bit less mouth movement and a little bit more simple thing, thing, thing.

Should. I actually did cover this in the first 100 words when I did should, would,

and could together all with number 37. Remember, we can definitely reduce this,

so it's just the sh sound plus the schah when it's followed by a word that begins with a

consonant. For example, in the phrase “should we try?” sh sh should we try?

I did not make audio for this in the first 100 words,

so I'm going to make it now and put it here in this course.

Next, need. a content word. The pronunciation of this word is pretty simple and straightforward.

The ending is D. This will link into a beginning vowel or diff thong, like in

the phrase I need another n n need a, there's a flap of the tongue as the D comes between two

vowel sounds. Now if the next word begins with a consonant, I won't release the D. I need my,

need my, need my, so my tongue is in position for the D. my vocal cords are vibrating but I

don't release it need d d. I just close my lips and go right into the next sound the M sound

need my need my I need my other one. I need my other one. The D is quite subtle in these cases.

An adjective an adverb or noun that is a content word usually stressed

in a sentence. No tricks or changes in pronunciation here just the M consonant,

A as in butter vowel and the CH sound much, much.

The word right.

Let's get this right. Another content word. With this list,

we're really getting into a lot of content words, aren't we?

Right. R consonant, I diphthong, T. this ending T will be a stop T if the next word begins with

a consonant like in the phrase right now. Also it will usually be a stop te at the

end of a phrase like “that's right”. It will be a flap T if the next word begins with a vowel

or diphthong sound like in the phrase right away this is because the t comes between two vowels.

Remember we're not talking about letters the letter before the T here is the H,

that's a consonant letter. But the sound is the i diphthong. So

the T does come between two vowels or diphthongs in the phrase right away.

A content word. As with so many words in English this word can be used different ways a noun,

a verb, or an adjective. Mean. M consonant e vowel n consonant mean. Now notice in the

past tense the word changes becomes meant, this is an irregular verb so it's not an ed

ending. And adding that letter T changes the pronunciation. It's no longer the E

vowel but it's the e as in bed vowel meant, meant. You'll often hear this as a stop t if

the next word begins with a consonant like in the phrase “I meant that.” Meant, meant.

A modal verb stressed you may want to study this one more.

M consonant, a diphthong, don't forget that jaw drop at the beginning of the diphthong;

Here, an adverb. this is a content word and will normally be stressed in a sentence here we have

a vowel followed by R in a stressed syllable and the r consonant does change this vowel. We

have the E vowel followed by r or schwa R in the same syllable, I is affected. It's not a pure I

that would sound like here, here, here. That's not how we say that word. We say here, here when I is

followed by R in the same syllable it's a lot more like the e as and she vowel, here, he e here, so

there's less space between the top of the tongue and the roof of the mouth than in a pure is here.

Many. This word is sometimes stressed sometimes not. Many

people want to meet you there it's stressed. Many.

How many people will be there? There it's not stressed.

How many? How many people? Many many. The letter A here makes the e as in

bed vowel me many. Again watch that ending unstressed e that it

doesn't become I to relax keep the tongue higher. E many e e e many.

And finally the word such.

This word can also be stressed or unstressed.

It's going to be unstressed when followed by as. For example online schools such as

Rachel's English Academy are such a great way to learn.

There I used such Twice first it was unstressed. Such as, such as, such as,

such, such, such. Then it was stressed. Such are such a great way to learn.

What a fun project it was for me to make these 11 videos and here,

finally, to pull them all together into one video for you. Understanding reductions

really will unlock a new level of spoken English fluency for you.

Keep your learning going now with this video and don't forget to subscribe with notifications on.

I love being your English teacher. That's it and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.