You can speak English fluently! It takes effort to learn English pronunciation but you can make huge improvements if you have the right pronunciation guide. That’s where I come in! The entire aim of my channel is to help you learn English and, more importantly, speak English fluently and sound like a native speaker. You can do it! You can learn English if you are willing to work hard and this pronunciation guide will help you get there.
In this video you get a spoken English lesson on the word THEM. If your goal is to speak English fluently, pronunciation of short reduction-heavy words like THEM is crucial. The word them is a great example of why English pronunciation is such a big challenge. It usually gets reduced so much that it’s almost unrecognizable in a sentence. You will get many examples of the reduction of the word them in this video and you can turn the video into an English speaking lesson by listening and repeating the sounds that you hear. You can absolutely speak English fluently but the only way to get there is through speaking English practice. You learn English in the same way that a native speaker learns English when you do it this way.
Because it’s most common to learn English through reading it’s easy to have incorrect pronunciation. But you can quickly improve your spoken English with my step-by-step videos. If your goal is to learn English pronunciation here’s the key: a great pronunciation guide and lots (and lots!) of English speaking practice.
As you use this video for training on the word them you will be actively working to speak English fluently. Working on the pronunciation of the word them might seem like a small or too-specific task for a spoken English lesson. But because you will be immersed in the English language of native speakers throughout the video you will be picking up pronunciation skills almost without trying.
Repetition and training are the only way to speak English fluently. Some people will tell you that it’s just about motivation or a certain mindset. That’s just not right. You can absolutely speak English fluently, but only through focused training on the correct pronunciation. The best way to learn English is to follow an experienced, professional pronunciation guide…and that’s exactly what you’ve got with Rachel’s English!
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Video Text:
Rachel: In this American English Pronunciation video, you’re going to visit my cousin Brad’s farm.
You’ll study reductions like the reduction of the word them and how ‘want to’ becomes ‘wanna’. You’ll hear the phrase “a lot of’ pronounced ‘a lotta’. And you’ll hear an example of the reduction of because and you are.
Rachel: So Brad, how often do you feed ’em?
Brad: Twice a day.
Sorry about the wind here, guys. Here was our first reduction. Did you hear it? The reduction of THEM. It’s really common to drop the TH in this word and change the vowel to the schwa. When you do this reduction, make sure you link it on to the word before. There should be no break between words. “Feed them” becomes “feed ‘em”, feed ’em in conversational English. Feed ‘em. It’s like an unstressed syllable on the end of “feed”.
Rachel: So Brad, how often do you feed ’em? So Brad, how often do you feed ’em? So Brad, how often do you feed ’em?
Brad: Twice a day.
Twice a day. Let’s look at this short sentence to study stress. Do you notice that some words are longer and some are shorter? They’re all one-syllable long, but “twice” and “day” are much longer than “a”. They have an up-down intonation: Day, day. “A” is flat and said very quickly. It is unstressed. The other two words are stressed. This contrast between stressed and unstressed is important in American English. If everything was stressed and longer, it would sound more like this: twice a day. Twice a day. That’s not normal English. Twice a day.
Brad: Twice a day. Twice a day. Twice a day.
Do you ever seen a cockfight Brad?
Brad: No, I don’t want to.
Do they have ’em around here?
Did you hear another “them” reduction in that small conversation? Listen again.
Do they have ’em around here?
Do they have ‘em around here? Here the word ‘them’ refers to “cock fights”. It’s the plural pronoun and it’s, pronounced “em”. Linked to the word before, it sounds like “have ‘em, have ‘em”.
Do they have ’em around here? Do they have ’em around here? Do they have ’em around here?
Yeah, a lot of guys from Washington got arrested a couple of years ago for big cockfight ring.
Big betting?
Yeah.
Rachel: So you guys had a lotta rain you were saying?
Here was another reduction: of. A lotta rain. The phrase “a lot of” is common in American English, and it’s common to change the word “of” to “uh”, a lotta. Notice what happens to the T: it changes to a Flap sound because it comes between two vowels. That helps link the two words together. A lotta. Only “lot” is stressed here, the other two words are unstressed. Uh uh uhlotta, uhlotta. Try that. A lotta.
Rachel: So you guys had a lotta rain you were saying? So you guys had a lotta rain you were saying? So you guys had a lotta rain you were saying?
Oh, they’re terrible!
Brad: You wanna play with ’em?
This wind is making it a little hard to hear, but did you hear what my cousin said?
Brad: You wanna play with ’em? You wanna play with ’em?
You wanna play with ‘em? There’s the “them” reduction again, referring to the chickens. With ‘em, with ‘em, with ‘em. He also reduced “want to” to “wanna”. This is really common, Americans do it all the time in spoken English. It’s not improper English. You wanna play with ‘em?
Brad: You wanna play with ‘em? You wanna play with ‘em? You wanna play with ‘em?
Rachel: No I’d..
Brad: Okay, you can grab ‘em out of there and play with ’em.
Rachel: You can grab ‘em out of there. Another them reduction! Grab ‘em, grab ‘em.
Brad: You can grab ‘em out, You can grab ‘em out, You can grab ‘em out of there and play with ’em
Rachel: No, I do not wanna hold one of those.
I just used the “wanna” reduction. Did you hear it?
I do not wanna hold, I do not wanna hold, I do not wanna hold one of those.
Rachel: It’s huge! How much does that cow weigh?
About 1400 pounds.
Rachel: Wow, 1400
Weigh. This is a homophone. That means it sounds exactly the same as another word. Do you know what word is? “Weigh” is pronounced just like “way”. Different word, different meaning, different spelling, but same pronunciation. We have a lot of homophones in American English. Click here to see a video I made about homophones.
Rachel: It’s huge! How much does that cow weigh?
About 1400 pounds.
Rachel: Wow, 1400
Yeah,
Rachel: Hey Ian
Ian: Hey
(laughing)
Rachel: No, that’s how you said it. You said “I sold 3 of ’em.”
I sold 3 of ’em before we went into winter. Because I knew I was gonna be short on feeds.
Here, my cousin is talking about his cows, and I made him say it again so I could get it on camera. Do you hear the THEM reduction?
I sold 3 of ’em
Three of ‘em. Three of ‘em. Try that. Three of ‘em.
I sold 3 of ’em. I sold 3 of ’em. I sold 3 of ’em before we went into winter. Because I knew I was gonna be short on feeds.
Good job.
Rachel: I don’t think I was meant to be a farmer. You wanna feed ’em Ian?
You just heard two reductions that we’ve already learned in this video. What are they?
Rachel: You wanna feed ’em Ian? You wanna feed ’em Ian?
“Wanna” and “em”. Do you want to feed them.? You wanna feed ’em? I dropped the word DO, turned “want to” into “wanna”, and used the “them” reduction. You wanna feed ‘em, Ian? Ian is my brother.
Rachel: You wanna feed ’em Ian? You wanna feed ’em Ian? You wanna feed ’em Ian?
Cows spend lot of time in there.
Rachel: Who?
The cows do
Rachel: Oh, uhuh.
Rachel’s Dad: Do you uh, keep ’em in there during the winter?
My Dad made the “them” reduction too! Did you hear it?
Rachel’s Dad: Do you uh, keep ’em in there during the winter? keep ’em in there during the winter? keep ’em in there during the winter?
Keep ‘em in there. Keep ‘em, keep ‘em, just add that unstressed syllable to the end of the word before. Keep ’em. My dad also dropped the T in “winter”. Did you notice that?
Rachel’s Dad: keep ’em in there during the winter? during the winter? during the winter? keep ’em in there during the winter?
Actually, I noticed my cousin Brad did this earlier too. Did you notice? Winter became winner.
Brad: Before we went in to winter. Before we went in to winter. Before we went in to winter.
Americans sometimes drop the T when it comes after an N. “Winter” sounds like ”winner”. Other common examples of this: center, interview, international, internet.
Rachel’s Dad: keep ’em in there during the winter or do they still go out somewhere?
Brad: They go outside. They, they’re actually outside even when it’s snowin’. Cuz when I come to feed ’em, they have snow on their back.
Rachel’s Dad: Oh.
Cuz when I come to feed ‘em. THEM reduction, also, my cousin Brad reduced “because”. It became “cuz”, cuz,. Cuz when I. Cuz when I.
Brad: Cuz when I come to feed ’em, Cuz when I come to feed ’emCuz when I come to feed ’em, they have snow on their back.
Rachel’s Dad: Oh.
Rachel: Brad thanks for showing me your farm.
Brad: You’re welcome!
You’re welcome. This is a really common phrase. We don’t say “you are”, you are welcome. we don’t generally say “you’re” fully pronounced, but we reduce it. Yer, yer. You’re welcome. You’re welcome.
Brad: You’re welcome! You’re welcome! You’re welcome!
You studied a lot of reductions today. Reductions are a part of natural spoken English, but I don’t recommend using them in writing. It’s not professional. But please, please, use them when you speak. It will sound great!
Did you like learning this way? Click here to see more real life English videos.
That’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
Great, thank you.
Rachel’s Dad: Your head wasn’t in the square.
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