Master essential English vocabulary effortlessly with flawless pronunciation in a simple, step-by-step approach, covering 10 common words. Explore my full series for a comprehensive list of the top 100 frequently used words in spoken English.
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Video Transcript:
Today you’re getting video 3 in the 100 Most Common Words in English list. We’re going over the real pronunciation, not the full pronunciation, but the one that actually gets used in spoken English. If you didn’t see video one, click here to watch it now. It is important to understand what we’re doing here studying 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: BUT! 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. Say. 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.
So there, our 30 most common words in English are done, and there’s only one word, ‘say’, that is reliably stressed. Amazing. Let’s keep going down this list of the 100 most common words in English to study the pronunciation, and I don’t mean the full or official pronunciation, I mean how the word is actually used in a sentence in American English. Look for the next installment in this series, coming soon.
That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
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