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Today you’re getting video 3 in the 100 Most Common Words in English list.

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We’re going over the real pronunciation, not the full pronunciation,

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but the one that actually gets used in spoken English.

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If you didn’t see video one,

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click here to watch it now.

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It is important to understand what we’re doing here studying reductions.

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We start this video with ‘this’.

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This is number 21 in the most common words in English.

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It’s not usually going to be pronounced THIS.

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It’s usually going to be pronounced a lot more quickly than that, unstressed.

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This.

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This.

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“This is what I’m talking about.”

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This, this, this.

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Sometimes it’s more stressed,

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“Not that one, this one.”

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It depends on how it’s being used.

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But much of the time,

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this word will be unstressed, said very quickly: this.

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22: But.

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This word is usually going to be unstressed.

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In those cases I would probably write it phonetically with a schwa.

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“I wanted to stop in, but I was already running late.”

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But, but, but, but, but I, but I.

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The T here links into the next word with a Flap T

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if the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong.

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

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

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But , but, but we, but we.

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There, it's a stop T. Said very quickly.

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Unless someone is exaggerating on purpose:

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BUT!

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

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23:  His.

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Oh, this one is fun.

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This one does have a reduction.

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It’s really common to drop the H in this word.

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What’s his name?

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What’s his? What's his?

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HIS becomes ‘iz’.

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Said very quickly, reduced.

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This is much more natural than making it sound stressed, fully pronounced:

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What’s his name?

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What’s his name?

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Hmm, that doesn't sound right.

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"What's his name?" sounds much better.

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I have a video on dropping the H reductions,

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so click here or in the description to see more examples.

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24:  By.

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This word doesn’t reduce,

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none of the sounds change or are dropped,

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but it’s usually unstressed and said very quickly:

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We’ll be right by the door.

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By the, by the, by the-- unstressed, not too clear.

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But we need this contrast of stressed and unstressed to sound natural when speaking English.

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25:  From.

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This is often said very quickly,

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and I would write the vowel phonetically as the schwa: from, from.

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When the schwa is followed by the M,

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it gets absorbed by the schwa, so what I’m saying is,

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

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I’ll be back from work at three.

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From, from work. Very fast.

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If I said this sentence with each word being clear, no reductions,

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what would it sound like?

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I’ll be back from work at three.

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I’ll be back from work at three.

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Pretty robotic, not natural.

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Even though reductions might seem wrong, they might seem lazy,

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they’re right, because they’re part of a bigger picture.

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Rhythmic contrast in English.

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26:  They.

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Let’s just start out with a sample sentence.

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They already left.

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They already left.

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Unstressed.  Said very quickly. They, they, they.

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Sounds don’t really change, it doesn’t reduce, but it’s unstressed.

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They, they.

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Man, we're on number 26 of the most common words in English

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

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When will we get to our first real content word?

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We'll see.

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27:  We.

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It's just like the pronoun 'they'.

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Not usually stressed in a sentence.

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We, we.

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We already left.

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We, we, we.  Said quickly.

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We already left.

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

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but unstressed.

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We. We already left.

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28:  Say.

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Oh my gosh, this is a content word.

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This is a verb and it is usually stressed in a sentence.

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It took us 28 words to get here.

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If this doesn’t show you the importance of using reductions

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and speaking with a rhythmic contrast,

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making some words unstressed and less clear,

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I don’t know what will.

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The first 27 of the most common words in English are that way.

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Say.

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Let’s put it in a sentence.

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What did he say?

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He said he’s running late.

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Say, said.

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Stressed, longer, clearer.

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Up-down shape of intonation: say.

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S consonant, AY diphthong.

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We need jaw drop for that.

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Say.

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

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The diphthong changes.

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Check out a video I made on that change

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by clicking here or in the description below.

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29:  Her.

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Okay, we’re back to a word that reduces.

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It’s very common to pronounce this word with no H.

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It becomes ‘er’.

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What’s her name?

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Er, er, er.

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When we drop the beginning H,

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we take the word and attach it to the end of the word before.

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What's her. What's her name?

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There are several words where we drop the H,

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I have a video on that.

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Click here or in the description below to see more examples.

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30:  She.

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Unstressed.

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You could probably even reduce it by dropping the vowel, and just making a quick ‘sh’ sound.

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Let me try that in a sentence.

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We don’t think she knows.

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We don’t think she knows.

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I’d say that works.

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

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Or you can drop the vowel: I don't think she knows.

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And it sounds pretty much the same.

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She knows. She knows.

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So there.

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Our 30 most common words in English are done, and there’s only one word,

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‘say’, that is reliably stressed.

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Amazing.

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Let’s keep going down this list of the 100 most common words in English to study the pronunciation,

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and I don’t mean the full or official pronunciation,

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I mean how the word is actually used in a sentence in American English.

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Look for the next installment in this series, coming soon.

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That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.