I think the most notorious of our English reductions is pronouncing "have" as "of", resulting in so many people incorrectly writing "could of" or "should of" when they mean "could've" or "should've".
Very true, I notice this error all the time. It happens of course because "could've" and "should've" are contractions and so the full word "have" is reduced.
@@margaritakleinman5701 Isn't it more that you're just hearing "of" then? The same reduction rule in 'to' applies to 'of' doesn't it? United State of America, tends to sound like 'v America.
@@ARUCARDFTEPES So when people say "should've" or "could've", it will sound like "should of" or "could of". But of course it wouldn't be correct to write it that way.
Ok I'm a native English speaker and I guess I never realized how I pronounced my tos until watching this video. I still say its pronounced like too and two though, it just depends on how fast you're speaking which is why saying it by itself sounds the same as the others
As a native speaker, this video is hilarious and super informative. You don't really notice the nuances of spoken English until someone points it out directly, and it's done really well here. I will share this video with my fiance who is a non-native speaker. She's 100 percent fluent, but wishes to sound more native in American English. I'm sure she will love this channel!
I remember listeting to native speakers pronouncing To and think that it definitely wasn't a "TU" sound, but when I asked my teachers, they said it is pronounced TU. That was confusing. Thanks Rachel to show me I wasn't crazy! 😅🤪
I was a straight A English student living in Germany and worked in the USA quite some time. So my English is above average. Your videos still show me how much there is to explore, learn and understand. Also you do this in such an excellent and interesting way that I caught myself putting down urgent work whenever your videos push. Thank you so much for the excellent work
@@douggta6 Just in case you were not kidding, a "Straight A Student" refers to a student who always gets "A" grades on a specific subject class, in this case an English class, it doesn't have anything to do with him being straight or gay. And being gay or straight refers to an orientation not a preference.
This is the only place I hear this information. I am so grateful for bringing relief to my mind. As I feel that there's something different, but I cannot specify it as I was taught the rule only. No one ever explained that this was not the rule in spoken English. Thank you!
I discovered gorgeous Rachel on video series called 100 most common words in American English , believe it or not those videos saved my English pronunciation ✌ i can't stop thanking you teacher ❣
I have to confess that I was using TO for all of the DUH pronunciation After this video my tongue feels more freely less stress out ! Thank you so much for helping us out , you nailed it !✨✨
I love your teaching method that focuses on subtle differences of your native language. I love English, and I love the way you make videos with animations. It's easy to understand and digest. Most people think the details are minor, but I'm on your side. I believe many correct little things create beautiful English, not just decent one.
I thought of two exceptions. When “to” is before a vowel (some of your examples did this, so I expected you to touch on it) and when “to” ends a sentence and represents half of an infinitive, but the verb isn’t spoken because it’s implied: “Are you gonna bring extra flashlight batteries on the camping trip?” “I don’t think I need *to.* It’s only one weekend.” That “to” would be /tu/, no schwa
I wish I could find someone teaching reductions in other languages like you are doing here for English. Not knowing impairs understanding. Thank you for these enlightening videos.
That's amazing. I once asked an american friend: "How do you pronounce the words *I* and *my* ? He pronounced both words with a full and clear [aɪ] sound. And then I pointed out that in spoken english these two words are often reduced and americans pronounce them like My [mə], I [ə] I'm gonna sell [mə] house [ə] don't know.
Even as someone from the south, I don’t really shorten I, and it definitely is not shortened to a schwa. However, I do feel the “i” in “I” (sorry, no phonetic keyboard) can almost become “yeu” making the full sound “ayeu”
As a native speaker of American English, I do most frequently use reductions of to when speaking. However, I think there are times (not very frequent) that we do pronounce to as tu. It occurs most frequently when we are enunciating for clarity of comprehension. I work with a lot of non-native speakers of English, and therefore probably enunciate more frequently as a result. I find it interesting that we use reductions without realizing it. It’s similar to how often we use contractions (like the first word of this sentence). Thanks Rachel for helping people learn English how we actually speak it.
Already 4.3 subscribers... You've come along way Rachel. Most useful English learning Channel on TH-cam. Learnt a lot from you, Rach. When God wrote that I would be fluent in English, I owe you my "American" accent.
As a Brazilian, I like my favorite English teacher on this level! Of course I had several internet important English teachers, one in each earlier levels! I think this level is toward the fluency!
Hi Rachel. Don't worry if some say you're teaching "lazy" 5:53 English. The reason why they think that way is because they do not live in an English speaking country and have not been exposed to real spoken English. More often than not, they watch BBC or CNN to learn English in their countries. These channels tend to use more formal English. Before coming to Canada, I myself didn't know that native speakers of English reduce some words and link them. The reason for all this mess is that English textbooks do not teach reductions and linking at all, so students don't know about them. Keep up the good work!
As a pretty fresh ESL teacher, I love watching these videos. It was interesting trying to thinking during this one when I ever would pronounce “to” as “too, two” during speech, and the only times I do it are when I am drawing the word “to” out to think or if my sentence is ending with “to”. I loved watching this, and I hope this will help me when I’m teaching in Vietnam this upcoming semester :)
I agree. Here's an example: Person A: Why didn't you mow the lawn? Person B: [annoyed] I was _going_ to! I think "to" is also pronounced "tu" if it is followed by another vowel sound: "Shall I compare thee _to_ a summer's day?" You say "tu" because "tuh" is too similar to a's "uh".
@@KingsleyIII i wonder a little... because most vowel sounds will tend to shift towards an "uh" sound in normal speach, but when one vowel sound is immediately followed by another vowel sound, does that always translate to the first vowel sound being more clearly annunciated?
I was thinking about this topic so long ago about why there's no video on this topic But After all, we've our best English teacher who knows what is in our students' mind Thank you ma'am for this amazing topic Thank you very much
Thanks a million to contribute not only my listening but also my speaking in english. You're a true inspiration for me and I appreciate all the things you have teached me so far. Greetings from my country, Turkey. Love your content. Keep going :) ❣
So I might've missed it in the video, or maybe the American accent does this differently, but I don't believe this reduction applies if the word after "to" starts with a vowel. You can actually hear this at 11:02 in "Let's get to it." But a fun and informative video overall. I do like exploring these little weirdnesses that we commit without even realising.
Wow, good catch! Interestingly, we would connect the "to" with the next vowel with a "w". So, "to it" is pronounced "to(w)it". Other examples are "to(w)engage" and "to(w)add". So instead of a reduction, we run into a different weird English rule, haha.
@@nyanSynxPHOENIX This is true. Interestingly, though, we still do the usual reduction if the following word starts with a "w". Try, for example, "I want to attempt to walk to work." When I say this, the first "to" is not reduced - though it connects to "attempt" with a "w" sound - and the second two are reduced. If I deliberately reduce the first "to", it makes it sound like I am saying "wattempt".
It’s always interesting to listen to your videos, even though I’m a native English speaker. This lesson reminds me of practicing liaison in French. We never really think about the fact that we also do something similar in English. When you learn by listening. As you grow up, it’s done naturally without any thought.
thank you so much Rachel, im from Vietnam, i have a friend in the USA and she will go to Vietnam to travel, Your videos will help me to communicate with her better. Wish you all the best, thanks
Has a native speaker I totally thought 'to' was dropped in a lot of sentences like "needa go now". or I thought it sounded more like "tuh or ta". so this is super interesting. Watching your videos make me feel sane because I would talk to other native english speakers and they did not believe me when I said they would pronounce things not like they were.
I think a lot of native speakers may think they're pronouncing some words as they're written, but are not. I remember awhile back, someone telling me that nobody ever really pronounces the word "for" as "for", that they don't really pronounce the "o". I began to pay attention and I realized it was true, no one actually says "for"! It sounds more like "fur".
As a Russian mother tongue I would say that we have similar processes in the Russian language: assimilation and reduction but native speakers never heard about them. I was thrilled when I learned that we have a shwa sound in almost every word because of heavy reduction of unstressed vowels. It was funny to figure out that there are three different vowels in the word moloko (milk) (shwa, u -sound like in the English word cut , and o) while native speakers consider them to be a and o : malako.
thank God that you exist, you just save me from problems, I had problems how to understand native English speakers, because the written words and pronunciation of a word in English are very different, it is difficult to understand when speaking native speakers, and your lessons give us a positive, thank you for your diligence
In, "which movie are you going to?" the "to" is pronounced the same as two and too. In, "we're going to the movie" it's pronounced [tuh]. So it's pronunciation depends on where the word is found in a sentence and the emphasis desired.
I was tought "to" is short, "too" or "two" is long. Such simple explanation is good enough for me. My language has a special sign for prolonging the sound of the vowel, therefore everybody here understands what is a short vowel and long vowel without need to make 10 minutes video.
The same is true for the littel word "of", I noticed. I'm a German native speaker trying to figure out the pitfalls of American English. Your videos seem to be targeted towards a more experienced audience, which I like. Subscribed!
Note on gonna/gotta: they're grammar sensitive. "To" can be a helping verb *or* a preposition. Because "going" and "got" are verbs that can be used with either "to" (I can't think of a situation where "want" would be followed by a preposition), the reduction only happens with the helping verb. For example, "I'm going to do it" (where "to" is a helping verb) can be reduced to "I'm gonna do it". But "I'm going to the house" (where "to" is a preposition) would not be reduced to "I'm gonna the house". Or "I got to do it" can be "I gotta do it". "I got to the house" could be "I got ta the house", but wouldn't be "I gotta the house".
Thanks Rachel - all really interesting. Worth adding that most of this also holds true in British English, except that we are less keen on 'gonna' and 'wanna', etc.. Also, we almost always reduce 'to' to 'te' (rather than 'de' or 'duh'), and - interestingly - we Brits do give it its full "too" pronunciation before any word beginning with a vowel. e.g. I'm going "too" Africa, then I'm going too-w-America, then I'm going "te" China. 🙂
British speaker here too, but with a weird foray into American as a child and back to British, lol. I found this so interesting, but I did find that in the practice sentences, I pronounced a much shortened " Tu" instead of te or de, except for one (of course, because what is English except a mass of exceptions?) I think, as a native English non American speaker, it is really interesting to hear the American accent taught.
Thank you so much for this video! I've been waiting for years for something like that. It's a pet peeve of mine, since we Brazilians tend to use "chew" for all of those words, and it was a surprise for me when I first realized native speakers are not aware of all the different forms the word "to" can be pronounced.
My greetings and big respect to Brazil! 🇧🇷 I really dream about visiting your beatiful country someday. Yet, I make fun English lessons, podcasts and live vlogs 😊 Have a great day! 🙌
Been living here for over 10 years and still struggle with pronunciation at times. Your videos are amazing to improve AmEn pronunciation and loosen up a bit foreign accents
Great vid! I also think there tends to be a slight but noticeable difference between 'two' and 'too', not in pronunciation per se, but where 'too' is often held out for about a half beat longer. You can hear this lengthening with John at 1:05. Having practiced a couple of languages where vowel length is important (Ancient Greek and Japanese), I've become used to tuning in for that distinction.
I totally agree to these...during my college days I could speak a good written english but not that fluent in speaking the language...I live in the Philippines but I speak about 75% english than my native tongue (english is our 2nd language)...I also attended an american accent short course to further my knowledge and I found out this reduction is true to any language (correct me if I'm wrong). We as Filipinos also use words in a short form- "too lazy" to pronounce everything, eg. Instead of saying "mayroon" (do have) -we say "meron" which means the same thing... 😂
As a native American English speaker who has lived abroad for a couple of years, I find these videos interesting. I wish they existed when I was living in the French speaking area of Switzerland. That said, as someone whose occupation requires both regular public speaking and formal business conversation, I disagree with the way that the video characterizes "tuh" and "gonna" as formal spoken English. For instance, many of the examples of public speaking included in the video were of American politicians making speeches intended for the general public, and they were trying to appear "folksy." Barack Obama is one of the greatest political orators of the last 50 years, if not longer. His speeches don't all sound like the clip here. His choice of pronunciation was very deliberate on his part. It's important to understand that the distinctions being made are highly dependent upon factors such as the audience, the content and the region in which you're speaking. For instance, I absolutely say "I'm gonna run and grab a sandwich - dja wanna come wi me?" But 10 minutes earlier, I might have told a client that "I'm going to ["too"] revise your document before I leave to ["too"] get [with a pronounced "t" at the end] lunch." I'm not the teacher here, but I'd personally recommend that people start by learning how to speak formally, and moving more relaxed once they know better how to read a room as to the appropriate level of formality.
Rechel, I love the way you make your videos, I love the style you convey information. I love the topics, I love design and stuff. I love your voice tone and charisma. I love you
Dialect in each language is natural…no one speaks the language correctly in my opinion. The English language is more difficult to master as it is not a phonetic language. And even in phonetic languages there are dialects. There is no wrong or right in the English language, especially nowadays. I get your point, but it will impossible to have everyone speaking identically. Even the Ancient Greek that has rules and is a purely phonetic alphabet, had dialects from region to region…
You're the best american accent teacher ever!! I'm really trying to get an american accent and your videos help a lot. The academy must be so amazing, really wanted to enter but we don't even have international credit cards in Cuba 🙄. Hope I can enter one day. Thanks for helping so much with your lessons ❤
This definitely depends on dialect and accent. The reduction definitely isn't wrong, but in my dialect and accent (Scottish English) I typically don't schwa my tos. It's a slightly shorter [u] but it still has the rounding and positioning it would normally have. My twos are pronounced normally, and my toos are typically a little longer with more emphasised rounding.
@@LunaLasceria She also keeps saying "native English speaker" or "native speaker" without any reference to dialect. This could be seen as an implication for it being the case across all dialects of English with this video just focusing on American examples.
Most Americans pronounce like you say and anyway American English is really Irish English so as Canadian English is some sort of Scottish English. To when reduced is with an oo as in good or a u as in put. Two reduces staying long but the u is the same as in bush, would… t’wo is t’would without the d.
In the playground example - the reduced 'teh' puts emphasis on the playground as the location of travel. Pronouncing it 'too' puts emphasis on the action 'going'. For example, we are going 'too' the playground for the grand opening, not watching from a distance
Thank you Ms. Rachel. I already know English since I was little considering that I grew up here in the Philippines. Although, with your FREE lessons, I was able to fix my accent and learn how to say words sounding more like Native American. Thank you so much. I love you. I wish you more blessings and a good health. ☺
🤣 I’m a TEFL instructor so I found this very helpful but I gotta admit that I always use wanna, gonna, and gotta in everything but formal writing. Thx!
Rachel, I’ve been watching your videos for about 10 years and I always learn a new thing with every video, you’re an amazing teacher! By the way, I wanted to ask you if there is a difference between these three phrases in spoken English - I wanted - I want it - I won it I hope you can help me, because I find these three very tricky and I’m not sure if I should pronounce the differently
Hi! Whenever I need to figure out the difference between words like this I use Dictionary.com - then, if I have questions about pronunciation - I use YouGlish.com to hear native speakers pronounce the words in different situations!
@Claudio Cast, "I wanted" is, in my standard American accent, pronounced [ai-wah-nud]. "I want it" is [ai-wah-ni'] with a glottal stop replacing the final "t" sound. "I won it" is [ai-wuh-ni'] or [ai-wuh-nit]
@@randybugger3006 Thanks for answering my question! So basically “I want it” and “I won it” sound the same, and “I wanted” sounds different because of the voiced final D, right?
@@oidualclaudi0 the difference between "won it" and "want it" comes down to the vowel in "won" being pronounced as [uh] and in "want" being pronounced [ah]. To a native speaker these two sounds are very distinct from one another but my suspicion is that non-native speakers have a harder time distinguishing between them. I experience a similar failure of differentiation between [k], [kh] and [q] when I'm listening to speakers of Arabic.
Fascinating! . . . However, there is a very simple solution: pronounce the Ts! And, lo and behold, the problem goes away. So, Claudio, come to England, and you'll hear that your 3 examples sound TOTALLY different! Best of luck. : )
@@rachelsenglishMy pleasure! You make English language so simple yet so beautiful making the viewers feel like" what the heck,why couldn't I figure it out myself" You have the gift of teaching the mindless morons and real smart learners with equal ease. You really are special and unique. Hats off to you Rachel!! So long... See you on the other side..
This series is so useful!! I figured that the same thing comse to "What are you doing?" in spoken English; it always sounds like "What DO you doing?" to me.
8:17 With the two Ts next to each other I think the first /t/ does still get realized, as a glottal stop. If you actually do just run them together it sounds strange.
Hi, Rachel, awesome video every week you bring a new challenging video about pronunciation, and reduction, and all the people getting reap the benefits of watching your videos thanks.
Outstanding!!!!!This video really distinguishes you from other You Tube teachers as a very knowledgeable and superb teacher. I love this video very much. It is so helpful and valuable. Hope you keep teaching us for a long time. It will make me confident You Tube has pretty high quality, trustable, reliable, and authorities teachers like you. You are actually better than that. Thank you so much !!!!!!!!!!!
Rachel, I remember your mother from one of your videos (on how to pronounce 'what') from ages ago, but I'd never seen your father! It was good to see them here! Btw, thank you so much for today's lesson! ❤
It's true. In isolation, we pronounce them all the same. But in actual use, it's more like "tuh" or even " t' " - just the "T" sound. I personally don't use the "D" variation; always a hard "T", irrespective of the preceding word. With phrases like "want to go there" or "need to go there", I sometimes pronounce the "D" and "T" separately, or both "Ts" with a subtle separation, but most often, "want to go" becomes "wann' t' go", with the "N" in "want" having a harder, slightly prolonged sound, and "need to go" becomes "needh t' go", with the "D" in "need" voiced, but very softly. With a phrase like "let's get down to it", or "own up to it", or "what are you up to (today/right now/later)?" I do pronounce "to" as I would if saying it in isolation - "tu". Or if I'm speaking emphatically, the "to" is "tu". Someone mentioned elsewhere, how "should have/could have/would have" often become "should of/could of", etc. ... not something I personally do; I will use the contracted form occasionally ("should've"), but almost always voice it with a pronounced distinction, "should have", and never "should of". I'm a native speaker, but have been occasionally told by other native speakers that I pronounce things "too properly". I'm also very frequently told that I have an accent they can't place. It's kind of funny.
That is interesting! I have heard this from native speakers and never paid close attention. I often pause when using the word "to". I am not explaining that correctly, but I trip over the word occasionally. I am not explaining it correctly, I think.
I never noticed Americans did this but now I can hear it everywhere and its really interesting. I'm not American but I'm still a native English speaker and here we do pronounce the whole 'to' but it has more of a 'tu' sound and 'too' is always noticeably longer.
I LOVE this! Way t'go (see what I did there?😀)! I spend ages with my students reassuring them that speaking like this is not lazy English, it's just English regardless of where it's spoken; and also explaining to them that not speaking like this sounds-as you said-robotic. The same can also be said when students don't use contractions in spoken English, incidentally. It makes the speech sound choppy, and English wants to floooow! The same reductions apply to 'and', 'for', 'at', 'of'... 'have' also, when preceded by modals. All basically "Schwaed". Many still don't believe me when I tell them that Schwa is a thing. True story. You might want to emphasise (yes, with an 's': UK English here 😀) to learners that the prep reduction mostly works when run into another word and not so much with the dangling preposition... Okay, this isn't completely true, I know; but I find that the students have a hard time reducing the prep correctly when it's at the end. In that position, they tend to exaggerate the reduced sound and consequently, the whole sentence becomes off. In my experience, anyhow. I just tell them to stick to the reduction only when linking. Brilliant video. Def taking this one to class! So helpful. Thank you!👏👏👏
I think the most notorious of our English reductions is pronouncing "have" as "of", resulting in so many people incorrectly writing "could of" or "should of" when they mean "could've" or "should've".
Very true, I notice this error all the time. It happens of course because "could've" and "should've" are contractions and so the full word "have" is reduced.
@@margaritakleinman5701 Isn't it more that you're just hearing "of" then? The same reduction rule in 'to' applies to 'of' doesn't it? United State of America, tends to sound like 'v America.
@@ARUCARDFTEPES Yes, right. Because the "f" in "of" is always pronounced like a "v", not an "f".
@@ARUCARDFTEPES So when people say "should've" or "could've", it will sound like "should of" or "could of". But of course it wouldn't be correct to write it that way.
The " 've" sounds so "light" that the "v" really seems like an "f" imo
Ok I'm a native English speaker and I guess I never realized how I pronounced my tos until watching this video. I still say its pronounced like too and two though, it just depends on how fast you're speaking which is why saying it by itself sounds the same as the others
Thanks for sharing Willow!
As a native speaker, this video is hilarious and super informative. You don't really notice the nuances of spoken English until someone points it out directly, and it's done really well here. I will share this video with my fiance who is a non-native speaker. She's 100 percent fluent, but wishes to sound more native in American English. I'm sure she will love this channel!
I remember listeting to native speakers pronouncing To and think that it definitely wasn't a "TU" sound, but when I asked my teachers, they said it is pronounced TU. That was confusing. Thanks Rachel to show me I wasn't crazy! 😅🤪
I am glad to hear that you found it informative!
As a native English speaker, I pronounce two as teuw, to assume tuh, and too as teu. But I have a very strange idiolect
@@Taz.K That's helpful, thanks for sharing!
@@Taz.K Where did you come from. Irish?
I was a straight A English student living in Germany and worked in the USA quite some time. So my English is above average. Your videos still show me how much there is to explore, learn and understand. Also you do this in such an excellent and interesting way that I caught myself putting down urgent work whenever your videos push. Thank you so much for the excellent work
You're welcome and thanks for sharing!
We did not asked about your sexual preference!
@@douggta6 Just in case you were not kidding, a "Straight A Student" refers to a student who always gets "A" grades on a specific subject class, in this case an English class, it doesn't have anything to do with him being straight or gay. And being gay or straight refers to an orientation not a preference.
@@lordnikon6809 me trolololo!
@@lordnikon6809 Thanks for giving the explanation, I was about to do the same. Words can have more than one meaning!
Oh, Rachel, you are amazing. Such a talent. We are blessed to have you teach us.
Thanks for this great feedback!
This is the only place I hear this information. I am so grateful for bringing relief to my mind. As I feel that there's something different, but I cannot specify it as I was taught the rule only. No one ever explained that this was not the rule in spoken English. Thank you!
Hi Gale! It's always great to hear positive things and thanks for watching.
I discovered gorgeous Rachel on video series called 100 most common words in American English , believe it or not those videos saved my English pronunciation ✌ i can't stop thanking you teacher ❣
Glad to hear that! Keep it up!
I have to confess that I was using TO for all of the DUH pronunciation
After this video my tongue feels more freely less stress out !
Thank you so much for helping us out , you nailed it !✨✨
You're welcome Edd!
@@rachelsenglish "have to", phonounce /ˈhæv də/,right?
I love your teaching method that focuses on subtle differences of your native language. I love English, and I love the way you make videos with animations. It's easy to understand and digest. Most people think the details are minor, but I'm on your side. I believe many correct little things create beautiful English, not just decent one.
Thanks for sharing Hieu!
I thought of two exceptions. When “to” is before a vowel (some of your examples did this, so I expected you to touch on it) and when “to” ends a sentence and represents half of an infinitive, but the verb isn’t spoken because it’s implied:
“Are you gonna bring extra flashlight batteries on the camping trip?”
“I don’t think I need *to.* It’s only one weekend.”
That “to” would be /tu/, no schwa
Thanks for sharing Patrick!
In my accent, I would still use a schwa.
"I don't think I need tuh"
Good observation. I would definitely use the 'to' that sounds the same as 'two' and 'too' in these contexts. (I am Australian)
I wish I could find someone teaching reductions in other languages like you are doing here for English. Not knowing impairs understanding. Thank you for these enlightening videos.
I agree. I’m trying to improve my French and to catch on to those reductions.
My pleasure Anna!
That's amazing. I once asked an american friend: "How do you pronounce the words *I* and *my* ? He pronounced both words with a full and clear [aɪ] sound.
And then I pointed out that in spoken english these two words are often reduced and americans pronounce them like
My [mə], I [ə]
I'm gonna sell [mə] house
[ə] don't know.
Thanks for sharing Bruno!
i think that's a Southern accent
@@T1nxc0 That's what I thought. I definitely don't say that.
@@nateschuette3218 Agreed, same here.
Even as someone from the south, I don’t really shorten I, and it definitely is not shortened to a schwa. However, I do feel the “i” in “I” (sorry, no phonetic keyboard) can almost become “yeu” making the full sound “ayeu”
As a native speaker of American English, I do most frequently use reductions of to when speaking. However, I think there are times (not very frequent) that we do pronounce to as tu. It occurs most frequently when we are enunciating for clarity of comprehension. I work with a lot of non-native speakers of English, and therefore probably enunciate more frequently as a result.
I find it interesting that we use reductions without realizing it. It’s similar to how often we use contractions (like the first word of this sentence).
Thanks Rachel for helping people learn English how we actually speak it.
You're welcome and thanks for sharing Jim!
Yeah like at 9:38 the lady says the second “to” as tu.
This is exactly the kind of American English content I need. Thank you for your help, Rachel! 😊
You're so welcome!
Already 4.3 subscribers... You've come along way Rachel. Most useful English learning Channel on TH-cam. Learnt a lot from you, Rach. When God wrote that I would be fluent in English, I owe you my "American" accent.
Thanks for your support!
As a Brazilian, I like my favorite English teacher on this level! Of course I had several internet important English teachers, one in each earlier levels! I think this level is toward the fluency!
Hi Rachel. Don't worry if some say you're teaching "lazy" 5:53 English. The reason why they think that way is because they do not live in an English speaking country and have not been exposed to real spoken English. More often than not, they watch BBC or CNN to learn English in their countries. These channels tend to use more formal English. Before coming to Canada, I myself didn't know that native speakers of English reduce some words and link them. The reason for all this mess is that English textbooks do not teach reductions and linking at all, so students don't know about them. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for sharing Saeid!
One thing I love about Rachel English is that Rachel teaches REAL English.😘😘
Thanks Vei!
As a pretty fresh ESL teacher, I love watching these videos. It was interesting trying to thinking during this one when I ever would pronounce “to” as “too, two” during speech, and the only times I do it are when I am drawing the word “to” out to think or if my sentence is ending with “to”. I loved watching this, and I hope this will help me when I’m teaching in Vietnam this upcoming semester :)
Now, the "to" does still have the tu sometimes, such as if you deliberately speak slowly, or if you end a sentance with it.
I agree. Here's an example:
Person A: Why didn't you mow the lawn?
Person B: [annoyed] I was _going_ to!
I think "to" is also pronounced "tu" if it is followed by another vowel sound:
"Shall I compare thee _to_ a summer's day?" You say "tu" because "tuh" is too similar to a's "uh".
@@KingsleyIII i wonder a little... because most vowel sounds will tend to shift towards an "uh" sound in normal speach, but when one vowel sound is immediately followed by another vowel sound, does that always translate to the first vowel sound being more clearly annunciated?
I was thinking about this topic so long ago about why there's no video on this topic
But After all, we've our best English teacher who knows what is in our students' mind
Thank you ma'am for this amazing topic
Thank you very much
My pleasure Ayush!
Thanks a million to contribute not only my listening but also my speaking in english. You're a true inspiration for me and I appreciate all the things you have teached me so far. Greetings from my country, Turkey. Love your content. Keep going :) ❣
Thank you very much Sude! I appreciate it!
So I might've missed it in the video, or maybe the American accent does this differently, but I don't believe this reduction applies if the word after "to" starts with a vowel. You can actually hear this at 11:02 in "Let's get to it."
But a fun and informative video overall. I do like exploring these little weirdnesses that we commit without even realising.
I also caught that at 9:40 "it's gonna be much easier for people to engage with."
Wow, good catch! Interestingly, we would connect the "to" with the next vowel with a "w". So, "to it" is pronounced "to(w)it". Other examples are "to(w)engage" and "to(w)add". So instead of a reduction, we run into a different weird English rule, haha.
@@nyanSynxPHOENIX This is true. Interestingly, though, we still do the usual reduction if the following word starts with a "w". Try, for example, "I want to attempt to walk to work." When I say this, the first "to" is not reduced - though it connects to "attempt" with a "w" sound - and the second two are reduced.
If I deliberately reduce the first "to", it makes it sound like I am saying "wattempt".
@@hughcaldwell1034 Wow, I think you're right. Things like "to yell" and "to yield".
It’s always interesting to listen to your videos, even though I’m a native English speaker. This lesson reminds me of practicing liaison in French. We never really think about the fact that we also do something similar in English. When you learn by listening. As you grow up, it’s done naturally without any thought.
Glad you liked it Loralee!
thank you so much Rachel, im from Vietnam, i have a friend in the USA and she will go to Vietnam to travel, Your videos will help me to communicate with her better. Wish you all the best, thanks
You're very welcome John!
Has a native speaker I totally thought 'to' was dropped in a lot of sentences like "needa go now". or I thought it sounded more like "tuh or ta". so this is super interesting. Watching your videos make me feel sane because I would talk to other native english speakers and they did not believe me when I said they would pronounce things not like they were.
Thanks for watching!
I think a lot of native speakers may think they're pronouncing some words as they're written, but are not. I remember awhile back, someone telling me that nobody ever really pronounces the word "for" as "for", that they don't really pronounce the "o". I began to pay attention and I realized it was true, no one actually says "for"! It sounds more like "fur".
As a Russian mother tongue I would say that we have similar processes in the Russian language: assimilation and reduction but native speakers never heard about them. I was thrilled when I learned that we have a shwa sound in almost every word because of heavy reduction of unstressed vowels. It was funny to figure out that there are three different vowels in the word moloko (milk) (shwa, u -sound like in the English word cut , and o) while native speakers consider them to be a and o : malako.
Thanks for sharing Кислые!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, dear Rachel!
Cheers from Buenos Aires, Argentina
Hello there and thanks for watching Claudio!
@@rachelsenglish You welcome! :)
thank God that you exist, you just save me from problems, I had problems how to understand native English speakers, because the written words and pronunciation of a word in English are very different, it is difficult to understand when speaking native speakers, and your lessons give us a positive, thank you for your diligence
You're very welcome Jan!
In, "which movie are you going to?" the "to" is pronounced the same as two and too. In, "we're going to the movie" it's pronounced [tuh]. So it's pronunciation depends on where the word is found in a sentence and the emphasis desired.
its* 🤓
Great topic! I think that it is the little words like this which really demonstrate how "native" a speaker of English is.
Yes, you're right. This is great video.
I was tought "to" is short, "too" or "two" is long. Such simple explanation is good enough for me. My language has a special sign for prolonging the sound of the vowel, therefore everybody here understands what is a short vowel and long vowel without need to make 10 minutes video.
True! Just taught these as homonyms. 🤔 That's why some words feel awkward when we try to say them without reductions.
One of the best English teachers in the world
You made look easy ❤
I totally agree.
Happy to hear that!
I love this type of videos Rachel! It shows how good you are, explaining us this details that really make a difference pronunciation-wise! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thank you so much Filipe!
@@rachelsenglish You are welcome Rachel! 😃🥰
The same is true for the littel word "of", I noticed. I'm a German native speaker trying to figure out the pitfalls of American English.
Your videos seem to be targeted towards a more experienced audience, which I like.
Subscribed!
Note on gonna/gotta: they're grammar sensitive. "To" can be a helping verb *or* a preposition. Because "going" and "got" are verbs that can be used with either "to" (I can't think of a situation where "want" would be followed by a preposition), the reduction only happens with the helping verb.
For example, "I'm going to do it" (where "to" is a helping verb) can be reduced to "I'm gonna do it". But "I'm going to the house" (where "to" is a preposition) would not be reduced to "I'm gonna the house".
Or "I got to do it" can be "I gotta do it". "I got to the house" could be "I got ta the house", but wouldn't be "I gotta the house".
That's an intriguing observation. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks Rachel - all really interesting. Worth adding that most of this also holds true in British English, except that we are less keen on 'gonna' and 'wanna', etc..
Also, we almost always reduce 'to' to 'te' (rather than 'de' or 'duh'), and - interestingly - we Brits do give it its full "too" pronunciation before any word beginning with a vowel. e.g. I'm going "too" Africa, then I'm going too-w-America, then I'm going "te" China. 🙂
Depends largely on which British accent. I have a very rp accent, and definately say to the same as too every time.
British speaker here too, but with a weird foray into American as a child and back to British, lol. I found this so interesting, but I did find that in the practice sentences, I pronounced a much shortened " Tu" instead of te or de, except for one (of course, because what is English except a mass of exceptions?) I think, as a native English non American speaker, it is really interesting to hear the American accent taught.
Your are the best instructor ever Rachel
I am from lebanon 🇱🇧 i am following you . My pronunciation improved 80% ,thanks
That's great to hear Maysaa! Keep it up!
Thanks a lot for your video. I’m a student in Rachel academy and I’m really inspired to learn speaking English. Thank you for your help!
You're very welcome!
Thank you so much for this video! I've been waiting for years for something like that. It's a pet peeve of mine, since we Brazilians tend to use "chew" for all of those words, and it was a surprise for me when I first realized native speakers are not aware of all the different forms the word "to" can be pronounced.
You're welcome Guilherme!
Even though i am not a native speaker, I realized i am already doing this reduction. It's just much easier to speak this way:)
You are the best! Greetings from Brazil!
Hello there and thanks for watching!
My greetings and big respect to Brazil! 🇧🇷 I really dream about visiting your beatiful country someday. Yet, I make fun English lessons, podcasts and live vlogs 😊 Have a great day! 🙌
Been living here for over 10 years and still struggle with pronunciation at times. Your videos are amazing to improve AmEn pronunciation and loosen up a bit foreign accents
Thanks Rob!
I love the differences in pronunciation in each person. As far as I know, these are examples of homophones.
Great vid! I also think there tends to be a slight but noticeable difference between 'two' and 'too', not in pronunciation per se, but where 'too' is often held out for about a half beat longer. You can hear this lengthening with John at 1:05.
Having practiced a couple of languages where vowel length is important (Ancient Greek and Japanese), I've become used to tuning in for that distinction.
Very interesting! Thanks so much for sharing this insight! :)
I thought the same, and then heard John's example, also.
I totally agree to these...during my college days I could speak a good written english but not that fluent in speaking the language...I live in the Philippines but I speak about 75% english than my native tongue (english is our 2nd language)...I also attended an american accent short course to further my knowledge and I found out this reduction is true to any language (correct me if I'm wrong). We as Filipinos also use words in a short form- "too lazy" to pronounce everything, eg. Instead of saying "mayroon" (do have) -we say "meron" which means the same thing... 😂
Gotta (😁) say, I'm a native American English speaker and my mind is blown. I had no idea that we did that!
As a native American English speaker who has lived abroad for a couple of years, I find these videos interesting. I wish they existed when I was living in the French speaking area of Switzerland.
That said, as someone whose occupation requires both regular public speaking and formal business conversation, I disagree with the way that the video characterizes "tuh" and "gonna" as formal spoken English.
For instance, many of the examples of public speaking included in the video were of American politicians making speeches intended for the general public, and they were trying to appear "folksy." Barack Obama is one of the greatest political orators of the last 50 years, if not longer. His speeches don't all sound like the clip here. His choice of pronunciation was very deliberate on his part.
It's important to understand that the distinctions being made are highly dependent upon factors such as the audience, the content and the region in which you're speaking. For instance, I absolutely say "I'm gonna run and grab a sandwich - dja wanna come wi me?" But 10 minutes earlier, I might have told a client that "I'm going to ["too"] revise your document before I leave to ["too"] get [with a pronounced "t" at the end] lunch."
I'm not the teacher here, but I'd personally recommend that people start by learning how to speak formally, and moving more relaxed once they know better how to read a room as to the appropriate level of formality.
As a Chinese learner,I have learned a lot in ur video,thank you Rachel😊
Happy to hear that!
Rechel, I love the way you make your videos, I love the style you convey information. I love the topics, I love design and stuff. I love your voice tone and charisma. I love you
Thanks a lot Coraline!
You were talking about (gonna, wanna, and gotta ) and you immediately and naturally utter (gonna ) 9:11
Brilliant ❤️👍
Uttered
Dialect in each language is natural…no one speaks the language correctly in my opinion. The English language is more difficult to master as it is not a phonetic language. And even in phonetic languages there are dialects. There is no wrong or right in the English language, especially nowadays. I get your point, but it will impossible to have everyone speaking identically. Even the Ancient Greek that has rules and is a purely phonetic alphabet, had dialects from region to region…
You're the best american accent teacher ever!! I'm really trying to get an american accent and your videos help a lot. The academy must be so amazing, really wanted to enter but we don't even have international credit cards in Cuba 🙄. Hope I can enter one day. Thanks for helping so much with your lessons ❤
You're very welcome! We also accept Paypal if you have one! :)
This definitely depends on dialect and accent. The reduction definitely isn't wrong, but in my dialect and accent (Scottish English) I typically don't schwa my tos. It's a slightly shorter [u] but it still has the rounding and positioning it would normally have. My twos are pronounced normally, and my toos are typically a little longer with more emphasised rounding.
That's why she specified "American English" at least a dozen times throughout the video.
@@LunaLasceria She also keeps saying "native English speaker" or "native speaker" without any reference to dialect. This could be seen as an implication for it being the case across all dialects of English with this video just focusing on American examples.
@@RenCarl1sle Like he said, she already specified American English. When she says native speaker, she means American speaker.
@@RenCarl1sle and, there WERE times she said "native american english speaker"
Most Americans pronounce like you say and anyway American English is really Irish English so as Canadian English is some sort of Scottish English. To when reduced is with an oo as in good or a u as in put. Two reduces staying long but the u is the same as in bush, would… t’wo is t’would without the d.
Thank you very much. your explaining English very perfect I so respect you.
I'm glad you like Rahmatjon!
In the playground example - the reduced 'teh' puts emphasis on the playground as the location of travel. Pronouncing it 'too' puts emphasis on the action 'going'. For example, we are going 'too' the playground for the grand opening, not watching from a distance
Thanks soooooooo much ❤️ 😘 😊 Rachel for teaching the spoken English!
Many thanks for the video.
I hadn't understood before why I heard "the" before the verbs.
My pleasure Sergey!
Thank you Ms. Rachel. I already know English since I was little considering that I grew up here in the Philippines. Although, with your FREE lessons, I was able to fix my accent and learn how to say words sounding more like Native American. Thank you so much. I love you. I wish you more blessings and a good health. ☺
I appreciate it Louie! Thanks for watching! :)
I tell people I know, your videos. I told them that you're the Best English Teacher in TH-cam. ☺
🤣 I’m a TEFL instructor so I found this very helpful but I gotta admit that I always use wanna, gonna, and gotta in everything but formal writing. Thx!
Rachel, I’ve been watching your videos for about 10 years and I always learn a new thing with every video, you’re an amazing teacher!
By the way, I wanted to ask you if there is a difference between these three phrases in spoken English
- I wanted
- I want it
- I won it
I hope you can help me, because I find these three very tricky and I’m not sure if I should pronounce the differently
Hi! Whenever I need to figure out the difference between words like this I use Dictionary.com - then, if I have questions about pronunciation - I use YouGlish.com to hear native speakers pronounce the words in different situations!
@Claudio Cast, "I wanted" is, in my standard American accent, pronounced [ai-wah-nud]. "I want it" is [ai-wah-ni'] with a glottal stop replacing the final "t" sound. "I won it" is [ai-wuh-ni'] or [ai-wuh-nit]
@@randybugger3006 Thanks for answering my question!
So basically “I want it” and “I won it” sound the same, and “I wanted” sounds different because of the voiced final D, right?
@@oidualclaudi0 the difference between "won it" and "want it" comes down to the vowel in "won" being pronounced as [uh] and in "want" being pronounced [ah]. To a native speaker these two sounds are very distinct from one another but my suspicion is that non-native speakers have a harder time distinguishing between them. I experience a similar failure of differentiation between [k], [kh] and [q] when I'm listening to speakers of Arabic.
Fascinating! . . .
However, there is a very simple solution: pronounce the Ts! And, lo and behold, the problem goes away.
So, Claudio, come to England, and you'll hear that your 3 examples sound TOTALLY different! Best of luck. : )
These three words are a pet peeve for me, as well as then and than. Thanks for the lesson.
You're very welcome!
This is real cool stuff,so simple yet you don't actually know it when you use. Great 👍👍 More stuff like this please Rachel
Thanks for watching Thomas!
@@rachelsenglishMy pleasure! You make English language so simple yet so beautiful making the viewers feel like" what the heck,why couldn't I figure it out myself" You have the gift of teaching the mindless morons and real smart learners with equal ease. You really are special and unique. Hats off to you Rachel!! So long... See you on the other side..
I've never noticed before this differences thank you so much, your lessons are cream of the crop 😁🔥🔥🔥
My pleasure Zhanerke!
Thank you so much for all what you do for us 🌷
You're welcome Achraf!
Thanks so much for producing: Rachel's English! ❤
You're very welcome Denise!
This series is so useful!! I figured that the same thing comse to "What are you doing?" in spoken English; it always sounds like "What DO you doing?" to me.
Thanks for sharing Luna!
Your videos helped me to improve my pronounciation a lot. L♥️ve from Sri Lanka 🇱🇰
Happy to hear that Kosala! Thanks for watching there!
8:17 With the two Ts next to each other I think the first /t/ does still get realized, as a glottal stop. If you actually do just run them together it sounds strange.
Hi, Rachel, awesome video every week you bring a new challenging video about pronunciation, and reduction, and all the people getting reap the benefits of watching your videos thanks.
You're so welcome Ghanshyam!
Thank you so much for your incredible teaching. I truly appreciate!
You're very welcome @MehrnooshNikdel!
I've heard people do it both ways. It really depends on the individual, and how formal, or casual they are.
Outstanding!!!!!This video really distinguishes you from other You Tube teachers as a very knowledgeable and superb teacher. I love this video very much. It is so helpful and valuable. Hope you keep teaching us for a long time. It will make me confident You Tube has pretty high quality, trustable, reliable, and authorities teachers like you. You are actually better than that. Thank you so much !!!!!!!!!!!
You're very welcome and thanks for sharing @mikemoon298!
it also will help to comprehend the natural pace of speaking for me
I'm a native speaker but this is so interesting. I have never noticed this before
Thanks for watching Noam!
Great video!!! My favorite reduction is next followed by stop as in “I’m getting off the bus at the next stop.”
Thanks for watching Skip!
Rachel, I remember your mother from one of your videos (on how to pronounce 'what') from ages ago, but I'd never seen your father! It was good to see them here!
Btw, thank you so much for today's lesson! ❤
You're welcome and thanks for sharing!
Thank you , madam !❤ it is very useful this lesson .
Glad to hear that Ana!
Thank you for teaching, Rachel.
You're so welcome @PTLbH!
Awesome, thanks teacher your lesson are very helpful
You're very welcome William!
Fai lezioni interessantissime e fatte davvero benissimo...
I always thought that way! Thank you for making it official
You're welcome Daniel!
It's true. In isolation, we pronounce them all the same. But in actual use, it's more like "tuh" or even " t' " - just the "T" sound. I personally don't use the "D" variation; always a hard "T", irrespective of the preceding word. With phrases like "want to go there" or "need to go there", I sometimes pronounce the "D" and "T" separately, or both "Ts" with a subtle separation, but most often, "want to go" becomes "wann' t' go", with the "N" in "want" having a harder, slightly prolonged sound, and "need to go" becomes "needh t' go", with the "D" in "need" voiced, but very softly. With a phrase like "let's get down to it", or "own up to it", or "what are you up to (today/right now/later)?" I do pronounce "to" as I would if saying it in isolation - "tu". Or if I'm speaking emphatically, the "to" is "tu". Someone mentioned elsewhere, how "should have/could have/would have" often become "should of/could of", etc. ... not something I personally do; I will use the contracted form occasionally ("should've"), but almost always voice it with a pronounced distinction, "should have", and never "should of". I'm a native speaker, but have been occasionally told by other native speakers that I pronounce things "too properly". I'm also very frequently told that I have an accent they can't place. It's kind of funny.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for teaching me this. I hadn't idea. I need more videos like this
You're very welcome Omar!
Love you! Thank you for teaching with both enthusiasm and seriosity!
See you later! 😘😘😘
My pleasure Claudia!
Thank you Rachel 😍
You're welcome Mariam!
That is interesting! I have heard this from native speakers and never paid close attention. I often pause when using the word "to". I am not explaining that correctly, but I trip over the word occasionally. I am not explaining it correctly, I think.
Thanks for watching!
Thanks
You're welcome!
You look definitely like your mom god bless her....thanks rechal for your effort......love
Thanks for watching Abdel!
As always, great video. Thanks, Rachel.
Glad you liked Paulo!
Great video. I thought I knew all about the "to" reductions.
Thanks for watching Sergio!
Wow. Rachel God blessed you with a good 👂 thank you for sharing..
You're welcome Erika!
Great Channel !!! I will to (tuh) practice every day with Teacher Rachel !!!!! Greeting from south america !!!
Hello there and thanks for watching Christian!
I never noticed Americans did this but now I can hear it everywhere and its really interesting. I'm not American but I'm still a native English speaker and here we do pronounce the whole 'to' but it has more of a 'tu' sound and 'too' is always noticeably longer.
Amazing lesson!👏🏻
Thanks Lu!
I LOVE this! Way t'go (see what I did there?😀)! I spend ages with my students reassuring them that speaking like this is not lazy English, it's just English regardless of where it's spoken; and also explaining to them that not speaking like this sounds-as you said-robotic. The same can also be said when students don't use contractions in spoken English, incidentally. It makes the speech sound choppy, and English wants to floooow! The same reductions apply to 'and', 'for', 'at', 'of'... 'have' also, when preceded by modals. All basically "Schwaed". Many still don't believe me when I tell them that Schwa is a thing. True story.
You might want to emphasise (yes, with an 's': UK English here 😀) to learners that the prep reduction mostly works when run into another word and not so much with the dangling preposition... Okay, this isn't completely true, I know; but I find that the students have a hard time reducing the prep correctly when it's at the end. In that position, they tend to exaggerate the reduced sound and consequently, the whole sentence becomes off. In my experience, anyhow. I just tell them to stick to the reduction only when linking.
Brilliant video. Def taking this one to class! So helpful.
Thank you!👏👏👏
You're very welcome and thanks for sharing @lisaedmondson780!
Love all your videos from sri lanka
Thanks for watching there Lahiru!
I was like, "but they're the same!" and then I thought about it, and it's a super fast "tuh"... Haha! So funny!