Huh? Shouldna...?

Me too. I'm so tired. I feel like I'm gunna fall asleep.

Gonna? What?

(chatting)

It takes time and practice to be able to understand and speak English like a native speaker.

But there are some simple techniques that you can use to make your pronunciation sound more natural!

Let me teach you three tricks that you can start using today to sound more like a native speaker!

Contractions

The first trick is to use contractions.

Let's look at a few of the most common ones that English speakers use.

The first three examples are: shoulda, woulda, and coulda.

The original forms of these phrases are: should have, would have, and could have.

We can shorten these to: should've, would've and could've.

But to make them even easier to say, we often make the "have" or "ve" sound into an "uh" sound.

So we say: shoulda, woulda, and coulda.

So, instead of saying: I should have...

You can say: I shoulda...

I shoulda...

Um, excuse me?

Where's my drink?

What? Sorry, I shoulda bought you one.

Instead of saying: I would have...

You can say: I woulda...

I woulda...

What? I woulda bought one if you had asked.

Instead of saying: I could have…

You can say:I coulda...

I coulda...

What? OK. I coulda bought you one anyway!

"Shoulda, woulda, coulda" is also a phrase in English.

We use it to say that there's no need to dwell on what you shoulda, would, or coulda done.

Or to say that someone is making excuses.

What?

Shoulda, woulda, coulda!

You can also shorten the negatives of these phrases.

So "should not have" becomes "shouldna."

"Would not have" becomes "wouldna."

And "could not have" becomes "couldna."

Shouldna, wouldna, couldna.

Three more common examples are: gonna, wanna, and gotta.

The original words are: going to, want to, and got to,

but when we squish these words together,

"going to" becomes "gonna,"

"want to" becomes "wanna,"

and "got to" becomes "gotta."

Gonna, wanna, gotta.

So, if you wanna sound more natural,

instead of saying: I want to...

You can say: I wanna...

I wanna...

Hey, we should go see a movie later.

Uhh... But I wanna get dinner with my mom tonight...

Oh, umm... Your mom.

Yeah.

Instead of saying: I'm going to…

You can say: I'm gonna...

I'm gonna...

Sam! You're employee of the month!

What? Really? I'm gonna call my mom and tell her!

Yeah, ma, I got it again!

Yeah, employee of the month!

Ten months in a row.

I know!

Instead of saying: I've got to…

You can say: I've gotta…

I've gotta...

And we also often leave out the "ve" sound, so we say, "I gotta."

I gotta...

Hey Sam, can I borrow your pen?

Oh... I gotta ask my mom...

Come on!

I'm telling my mom!

Connected Sounds

The second trick is to connect sounds.

We connect sounds between different words to make them easier to say.

We often do this when one word ends in a consonant sound,

and the next word begins with that same sound, or a very similar sound.

Rather than saying these sounds twice, we blend them together.

For example, rather than saying "black coffee,"

and pronouncing the "k" sound twice,

we would say "blackoffee," with one "k" sound.

"Blackoffee." "Blackoffee."

Similar sounds, like "t" and "d," are also often connected.

So instead of saying "iced tea," with both the "d" sound and the "t" sound,

we would say "icetea." "Icetea."

Want anything to drink?

Yeah, I'd like some iced tea.

Sure.

Actually, I'll have black coffee.

We also often connect sounds when one word ends in a consonant and the next begins with a vowel.

For example, instead of saying "not at all,"

we say "notatall."

We don't pronounce every syllable, we blend the sounds together.

"Notatall." "Notatall."

Sorry about that.

Not at all.

Omitted Syllables

The third trick is to omit certain syllables within words.

We often leave out the "uh" sound when it's unstressed in a word with more than one syllable.

For example, instead of saying "Choc uh late,"

we say "choc late."

So, the "o" in the middle, which makes the "uh" sound, is omitted.

"Choc late." "Choc late."

And, instead of saying "cam uh ra,"

we say “cam ra.”

So, the "e" in the middle, which also makes the "uh" sound, is omitted.

"Cam ra." "Cam ra."

And, instead of saying "lab uh r uh tory,"

we say "lab r tory."

So both "uh" sounds are omitted.

"Lab r tory." "Lab r tory."

This chocolate cake looks so good.

Stop! Don't eat it yet! I need to find my camera.

Sorry. I'll just watch some Dexter's Laboratory.

Thanks for watching!

Please leave a comment below letting us know what else you'd like to learn.

And don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!

I'll see you next time, VoiceTubers!