Transforming Verbs in Everyday Speech

English Pronunciation Lesson

Introduction

The English you learn in the classroom often doesn’t prepare you for what you hear out on the street in everyday life. This is because when Americans speak, we transform our words by connecting and deleting sounds, so that we can speak more efficiently.

Example

Instead of saying, “give me a minute”–as in, “wait a minute until I’ve finished doing something”–Americans:

combine the verb and indirect object, then

delete the [v] sound to say:

“gimme a minute.”

So, “give me” becomes *“gimme”.

Commonly Transformed Verbs

*say these, don’t write them!

Give me
Let me
Have to
Has to
Used to

→ gimme [GIMiy]
→ lemme [LɛMmiy]
→ hafta [HÆFtə]
→ hasta [HÆStə]
→ *usta [YUWstə]

Listen and Repeat

“Give me a second” / “*Gimme a sec.”
“Give me one more” / “*Gimme one more.”
“Let me see it” / “*Lemme see it!”
“Let me have a bit” / “*Lemme have a bit.”
“I have to do my homework” / “I *hafta do my homework.”
“I have to get out of here” / “We *hafta get outta here.”
“She has to find her book first.” / “She *hasta find her book first.”
“It has to be real!” / “It *hasta be real!”
“You used to be around more.” / “You *usta be around more.”
“I used to know a guy like that.” / “I *usta know a guy like that.”

Remember, it’s not essential that you speak like this, and on some occasions, this relaxed speech can sound too informal. It would be absolutely incorrect to write these transformations. However, the better you understand these rules of pronunciation, the more you may be able to understand native English speakers when they speak.

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