What are weak forms? - Connected Speech | English Pronunciation
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- In this video we are going to look at weak forms. You learn what weak forms are compared to full forms and why they occur in English. You might have asked yourself why it is sometimes so difficult to understand spoken English because words all seem to run together into one long word - other words seem to become very short or disappear! This is because English is a stress-timed language, and it is therefore full of weak forms when we speak naturally! Those weak forms are reduced versions of grammatical words. They can sound very different when they are said in isolation compared to in a sentence. We will go over some common weak forms, and you will see what an important role the schwa sound plays in weak forms. At the end, there is a little test for you as always :-)
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Chapters
0:00 What are weak forms - INTRO
2:10 Weak forms vs. full forms
3:40 Why do we have weak forms? Content words vs. grammatical words
6:20 Common weak forms
15:20 Summary: weak forms
17:04 TEST 'Can you recognise the weak forms?'
#weakforms #connectedspeech #phonology
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Stress-timed vs. syllable-timed languages
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Sentence Stress in English
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Connected Speech: Assimilation, Elision & Intrusion
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What is a syllable?
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What is word stress? Part 1
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Video on The Phonemic Chart (vowels, diphthongs & consonants):
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The Vowel Chart
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Video on Diphthongs Introduction
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Great English phonetic teaching!
Languages are classified into two groups: 1. syllable-timed languages (e.g. Japanese, Indonesian, etc.)
2. stress-timed languages (e.g. English, German, Russian).
In a stress-timed language, the stressed syllables are said at approximately regular intervals, and unstressed syllables shorten to fit this rhythm. Words that should be pronounced with stress are content words, namely nouns, verbs (except for "be"), adjectives, adverbs, negative contractions and demonstrative (this, that, etc.). Other words are called grammatical words, and these words are not pronounced with strong stress at all. Moreover, they are made weakened by being pronounced with a schwa or other weak vowels. Such words are called "weak forms". In Indonesia, people speak English with strong forms only and treat English as if it were a syllable-timed language. For native speakers of English, it is tiring to listen to an Indonesian speak English since they need much energy and patience during listening.
The strong/weak picture analogy is brilliant, thank you Billie :)
Hi Veronika! I'm so happy someone -finally - comments on that! ;-) I have been waiting for reactions ever since I posted the video!
I don't have enough time to read my thick book and when I watch your videos I learn it so deep. You are amazing thank you
I have a linguistics exam tommorow and your videos helped me very much, thank you.
I just discovered you on your web site, and I was impressed, since you come across as being a spontaneous speaker, sounding natural with your warm conversational manner. As you speak and explain, you show no competitive spirit and you don't try to compare yourself with others. That's a remarkable character trait, which is why you sound so natural and modest. Your pronunciation is smooth and effortless. I can tell you this because in my early years I was trained and coached by a native speaker of English who sounded so smoothly that I was motivated to pick up his accent. He was a commander in the US military and he educated me like a father. May god bless you and keep up your marvelous work.
Interesting like all your lessons. Many thanks.
Oh my gosh!!!! Thanks a lot about your great lesson my amazing teacher keep up the good work!!!! Muna improve my level up coz i wanna understand even angels when speaking English
Thank you so much Billie! with love and respect.
The way you explain it's brilliant
Thanks you teacher.The best teacher and the best channel.
Thank you! 😃
Thanks a lot about your great lesson my amazing teacher keep up the good work!!!! You have been helping us more Munna supprise the people when speaking English
Thanks so much Billie. It's really what I need for my learning English.
اتمنى انطيج مليون لايك ع هالشرح والالقاء الحلو ❤
As always, it's very useful video.
We are lucky to have you Bellie😊
Keep going!
You are very helpful, thank you for any you do
Thank you for your videos! 😊
Your weak form version is so beautiful ❤
Aww thank you!!
Impressive. Thank you
Awesome... as usual.
A strong hug for U and thanks for the video!
The topic of strong forms vs weak forms can also be found in Dutch and German. For example, Willeke Albertie in 1965 sang a Dutch song "De Winter Was Lang". In the last line she sang:
"De winter was lang, eenzaam en [ən] koud".
Instead of saying [ɛn] with a strong form for "en" (=and), she used the weak form [ən]. The weak form to "en" can also be found in counting numbers, such as: "vierenveertig" (44). The "en" there is pronounced with a schwa, thus: [ˈfiːrənfeːrtəx].
In German, there is only one word that has a weak form. It is "es". When being strong form, it is pronounced [ɛs]. When pronounced in its weak form, it is pronounced [əs] and even [s] as in a common expression for greeting someone:
"Wie geht es [ˈɡeːtəs] Ihnen?"
"Wie geht's [ˈɡeːts] dir?"
Once, I tuned in to the German programme of Deutsche Welle on shortwave. The newsreader said like this:
"Es [ɛs] ist dreiundzwanziɡ Uhr Weltzeit. In Deutschland ist_es [ɪstəs] ein Uhr."
Bravissima! 👌
thank you so much ❤️
I really love the way you are in the weak form! 🙃
Haha ... thank you!
Thank you somuch. These details helps us understand better.
Glad it was helpful!
Newly appeared on your channel Maam thank you.
Namate Ma'am🙏. I'm from India, a literature student, this video helped me lot. 😊
My pleasure 😊
Thanks!
You look amazing, even in "weak form".
The analogy...😂 Excellent video!
Thank you for appreciating it! Not many commented on it, I thought it makes for a nice analogy 😅
GREAT man
Hi Billie,
Thanks for your video, it’s well-presented and super clear to understand!
Just a question about the weak form of the word ‘’to’’: Is it always reduced to /tə/ when unstressed, irrespectively of whether the following word begins with a vowel sound?
Because according to the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary, the reduction to a schwa sound occurs before vowels, otherwise the weak form of ‘’to’’ is /tu/.
What do you think? Can you please elaborate on this?
Good question! I had a look into this and to my understanding & hearing 'to' is reduced before consonant sounds as well, e.g. in 'I've got a lot of stuff to do' - the 'to' is before 'do' starting with the consonant /d/ but nevertheless 'to' would certainly be reduced because it's not stressed. I hope this helps!
thanks for your videos😁
My pleasure 😊
Thnx teacher
First time catching you and you good luck
Welcome aboard!
All your pictures are strong form 😊
I'm a 1st year student in English ttyyyyssssmmm for the explanation 🥹🩷
I have a question on the sentence "I picked them up at the school", and the question is, should the /l/ of school be a dark /l/? As it is in a postvocalic position! I am a non-native English speaker and I do have a few problems with this things! However, thank you for the wonderful video :)
Hello Saul! A good question! Yes, the /l/ in school is a dark /l/. You can find out more about light & dark /l/ in this video:
czcams.com/video/rL49Q6wYMSI/video.html
I hope this is of help :-) Thanks for watching!
@@BillieEnglish Of course! Thanks a lot! Love sll of your videos!!♥
Hi! I have a question, why in the example 'I have two sister' is weak form? Isn't 'have' functioning as a verb?
Thx❤❤
Dear madam,
When to use English Strong forms properly?
Do BBC English News Channel News readers use only strong forms in news reading?
Should we use only strong forms while explaining English text or lessons?
From
Prateek Mudagal
India
The strong form makes it more esaly to understand.
Pleasee, put subtitles also turkish
You look very good in weak form
Greetings from México. Does it really make a huge diffrence if I don't unstressed a word ? for instance in some . does it block communication ?
Hello! It could lead to confusion. If you stress 'some' it highlights the word, indicating to the listener that there is important information in this word (when there probably isn't). For example, a conversation at a party:
'They have some snacks'
Usually 'some' would not be stressed - the info is just 'there are snacks'.
However, if you stress 'some' and use the full form, you indicate that there are JUST SOME, as in 'not many' and it would sound critical (= they really should have more as good hosts but they don't!).
I hope this helps!
❤great
Super
Good day to u, madam,
Should I use strong forms or weak form while reading lesson aloud?
I like the weak form too 😉❤
Aww thank you 💛
Dear madam,
Kindly guide me when to use strong forms in English.
Frm
Prateek Mudagal
Karnataka, India
Hi I'm sorry I have a question. For this sentence "That bill has gone viral, right?", are 'that' and 'has' the only weak forms presence and the others are full forms and must be stressed?
Hello! Thank you for your question 😊
Yes, 'that' and 'has' are definitely unstressed and would be in a weak form.
It depends a bit how you say the sentence and on what context. The 2 words with the main stress are 'bill' and 'viral'. 'Gone' and 'right' will also be stressed but maybe not as much.
I hope this helps!
@@BillieEnglish Thank you for your reply 🙏 I have a presentation about connected speech next week and your videos helped me big time in understanding every concepts ❤️
Thanks it is a great video but how can i find a teacher to correct my pronunciation
You can find online teachers on platforms like Preply or Itaki. Or you could try an AI pronunciation app like ELSA to train you and give you feedback. Have a look at the pinned comment in this video for more information about this app :-)
Thanks a lot. Plz how to pronounce. It's already done. I listen they say... /'solri dan / plz phonetic transcription.
Ta! Gbu
you look good in weak form even
Thank you!
Excuse me?
When we use weak forms?
😊
Those are the people who gave us money to eat every second day.
Dear Madam,
I am writing this email to ask for your permission to use your video on you tube as my study material. I have a big assignment coming up for my teacher, he asked us to use it. I searched on the internet and found your video, i like it very much, its content is very interesting, so can i use it for my exercise?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Your sincerely,
Khue
Thank you for your comment! I'm glad you find my video helpful 😊 I think I received the same message from some of your classmates. You are welcome to watch all my videos. What do you mean by using it?
@@BillieEnglish thank you very much. I use it to incorporate into my presentation. Can I use it?
I think sometimes v becomes f, right🤔🙁
Yes, this can happen in rapid speech!
The huge number of schwas makes it hard to understand quickly spoken English for non natives. For me as a Germann nativ it sounds like a porridge of sounds. A stream of schwas.
Dear madam,
No response to my question so far. Why?.
Hello! I responded to you - but I don't remember where! ;-) You posted in several places and I responded in one of them. It was your question about strong vs. weak froms & also contracted forms, right?
Here is my answer again:
When speaking naturally, we use weak forms. This happens naturally because it helps us to speak faster (so weak forms occur, as well as linking, assimilation, elision etc). We also use contracted forms when we speak. we only use full forms when we speak in formal situations or maybe in the news. This week and next I am posting 2 new videos on contracted forms where I talk a bit more about that.
I hope this helps! Thank you for watching :-)