Perfect English Pronunciation - Small Talk

Perfect English Pronunciation - Small Talk

Today I’m going to show you the perfect British pronunciation of five expressions that you can use when making small talk Got much on this week or the whole question is have you got much on this week When you ask have you got much on this week, you’re really asking.

Are you very busy? Do you have many plans many things to do got much on this week notice the T in got is usually glutalized got got much on the ch in much Links to on much on much on got much on repeat with me got much on this week that’s fine and the optional have you which is the whole question have you got much on this week an answer to this question could be So you know that have you got much on this week means are you busy and Answer like no I I haven’t got much on.

That’s fine. It could be I don’t have many plans I’m not very busy or Haven’t got anything on this week that could mean I have no plans. I’m not busy at all But be careful. There are two meanings to that: One: I’m not busy, but be careful. If you say I haven’t got anything on it could mean I’m naked Wow, you look tired. What’s the question?

Did you get much sleep last night more often than not These two “T”s will be glutalized get say it with me get night Did you get that’s fine, but there are two other ways to pronounce this dee-djah Did you get say it with me? Did you get? Alternatively it could be just one syllable j-just schwa sound Do you get you get much sleep last night?

This will go nicely together with the L By making it a glottal sound sleep Sleep last night sleep last night. You look a bit tired. Did you get much sleep last night? It’s Monday. You’re speaking to your friend Your weekend good bad. What’s your question? How was your Weekend?

Of course we don’t really say it that slow, and we don’t really separate the words What we do is something very interesting, and it’s a feature of connected speech. Let me show you how was your weekend? Did you hear how I said that the middle of that question Uses a feature of connected speech we call Assimilation that is when one phoneme one sound changes the next sound in this case the “Z” in was changes the “y” in your Listen to how I say it waz-jiah waz-jiah.

I know it’s weird. We change it It’s that same sound of “jiah” as we find in television This sound is like a schwa jiah - how was your weekend? How was your weekend repeat with me? How was your weekend? Ok let’s imagine the person you’re speaking to Did something yesterday? Like they saw a movie. They read a book they ate something what can you ask about that experience?

It’s a very common question did you like it? But you know we don’t pronounce it that slow, and we don’t separate the words We have to use connected speech, so we’ve learned assimilation, and we saw an example of this in Remember the question did you get much sleep last night? These two words assimilate to sound like didja didja Or just dja.

So you know the pronunciation didja didja Remember to repeat with me didja These two words have another feature of connected speech listen to how I say it Did you like it? Okay? Yes, we used the glottal T on that But that’s not the focus. The feature of connected speech I’m talking about is called catenation What is catenation? catenation is this: the end consonant sound of like the “k” sound will join the next word ly Kit like it say with me like it. Let’s practice the whole thing: did you?

Like it Did you like it? How was your weekend? It was good I went skydiving Wow skydiving did you like it? Okay, so your friends does fun things at the weekend they don’t sleep much now you want to know about their plan for tonight What can you ask? What are you up to tonight? You’re asking. What are you doing tonight? What are your plans? However the pronunciation is not that. So what’s the pronunciation?

First We remove our Second thing you know how we use glottal “T”s the end “T” will make them glottal what? What? tonight tonight What you up to tonight? maybe you noticed we used a third feature of connected speech in this question between you and up We use Intrusion.

What’s intrusion? That’s when this word finishes in a vowel sound: you The next word begins with a vowel sound: up Because this sound “U” is the same mouth shape as a “U” It makes it easy to connect those two words by intruding a word sound You what you up say it with me What you up to? What you up to? Let’s try the whole question what you up to tonight repeat with me practice. What you up to tonight? What you up to tonight Thanks for watching.