8 اختصا گفتاری

8 Spoken Contractions

I don’t know if you know, but if you want to understand English people when we talk, you’re going to have to learn spoken contractions. It ain’t easy, it’s kind of hard. But, give me five minutes, Let me show you how to understand English people when we talk. Okay, I’ve got to start the class now. I’m out of time. Sorry.

To begin, you’ve probably already heard of words like “cuz”. What’s it a contraction of? Because. Now is it correct? Yeah, not really, not in written English but in spoken English, we usually speak very quickly. So, words become shorter. I know it’s only two syllables but we like to contract it to just one. Why? Because, we’re lazy and we speak fast. Now, one important thing to remember is that, these are all spoken contractions. Because, we speak fast, it sounds more natural to shorten sentences, shorten the sound of sentences. But in writing, if you write these contractions, it’s definitely not good and people will say, what you’re doing? But spoken English, it’s good. Hafta, what the hell is that? Hafta is a contraction of have to. So for example, if you want to say I have to. Then, it’s okay to say, I have to. I have to. Say with me. I have to. Let’s do a sentence. So quick grammar reminder, with have to, the next verb is in the infinitive, he verb without changes, verb 1, whatever you want to call it. So in this example, I have to go. It doesn’t sound right to say, I have to. That’s like a robot. So, we contract it to, I have to. I have to go. To make it even more lazy, you could remove the “H”, I have to go. Sorry, I have to go. Now, remember, this is a contraction of have to, so, I have to, you have to, we have to, they have to. That’s fine but, he/she/it, that’s not have to, is it? No, it’s he/she/it, has to. So, we can’t really contract that to “hafta”. He have to go? No, that’s not correct. So, this one, you could say he has to go, just notice that the “to” sounds more like a “ta”, has to. He has to, she has to. I have to. Have to, hafta. I have to go.

Alright, now I have to do the next one. This one super easy. I’m sure you know it. Dunno, Dno, Dunno. It’s a contraction of, don’t know. Let’s do an example sentence. Maybe you’re in London for the first time and you don’t know where things are. If he wants to say, I don’t know where I am. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know where I am. As a response, someone asks you where is the blah blah blah? You can say, I don’t know. Who’s that? I don’t know. What time is it? I don’t know. So nice and easy, dno, don’t know.

Next, kinda, what does it mean? It’s a contraction of kind of. So, kind of becomes kinda. If you learn English in school, you probably don’t learn this word but it’s very important one. What does it mean? For example, if someone says, are you hot? Yeah, kinda. So, it’s not completely yes. It’s not middle. It’s around a six seven out of ten, kinda. If you just came from the cinema and your friend says, oh, did you like the movie? Bonus tip, if you’ve seen the video about questions in English, how to improve your British accent series, then you’d know that did you can be pronounced in a spoken contraction like… Three ways… To see that video in full, click my belly. But the word we’re focusing on is, kinda. So the question, did you like the movie? Mmm, kinda. Again, it’s not completely yes. It’s not completely no. It’s yeah, it was okay. It was pretty good. And to answer your question, yes it is the other way of using kind of. For example, what kind of movies do you like? What kind of music do you like? And to use what we’ve just learned, you could even say, kinda with wanna. I kinda wanna. Again, it means like six/seven out of ten. So, not completely but more than medium, more than average. Like, ooh, I kinda wanna donut. So that’s another thing, you can use kinda with the verb wanna. I kinda wanna, blah, blah. What do you kind of want to do? Write in the comments.

Our next word is lemme, let me. So this explores a bit more of the glottal “T”. If you haven’t seen the glottal “T” video and you’re hearing me say, glottal “T”, you don’t know what I’m talking about. Click on my belly to watch the glottal “T” video. If you have seen that, you’ll know that usually at the end of words if the word ends with a “T”, we usually contract it to let, let, let me. So, say it faster, let me, let me, lemme, lemme, it evolves into lemme. So, let me use this in a sentence. Remember, you want to say let me, you can say, ah let me have a donut! Or if you’re speaking, someone’s interrupting you, you can say, let me finish. let me finish.

Gimme, give me, can become gimme. In a sentence, now she’s very angry, give me a donut! So, if you want to say, give me, in a fast contracted way, give me becomes gimme. Say with me. Give me a donut, give me it.

Next one, gotta, gotta, gotta, many different ways of pronouncing it. But, what is it short for? Got to. What’s got to? Got to means have to. Some people say this is more American English. Not really, it’s kind of both. So, how would we use it in a sentence? Let’s have a look. When you really have to pee, you could say, I gotta pee. Again, there are different ways of pronouncing it. British English could be, I gotta pee but that’s not very common. We could use the glottal “T”. I gotta pee. I gotta pee. More commonly, we use the verb have, in between them. I’ve, I’ve gotta pee. I’ve gotta pee. American English, I gotta pee. Remember this means got to, it’s that obligation, have to, got to. It’s the same thing. That’s even more of a contraction of, have got to. I have got to do something. I have to do something. It’s an obligation. So, I have to pee, I’ve got to pee. I’ve gotta pee, I’ve gotta pee.

Okay we got to do the next one, why? We’re outta time. Outta time. We’re outta time. Outta, what’s it a contraction of out of? Out of. Now, to say I’m out of something, It means I’m empty of something. I don’t have this thing anymore. I did have some but now, nothing more. I’m out of it. For example, you spend all your money. You’re out of money. You’re outta money. And I have no more time, sorry. I’m out of time or literally out of your mind, I’m out of my mind. So practice sentences so you can practice with me. You go to have your Cheerios and oh, no, no more milk. What are you gonna say? Oh, no, we’re outta milk. Again, three different pronunciations. We’re outta milk. With glottal “T”, we’re outta milk. American, we’re outta milk. Most common in English, we’re outta milk. Say it with me, we’re outta milk. I’m outta money. I’m outta time. I don’t know, but I think you’re kinda gonna understand spoken contractions a bit better now.