People learning English say it is spoken too fast. Usually the trouble is not speed. It is that fewer than fifty small grammar words make up about two words in every five you hear, and most of them change shape when they are said. This lesson counts them on a real page, prints the list with what each one turns into, and names the common small words that do not change and so are not on it.
Core ideas
Three ideas, and the second is the one that helps most.
The words that change shape are not spread across the whole language. They are fewer than fifty small grammar words you already know: a, the, of, to, and, was, have. The words that carry the meaning keep their shape.
On the page in the lab, 387 words out of 936 are on that list. So two words in every five coming at you are from one short list, and most of them arrive in a shape you may never have been taught. That is not speed. That is a short list you have not learned yet.
To said as tə is not lazy or careless speech. It is how the word is said in ordinary sentences by everyone. The full form is the special case, used when the word is being stressed on its own.
The material
These are the ones used most often on the page in the lab, with the shape they take in an ordinary sentence.
Ask anyone learning English what the hardest part is and a great many will say the same thing: people speak too fast. They can read the page. They know the words. Said out loud, it goes past them.
The speed is mostly not the problem, and this lesson is about what is.
English has a group of very common words that change shape when they are not being stressed — squashed, as this course will call it, or said in a weak form. To becomes a short flat sound. And loses most of itself. Of, was, have, for, can all do the same.
There are fewer than fifty of them, and that is the whole list. Everything else in English keeps its shape, including some small words you might expect on it: it, in, on, by, with, my, did, they and who are short and common, but they have no squashed form, so they are not on the list and the lab does not count them.
Now count how often they turn up. The page in the lab is 936 words of a novel, and 387 of those words are on the list. That is 41.3%, and only 43 different words account for all of it.
Two words in every five reaching your ear come from that list, and most of them arrive in a shape you may never have been shown. The words carrying the meaning are still said clearly. What is between them has been flattened.
A learner who knows every word on a page can still fail to hear that page when it is read out, and nothing is wrong with their ears or the words they know. They were taught the written shape of these few words and not the spoken one.
The 387 is the most it could be: every word on the list, every time it appears. A word on the list keeps its full shape when it is stressed, and most of them keep it when they are left standing at the end of a sentence: who are you looking at? says at in full, and yes, I can says can in full. The words for people are the exception: I saw him ends on the squashed him, and her and you behave the same way. The lab counts the end position on the page: 24 of the 387 listed words stand last before a comma, a full stop, a question mark or another mark. Half of those 24 are him, her, he or you, which you can check on the printed passage, so the number likely said in full is smaller still. The table in the lab prints every word it counted with its squashed shape and its count, so you can check any of them against the page.
Four more — that, have, has, had — squash only when they are doing grammar work. That pointing at something (that book) and have meaning to own or to eat (have tea) keep their full shape. The lab counts those four separately: 42 of the 387. There is the same kind of word, squashed in there was a time and said in full when it points at a place, and the lab does not count it apart. So the figure to carry in your head is a little under two in five, and the list to carry is the printed one.
Most of the squashed forms use the same vowel, a short flat sound made in the middle of the mouth. So they are not only shorter, they also sound like each other.
That is why a run of small words can arrive as a single noise. There are four or five words in it, they are all from the same short list, and nearly all of them are wearing the same vowel.
Press Listen at the top of the page and your browser will read it to you. That voice is a reading voice rather than a person talking, so it squashes less than a speaker would; what you hear is the slow version of the thing this lesson is about.
What this lesson adds is knowing what to listen for, and where. The lab marks every word on a real page that can take a weak form and prints what each one becomes. Take that list to anything you are already listening to, and the gaps stop being gaps. The other words, the ones that carry the meaning, have a part that is said hardest. Where it falls, and what moves it, is the subject of Word Stress, and the next lesson here counts how often it comes first.
Interactive
Press Listen above to hear the page; this marks what to listen for
| word | squashed, said as | times on the page |
|---|
Method
Four steps, and you can do them on paper.
Go through the sentence and mark every word that appears in the printed list. On the page in the lab that is two words in five.
Those are the words carrying the meaning, and they keep their full shape.
Not dropped and not missed out: made shorter, with the vowel of most of them reduced to the same flat sound. The lab prints what each one becomes, and which few stay as they are.
It will be quicker than your first attempt, and closer to what you hear. Nothing was spoken faster; fewer parts were given full weight.
The left column is what is written. The right is roughly what is said when the word is not being stressed.
All ten use the same vowel, the flat one in the middle of the mouth, and so do most of the words on the list. That is why they blur together: they are not only short, they all sound alike. A few pronouns take a short i sound instead — he, she, we, his, him — and three words lose their vowel altogether and lean on the word before them: is, will and not, which is how it’s, I’ll and don’t come about.
The shapes here are written the way a speaker from the south of England says them. An American speaker keeps a light r at the end of for, her, there, are, were and your, so for is closer to fər than to fə. The flat vowel is the same in both.
This is also why the list is worth learning as a list. Fewer than fifty words, nearly all with one vowel, and two words in every five stop being a surprise.
You should be able to pick the words that can take a weak form out of any written sentence, say roughly what share of the sentence they are, give the squashed shape of the commonest of them, name the common small words that keep their shape, and explain why a learner who knows every word on a page can still fail to hear it.
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