Rules and Patterns of Casual Speech

Formal, Careful Speech You

Informal, Relaxed Speech ya cuz

Examples Ill call ya. See ya. I did it cuz I wanted to. Im tired cuz I worked all day. I dont know I dunno I dunno why. I dunno what to do. Lemme do it. Lemme help you. Lemme talk to him. Gimme a call. Gimme a break! Can you gimme a minute? Joo call me? Why joo do it? Joo go out last night Wanna go out? Wanna dance? What do you wanna do? I gotta go. You gotta do it. You shoulda told me. It woulda been nice. We coulda come. You musta seen it. You shouldna done that. I woundna known. It couldna happened. Im gonna go. Its gonna rain. What are you gonna do? Whadda you want? Whadda you doing? Whadda you think? Thats a lotta money. Ive got a lotta friends. Its kinda hot.

because

let me

lemme

give me

gimme

did you...? ? do you want to...?

joo

wanna...?

have got to...... shouldve wouldve couldve mustve shouldnt have wouldnt have couldnt have going to

gotta

Shoulda woulda coulda musta shouldna wouldna couldna gonna

what do you...?

wadda you...?

a lot of kind of

a lotta kinda

What kinda car is that? out of adda Get adda here. Im adda money. Youre adda your mind. meaning: Youre crazy I go to work. Lets go to a concert. Yeah. Its good. Yup. I did it. Im not going. Nope. Thats not right What are you doin? Nothin much.

go to

goddu

yes

yeah yup Nope. in

no nope -ing

. .

Rules for Linking

Linking Consonant to Vowel
When a word ends in a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel, connect the final consonant to the next vowel, making it sound as if the second word starts with a consonant.

Linking Consonant to Same Consonant

When the final consonant of one word is the same as the first consonant of the following word, pronounce the consonant only once. Do not pause between the sounds, but just lengthen the sound a bit or say it with a little bit more energy.

Final Stop Between Consonants

when a stop is followed by another consonant, do not release the stop. The release creates a puff of air and an extra syllable. Make sure that good time doesnt sound like good a time and that help me doesnt sound like help a me.

Linking Vowel to Vowel

If one word ends with a vowel and the next word begins with a vowel, do not pause between the words. For a smoother transition between the sounds and to ensure a complete pronunciation of both of the vowels, we insert a short /w/ sound after a front vowel (such as /e/, /i/, and /ai/) and a short /y/ sound after a back vowel (such as // and /o/) . Sounds like: Insert a very quick /w/ sound go out go wout How are you? how ware you Insert a very quick /y/ sound I am I yam they are they yare

Do I Say the or thee?

When the article the is followed by a vowel sound, it is pronounced with /i/ and

sounds like thee. When it is followed by a consonant, the final sound is //, like the u in fun.

Linking Vowels Within a Word

When an individual word contains two vowel sounds together, we also add a little y or w sound. We dont say die it we say die + yet.

Reducing Pronouns
When we reduce the pronouns, the first letter is often silent. For example, the letter h is often silent for the words he, him, his, her, and hers when these pronouns are not the first words of a sentence. Also, the th sound is often silent for the word them. This is particularly true in casual speech, but it frequently occurs in formal speech as well.

Contractions
1. The Verb to be
Im happy. Shes American.

2. Auxiliary Verbs
These include be, would, will, and have. Hes working. Hed like to go. Ill call you. Ive been there.

3. The Word not

Not is contracted when it follows have, be, can, could, should, would, and must. I havent been there. I cant do that.

Conditional Tense and Contractions

The grammar of the conditional tense requires a lot of small words that you will need to learn to contract. For example, the following sentence which is the conditional past unreal tense contains thirteen short words: If you had not called me I would not have known about it. Saying each word separately obviously sounds unnatural and very foreign. Heres how an American would say that: If you hadnt called me, I wouldnve known about it. Instead of wouldnt have, we say, woudnve. The t of the word not disappears. Or, in more casual situations, the have of would not have sounds like a as in woudna. Word Groups for Practice Lets start learning to use contractions in the easier part of the conditional past: the if clause. sounds like: 1. If I had been If Id been 2. If I had not called If I hadnt called 3. If she had seen If shed seen 4. If they had gone... If theyd gone Now lets practice the second half of the past conditional sentence. There are two versions of this type of contraction: standard speech and casual speech.

sounds like: casual speech: 1. would have wouldve woulda 2. would not have wouldnve wouldna 3. could have couldve coulda 4. could not have couldnve couldna 5. should not have shouldnve shouldna

Conditional Questions
With questions using have you must add an // sound between the pronoun and the contraction. But for statements, dont do this. For example a question like Would you have been there? would sound like Would you//ve been there? However, a statement would sound like: Youve been there. sounds like: 1. Would you have? Would you//ve? 2. Would you have been? Would you//ve been? 3. Would she have? Would she//ve. ? 4. Would she have wanted? Would she//ve wanted?

Casual Versus Formal Speech

Casual speech has certain characteristics that distinguish it from formal speech. These are the main ones:

A. Sentences are shortened and grammar is simplified.

sounds like: 1. Do you want to go? Wanna go? 2. Youd better do it. You better do it.

B. Speakers are less careful about pronouncing every consonant.

sounds like: 1. probably probly 2. I dont know I dunno 3. remember member 4. going goin 5. until til 6. because cuz

C. Slang is more acceptable.

becomes: 1. I need five dollars. I need five bucks. 2. I dont have any money. Im broke.