Learning English

Tim
Hi. I'm Tim and this is my Pronunciation workshop. Here I'm going to show you how English is really spoken. Come on. Let’s go inside. How do you ask for help? And what is the connection between this… and this? Well, this is a piece of what? And what is the female version of this animal called? Put them together and what do you get? Well, here’s how some people in London ask for help.

Voxpops
Would you do me a favour?
Would you do me a favour?
Would you do me a favour?
Would you do me a favour?
Would you do me a favour?

Tim
Wood. Ewe. Would you – get it? Now, the words ‘ewe’ and ‘you’ have the same pronunciation, don’t they? But what happens to the word ‘you’ when it comes after the sound /d/? Watch and listen again

Voxpops
Would you do me a favour?
Would you do me a favour?
Would you do me a favour?
Would you do me a favour?
Would you do me a favour?

Tim
In fluent speech when one word ends in a /d/ sound and the next word begins in a /j/ sound, the two sounds come together and change to a /ʤ/ sound. You also might have noticed that the /uː/ in 'you' can change to schwa. So 'would you' becomes 'woul/ʤ/ou', or even ‘woul/ʤə/’ This is an example of assimilation. Here are some more examples.

Examples
I’m sad you decided to quit.
Could you get here by midnight?
Should you see him, can you give him a message?
I don’t think the gold you bought was real.

Tim
Right, so you've heard the examples. What do we do? Listen and repeat.

Examples
I’m sad you decided to quit.
Could you get here by midnight?
Should you see him, can you give him a message?
I don’t think the gold you bought was real.

Tim
Well done. And remember, if you want to learn more about pronunciation, then please visit our website, bbclearningenglish.com. And that is about it from the pronunciation workshop for this week. I'll see you soon. Bye bye! Right, now, what am I going to do with you? Ha ha – what am I going do with ‘ewe’, get it? Oh come on, would you give a guy a break?! She gets it.