Pratique du Shadowing: How To Contract TO BE | Australian Pronunciation Lesson - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

G'day, you mob.

Pete here from Aussie English, and this is the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English.

Man, I am excited because today this episode is about one of my favourite subjects, as you can tell, because I've had too much caffeine and I am talking quickly.

Fast spoken English.

How to understand fast spoken English, but also, more importantly, how to do it yourself so that when you're speaking English, you sound much more natural, OK?

We don't sort of sound like robots.

Hello, I'm robot, not simple.

Just saying one word after the other in English.

We contract words.

There's a lot of things going on.

There's a lot of sound changes.

So, mastering these is going to help you sound much more natural when speaking.

So, today we're going to look at the auxiliary verbs am, are and is, and how these contract down to pronouns like I,

they and you when speaking English quickly.

Are you aware of it?

Is it worth learning?

As you'll see in this episode, it's definitely worth learning because it's going to help you understand native English speakers and advanced English speakers.

So, your listening comprehension is going to improve.

And then it's also going to help you sound like them yourself when you speak English.

Okay.

So, in this lesson, I'm going to break down the auxiliary verb

and the pronoun and how that's pronounced when we make a few subtle changes by contracting things together.

And then after each of these, I'll go through three example sentences that I want you to listen to and then repeat.

Okay.

So, find somewhere that you can speak out loud so that you can practice your pronunciation.

Focus on the contractions that I'm making, the way that these sounds are changing.

And also, because these are questions, focus on the intonation.

There's going to be some rising intonation tails at the ends of these sentences.

Okay.

Before we get into it, though, don't forget, make sure that you stay right until the very end, because I have a secret weapon, a little bit of secret sauce,

a little gift for you guys that is going to help you level up your English pronunciation lightning fast.

All right.

Are you ready?

Let's go. So, number one. Am I.

Now, this goes through quite a few changes. Am I.

Firstly, we can connect the M in the auxiliary verb am to the I vowel sound, am I.

Right.

That M sound goes to the next syllable. Am I. Am I.

After this, we can turn the a sound in the auxiliary verb am into a schwa sound, a.

Okay, so you're going to hear am I. Am I.

And we covered this in previous lesson lessons on the auxiliary verbs do and have.

Okay, you can check these out up above here.

The next step, and I really didn't know how to transcribe this into the IPA, into the International Phonetic Alphabet,

is that the schwa sound can actually completely disappear and you're going to hear this syllabic M sound in front of my.

So, this is sort of complicated linguistic speak for having the mouth closed in an M position and vocalising it.

So, going mm, mm, and then saying my.

So, you may hear people from time to time saying my, my.

Right.

It's like they've just reduced that er my, stopped saying the schwa and they've just gone straight to my, like they've closed their mouth for the schwa sound.

My, my.

So, let's go through some example sentences.

Am I coming to? Am I coming too?

Am I going to learn anything?

Am I the only one?

Number two, are you? Are you?

And you will notice in Australian English, is there a rhotic r sound in the auxiliary verb, are?

Do you hear it or do you not hear it when I pronounce that word?

Ah, look at my tongue.

Ah.

Australian English is non-rhotic.

So, we only say the R sound in these words when there's a vowel sound after them.

So, in the case of RU, we don't say the R.

RU.

So, the first and only step to contracting R and U is turning R into a schwa sound, right.

We reduce it.

It's unstressed.

So, it becomes the schwa.

UU.

And you may even hear you becoming yuh as well, where the ooo vowel sound in you has become a schwa.

So, you may hear a yuh.

A yuh.

In fact, I'd probably say that, to be honest.

Yeah.

A yuh.

You'll see why in a sec.

Okay, sounds weird.

Let's listen to it in context.

Are you leaving? Are you leaving? Are you working today? Are you working today?

Are you going for a walk?

So, it could be either.

Are you, are you going for a walk or are you, are you going for a walk?

Number three, is he.

With the word he, the H disappears, right?

When we link this together, especially when there's a Z or another consonant sound before that H,

you're going to hear is Z, right? Is Z.

There's no H sound, it's H deletion.

It's gone.

It's been deleted. Is Z. Is Z.

The next step, like we did previously, is we put that schwa in, in place of the auxiliary verb vowel.

So, you're going to hear ʻzī, ʻzī, ʻzī.

The last thing here that's really interesting is

that sometimes we can actually completely get rid of that schwa sound and you're just going to hear zi, zi.

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It's kind of like the am I and the my zi, zi.

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Let's go through some examples.

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I'll say them once with a z and then the second time with z. Is he at home?

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Z at home? Is he from Australia?

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Z from Australia?

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Is he asking for help?

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Is he asking for help?

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Number four, is she. Is she.

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So, the first step here, because we have that Z sound next to the sh sound, is she, is she.

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It's really hard to do that.

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Is she, especially fast.

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Is she, is she, and say both. Is she.

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We get rid of the Z sound.

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So, you're just going to hear i she. Is she. Is she.

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The next step is turning that i vowel sound from the word is into a schwa. Is she. Is she.

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Now, we could just say she and then whatever the phrase is after that.

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But because none of that auxiliary verb is left sort of smashed into the word that is she, it's not really contraction.

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It is, I think, elision, where we've just removed the auxiliary verb is from the sentence, right.

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So, an example might be, is she a model? Is she a model?

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So, we've contracted it there.

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If we just get rid of the word is, you could say, is she a model?

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Is she a model?

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Where it's elision.

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Okay.

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So, they're sort of different, but we're talking about contractions today.

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Second example.

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Is she travelling at the moment?

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Is she travelling at the moment?

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Is she going for a run?

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Is she going for a run?

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Number five. Are we?

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Remember that R.

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No R sound is in R.

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There's no R in R.

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There is when I say it like that, though.

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R in R.

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Confusing.

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Australian English, huh? Are we. Are we.

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So, the first and only thing that we do here is turn R into a schwa. Are we. Are we. Are we late? Are we late?

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Are we going to be invited?

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Are we going to be invited?

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Are we catching the train?

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Are we catching the train?

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Six, are they?

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Are they similar to the one before, there's only one step here and it is turning are into the schwa so that you'll hear are they? Are they?

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Are they your friends? Are they your friends? Are they playing soccer? Are they playing soccer? Are they at home? Are they at home?

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Number seven, the last one, guys. Is it. Is it.

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First step, the zzz sound joins to that vowel sound i. Is it. Is it.

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I don't know why I'm doing this, but it feels like that's what I need to be doing. Is it. Is it.

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The next step is turning the i in the word is into a schwa. Is it. Is it.

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The next step, we could potentially turn the i sound in it into a schwa as well.

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So you may hear just ızızızız. Is it?

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And then also, or not and then, more either or, right?

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We could also do what happened with is he when it became just zee, we could say zit.

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Zit.

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Okay.

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So, the most natural ones here, I think that I would say there might be three.

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Zit.

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Zit. And zit.

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Okay.

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I'm going to say these phrases naturally without thinking about it and we'll just see how I say it.

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Okay, so no preparation beforehand.

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I'm not staging it.

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Is it snowing? Is it snowing?

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So, there I've said, is it two schwa's.

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Is it snowing?

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I could say, is it snowing outside?

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So, just zut, zut, not even zit.

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Is it snowing outside?

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It's almost like I'm just saying, is it so quickly that I've just gotten rid of that schwa at the start.

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Is it snowing outside?

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Is it a long way away?

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Is it a long way away?

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Is it going to change anything?

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Is it going to change anything? So, there you go.

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That's something we can end on, right?

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It's really interesting that this sort of level of contraction in these phrases, it can vary.

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And native speakers like myself may use multiple different kinds, right.

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If we're really contracting everything together, you might hear things like, is it snowing outside?

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But then if we're speaking a little more slowly or in, say, maybe a more formal situation, we may not contract it as much.

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Is it snowing outside?

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So, all sorts of things like that can happen when speaking English.

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It's good to be aware of them and it's good to be able to do them.

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Okay.

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So, before I tell you about my special gift for you today, let's recap what we have gone through.

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Okay.

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So, I'm going to say the auxiliary verbs and the pronouns and how they get contracted together.

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I'll give you one of the examples.

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I won't go through all of them.

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And then we'll go through a little phrase for each of them for you to practice one more time.

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Okay.

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You ready?

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Let's go. Am I. Am I.

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Am I going to see a koala? Are you. Are you.

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Are you gonna see a koala? Is he? Is he?

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Is he gonna see a koala? Is she? Is she?

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Is she gonna see a koala? Are we?

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Are we going to see a koala? Are they?

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Are they going to see a koala? Is it? Is it?

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Is it going to see a koala?

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So, there you go, guys.

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I hope that helped.

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I hope you can now hear and understand fast spoken English.

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But more importantly, I hope you can say it yourself.

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Okay.

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If you would like to take your pronunciation to the next level, if you want to master things like the IPA,

206

the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is what I think is the secret weapon to improving your pronunciation by yourself.

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If you also want to nail all the different vowel sounds in Australian English

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and all of the different consonant sounds in Australian English, then I recommend that you go and check out my Australian pronunciation course.

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There'll be a special link in the description today where for the next 24 hours after this video

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and podcast has been published, you can sign up for 33% off the normal price.

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Okay.

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And lastly, I recently added an extra 25

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advanced pronunciation lessons for you to complete after you've mastered the different sounds in Australian English.

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These are things covering the syllabic L, the syllabic N, different connected speech,

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consonant clusters, how sounds disappear, the Australian R sound.

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There are loads of things in there, little nuggets, little secret tips for you to learn so

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that you sound much more like an advanced English speaker when speaking English.

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Go figure.

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Anyway, I'm Pete.

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This is Aussie English.

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Thank you so much for joining me and I will see you next time.

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See ya!

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?

Le Shadowing est une technique d'apprentissage des langues fondée sur la science, développée à l'origine pour la formation des interprètes professionnels. Le principe est simple mais puissant : vous écoutez de l'anglais natif et le répétez immédiatement à voix haute — comme une ombre suivant le locuteur avec un décalage de 1 à 2 secondes. Les recherches montrent une amélioration significative de la précision de la prononciation, de l'intonation, du rythme, des liaisons, de la compréhension orale et de la fluidité.

Pratique du Shadowing: How To Contract TO BE | Australian Pronunciation Lesson - Apprendre l'anglais à l'oral avec la vidéo

Context & Background

Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication

Step-by-step Shadowing Guide

Qu'est-ce que la technique du Shadowing ?