Pronunciation Practice – Contractions

In English, it is common to shorten words or phrases, they are called contractions. Some are common, such as I’m, which means I am. As oyu can see from the table below, the same contraction can be used for different phrases. for example, he has and he is, are both shortened to he’s.

Many students believe that contractions are only used in writing, but when they read them, they should pronounce the full words. THIS IS NOT TRUE!!! It is more common to use contractions when speaking. Speaking is more informal than writing 99% of the time and these extra sounds disappear to make the shorter word.

As a result, when reading ‘you are’, you pronounce ‘you are’. If you read ‘you’re’, you pronounce ‘you’re’. When speaking, it is extremely common to pronounce it as ‘you’re’. There is NO DIFFERENCE in meaning but sounds exactly the same as ‘your’ which does have a different meaning.

There are several activities below for you to practice your pronunciation of these contractions. As mentioned above, some have the same contraction, so are only used once. For example, he’s is only used once, but has two meanings (he has and he is).

Instructions

Remember, this only works in the Chrome browser (desktop is best)
Click on ‘Start Course’ for the letter you would like to practice.
Read the word that you see.
Press ‘Push to Speak’ and say the word into your microphone.
Continue with the other words for that letter.
When you are finished, check your score.
if you would like model pronunciation, there are mp3 files at the bottom of the page for each letter.