Mastering the American Accent » Reducing Pronouns

Reducing Pronouns

In the chapter on word stress you learned that pronouns are not stressed. 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. Study the example below.

sounds like:
1. I love her“I lover”
2. I knew her“I newer”
3. stuff he knows“stuffy nose”
4. did he“didee”
5. has he“hazee”

Note: Always pronounce the first consonant of a pronoun when the pronoun is in the beginning of a sentence or a phrase.

Practice Dialogues

Remember that the h in he and him is silent except when these words begin the sentence.

The New Boyfriend

Is he nice?
What’s his name?
What does he look like?
How old is he?
Where does he live?
What does he do?
How long have you known him?
Do you love him?
Where’s his family from?
When can we meet him?
Did you tell him we’d like to meet him?
What did he say?
Answer: He said that he thinks my friends ask too many questions!

Study Tip

When you watch an American film, try to watch it with closed captioning or subtitles in English. This is a very useful method for developing better listening skills, using the right melody and learning the common reductions of American speech. Play back some scenes and repeat the actors’ lines several times until you can say them the same way.

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