Transcript of AM, ARE, IS - Spoken Contractions in Australian English

G'day you mob, and welcome to Aussie English. I am your host, Pete. And my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Down Under. So whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flippin' hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go.

G'day, you mob! How's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today we've got something a little bit different. A little bit different. So I've been doing private lessons. As I've told you guys recently, I've had a lot more private students, and it's been wonderful. It's absolutely awesome being a little more social. I think I had kind of forgotten what it was like, you know, to have more of a social kind of job where you're interacting with a lot more people, up until recently. Because with the kids and with family and everything, I and work, I was working from home and didn't really see anyone anyway.

So I opened the books, uh, probably about six months ago and started getting private students again. So sending out emails, if you guys are on my email list, you've probably seen the odd email come through every few months asking if you'd like private lessons. And again, if you want any, just send me an email, send me a message on Instagram and let me know and I will send you the details for the private lessons.

You know, the schedule, the pricing, the information, all that sort of stuff. But yeah, I had I've had a really good time. It's been absolutely amazing working with students and helping them achieve their pronunciation goals, their fluency goals, everything like that. Getting ready for moving from places like Pakistan or Brazil or different parts of Europe to Australia.

So anyway, I've got one student, Eduardo, who's a Brazilian guy, and he has been working his butt off on pronunciation. For him, something really important is sounding more Australian. You know, he's he doesn't want to sound like a native in terms of, you know, a spy. He's not deluded in thinking, um, I want to sound exactly like, you know, an Australian native speaker. And no one can ever pick the difference. But he knows that if he sounds more Australian, he's going to feel more Australian and people will treat him, you know, like more of an Aussie.

And he'll just feel more confident with his English. So he's been working his butt off on that stuff recently. And we've been, you know, studying this stuff in class. We've gone over lessons inside my pronunciation course that he's using to study outside of our private lessons. And he's also been working a lot with ChatGPT and, um, well, yeah, mainly ChatGPT coming up with phrases and sentences and other words that rhyme and, you know, things to work on. So it's been a lot of fun.

And if you haven't checked it out, I mentioned this. You know how to use ChatGPT to learn English in a previous episode, so go and check that out. I think it was called How to Learn English in 2025. Anyway, so why am I ranting about Eduardo? Uh, he came up with this really cool list of phrases for contractions of common auxiliary verbs like 'to be', 'will', um, 'to have', 'would', and different phrases. So I thought I could probably turn these phrases into some lessons.

So I've added in some of my own sentences here, uh, and thought for the next few weeks I might release 1 or 2 of these sort of episodes, actually, maybe about four episodes going over each of these different ones. And we can practice connected speech. And I will also try and dive in a little more deeply and talk about linking and other aspects of native speech changes, you know, emphasis, stress, all that sort of stuff, intonation that's going on with these phrases as well.

So before we get into that, guys, don't forget if you want to work on your Australian pronunciation, go and check out my Australian Pronunciation Course at AussieEnglish.com.au/APC100. If you use that URL ending in APC 100, you will save $100 when signing up to the Australian Pronunciation Course. And you can also get the Spoken English course for half price. I think it's only $35 when you sign up at the checkout there, so you can select it to add it on.

And the Spoken English course has a lot of these. Auxiliary verb and modal verb contractions. These spoken contractions as well as linking sounds. It's got a lot of these lessons in there that will help you work on the stuff we're going we're going to work on in these lessons. Okay, so if you want to go and grab those two courses, go to AussieEnglish.com.au/APC100 APC 100.

Anyway so today this lesson we're going to go over 'to be' in the present tense. 'Am' 'are' and 'is', those auxiliary verbs 'to be' in the present tense and how they contract onto pronouns. So, "I am" becoming "I'm", "you are" becoming "you're", "he is", "he's", etc. etc.

So we'll work on each one of these pronoun and auxiliary verb pairs. I'll say each one of them with both words pronounced well, and then I'll contract them. And then we'll also go through some phrases using these auxiliary verbs and pronouns together naturally as well, so that you can work on it and we can discuss each sentence. So yeah, let's give it a whirl. So we'll start with the pronoun and the auxiliary verb split said separately. And then we'll contract them together. Okay.

I am. I'm. You are. You're. He is. He's. She is. She's. We are. We're. They are. They're. It is. It's.

So let's go through those one more time. Contracted.

I'm I'm I'm. Your your your. He's he's he's. She's she's she's. We're we're we're. They're they're they're. It's it's it's.

Good work. So there's some interesting stuff going on here. Okay. You're going to hear with words like "we are" becoming, well, phrases like "we are" becoming "we're", "they are" becoming "they're".

So "we" and "are" /e/ /r/ and the vowel sounds change, so neither /e/ or /r/ is the vowel sound in the contraction, but instead it is /air/ like the air that you breathe where and it sounds like the word "w e a r" "w a r e" or "w h e r e". They all sound the same, right? There's like four of those. "Wear" "ware" "where" "we're", okay. "Where" "where" "where is the air?" "Where is the air? It's right in front of me." "We're breathing air." "We're wearing clothes, where we are and we're breathing air." So it sounds like "we're". Okay, that's what I'm trying to say. "We're", "we're", "we're".

And it's the same vowel sound for "they are" when it's contracted together. So instead of /a/ or /r/. Again, it's this vowel sound /eh/ /there/ /there/. And it sounds like "t h e r e", as in "there's the dog" or the possessive "their" "t h e i r". Um. "They're friends". "They're", "there", "their", they all sound like "they're". Okay, so that's something to clear up. I have noticed a lot of English learners get confused about how those words are pronounced when contracted. Because the vowel sounds change. "We are" "we're", "they are" "they're".

Okay. And then with "it's", /it's/ you'll notice that I mute the T before I say the /s/, okay. So I kind of go /it/, the tongue goes to make the T sound /it/ and instead of saying it /t/, I don't release it, I don't do that /tuh/ part, /it/, and then I go straight into the /s/, if that makes sense. /It's/ and you do it really quickly. /It's/ /it's/ /it's/.

All right. So hopefully that helps guys. Or I guess I should mention too "you are", because again the vowel sound changes "you" the /ooh/ and /ah/. The /ah/ /you ah/, it becomes the /aw/ vowel sound. /Your/ /your/ and it sounds like the possessive "your", as in "your dog" y-o-u-r /your/ /your/ /your/ /your/ /you're your best friend/ /you're your/, okay. /You're your best friend/. So that's also worth noting.

All right. Let's go through some phrases where I use these contractions. And again you can practice your pronunciation, okay. So listen and repeat after me.

I'm on my way now. I'm on my way now. You're my best friend. You're my best friend. He's already left for work. He's already left for work. She's been waiting for hours. She's been waiting for hours. We're planning to meet tomorrow. We're planning to meet tomorrow. They're coming to the party. They're coming to the party.

So I could actually contract that even further there. They're coming to the party. Coming to the party. They're coming to the party. Are they coming to the party later? They're coming to the party later. It's going to rain soon. It's going to rain soon.

All right. Good work. Let's go through it all one more time. And I'm going to point out any interesting aspects of stress or linking. And if the schwas appear for certain words. Okay, let's just start from the top and I'll sort of discuss each sentence as we go.

I'm on my way now. I'm on my way now. "I'm on" so you can link "I'm" and "on". You take the consonant from "I'm", the last one, the /m/ sound, and link it to the next syllable /I'm on/, /I'm on/, /I'm on my way now/.

And the other interesting thing that happens here, if I'm speaking really quickly, the N at the end of the word "on" actually kind of disappears, and I go straight into the M at the start of the word "my" /I'm on my way/. So it sounds like you're saying, /mom mai/ /mom mai/ /I'm on my way now/. /I'm on my way now/. /I'm on my way now/.

So there's actually no N. And I think that's just for ease of speed, right? We just don't say that first consonant there between "on" and "my". The N, we ditch it and just go straight to the M sound because it's kind of hard to go mhm mhm mhm, right. Switching between the two. "I'm on my way now." It sounds weird saying it slowly but fast. "I'm on my way now." /I'm on my way now/. That's how I think I would say it. "I'm on my way now."

The next one. You're my best friend. You're my best friend. I don't think there's much really happening here in terms of linking because, uh, yeah, a lot of the words start and end with consonants, right? /You're my best friend/. The hard part might be saying that T between "best" and "friend". /My best friend/. Because you kind of go /best/ /friend/. /My best friend/ really quickly. /Best friend/. /Best friend/. /Best friend/.

It may even sound like you've dropped the T and you just say /bes friend/ if you do it really quickly. That may happen. "You're my best friend". Yeah, that would happen. "You're my best friend". "He's my best friend". "He's my best friend". It just happened so fast. "Have you got any best friends?" "Yeah, I've got loads of best friends." "He's my best friend." "You're my best friend." So you may hear that T disappear, but obviously practice it with the T as well. /You're my best friend/. /You're my best friend./ /You're my best friend/.

All right, next one. "He's already left for work." "He's already left for work." So there's two things here that are worth pointing out. /He's already/. /He's already/. /He's already/. We're linking that sound at the end of the word "he's" to the /oh/ sound at the start of the word "already". /He's already/. /He's already/. So take that consonant at the end of "he's", push it to the front of "already", as if it's starting the syllable at the start of that word. /He's already/, /he's already/.

And then "left for work". /He's already left for work/. /Left for work/. We don't say the R at the end of the word "for", because there's a W that comes after that word, so we don't link with that R. Australian English is non-rhotic, so we don't say the R unless there's a vowel that comes after the R, whether it's in that word or at the start of the next word, for "work".

And instead of saying /for work/, we reduce the word for this preposition. And we say /for/ using the schwa. /For work/. /For work/. So "work" is being stressed. /For work/. So you should hear this kind of stress or rhythm as opposed to even beats of din din, right? /For work/, we wouldn't say that. We would say /for work/ duh dun.

"He's already left for work". /For work/. And you'll notice this in a few of these, okay. With these prepositions, getting the schwa sound not being stressed and it's kind of skipping over them quickly and then stressing or emphasising the next word. So, "he's already left for work".

So the next one. "She's been waiting for hours". And you could do. There's two pronunciations. You could say /for hours/ where you really use a short /f/, but we could also link the R to "hours" and say /for hours/ where you're using that R sound to link to the next vowel.

/for hours/, no linking. /For hours/. /For hours/, linking with the R. "She's been waiting for hours, man". "She's been waiting for hours". /For hours/. /For hours/. So it's that same da dun da dun. As opposed to even beats of dun dun, right. /For hours/. /For hours/. /For hours/ or /for hours/. /For hours/. /She's been waiting for hours/. /She's been waiting for hours/.

Another word here. Interestingly enough, "been" can often get reduced as well with the schwa sound because it has the word "waiting" after it. /She's been waiting for hours/. So you'll hear "been" and "for" both getting schwa vowel sounds and being reduced. "She's been waiting for hours". "She's been waiting for hours". "She's been waiting for hours".

Next one. "We're planning to meet tomorrow", right. If I was really stretching everything out, /we're planning to meet tomorrow/. So "to" becomes, /tuh/ gets reduced. Whether it's at the start of the word "tomorrow". And this happens with "today", "tonight", "tomorrow", you'll hear /tuh/ instead of /too/. And if it is "to" as in the preposition. So like in the infinitive of a verb /to meet/ as opposed to /to meet/ /to meet/. /We're planning to meet tomorrow/. The da da da da da. /To meet tomorrow/. /To meet tomorrow/. /We're planning to meet tomorrow/.

Now what can happen to when you have like "planning to meet", the "to" can actually lose the T at the start and you may hear something like /planning a meet/ tomorrow.

/We're planning a meet tomorrow/, you may hear that, but you probably get rid of the kind of sound /planning/ the /Ng/ sound at the end of the word "planning" and instead say an /n/ sound, a schwa, and an N /n/ /plan/. And it would become "planning to", /plannin a/ /plannin a/. /We're plannin a meet tomorrow/. /We're plannin a meet tomorrow/, /we're plannin a meet tomorrow/, /plannin a/ /plannin a/ /We're planning a meet tomorrow/. That happens quite often in sort of broad Australian English.

If you're speaking quickly and you'll notice that in the next one, /They're comin a the party later/, /they're comin a the party later/. There's actually three schwa sounds there in a row. It's like a /uh nu the/ /uh nu the/ /uh nu the/ /comin a the/. /They're coming to the party later/. /They're coming to the party later/. /They're coming to the party later/.

"Yeah, I think they're coming to the party later." "Are they coming to the party later?" "Yeah, they're coming to the party later." /Comin a the party later/.

So again, breaking this down, /come/ /ing/ the ING on the ends of words can quite often get reduced. You can get a schwa vowel sound instead of the /i/ vowel sound in ING. And you can, you can shorten that NG sound, that kind of sound to just an N sound. /Come N/. /Are you comin/? /Yeah. I'm comin/. /Comin/, /comin/. And then with "to" there, we get rid of the T and we just use a schwa sound.

/Comin a/, /Comin a/ as in "coming to" and "the" as well can get a schwa sound to reduce it to /comin a the/ /come into the/. /Come into the party/. /Come into the party later/. /They come into the party later/.

So get used to those sorts of rhythms. You'll notice it when you've got unstressed syllables in words like "coming" becoming /comin/. So the first syllable is stressed, the second one isn't /comin/ /comin/. So that sort of duh duh duh duh, right? The stress is on the first syllable there.

And then we have these other kind of less important words like "two" and the articles, prepositions, that sort of thing. And they get reduced to just a schwa sound to really quickly skip over. We used unstressed kind of beats on them, and then we say the more important words like the nouns or adjectives, right? "Party", "later", "they're coming to the party later" "they come into the party later".

So this is something to pay attention to if you want to sound more natural when speaking English. Which words are being stressed? Which are being reduced? What's the rhythm? You know it's not going to be dee dee dee dee dee. It's going to be more like dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee dee. You know, broken up like that. Not as even.

Anyway, last sentence. Here's the last one. "It's gonna rain soon". "It's gonna rain soon". "Going to". "It's going to rain soon", right? If that, if I was stressing each kind of word or syllable evenly, /it's going to rain soon/, right? Sounds very unnatural.

Instead, I would say /it's guna rain soon/, right? "Going to" /guna/ /guna/. It's almost like you get two schwas for the price of one, right? You get /guh/ and /nuh/. /It's guna rain soon/. /It's guna rain soon/. /It's guna rain soon/. So, /guna/ "going to" /guna/.

So there you go guys. Hopefully you've enjoyed this episode. Again, I would love your feedback. I've got more on the way that we can do, and you'll have to let me know if you enjoy this. Be sure to go and check out the Australian Pronunciation course if you want to speak with confidence. Develop your own Australian accent and learn all these sort of tricks and tips to all the different sounds in Australian English, and grab that Spoken English Course at the checkout as well, so that you can learn all of these types of contractions and linking and everything like that. So go to AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100. That's APC 100. Okay. Think of it as Australian Pronunciation Course 100 AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100.

All right, to see you out. Let's go through each of these phrases one last time.

I'm on my way now. You're my best friend. He's already left for work. She's been waiting for hours. We're planning a meet tomorrow. They're coming to the party later. It's going to rain soon.

Great job, mate. Tooroo!