Is American English Sloppy?
Some people may argue that Americans have learned to be sloppy speakers because they aren’t very precise with their diction and reduce or eliminate sounds and words. But we often minimize/eliminate sounds logically and conveniently to create a smooth, natural flow of speech. Here is an example…
In running speech, when an unimportant word that begins with an /h/ sound (he, his, her and have) follows a word that ends in a consonant, the /h/ is eliminated and the final sound of the first word is linked to the /h/ word. Here is an example:
Will he=Will’ e Will’ e come to the meeting?
Should have=Should ‘ave We should’ave known.
Listen as I compare the precise way and the less precise way.
There is a fine line to consider. Pronouncing “will he” as two separate words versus linking them, gives a slightly different sound: one that is formal, one that is informal. Both are appropriate in certain settings. Non-native English speakers need to learn to use linking more often to create natural sounding speech. Perhaps native English speakers need to learn to use slightly more precision to sound more formal. The time that I received an email from an American who actually spelled out “ could ave” in the email, was the time that I thought that it has gone too far! Be careful with your speech and if you want to improve how well someone understands, you might consider learning American “linking” techniques.
Tags: communication skills, fluent english