Reductions in English
Putting endings on words is important because they carry grammatical information and if not pronounced, the speaker may be misunderstood. But when we connect words in sentences, the endings of words sometimes change. They may become reduced (less pronounced), they may be moved to the next sound or another sound may be inserted to create a smooth, fluid flow. Here is an example of a reduction of a sound. Look at the sentence on your screen…
He had a good day when he went to work. Notice that the final /d/ on “good” is beside a word that begins with /d/ (day). Since “good” ends in a /d/ and the next word begins with a /d/, the first /d/ is hardly pronounced. Let me contrast the two for you.
The first word combination was pronounced separately and the second one had a reduction of the /d/ sound in good. Did one of those sentences sound more choppy and did one sound smooth and connected?
Take a look now at the second example in this sentence, “went to.” The two t’s together indicate that one of them, the first one, will not be spoken strongly. Listen:
Went to vs. wen to
This detail in speech may seem small and insignificant, but for nonnative speakers, it significantly benefits rhythm and ultimately intelligibility, if used.