Speaker 1: Hey there, it's Michael here and welcome back to speak
naturally in a minute from Happy English. I'm here every
Sunday with a quick one point lesson to help you
improve your pronunciation, rhythm and intonation. And if you want
to watch this lesson, just look for Happy English podcast
on YouTube now. In every day spoken American English, we
often use reduction that means we shorten or soften sounds
when we speak. Today's example is the word didn't. Didn't. First,
most native speakers drop the D in the middle, so
instead of didn't, we say didn't didn't. The reason is
if you pronounce the final D of did, and the
next sound is n D followed by N makes the
sound stop didn't. Dropping the D makes the sound smoother.
Didn't like I didn't see your message becomes I didn't
see your message, or she didn't call me back becomes
she didn't call me back didn't. And there's one more thing.
The final T in this word also tends to get
very soft or disappears, so didn't becomes didn't. That's right,
both the D and the T get reduced. I'm sure
you hear this all the time, like I didn't hear
you becomes I didn't hear you, she didn't call me back,
becomes she didn't call me back, and they didn't do
it becomes they didn't do it. This is not slang
and it's not lazy. It's just how real American English flows.
So the next time you say, didn't try relaxing your
tongue a bit, I didn't know. I didn't get it.
That's the rhythm of natural American speech. Hey, thanks for listening,
and remember to follow and subscribe so you won't miss
the next Happy English podcast and next Sundays Speak naturally
in a minute Until next time, keep learning and keep
it cool.