Name: 用正確的方法學習英語--最常見的英語單詞的英語口語發音。 (Learn English the RIGHT Way - English Speaking Pronunciation of the Most Common English Words)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T07:49:11.000Z
Duration: 16 min 49 s
Description: 【看影片學英語】數萬部 YouTube 影片，搭配英漢字典即點即查，輕鬆掌握單字發音與用法，長久累積看電影不必再看字幕。

Today you're getting the next video in the 100 most common words in English series, this is video 8.

In this series, we're studying the real pronunciation.

情態副詞

This is likely different from what you 
learned in English class.

You see, in American English, we have all 
sorts of words that are unstressed or even reduced:

The set of the 100 most common words 
in American English

If you haven't already seen video 1 and 
the other videos in this series,

These videos build one on top of the next, 
so click here to watch video one.

00:00:49,020 --> 00:00:53,800
Today, we start with number seventy-one, 
and that's the word 'than'.

Fully pronounced, we have voiced TH, AA 
as in BAT, followed by the M consonant.

When AA is followed by N, we relax the back of the tongue and change the sound:  thaaa— thaa— than.

So it's not aahh thaaan, thaaan, but 
'than', aa-uh, aa-uh, aa-uh.

There's an extra sound in there from relaxing the back of the tongue, sort of like an UH vowel.

But we don't need to focus too much on 
the full pronunciation of this word

Remember, when a word reduces, that's 
called a reduction,

and that's when we change or drop a sound.

So rather than saying 'than' in a 
conversation, it will be 'thn'.

We change the vowel to the schwa, which 
is absorbed by the N,

so you don't even need to think about making a vowel there.

We use this with comparisons:  she's 
taller than I am, than, than, than I am.

Taller than, older than, than, than, than.

A reduction, not a fully pronounced word.

If you go around fully pronouncing every 
word, it will not sound natural,

so you need to know and use these reductions.

Number seventy-two, a very similar word, 'then'.

THAN is used with comparisons, and 
THEN is used with timing,

It got really dark, then it stormed all night.

Or:  if we go grocery shopping, then we can cook dinner.

You won't always hear it reduced, but often you will.

Then it sounds just like 'than' when we reduce it.

It was really dark, and then it stormed all night.

Those three unstressed words together 
are not very clear:

'And' reduces, 'then' reduces, 'it' is said 
quickly with a Stop T.

Some people might think, that's very 
unclear, that's not good English,

between stressed words and unstressed words.

You have to have the unstressed words 
for this contrast.

If we go grocery shopping, then we can cook dinner.

Then we can cook dinner, then we can, 
then we can, then we can, then we can then we can.

It's interesting that our first two in this video,

two different words, sound exactly the 
same when they reduce.

This is true of a few other reductions as well.

Because of the context of the sentence, 
there isn't confusion.

It's an adverb, and adverbs are one of four 
kinds of content words:

We generally don't reduce content words, 
or make them sound unstressed.

Generally, these are stressed in a sentence.

This is what provides that contrast that I 
was talking about

NOW has the N consonant and the OW diphthong.

For the diphthong, we start by dropping the jaw,

then let the jaw come up as you round the lips, ow, now.

For the N, keep the tongue nice and wide as it lifts for the sound, nnn, now.

It can also be a noun:  She gave me a look.

Noun, verb, these are both content words.