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Chapter 12

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13 views

Chapter 12

Uploaded by

tu92lt
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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CHAPTER 12: WEAK FORMS

WORDS IN STRONG FORM & WEAK FORM

 Certain well-known English words can be pronounced in


two different ways: strong forms and weak forms.
I like that. aɪ laɪk ðæt
I hope that she will. aɪ həʊp ðət ʃi wɪl
 These words are often function words: auxiliary verbs,
prepositions, conjunctions, etc.
 They are pronounced in their strong forms in certain
circumstances, but more frequently they are pronounced in
their weak forms.
WHY LEARN WEAK FORMS?

 Most native speakers of English find an “all-strong


form” pronunciation unnatural and foreign-sounding,
something that most learners would wish to avoid.
 Speakers who are not familiar with the use of weak
forms are likely to have difficulty understanding
speakers who do use weak forms.
RULES FOR USING STRONG FORMS

1. Weak form words occur at the end of a sentence.


‘Chips are what I’m fond of.’
‘I’m fond of chips.’
2. When a weak form word is being contrasted with another
word.
‘The letter’s from him, not to him.’
A coordinated use of prepositions
‘I travel to and from London a lot.’
‘A work of and about literature’
RULES FOR USING STRONG FORMS

3. When a weak-form word is given stress for the purpose of

emphasis

‘You must give me more money.’

4. When a weak-form is being “cited” or “quoted”

‘You shouldn’t put “and” at the end of a sentence.’

When weak-form words whose spelling begins with ‘h’ (e.g. ‘her’,

‘have’) occur at the beginning of a sentence, the pronunciation is

with initial h, even though this is usually omitted in other contexts.


THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
1. ‘the’
Weak forms: ðə (before consonants)
‘Shut the door’ ʃʌt ðə dɔː

ði (before vowels)
‘Wait for the end’
2. ‘a’, ‘an’
Weak forms: ə (before consonants)
‘Read a book’
ən (before vowels)
‘Eat an apple’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS

3. ‘and’
Weak form: ən (sometimes n̩ after t, d, s, z, ʃ)
‘Come and see’
‘Fish and chips’
4. ‘but’
Weak form: bət
‘It’s good but expensive’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS

5. ‘that’
This word only has a weak form when used in a relative
clause; when used with a demonstrative sense it is always
pronounced in its strong form.
Weak form: ðət
‘The price is the thing that annoys me’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS

6. ‘than’
Weak form: ðən
‘Better than ever’
7. ‘his’ (when it occurs before a noun)
Weak form: ɪz (hɪz at the beginning of a sentence)
‘Take his name’
 If ‘his’ is a possessive pronoun, as in ‘it was his’, or ‘his
was late’, it always has the strong form.
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
8. ‘her’
Weak form: ə (before consonants)
‘Take her home’
ər (before vowels)
‘Take her out’
9. ‘your’
Weak forms: jə (before consonants)
‘Take your time’
jər (before vowels)
‘On your own’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
10. ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘we’, ‘you’
a. ‘she’
Weak form: ʃi
‘Why did she read it?’
‘Who is she?’
b. ‘he’
Weak form: i (the weak form is usually pronounced
without h except at the beginning of a
sentence)
‘Which did he choose?’
‘He was late, wasn’t he?’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
10. ‘she’, ‘he’, ‘we’, ‘you’
c. ‘we’
Weak form: wi
‘How can we get there?
‘We need that, don’t we?’
d. ‘you’

Weak form: ju
‘What do you think?’
‘You like it, do you?’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
11. ‘him’
Weak form: ɪm
‘Leave him alone’
‘I’ve seen him’
12. ‘her’
Weak form: ə (hə when sentence-initial)
‘Ask her to come’
‘I’ve met her’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
13. ‘them’
Weak form: ðəm
‘Live them here’
‘Eat them’
14. ‘us’
Weak form: əs
‘Write us a letter’
‘They invited all of us’
 The next group of words (some prepositions and other
function words) occur in their strong forms when they
are in final position in a sentence; examples of this are
given.
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
15. ‘at’
Weak form: ət
‘I’ll see you at lunch’
In final position: æt
‘What’s he shooting at?’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
16. ‘for’
Weak form: fə (before consonants)
‘Tea for two’
fər (before vowels)
‘Thanks for asking’
In final position: fɔː
‘What’s that for?’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
17. ‘from’
Weak form: frəm
‘I’m home from work’
In final position: frɒm
‘Here’s where it came from’
18. ‘of’
Weak form: əv
‘Most of all’
In final position: ɒv
‘Someone I’ve heard of’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
19. ‘to’

Weak forms: tə (before consonants)


‘Try to stop’
tu (before vowels)
‘Time to eat’
In final position: tu (it is not usual to use the strong form tuː;
the pre-consonantal weak form tə is never used.)
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
20. ‘as’

Weak forms: əz
‘As much as possible’
In final position æz
‘That’s what it was sold as’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
21. ‘some’
- When ‘some’ occurs before a countable noun, meaning ‘an

unknown individual’, it has the strong form. (sʌm)

‘I think some animal broke it”


- When ‘some’ is used before uncountable nouns (meaning ‘an
unspecified amount of”) and before other nouns in the plural

(meaning “an unspecified number of’); it has the weak form səm.

‘Have some more tea’


- In final position: sʌm I’ve got some.
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
22. ‘there’
- When this word has a demonstrative function, it always occurs in its
strong form ðeə (ðeər before vowels).
There it is.
Put it there.
- Weak forms: ðə (before consonants)
‘There should be a rule’
ðər (before vowels)
‘There is’
- In final position, the pronunciation may be ðə or ðeə
‘There isn’t any, is there?’
 The remaining weak-form words are all auxiliary
verbs, which are always used in conjunction with
another verb.
+ In negative form (combined with not), they never
have the weak pronunciation
+ Some have different vowels from their non-negative
strong forms.
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS

23. ‘can’, ‘could’


Weak forms: kən, kəd
‘They can wait’
‘He could do it’
In final position: kæn, kʊd
‘I think we can’
‘Most of them could’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS

24. ‘have’, ‘has’, ‘had’


Weak forms: əv, əz, əd (with initial h in initial position)
‘Which have you seen?’
‘Which has been best?’
‘Most had gone home’

In final position: hæv, hæz, hæd


‘Yes, we have’
‘I think she has’
‘I thought we had’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS

25. ‘shall’, ‘should’


Weak forms: ʃəl or ʃl; ʃəd
‘We shall need to hurry’
‘I should forget it’
In final position: ʃæl, ʃʊd
‘I think we shall’
‘So you should’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
26. ‘must’
- When ‘must’ is used with the sense of forming a conclusion or
deduction, it is less likely to occur in its weak form than when it is
being used in its more familiar sense of obligation.
- Weak forms: məs (before consonants)
‘You must try harder’
məst (before vowels)
‘He must eat more’
- In final position: mʌst
‘She certainly must.
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
27. ‘do’, ‘does’
Weak forms:
‘do’ də (before consonants)
‘Why do they like it?’
du (before vowels)
‘Why do all the cars stop?’
‘does’ dəz
‘When does it arrive?’
In final position: duː, dʌz
‘We don’t smoke, but some people do’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
28. ‘am’, ‘are’, ‘was’, ‘were’
Weak forms: əm
‘Why am I here?’
ə (before consonants)
‘Here are the plates’
ər (before vowels)
‘The coats are in there’
wəz
‘He was here a minute ago’
wə (before consonants)
‘The papers were late’
THE MOST COMMON WEAK-FORM WORDS
28. ‘am’, ‘are’, ‘was’, ‘were’
wər (before vowels)
‘The questions were easy’
In final position: æm, ɑː, wɒz, wɜː
‘She’s not as old as I am’
‘I know the Smiths are’
‘The last record was’
‘They weren’t as cold as we were’

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