The bucket list The present perfect with ‘ever’ and ‘never’ Contractions When youre talking about your life experiences, are you going to pronounce every single word in a sentence like I have run a marathon? Well, if you want to sound fluent and natural when you speak, youre more likely to say Ive run a marathon. Did you notice how the words I and have are changed to the shorter form Ive. This is an example of a contraction. Heres 6 Minute Vocabulary - Finn and Feifei are going to help you get your head around this important part of speaking, and sometimes writing, in English transcript Finn Hello and welcome to this episode of 6 Minute Vocabulary. Im Finn... Feifei ...and Im Feifei. Hi! Finn Today were going to be talking about contractions, like Ive meaning I have, or isnt meaning is not. Were going to talk about what these contractions mean, and how to pronounce them. Feifei Thats right, and learning to use contractions like Ive or isnt when you’re speaking will make your English sound much more fluent and natural. Finn And thats got to be good news. As usual, well have lots of examples... Feifei Therell be a short quiz... Finn And finally well give you a tip to help you with your vocabulary studies. Feifei So, lets start with an example. Listen to Bill talking about his wife and his brother. Finn While youre listening, try to answer this question: has Bills brother ever visited the US? INSERT Bill My wife and I live in London. Weve been married for about five years. Ive always lived in London, but shes lived in Germany, and the US, and lots of different places. Ive never been to the US, but my brothers been there many times, because his wife is from New York. Finn So, Feifei asked you: has Bills brother ever visited the US? Feifei And the answer is yes, Bills brother has been to the US many times, because his wife is American. Shes from New York. Finn Did you get the answer right? Of course you did! Feifei Ok, now here is another question. How long have Bill and his wife been married? Listen again and check... INSERT 1 CLIP 1 My wife and I live in London. Weve been married for about five years. Feifei He said Weve been married for about five years. Finn Did you notice that he didnt say we have been, he said weve been? When were speaking, we often shorten the word have, and just say -ve instead. Feifei So I have becomes Ive, you have becomes youve, we have becomes weve and they have becomes theyve. Finn We use contractions like weve a lot when were speaking, but sometimes we write them, too - especially when were writing something informal or unofficial, like an email or a postcard. Feifei Now, when youre writing contractions, remember to use an apostrophe. So, for example, weve is spelled w - e - apostrophe - v - e. Finn The apostrophe shows that a letter, or more than one, is missing. Feifei Thats right, so when we write weve instead of we have, we miss the letters h and a from the word have. And the apostrophe shows that these letters have been skipped. Finn Right, ok. Heres another question about Bill. How many different places has his wife lived in? Can you remember? Heres a clip. INSERT 1 CLIP 2 Bill Ive always lived in London, but shes lived in Germany, and the US, and lots of different places. Feifei He said that shes lived in lots of different places. And he mentioned two of them: Germany, and the US. Finn Did you notice another contraction there? Bill said shes lived. Its the short form of she has lived. Shes lived. Feifei This is a very common one. Instead of has, lots of English speakers say -s /z/ instead. Finn So instead of he has we say hes, instead of she has its shes. Feifei Again, when you use this -s /z/ contraction instead of has when youre writing, dont forget to use the apostrophe. Finn So, hes is spelled h - e - apostrophe - s, and shes is spelled s - h - e - apostrophe - s. IDENT Youre listening to BBC Learning English Feifei And now its time for a quiz. Number one. When were speaking, we dont normally say I have lived here for three years - what do we say? Finn We say, Ive lived here for three years. Feifei Easy question, right? Finn I think so. Feifei Heres another one: Which pronunciation is correct? Is it a) Hes /s/ a teacher or is it b) Hes /z/ a teacher? Finn Its b) Hes /z/ a teacher. And one last question. In the sentence Weve been listening to 6 Minute Vocabulary, how do you spell weve? Feifei Its w - e - apostrophe - v - e. Finn Thats it. Before we go, heres a top tip to help you learn vocabulary. Feifei Vocabulary learning isnt a silent activity! Youll learn words more effectively if you say them out loud. It doesnt matter if nobodys listening - say the words out loud anyway! Finn Absolutely. Very good. There’s more about this at bbclearningenglish. Join us again soon for more 6 Minute Vocabulary. Bye! Feifei Bye! bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/lower-intermediate/unit-11/session-1/activity-3
Posted on: Tue, 09 Dec 2014 10:01:20 +0000
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