Reduced Speech in American English

When  American English speakers converse informally with friends and family they often use informal pronunciation patterns. Pronunciation and accent reduction books refer to this type of language as “reduced speech”.

Reduced speech usually involves using the schwa vowel sound /ə/ for the vowels in reduced syllables.

Here are a few examples:

  • want to sounds like wannə
  • going to sounds like gonnə
  • got to sounds like gottə
  • have to sounds like haftə
  • has to sounds like hastə

You probably don’t want to use reduced speech with your boss. That would be too informal. However, you would want to use it with your American friends.

One of the best accent reduction books (and audio) for learning about reduced speech in American English is Nina Weinstein’s Whaddaya Say?