The following sections contain common words said with relaxed pronunciation in

American English, along with pronunciations given in IPA, and a common written
indication of this pronunciation where applicable:
Of, have, and to
The words of, to, and have all tend to elide to nothing more than a schwa [] in many
common situations. This sometimes leads to spelling confusion, such as writing "I could
of..." instead of "I could have..." or "I could've".
could have: [k], coulda or [kv], could uhv.
must have: [mst], musta or [mstv], must uhv.
should have: [], shoulda or [v], should uhv.
would have: [w], woulda or [wv], would uhv.
it would: when contracted, it's pronounced [d], iduhd, but this often collapses to
[d], ihd.
it would / it would have: [], itta.
a lot of: [l], a lotta.
kind of: [ka

], kinda.
out of: [a], outta.
sort of: [s], sorta.
going to: [n], gonna.
got to: [], gotta.
have to: [hft], hafta.
want to: [w

], wanna.
ought to : [], oughta.
"Would" can also get contracted ("I'd have done things differently."), which usually yields
[] ("I would have..." can be pronounced [a]).
Note: The [v] in "have" and "of" is usually retained before a vowel sound (e.g. in "I could
have asked...").
You
"You" tends to elide to [j] (often written "ya"). Softening of the preceding consonant also
may occur: (/t/ + /j/ = [t], /d/ + /j/ = [d], /s/ + /j/ = [], and /z/ + /j/ = []). This can
also happen with other words that begin with [j] (e.g. "your", "yet", "year"). In some
dialects, such as Australian English, this is not a relaxed pronunciation but compulsory: got
you [tj] (never *[tj])
[citation needed]
.
did you: [dd], didja
did you / do you: [d], d'ya
don't you: [dont], doncha
got you: [t], gotcha
get you / get your: [t], getcha
would you: [wd], wouldja
Other
-ing forms of verbs and sometimes gerunds tend to be pronounced with an [n] at
the end instead of the expected [i] or []. .g. talking: [tkn], tahkin. If
followed by a [t], this can in turn blend with it to form [

]. .g. talking to ob:

[tk

bb], tahkinna Bob

"I will" gets contracted to "I'll" [ajl], which in turn gets reduced to "all" [l] in
relaxed pronunciation. .g. I'll do it: [l du(t)], all do it
"he" tends to elide to just [i] after consonants, sometimes after vowel sounds as
well. .g. is he: [zi], izee; all he: [li], ahlee
"his", "him", and "her" tend to elide in most environments to [z], [m], and [],
respectively. .g. meet his: [miz], meetiz; tell him: [tlm], tellim; show her
[o], show-er
"them" tends to elide to [m] after consonants. .g. ask them: [skm], ask'em.
(Historically, this is a remnant of the Middle English pronoun hem.)
about: [bat], bout
already: [i], ahready
all right: [it], ahright
all right: [it], aight
come here: [kmi()], cuhmeer
don't know: [no], [dno] if not preceded by a vowel sound, dunno
fixing to: "finna"
give me: [mi], gimme
I'm going to: [am], "I'mma" or [mn], "Ah-muhnuh"
is it: [zt], zit
isn't it: [nt], innit
let me: [lmi], lemme
let's: [ts], .g. let's go: [tso]
probably: [pli], [pbli], prolly, probly
suppose: [spoz] s'pose. .g. I suppose so: [ai spoz so]
trying to: [ta

] "trynna"
want a: [w

], wanna
what is that: [wst], wussat
what is up: [wsp], wassup
what is up: [sp], sup
what are you: [wt], whatcha
what have you: [wt], whatcha. E.g. What have you been up to? : [wt bn p
tu]
what do you/what are you: [wj], whaddaya
you all: [jl], yall