Reduced Words
Reduce or weaken function words. Function words serve a grammatical purpose, but they don't carry as much meaning.
Function Words:
|
Articles |
Conjunctions |
Prepositions |
Pronouns |
Auxiliary Verbs |
|
a/an |
and |
to |
her |
can |
|
the |
or |
of |
you |
have |
The vowel sound in weakened or reduced syllables sounds like the schwa /ə/ ('uh').
Here are some common one-syllable function words and their unstressed pronunciations.
These reductions are not errors! If you weaken these words, your speech will sound much more natural.
**Well Said by Linda Grant; 2001 Heinle and Heinle Publishers