Key at bottom of page.
Commentary
[Don't worry if you find this difficult.
Don't let yourself be put off. The same phenomena will come up again and again
in these transcriptions. There'll be plenty of opportunities for them to sink
in over time. Slow and steady, a little each day, is the key to success.]
when:
Although the interrogative pronoun when
is a monosyllabic function/grammatical word, it is usually stressed and has no
weak form. This is true of the other interrogative pronouns: which, who, where, etc.
I:
Although I is a monosyllabic
function/grammatical word and is usually unstressed, it doesn’t usually have a
weak form.
was:
When unstressed, as it usually is, was
has the weak form /wəz/.
so:
The word so is sometimes stressed and
sometimes unstressed. When unstressed, it occasionally has the weak form /sə/
before consonants, but /səʊ/ is always acceptable and learners can safely use
it in all unstressed contexts.
surprised:
When a verb ends in a voiced sound (i.e. a vowel or a voiced consonant (except
/d/)), the regular <-ed> ending has the form /d/.
that:
When unstressed, as it usually is, the relative pronoun that has the weak form /ðət/. Note that the other uses of that do not have weak forms and are
always pronounced /ðæt/: pronoun, I know
that. /aɪ ˈnəʊ ˈðæt/; determiner, I
know that man. /aɪ ˈnəʊ ˈðæt ˈmæn/; adverb, It wasn’t that good. /ɪt ˈwɒzn̩t ˈðæt ˈɡʊd/.
didn’t:
Although function/grammatical words are generally unstressed in English,
negative contractions such as didn’t
(and don’t, won’t, can’t shouldn’t, etc.) are usually stressed.
Although /t/ isn’t usually elided when
it is preceded by /n/ (e.g. in bent nail
/ˈbent ˈneɪl/, front door /ˈfrʌnt ˈdɔː/),
the negative contractions, because of their high frequency, are an exception
and their final /t/ can be elided before both consonants and vowels (e.g. I couldn’t say /aɪ ˈkʊdn̩ ˈseɪ/. He didn’t ask /hi ˈdɪdn̩ ˈɑːsk/.), but
not before a pause. This is much more common in the case of disyllabic negative
contractions (e.g. didn’t, doesn’t, haven’t, hasn’t, hadn’t, shouldn’t, couldn’t, wouldn’t, etc.). In the case of
monosyllabic negative contractions (won’t,
can’t), elision of /t/ is only usual
in rather casual speech.
for:
When unstressed, as it usually is, for
has the weak form /fə/.
When a word ends in schwa /ə/ and is
immediately followed (without a pause) by a word beginning with a vowel, the
consonant /r/ is inserted between the vowels. This process is known as
/r/-liaison and also occurs after /ɑː ɔː ɜː eə ɪə ʊə/.
a:
When unstressed, as it usually is, the indefinite article a has the weak form /ə/.
and:
When unstressed, as it usually is, and
has the weak form /ən/ or /ənd/. Some books say that /ən/ is used before
consonants and /ənd/ before vowels, but this is not true. While both forms can
be heard before consonants and vowels, /ən/ is much more common than /ənd/.
Learners can safely use only /ən/ for the weak form of and because it will never be wrong to do so.
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