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Of, Have, and To: "I Could Of... " Instead of "I Could Have... " or "I Could've"

The document summarizes common contractions and elisions of function words in English such as "of", "to", "have", "you", and others. It notes that these words often reduce to schwa sounds in casual speech and provides phonetic transcriptions of contracted phrases like "could've", "gonna", and "lemme".

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Khai Nguyen Huy
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52 views

Of, Have, and To: "I Could Of... " Instead of "I Could Have... " or "I Could've"

The document summarizes common contractions and elisions of function words in English such as "of", "to", "have", "you", and others. It notes that these words often reduce to schwa sounds in casual speech and provides phonetic transcriptions of contracted phrases like "could've", "gonna", and "lemme".

Uploaded by

Khai Nguyen Huy
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Of, have, and to

The words of, to, and have all tend to elide to nothing
more than a schwa [ə] 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: [ˈkʊɾə], coulda or [ˈkʊɾəv], could uhv.
 must have: [ˈmʌstə], musta or [ˈmʌstəv], must uhv.
 should have: [ˈʃʊɾə], shoulda or [ˈʃʊɾəv], should
uhv.
 would have: [ˈwʊɾə], woulda or [ˈwʊɾəv], would
uhv.
 it would: when contracted, it's pronounced [ˈɪɾəd],
iduhd, but this often collapses to [ˈɪd], ihd.
 it would / it would have: [ˈɪɾə], itta.
 a lot of: [əˈlɑɾə], a lotta.
 kind of: [ˈkaɪɾə], kinda.
 out of: [ˈaʊɾə], outta.
 sort of: [ˈsɔɹɾə], sorta.
 going to: [ˈɡʌnə], gonna.
 got to: [ˈɡɑɾə], gotta.
 have to: [ˈhæftə], hafta.
 want to: [ˈwɑɾə], wanna.
 ought to : [ˈɔɾə], oughta.
"Would" can also get contracted ("I'd have done things
differently."), which usually yields [ɾə] ("I would
have..." can be pronounced [aɪɾə]).
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 [jə] (often written "ya").
Softening of the preceding consonant also may occur:
(/t/ + /jə/ = [tʃə], /d/ + /jə/ = [dʒə], /s/ + /jə/ = [ʃə], and
/z/ + /jə/ = [ʒə]). 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 [ˈɡɔtʃjʉː] (never
*[ˈɡɔtjʉː])[citation needed].
 did you: [ˈdɪdʒə], didja
 did you / do you: [ˈdʒə], d'ya
 don't you: [ˈdoʊntʃə], doncha
 got you: [ˈɡɒtʃə], gotcha
 get you / get your: [ˈɡɛtʃə], getcha
 would you: [ˈwʊdʒə], wouldja
Other
 -ing forms of verbs and sometimes gerunds tend to
be pronounced with an [ɪ̈ n] at the end instead of the
expected [iŋ] or [ɪŋ]. E.g. talking: [ˈtʰɑkɪ̈ n], tahkin.
If followed by a [t], this can in turn blend with it to
form [ɾ]̃ . E.g. talking to Bob: [ˈtʰɑkɪ̈ ɾə̃ ˈbɑb],
tahkinna Bob
 "I will" gets contracted to "I'll" [aɪjəl], which in
turn gets reduced to "all" [ɑl] in relaxed
pronunciation. E.g. I'll do it: [ˈɑl ˈduɪʔ(t)], all do it
 "he" tends to elide to just [i] after consonants,
sometimes after vowel sounds as well. E.g. is he:
[ˈɪzi], izee; all he: [ˈɑli], ahlee
 "his", "him", and "her" tend to elide in most
environments to [ɪ̈ z], [ɪ̈ m], and [ɚ], respectively.
E.g. meet his: [ˈmiɾɪ̈ z], meetiz; tell him: [ˈtʰɛlɪ̈ m],
tellim; show her [ˈʃoʊɚ], show-er
 "them" tends to elide to [əm] after consonants. E.g.
ask them: [ˈæskəm], ask'em. (Historically, this is a
remnant of the Middle English pronoun hem.)
 about: [ˈbaʊt], bout
 already: [ɑˈɹɛɾi], ahready
 all right: [ɑˈɹʌit], ahright
 all right: [ɑˈʌit], aight
 come here: [ˈkʌmi(ə)ɹ], cuhmeer
 don't know: [ɾəˈnoʊ], [dəˈnoʊ] if not preceded by a
vowel sound, dunno
 fixing to: "finna"
 give me: [ˈɡɪmi], gimme
 I'm going to: [ˈaɪmə], "I'mma" or [ˈɑmənə], "Ah-
muhnuh"
 is it: [zɪt], ’zit
 isn't it: [ˈɪnɪt], innit
 let me: [ˈlɛmi], lemme
 let's: [ts], E.g. let's go: [tsˈɡoʊ]
 probably: [ˈpɹɑli], [ˈpɹɑbli], prolly, probly
 suppose: [spoʊz] s'pose. E.g. I suppose so: [ai
spoʊz soʊ]
 trying to: [ˈtɹaɪɾə] "trynna"
 want a: [ˈwɑɾə̃ ], wanna
 what is that: [ˌwʌˈsæt], wussat
 what is up: [wəˈsʌp], wassup
 what is up: [sʌp], ’sup
 what are you: [ˈwʌtʃə], whatcha
 what have you: [ˈwʌtʃə], whatcha. E.g. What have
you been up to? : [wʌtʃə bɪn ʌp tu]
 what do you/what are you: [ˈwʌɾəjə], whaddaya
 you all: [jɑl], y’all

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