LESSON 8: WEAK FORMS

Glossary

affect ảnh hưởng

apparent rõ ràng
compress nén, ép, dồn
conclusion sự kết luận
countable noun danh từ đếm được
deduction sự suy diễn
demonstrative sense nghĩa chỉ định
drastically mạnh mẽ, trầm trọng
grammatical words từ ngữ pháp
in conjunction with chung với
in isolation ở thế cô lập, cô lập
in preference to hơn là
meaning nghĩa
misunderstanding hiểu nhầm
obligation bắt buộc
pattern kiểu, mô hình
possessive sense nghĩa sở hữu
pre-consonantal tiền phụ âm
prepositions giới từ
relative clause mệnh đề quan hệ
represent đại diện cho
rhythm nhịp
stressed có trọng âm
strong form dạng mạnh
symbol ký hiệu
timing đánh nhị/ điều chỉnh cho đúng nhịp
 uncountable không đếm được
unintelligible khó hiểu
unknowingly không chủ tâm/không chú ý
unspecified không định rõ
unstressed không có trọng âm
variation sự biến đổi
version kiểu/ dạng
weak form dạng yếu

English is a stress-timed language, which means that stressed syllables are

equal in timing. In order to fit our words into this pattern, we tend to compress
other syllables or words occurring between stresses, in order to keep up with the
more or less regular rhythm. Therefore, compressing or "weakening" some
sounds is necessary to keep the rhythm of English.

A weak form is the pronunciation of a word or syllable in an unstressed

manner. Of course, the difference between the strong form (stressed) and the
weak form (unstressed) of a word is not apparent in writing, but in speech these
two variations in pronunciation can be drastically different. If spoken in
isolation, the weak form of a word would probably be unintelligible. The
difference between the two forms can affect meaning. Here is an example to
show how strong and weak forms of a single word (that) can change the entire
meaning of a sentence:

John thinks that man is evil. /D@t/

This version of the sentence, with the weak (unstressed) form of that, means
"John thinks all humans are evil."
John thinks that man is evil. /D&t/
This version of the sentence, with the strong (stressed) form of that, means
"John thinks a specific (male) individual is evil."
As indicated by this example, if a speaker unknowingly uses the strong
form instead of the weak form, misunderstandings can occur.
In the rest of this section, the most common weak-form words will be
introduced.
1 ‘THE’
Weak forms: (before consonants)
‘Shut the door’
(before vowels)
‘Wait for the end’
2 ‘A’, ‘AN’
Weak forms: (before consonants)
‘Read a book’
(before vowels)
‘Eat an apple’
3 ‘AND’
Weak form: (sometimes after)
‘Come and see’
‘Fish and chips’
4 ‘BUT’
Weak form: ‘It’s good but expensive’
5 ‘THAT’
(This word only has a weak form when used in a relative clause; when used with
a demonstrative sense it is always pronounced in its strong form.)
Weak form: ‘The price is the thing that annoys me’
6 ‘THAN’
Weak form: ‘Better than ever’
7 ‘HIS’ (when it occurs before a noun)
Weak form: (at the beginning of a sentence)
‘Take his name’
(Another sense of ‘his’, as in ‘it was his’, or ‘his was late’, always has the strong
form.)
8 ‘HER’
(When used with possessive sense, preceding a noun; as an object pronoun, this
can also occur at the end of a sentence.)
Weak forms: (before consonants)
‘Take her home’
(before vowels)
Take her out’
9 ‘YOUR’
Weak forms: (before consonants)
‘Take your time’
(before vowels)
‘On your own’
10 ‘SHE’, ‘HE’, ‘WE’, YOU’
This group of pronouns has weak forms pronounced with weaker vowels than
the and of their strong forms. We will use the symbols and (in preference to and)
to represent them. There is little difference in the pronunciation in different
places in the sentence, except in the case of ‘he’.
 Weak forms:
‘SHE’
‘Why did she read it?’
‘Who is she?’
‘HE’ (the weak form is usually pronounced without except at the beginning of a
sentence)
‘Which did he choose?’
‘He was late, wasn’t he?’
‘WE’
‘How can we get there?’
‘We need that, don’t we?’
‘YOU’
‘What do you think?’
‘You like it, do you?’
11 ‘HIM’
Weak form:
‘Leave him alone’
‘I’ve seen him’
12 ‘HER’
Weak form: (when sentence-initial)
‘Ask her to come’
‘I’ve met her’
13 ‘THEM’
Weak form:
‘Leave them here’
‘Eat them’
14 ‘US’
Weak form:
‘Write us a letter’
‘They invited all of us’

The next group of words (some prepositions and other grammatical words)
occur in their strong forms when they are final in a sentence; examples of this
are given. (19 is a partial exception.)

15 ‘AT’
Weak form:
‘I’ll see you at lunch’
In final position:
 ‘What’s he shooting at?’
16 ‘FOR’
Weak form: (before consonants)
‘Tea for two’
(before vowels)
‘Thanks for asking’
In final position: ‘What’s that for?’
17 ‘FROM’
Weak form:
‘I’m home from work’
In final position:
‘Here’s where it came from’
18 ‘OF’
Weak form:
‘Most of all’
In final position:
‘Someone I’ve heard of’
19 ‘TO’
Weak forms: (before consonants)
‘Try to stop’
(before vowels)
‘Time to eat’
In final position: tu: (It is not usual to use the strong form tu:, and the pre-
consonantal weak form /t@/ is never used.)
‘I don’t want to’
20 ‘AS’
Weak form:
‘As much as possible’
In final position:
‘That’s what it was sold as’
21 ‘SOME’
This word is used in two different ways. In one sense (typically, when it occurs
before a countable noun, meaning “an unknown individual”) it has the strong
form:
‘I think some animal broke it’
It is also used before uncountable nouns (meaning “an unspecified amount of”)
and before other nouns in the plural (meaning “an unspecified number of”); in
such uses it has the weak form
‘Have some more tea’
 In final position:
‘I’ve got some’
22 ‘THERE’
When this word has demonstrative function, it always occurs in its strong form
(before vowels), e.g.
‘There it is’
‘Put it there’
Weak forms: (before consonants)
‘There should be a rule’
(before vowels)
‘There is’
In final position the pronunciation may be or
‘There isn’t any, is there?’

The remaining weak-form words are all auxiliary verbs, which are always used
in conjunction with (or at least implying) another (“full”) verb. It is important to
remember that in their negative form (i.e. combined with ‘not’) they never have
the weak pronunciation, and some (e.g. ‘don’t’, ‘can’t’) have different vowels
from their non-negative strong forms.

23 ‘CAN’, ‘COULD’
Weak forms:
‘They can wait’
‘He could do it’
In final position:
‘I think we can’
‘Most of them could’

24 ‘HAVE’, ‘HAS’, ‘HAD’

Weak forms: (with initial in initial position)
‘Which have you seen?’
‘Which has been best?’
‘Most had gone home’
In final position:
‘Yes, we have’
‘I think she has’
‘I thought we had’
25 ‘SHALL’, ‘SHOULD’
Weak forms:
‘We shall need to hurry’
‘I should forget it’
In final position:
‘I think we shall’
‘So you should’

26 ‘MUST’
This word is sometimes used with the sense of forming a conclusion or
deduction, e.g. ‘she left at 8 o’clock, so she must have arrived by now’; when
‘must’ is used in this way, it is rather less likely to occur in its weak form than
when it is being used in its more familiar sense of “obligation”.
Weak forms: (before consonants)
‘You must try harder’
(before vowels)
‘He must eat more’
In final position:
‘She certainly must’

27 ‘DO’, ‘DOES’
Weak forms:
‘DO’ (before consonants)
‘Why do they like it?’
(before vowels)
‘Why do all the cars stop?’
‘DOES’
‘When does it arrive?’
In final position:
‘We don’t smoke, but some people do’
‘I think John does’

28 ‘AM, ‘ARE’, ‘WAS’, ‘WERE’

Weak forms:
‘Why am I here?’
(before consonants)
‘Here are the plates’
(before vowels)
‘The coats are in there’
 ‘He was here a minute ago’
(before consonants)
‘The papers were late’
(before vowels)
‘The questions were easy’
In final position:
‘She’s not as old as I am’
‘I know the Smith are’
‘The last record was’
‘They weren’t as cold as we were’