This week we are going to look at two more phrases that are very common in English
Can I have a ……?
Can I get a ……?
These are two basic and very common phrases. You will hear these phrases in any place that you can buy things, in shops, bars, restaurants, ticket offices and lots of other locations. I am sure you all understand what these phrases mean but would you recognise these phrases if you heard them spoken in everyday conversation? When you hear these phrases in normal conversational speed English they will often sound very different to the way you might expect them to sound.
Weak forms in spoken English
When we speak we stress the main content words in a sentence. We say these words louder and clearer than the other unstressed words. These other words are the grammatical function words that we say quicker, quieter and don’t pronounce them in their full strong form.
Exercise 1
Say these phrases out loud. Think about what words will carry the stress in these sentences. Write down which words will be unstressed.
Can I have a cup of tea please?
Can I get a return ticket to Manchester please?
Make sure you are saying the stressed words louder and clearer than the unstressed words.
Can I have a cup of tea please?
Can I get a return ticket to Manchester?
Which words did you think would be stressed and unstressed?
The words in black bold text are the main content words of the sentence and would be stressed and so pronounced clearer, quicker, louder than all the other words.
The words can I a of to are all unstressed in these phrases. These words all have two different ways in which they can be pronounced depending if the words are strong stressed words in a sentence ie they carry the main meaning, or if they are unstressed words and therefore pronounced in their weak form.
Listen here to me pronounce these words in the strong and the weak forms.
Now listen to how I say this phrase.
Can I have a return ticket to Manchester please?
Can I have a return ticket to Manchester please?
Did you hear all the words in that sound file?
Did you notice how the sound of the words changed as I spoke them quickly?
Let’s look at why this happens.
Can i have a…? Can I get a…? are very common expressions.
These chunks of words are often spoken together – we know what word is next in the sentence so we say them very quickly and connect the words together. Also we put the sentence stress on the main content words of a sentence. These stressed words carry the meaning of the sentence. Can I have a ….? Can I get a…..? phrases do not carry the main meaning, they are the grammatical function words and so are pronounced quickly and are weak.
Try this yourself – say this phrase out loud.
Can I get a cup of coffee please?
Say the words out loud saying each word clearly. Can you feel how your tongue and your lips have to move a lot? To move from the consonants at the end of each word to the consonant or vowel at the start of the next word is a lot of work for our lips and tongue muscles.
We only talk like this when we are emphasising something, it makes us sound angry when we speak like this. In normal everyday informal speech British native speakers only emphasise the main content words of the sentence.
Often if someone emphasises all the words it is because they are annoyed and want to show this emotion in their voice. Listen to the different intonation in my voice as I say this phrase with different word stress patterns. Listen to my explanation of the way this intonation can be seen as being angry and annoyed.
You do not need to speak in this fast way, but you do need to be able to recognise the sound of the phrases when native speakers do this. It is also important to know that if native speakers are emphasising all the words this might mean they are angry!
What do you think about this exercise? Is it helpful?
Let me know in the comments and I will be back next week with another one for you to practice with.
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