FLUENT ENGLISH: Understand & Use Contractions like a Native Speaker

Having difficulty understanding native English speakers? That’s because they use strange contractions! Watch and learn about How’d, Why’d, Who’d, When’d, What’d and more. Understand the meaning of “Why’dya buy that?” and “Who’dja you go with?” Review conditionals and perfect tenses and learn to figure out when “I’d” means “I had” or “I would”. Join me to speak and understand more natural English! Then, take the quiz here: Sign up for private tutoring on my website: Watch my video about “had“ in English: Learn more about spoken English with my lesson about word stress: In this lesson: 0:00 Natural English: DID, WOULD, HAD become ’d! 1:24 shortened forms of ’did’ 4:53 shortened forms of ’had’ & ’would’ 7:20 Does the ’d’ represent ’would’ or ’had’? TRANSCRIPT Where’d you go? What are you doing? Do you have problems understanding people’s questions in English? I do. And the reason is because we just kind of squish all the words together. We omit or don’t say words when we ask questions, and it can be very confusing. I’ve narrowed it down to one super amazing example that I ran into. I was running over the weekend. My friend said, “Ronnie, why’d you buy that?“ And I thought, “Oh, because I wanted to.“ And I thought, “Why’d? Oh, why’d? Homophone. Why did you?“ So, in normal conversation, no one’s going to say to you, “Excuse me, Ronnie, why did you buy that?“ We would say, “Why’d? Why’d ya?“ We’d change “you“ to “ya“. “Why’d ya buy that?“ It works with our WH questions, which are who, what, when, where, why, and how. How’d ya? How’d ya? How’d ya? So, this is only for speaking. So, when you’re writing beautiful tests or when you’re doing things in your classroom, you have to know that this is grammatically wrong. You actually have to write the whole sentence. So, this lesson is called Apostrophe D. This is an apostrophe. It’s a little squiggle at the top. If you want to call it a different name, that’s fine. You can call it, like, a dancing worm in the sky, D, that’s fine. But in proper English grammar, it’s called Apostrophe D. Usually, apostrophes are saying, like, “Hey, we took some words out here just to make it difficult.“ And if they’re grammatically correct, like these ones, they’re called contractions. But this is actually not a contraction; this is just how we confuse you when we speak English. So, let’s get to it. “Why’d“. It’s... As I said, it’s a homophone for something that is not thin; it’s wide. So, I would say, “Why’d ya?“ “Why did you?“ “Why’d ya?“ “Why’d you buy that?“ “How’d“. “How’d you do that?“ We don’t say, “How did you do that?“ We say, “How’d ya?“ “How did ya?“ “How did you do that?“ “When’d“. “When’d you want to go?“ “When did you want to go?“ “When did“, “when did“. We don’t say, “When did“, we say, “When’d“. “When’d ya come here?“ “When’d ya leave?“ And the D is so fast that you might not even realize that people are saying it, and they say, “When’d go?“ “Huh? What language are you guys speaking?“ That’s not in my grammar book. So, “Who’d“, “Who’d you go with?“ “Who did you go with?“ “Uh-uh. Who’d you go with?“ “Oh, I went with my friend.“ Be careful. Practice it, practice it, practice it, and then you can try and say it. But remember, with these things, it’s more of your listening and understanding fast English than you actually producing it at the moment if you’re a beginner. If you’re more of an advanced speaker, let her rip. Try these. “What did“, “What did“, “What did“, “What did you do?“ “What did you do yesterday?“ “What did you do?“ “Uh-uh. What did“, “What did you do yesterday?“ And the last one, “Where’d“, “Where’d you go?“ “What? Where’d you go?“ “Where did you go?“ “Where’d you go?“ So, let’s try again. “How’d“, “Why’d“, “When’d“, “Who’d“, “Who’d“, “Who’d“, “What’d“, that one’s hard, “What’d“, “What did you say?“ I said “What’d“, and “Where’d“, “Where’d“. So, you can practice these. But more importantly, listen when people speak. Watch these amazing things called television and streaming services. Anything you watch on whatever social media you’re banging at the time. Listen to when native people speak, and you’re going to hear this and go, “Oh my god, Ronnie’s right. They didn’t say ’did’, they said ’duh’.“ Check that out. Now, the other one, as I said before, it’s more grammar-based, I know. But it can be confusing, because we had... We have “I’d“, “They’d“, “You’d“, “She’d“, “He’d“, and “We’d“. Oh, “We’d“, hello. But this doesn’t mean “did“ in this situation. When we put it with a subject, it can be one of two options. It can either be “would“ or “had“. And how are you supposed to know which one? Well, I’ll tell you. That’s why I’m here. […]