Pronunciations: The Weak and Strong Forms
When in London… (Speak Like the Brits)
The English language is often not pronounced the way it is spelt, which is a big problem, especially for speakers of other languages. This is because pronunciation has changed a great deal during the last few hundred years while spelling has changed very little. Therefore, a lot of foreign language speakers have great interference problems—they learned how to pronounce words the way they are spelt rather than how they should be pronounced.
A famous example of mispronunciation is the name of a major tourist spot in London. Think about how this would be pronounced :
Leicester Square
This is a classic example of a word that is spelt one way but is pronounced very differently. The correct pronunciation is:
Les-ter Square
The Weak Forms
One of the most important principles of correct English pronunciation is something that is severely overlooked and underused by non-native speakers : the weak forms. If you know and use the weak forms correctly, you will immediately make a difference to how you sound and how you are understood.
Take a look at this example:
I went to Leicester Square yesterday, but from what I could see there was nobody there.
I went tə/ti Leicester Square yesterday, bət/bit frəm/frim what I cəd/kid see there wəs/wiz nobody there.
Let us now take a closer look at the weak forms and how they are used in the English language.
Introducing the “Schwa”
Structural and auxiliary words (these are prepositions, conjunctions, and the articles such as ‘and,’ ‘as,’ ‘from,’ ‘to,’ and ‘that’) all have one thing in common : In rapid and connected speech, they feature a certain sound-the schwa.
The phonetic symbol of the schwa is /ә/. The pronunciation of this letter is very close to the short /i/ sound in words such as ‘tip,’ ‘hit,’ or ‘lip’ and the /i/‐like sound in words such as ‘devour,’ ‘information,’ and ‘endeavour.’
The schwa is the most common sound in English—especially British English. Because when we speak at a normal or fast pace (rapid speech) and not deliberately slow it down for emphasis—words like ‘and,’ ‘from,’ ‘to,’ and ‘that’ turn into ‘ind,’ ‘frim,’ ‘ti,’ ‘thit’ (phonetic transcriptions : әn(d), frәm, tә, ðәt).
Take note of the use of the schwa sound in rapid speech :
Example (in slow speech) :
Last night I was trying to think of a few things I could do today.
Example (in rapid speech) :
Last night i wiz trying ti think iv i few things I kid do today.
Which one sounds more natural?
The second one—and that is because the weak forms are used.
Using the Weak vs the Strong Forms
Note that structural and auxiliary words have a weak and a strong form. Weak forms are normally only used when embedded in sentences in rapid, connected speech. When you speak slowly and want to emphasize a structural or auxiliary word, then you can use the strong, full pronunciation. If you are speaking faster, however, use the weak form.
Notice the difference in the pronunciation of ‘could’ in slow and rapid speech.
[Slow /Strong] You know what… I think I could possibly do that…
[Fast /Weak]… Yes, I think I kid do that.
[kәd]
Words like ‘have’ and ‘has’ should be pronounced in their weak form if they are auxiliary words. When these words are used as verbs, however, you must use the strong form.
Notice the difference in the pronunciation of ‘has’ :
[Weak] It hiz taken him a long time (the verb is taken; has is auxiliary)
[h!z]
[Strong] He has it (has in this context is the actual verb)
Likewise, the demonstrative ‘that’ is always given full value, meaning the strong form should be used.
Compare :
[Strong] I like that car.
[Weak] I like the fact thit it has a sunroof.
[ð!t]
So how do we know which words have a weak and a strong form?
Please refer to the list of weak and strong forms of the MSBE accent towards the end of this Course (see section, Weak and Strong Forms: Redux).