talk about the 10 most important sentences in English
How to Pronounce TOP 10 English Sentences
I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
Are you ready to imitate the most important sentences in English?
Let's talk about it.
Today, we're going to talk about the 10 most important sentences in English, at least according to me.
Because you use these sentences a lot, all the time in daily conversation, it's a great opportunity to practice using them naturally and pronouncing them correctly.
If you say them three or four times each day, you want to make sure that you're pronouncing them correctly, and that's what we're going to do today.
Your challenge today is to try to imitate and repeat exactly what I say.
I don't care if you're on the train, if you're at work and your boss is looking at you.
I don't care where you are.
It's your job to speak out loud.
Because if I say them, it's okay, but I already know how to say them.
It's your job to practice and to use those pronunciation muscles to the fullest.
All right.
Let's start with the first sentence.
“Hey!
How's it going?”
“Pretty good.”
This is our first sentence today, “Hey!
How's it going?” and the most common response, which is, “Pretty good.”
Let's break down this expression.
“Hey.”
Pretty clear.
Can you repeat that with me?
“Hey.”
Then the next part, “How's it going?”
Here in the middle, it sounds like a Z sound.
Howzit ... howzit goin'?
With the word “going,” we're going to cut off the G at the end, so make sure you say “Goin'.”
Can you say this all together with me?
Try to imitate with me.
Ready?
“Hey.
How's it going?
Hey.
How's it going?”
I'm going to pause in just a moment, after we practice the reply.
The reply is “Pretty good.
Pretty good.”
Now, if you want to sound like an American, the word “pretty”, even though it has T's, it's going to sound like a D sound.
So try to say it with me.
“Priddy.
Priddy.
Priddy.”
And then that final word, “Good. Good.”
Make sure that your lips are kind of out a little bit.
“Good.
Good.”
Can we put it all together?
“Pretty good.
Pretty good.” Okay.
Let's try to imitate this full sentence together and the reply, and then I'm going to pause so that you can say it yourself out loud, no matter where you are.
All right.
Let's say it together.
“Hey!
How's it going?”
“Pretty good.”
“Hey!
How's it going?”
“Pretty good.”
All right.
I'm going to pause, and it's your turn. Go ahead.
Great work!
Let's go on to the second sentence.
The second sentence is “Do you want to go? Do you want to go?”
You might say this when you want to invite someone to an event, or maybe to your house, or if you want to tell them to go to a restaurant with you.
It's a great expression for someone who you just met if you want to continue spending time with them.
Let's break down the pronunciation for this common question.
“Do you wanna go?
Do you wanna go?”
Why does the first two words sound like “Jooo
...” “Do you” becomes “Jooo,” kind of a “zhe, zhe” sound. “Joo.”
And then what about “Wanna go? Wanna go?”
“Want to go” are all of the words, but you're gonna combine “want” and “to” to become “wanna, wanna”.
This is really common in conversational English,
so let's try to say this full question together.
“Do you want to go?
Do you want to go?
Do you want to go?
Do you want to go?”
All right.
Try to imitate this with me.
Are you ready?
“Do you want to go?
Do you want to go?
Do you want to go to the park?
Do you want to go to the restaurant?”
Okay, I'm going to pause, and then I want you to say this by yourself. Go ahead.
Great work, let's go on to the third sentence.
The third and fourth sentences are, “I'm not sure,” and “I don't know.”
These both mean the same thing, but the first one, “I'm not sure,” is a little more casual, and you might use this more in daily conversation.
So if you say it quickly it sounds like, “I'm no shur.
I'm no shur.
I'm no shur.”
Let's break this down.
Listen carefully, especially to that second word, “not”.
“I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.”
Do you hear “t”, the T sound?
“I'm not sure.” Not really.
Often in daily conversation in fast English, the T at the end of words is cut off, so your tongue is gonna be at the top of your mouth, almost going to make the “t” sound, but there's no air that comes out.
So let's practice saying this, especially with that T stopped at the top of your mouth.
Can you do it with me?
“I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
I'm not, not, not.”
All right, let's focus on that last word, “sure, sure, sure”.
Do you see my lips here, can you say it with me?
“Sure, sure.”
Can we say this all together?
“I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.
I'm not sure.”
Okay, I'm gonna pause and now it's your turn. Go ahead.
Great work, let's go on to the fourth sentence.
The fourth sentence, as I just mentioned is, “I don't know, I don't know.”
And there are a lot of different ways you can pronounce this, so let's start with maybe the most clear and then working down to the least clear.
Let's start with “I don' know, I don' know.”
Do you notice that that “t” in the contraction “don't” is similar to “not” in the previous sentence?
That T, your tongue is at the top of your mouth, but you're not letting the air come out to finish “t”, that “t” sound.
So it's gonna sound like, “I don', don' know.”
If you can see inside my mouth at the moment, you'll see that my tongue is stopped up there, “don', don'” but I'm not saying “don't. I don't know.”
Usually that T in negative contractions is cut out.
If you'd like to see the natural pronunciation for 81 contractions, I made a video, you can watch it up here.
I hope that will be useful to you.
But let's say this in the most clear way, “I don't know.”
Can you imitate that with me?
“I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.”
Okay, let's go to the next one which is a little less clear.
You could say, “I dunno.
I dunno.
I dunno.”
It kind of sounds like D-U-N-N-O, dunno.
“I dunno, I dunno.”
And you would use this in familiar situations,
I don't recommend using this to your boss
or maybe in a work situation, just because
it's really relaxed so you need to be in a
really relaxed environment.
But you could say, “I dunno.”
“Do you know how many people are in your city?”
“I dunno.
I dunno.
I dunno.”
All right, there is a couple more ways that you can pronounce this, so let's go to another one that is even less clear.
Let's take that same pronunciation and cut out the D sound.
“I 'unno, I 'unno, I 'unno.”
Can you say that slowly with me?
“I 'unno.”
It sounds weird when you're saying it slowly, but don't worry, when you say it quickly it's perfectly natural.
“I 'unno, I 'unno, I 'unno.”
There's no D sound here, “I dunno”, like the previous two.
Instead, you're just cutting that out.
“I 'unno.”
Okay, let's go on to the last one, and it is the least clear, but native speakers will definitely understand what you're saying.
In this final way to pronounce “I don't know” you're really gonna be cutting out all of the words, and you're just gonna be leaving some sounds and some intonation.
So you're gonna say, “Uh uh uh, uh uh uh.”
It seems really strange to just say this by itself, but trust me, native speakers say this a lot.
So I'm gonna say it slowly, and I want you to try to imitate my intonation, imagine that you're kind of riding this wave of intonation, and you're gonna say it exactly with me, and then I'm gonna pause and we're gonna practice these clear and unclear pronunciations together.
All right, are you ready, can you imitate with me?
“Uh uh uh, uh uh uh, uh uh uh.”
Let's say someone asks you, “How long has Vanessa been teaching online?”
And if you respond with, “Uh uh uh,” it means that maybe you don't really care about the answer.
It's not something that's important to you.
If you said, “I don't know,” it really just means you don't have that information.
But if you said, “Uh uh uh” it's so relaxed that it means, “I don't really care.”
So you could use this in another situation that maybe isn't rude, make sure that you're in a really casual, comfortable situation.
If someone asked you, “I'm trying to make this dish, do you know how many eggs I should put in?”
You could say, “Uh uh uh, maybe look it up?
Uh uh uh, uh uh uh, look it up!”
Because you're with your family or your friends, and it's something that's not so important.
But if someone asks you something really important, maybe something emotional or sentimental, or especially something for your work, that's really important, don't say, “Uh uh uh” because it's too relaxed.
So this is for really casual situations, and I'm certain that you're gonna hear this in TV shows and movies.
So let's take a moment to try to pronounce “I don't know” in these casual, comfortable ways.
I want you to choose which one you'd like to say.
“I don' know, I dunno, I 'unno, or uh uh uh.”
You can choose which one you'd like to imitate, I'm gonna pause and give you a moment to say it yourself.
Go ahead.
Great work, let's go on to the next one.
Our fifth sentence is about the weather because it's really common, in almost every country and every culture, to have small talk about the weather, and it's really true in the U.S.
We have small talk about the weather all the time.
When I was taking a walk the other day, my neighbor was sitting on his front porch and he said, “It's a hot one today, huh?” And I said, “Yep, sure is.”
So let's practice this sentence together to talk about the weather.
You can change the word for “hot” for “cold”, “rainy”, “snowy”, whatever you'd like.
But let's practice with “hot” and “cold” because those are the most common.
So let's say this sentence together: “It's a hot one today.
It's a hot one today.
It's a hot one today.”
Or, “It's a cold one today, it's a cold one today.”
What does “one” mean, why are we saying “one” here?
Well, it just means “day”.
“It's a hot day today.”
But we use this in daily conversation a lot, so I wanted to make sure that you were familiar with this sentence.
And you can use this when you're talking about the weather to sound more like a native speaker.
So let's slow it down and practice that pronunciation word by word.
“It's a hot one today.”
Did you notice something about the word “hot”?
What happened to that final letter?
Well, we have a theme here, it's gone.
Your tongue is at the top of your mouth, you're going to say “hot”, but instead of letting the air through your tongue just sticks there.
So let's say it together and make sure that you say the word “hot” correctly.
“It's a hot one today. T'day, t'day.”
Do you notice what's happening with this final word?
It's T-O-D-A-Y, but do you hear “today, today”?
You might hear this in maybe an audio that goes with your textbook, “Today is a lovely day.”
But in daily conversation we hardly ever pronounce this full word, instead you're gonna cut out that O sound and just say “t'day, t'day”.
Just make that T sound, “t'day, t'day, t'day, t'day.”
Can you say that final word with me? “T'day, t'day, t'day.”
Okay, let's say this full sentence together, and I hope that you can use it in your daily conversations when you're having some small talk about the weather.
“It's a hot one today.
It's a hot one today.
It's a hot one today.”
All right, you turn.
Go ahead, I want you to say it yourself out loud.
Go ahead.
Great work, let's go on to the next one.
The sixth most important or most-used sentence in English, according to me, is “You gotta try it!
You gotta try it!”
This is something that is commonly used when someone is suggesting something, or maybe they're telling you about a new restaurant, or a new drink, or some experience that they've had and they want you to also do it.
They might say, “Oh, you gotta try it, you gotta try it.”
And this word “gotta” is really common in daily conversation, but it's a reduction of a couple other verbs.
So the full sentence could be, “You have got to try it.”
But “have got to” is reduced to “gotta”, in fact I have a full pronunciation lesson for this word, “gotta, have to, wanna,” all of these kind of reductions, you can check out the link up here to get some more detailed pronunciation for that word, and also how to use it.
But let's talk about this sentence “You gotta try it.”
“You godda, godda,” do you notice that the middle of this word doesn't sound like “gotta, gotta,” with a T?
Instead, it sounds like a D.
This is gonna be similar to the word we talked about earlier, “priddy, priddy good”.
Do you remember that from number one?
“Priddy good, priddy good.”
Here it's gonna sound like “godda, godda, godda”, just add a D in the middle, especially if you wanna sound like an American English speaker.
That's what we do, we add D's in the middle of words all the time.
So try to say those first two words with me.
“You godda, you godda, you godda.”
All right, let's say this full sentence.
“You gotta try it, you gotta try it.”
Do you hear “it” with that T pronounced at the end?
Well, now you are an expert at T's at the end of sentences, and you know that that T is cut short.
So let's try to say that together.
“Gotta try i', i'.”
You can see my tongue at the top of my mouth is just stopped there, there's no air coming out.
So let's say that whole sentence together, and remember to say “godda” and “i', i', i'”.
Are you ready?
“You gotta try it.
You gotta try it.
You gotta try it.”
All right, it's your turn, go ahead.
Excellent work, let's go on to the next one.
The seventh most common, most important, most useful expression, according to me, is “Thanks! I appreciate it. Thanks!
I appreciate it.”
There's a couple different ways to pronounce this, whether it's clear or a little bit less clear, but let's start with the first word.
“Thanks, thanks.”
Make sure that when you say the TH your tongue is between your teeth, and you're also feeling a little stream of air coming out.
“Thanks, thanks, thanks.”
We use this word all the time, and you can use it by itself, but if you wanna really show your appreciation you can add another sentence, “Thanks!
I appreciate it.
I appreciate it.”
Let's focus on that second part quickly.
“I appreciate, a-prish-e-a'e.”
Can you say that word with me?
“A-prish-e-a'e, appreciate.”
Am I saying “appreciate”?
Nope, here the T's cut out again.
“I appreciate i', i'.”
Oh another T is gone, all those T's are gone having a vacation, having a good time together, they're not in this sentence.
So make sure that there's not air coming out of your mouth finishing that T sound.
“I a-prish-e-a'e i'.
I appreciate it.”
This is the most clear way, “I appreciate it,” because you're saying the first part of that word, “a-preciate it, appreciate it.”
Can we say this full part together clearly before we go on to the relaxed one? “Thanks!
I appreciate it. Thanks!
I appreciate it.”
I hope you can repeat with me, really quick, “Thanks! I appreciate it.”
All right, let's go on to the relaxed version.
Let's imagine that someone does something pretty simple, like open the door for you.
You're carrying a lot of groceries and someone in front of you decides to be kind and holds the door open for you.
You can say, “Thanks! 'Preciate it. 'Prish-e-a'e it.”
What happened to “I a-ppreciate it”?
Well, those parts of the sentence are just gone, so you're gonna just start with the P sound.
“Prish-e-a'e, prish-e-a'e it.”
So you can say this altogether, try to imitate it with me.
“Thanks!
'Preciate it.
Prish-e-a'e i'.”
Let's say it together.
“Thanks!
'Preciate it.
Thanks!
'Preciate it.”
All right, I wanna pause and I wanna let you try to say this all together.
Try to say it in that relaxed way, “Thanks!
'Preciate it.”
Go ahead.
Excellent work, let's go on to the next one.
The eighth sentence is a response to “Thanks!
I appreciate it.”
If you are the one holding the door for someone else, and someone says to you, “Oh thanks, appreciate it.”
What can you say in return?
You don't wanna just stand there and go “Mmmmm”,
it's a little bit awkward.
So one of the most common sentences that you could say is “No problem, no problem, no problem.”
You could say “You're welcome”, but it's a little bit strong maybe for this simple act of kindness.
If you dropped your groceries and someone helped you to pick them up, you could say “Oh thanks so much, I appreciate it.”
“You're welcome.”
That's fine because it's a little bit more effort.
But one of the most common things to say is “No problem, no problem.”
So let's break this down.
“No problem, problem, problem.”
Let's focus on the middle of that word, “problem, problem”.
Here your lips are just kind of smacking together a little bit, “blem, blem, blem”.
That B and L together is the focus of this word, you wanna make sure that you're pronouncing it correctly.
So let's practice the word “problem, blem, blem”.
It looks a little bit funny, but don't worry about it, I hope that you're on the train right now and everyone around you is thinking, “Why is that guy saying 'problem, problem, problem'?”
You are improving your English, so who cares what they think?
Let's say this together.
“No problem, blem, blem, no problem, no problem, no problem.”
All right, I'm gonna pause and I want you to say it by yourself.
Go ahead.
Great work, let's go on to the next one.
The ninth and the 10th expression are common ways to say goodbye.
At the beginning of this lesson we started with number one, some common introductions, some common ways to say hello, and then some common expressions used in conversation, and now we're finishing up the conversation, so you might say “See you later!
See you later!”
This is the clearest way to say it, “See you later, see you later.”
Let's practice this slowly and go word by word.
“See. You, you, lader, lader.”
Here we have another T that's changed to a D. You don't say “later, see you later.”
Americans would never say that.
So let's practice changing the T to a D. “See you lader, see you lader, see you lader, see you lader, lader, lader.”
I hope you can pronounce that with me.
Now let's go on to a little more relaxed and maybe a more common version, especially because “see you later” is just a casual way to say goodbye, so you're most likely already gonna be in a familiar situation.
Let's change “you” to “ya”.
“See ya later, see ya later.”
That final word is the same, “lader”, but the middle word, “you” which is clearly pronounced, changes to “ya”.
“See ya later, see ya later.”
Can you say that with me?
“See ya later, see ya later, see ya later, see ya later, see ya later.”
Okay, I'm gonna pause and I want you to say this yourself.
Go ahead.
Great work, let's go on to the final expression.
The 10th most common, most useful, most important expression is “Let's go!
Let's go!
Let's go!”
Maybe someone asks you “Do you wanna go? Do you wanna go?”
One of our earlier sentences, and then you talk a little bit and you say, “Hey, let's go!
I wanna eat, let's go to that restaurant you mentioned.
Let's go to the movies, let's go, let's go.”
So let's say this slowly together, I want you to imitate my voice, try to say it slowly and clearly with me, and then we'll speed it up.
“Let's go.
Let's go.”
When you say the T in the middle of the word “let's”, your tongue is just tapping the top of your mouth.
“Let's, let's” it's stopping up there and then going to the S sound.
“Let's go, let's go.”
Can you say that with me?
“Let's go, let's go, let's go.”
All right, I'm gonna pause and I want you to say it by yourself.
Go ahead.
Excellent work, you used those pronunciation muscles, you imitated 10 valuable, important, common sentences in English.
I hope that you'll use these sentences again and again so that you can really sound like a native speaker and also pronounce them like a native speaker.
So now I have a question for you. In the comments below, let me know what's the weather like in your city today.
You might say “I don't know”, or maybe you say “It's a cold one today.
It's a rainy one unfortunately, I have to wear a rain jacket and an umbrella and I'm still getting wet.”
Let me know what the weather's like in your city today, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.
The next step is to download my free e-book,
Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.
You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.
Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lesson.
Thanks so much, bye.
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