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Stop saying...! I would have

Brazilian student Mariely has got problems with an aspect of pronunciation – double contractions. But what are they? Helen from 蜜芽传媒 Learning English is here with tips for you!

Mariely
Hi, my name is Mariely. I am from Brazil.
And I want to stop saying things like 'I would have' and use contractions instead. It's hard. "I'd've"? "I'd have"? I can't, sorry. Help me please!

Helen
This is actually a pronunciation problem. Double contractions are a lot less painful than they sound. Helen here to help you out. I'm sure you already know this, but just in case, a contraction is the shortening of two words into something shorter. 'I have' becomes 'I've', 'could not' becomes 'couldn’t'. So a double contraction is when we have three words. Double the excitement. 'I would have' becomes 'I'd've', 'could not have' becomes 'couldn't've'.

Repeat after me.

I'd've. I'd've. I'd've. I'd've.

Couldn't've. Couldn't've. Couldn't've. Couldn't've.

So there you are. Now you can stop saying 'I would have' and start saying 'I'd've'.

Mariely
OK. Let's try it. "I'd've", "I'd've", "couldn't've", "couldn't've". I copuldn't've done it without you Ellen. Thanks very much.

Finn
It's Helen.

Mariely
Helen. Ellen. Helen

Finn
It's OK.

And now a word from our sponsors.

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Helen
One more thing. Though you often hear double contractions, you rarely see them written down. So don't do it on a job application. I wouldn't give you the job.

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3 minutes

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