Maple wrote: I guess the more difficult part of contraction for us is the listening. When you native speakers' speech speed is normal, some sounds are omitted, some are swallowed and some are combined, the sentences are a mess to my ears.

Hi, yes, there are books that deal with stress, intonation, and pronunciation. I've read "American Accent Training" by Ann Cook. There's really a lot of stuff in that book (and on the 5 CDs). I haven't tried any other books anyway, so I can only

From Merriam Webster's : AIN'T Etymology: contraction of are not 1 : am not : are not : is not 2 : have not : has not 3 : do not : does not : did not -- used in some varieties of Black English Usage: Although widely disapproved as

In American English, when an ending "-an", "-en", "-in", "on", "-ain" (not "ing") occurs after intervocalic "t", "tt", or "rt", the sound pattern /.tN/ is formed. When one of these endings occurs after intervocalic "dd", "d", or "rd", the sound

Mxsmanic wrote on 20 Apr 2004: I speak American English, maniac, and I don't agree with ... from yours, but it is no less American English pronunciation. Why do you pronounce them both? I do it when I explain that "should've" is

Mxsmanic wrote on 20 Apr 2004: Yes. The contraction is spoken with a very reduced vowel. They are pronounced the same way in American English. I speak American English, maniac, and I don't agree with your judgment here. "should of"