تلفظ استرالیایی what do you/what are you

In this episode you’ll learn how the pronunciation of the phrases “What do you” and “What are you” shift when spoken quickly to sound like “Whadehya”.

Pronunciation – What do you/What are you = Whadehya

G’day guys, and welcome to this pronunciation episode of Aussie English.

And in today’s episode I’m going to show you the pronunciation shift of “What do you” and “What are you” both into “Whadehya”.

Note: “Whadehya” is the phonetic way of writing the pronunciation shift. This word doesn’t exist in written English.

What do you            –>       Whad deh ya          –>       Whadehya

What are you          –>       Whad eh ya             –>       Whadehya

So, these sorts of pronunciation shifts happen because it becomes a lot quicker when we shift the pronunciation to make them more fluid, and so, if I was to try and speak with someone and always annunciation really well, and say every letter in every word as it was meant to be like “What do you”, “What are you”, it takes a lot longer for me to pass the message that I’m trying to say across, than if I were to say “Whadehya”, “Whadehya”.

So, the first one “What do you”. I’m going to show you how this shifts in four examples. And I’ll say it in the correct, proper, well annunciated English first and then in the sped up um… sort of change in pronunciation that I would say when speaking with other native speakers. So:

What do you do becomes whatdehya do

What do you mean becomes whadehya mean

What do you think becomes whadehya think

And what do you want becomes whadeya want

And, so you’ll notice there that because we use the auxiliary verb “do” in that case between “what” and “you”, “what DO you”, after “you” you have the verb. So, Do, Mean, Think or Want. So, I’ll go through these again.

What do you do becomes whadehya do

What do you mean becomes whadehya mean

What do you think becomes whadehya think

And what do you want becomes whadehya want

Whadehya do?

Whadehya mean?

Whadehya think?

Whadehya want?

See how easy that is for me to say, whereas if I was to really annunciate, what do you do, what do you mean, what do you think, what do you want, it takes a lot longer for me to say those same phrases. So, that’s why we have that pronunciation shift.

The next one I want to show you is where we say the same thing in that pronunciation shift, and it sounds almost identical, if not identical, to “What do you”, “Whadehyou”. “What are you” becomes “Whadehyou”.

Note: above I’m saying “you” at the end of “whadehya” instead of “ya” without realising it. Either is ok.

So, it’s still that same sound. And in this case I’ll read out four or five of these and how they change afterwards.

What are you doing?

Whadehya doing?

 

What are you thinking about?

Whadehyou thinking about?

 

What are you watching?

Whadehyou watching?

 

What are you waiting for?

Whadehyou waiting for?

So, I’m going to read these five examples out using the well annunciated first and then how it changes in pronunciation afterwards. So, we’ll do that a few times.

What are you doing?

Whadehya doin’?

 

What are you thinking about?

Whadehya thinkin’ about?

 

What are you watching?

Whadehya watchin’?

 

What are you waiting for?

Whadehya waitin’ for?

 

What are you looking at?

Whadehya lookin’ at?

And so you’ll probably even notice yourself when you change your own pronunciation when saying these phrases that it becomes a lot easier and a lot quicker for you to say these phrases. So, “what are you doing” changing to “whadehya doin’” becomes so much easier for me to say and quickly. “What are you doing”, “whadehya doin’?” And so in this case compared to the previous one you’ll notice that the verb is the present continuous, so we’re… because we’re using “are” in there between “what” and “you”, “What ARE you”, the verb afterwards ends in “-ING”. And so that would be when speaking how most native people are going to know the difference between “what do you” and “What are you” even though it sounds exactly the same as “whadehya” because of how the verb sounds after “whadehya”. So, if I hear “whadehya do?” I know that… instantly I know it’s “what do you do?”, whereas if I hear “whadehya doing” I know that it’s “what are you doing?”. So, that’s how you’ll learn to sort of hear the differences. So, don’t worry too much about not being able to, or not having to say anything different between “what do you” and “what are you” when you say “whadehya”.

So, these things all end with the “-ING” verb after “whadehya” in this case, and so you’ll hear the “doing”, “thinking about”, “watching”, “waiting for”. And I might mention there too, you probably heard when I said “doing”, “thinking”, “watching”, “waiting” and “looking”, I pronounce them all without the “-G”. I say “doin’”, “thinkin’”, “watchin’”, “waitin’”, “lookin’”. So, against his is just my pronunciation shift when I speak incredibly quickly.

And, so let’s go over some exercises for this one, guys. And firstly we’ll just go over “Whadehya” and you guys can repeat after me.

Whadehya

Whadehya

Whadehya

Whadehya

Whadehya

So, let’s do this exercise guys where I say the proper English phrase and you’re meant to change it into the sped up um… pronunciation shift version. And then I’ll repeat the pronunciation shift one as well so that you can tell whether or not you got it right. So, let’s go.

What do you do?

Whadehya do?

 

What do you mean?

Whadehya mean?

 

What do you think?

Whadehya think?

 

What do you want?

Whadehya want?

 

What are you doing?

Whadehya doin’?

 

What are you thinking about?

Whadehya thinkin’ about?

 

What are you watching?

Whadehya watchin’?

 

What are you waiting for?

Whadehya waitin’ for?

 

What are you looking at?

Whadehya lookin’ at?

So, that’s the episode for today, guys. I hope you like it. I hope it helps. Keep practicing these things and don’t worry too much about memorising them off by heart. It’s the kind of thing where if you repeat it and practice these things often enough it will just happen naturally over time. So, before you know it, you know, you listen to this episode, you do the exercise a few times, and then when you go out and you’re speaking English with people you’ll be saying “Whadehya think”, “Whadehya doin’”, all those sorts of things before you even know it. You won’t even realize. It will just become second nature. It’ll become natural. So, until next time guys, have a good one!

Vocabulary List:

(Off) by heart

• To know exactly and from memory

E.g. The teacher learned her students’ names off by heart.

• The teacher learned her students’ names from memory.

Before you know it

• Very soon, with baffling speed, to happen so quickly you don’t even notice.

E.g. He thought the drive would be a long one but before he knew it he was at his destination.

• He thought the drive would be a long one but he reached his definition incredibly quickly.

Second nature

• To be very natural, to be very familiar with something, to do something easily without needing to think very much about it.

E.g. After all his years of lessons swimming had become second nature to him.

• After all his years of lessons swimming had become something he did without thinking about it.