Hello! Im John Russell.
Lets continue exploring how to talk about the best time of the week: the weekend.

In a recent lesson, we talked about intonation - the up or down movement of the voice.
We learned that in open-ended questions, such as questions about weekend plans, we often use falling intonation.

Today, we will learn about how Americans connect and shorten words.

The first thing you need to know is that Americans often use the present verb form even if they are discussing a time in the near future. So, for example, on Monday or Tuesday, you might ask a friend:
What are you doing this weekend?
What are you up to this weekend?
Do you have plans this weekend?

All of these questions are correct, but they do not sound quite natural. Americans often make changes to these statements by connecting and shortening words.

Americans often connect the question word "what" to the verb BE. This results in a mixing of two words.
As a result, “What are you doing this weekend?”
Becomes this:
“Whatre you doing this weekend?”

In yes/no questions, Americans often link “Do” with the subject pronoun “you.”
Here is clear speech:
Do you have plans this weekend?
Here is everyday speech:
Dyou have plans this weekend?
In many questions, Americans also reduce the pronoun "you" to "ya."
That sounds like this:
Whatre ya doin this weekend?
Dya have plans this weekend?
That’s all for today! Keep up the good work.
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