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A weak form is the pronunciation of a word or syllable in an unstressed manner. Of course, the difference between the strong form (stressed) and the weak form (unstressed) of a word is not apparent in writing, but in speech these two variations in pronunciation can be drastically different. If spoken in isolation, the weak form of a word would probably be unintelligible. The difference between the two forms can affect meaning. Here is an example to show how strong and weak forms of a single word (that) can change the entire meaning of a sentence:
o John thinks that man is evil. /ðәt/
This version of the sentence, with the weak (unstressed) form of that, means "John thinks all humans are evil."
o John thinks that man is evil. /ðæt/
This version of the sentence, with the strong (stressed) form of that, means "John thinks a specific (male) individual is evil."
As indicated by this example, if a speaker unknowingly uses the strong form instead of the weak form, misunderstandings can occur.
In the rest of this section, the most common weak-form words will be introduced.
1 ‘THE’
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(This word only has a weak form when used in a relative clause; when used with a demonstrative sense it is always pronounced in its strong form.)
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6 ‘THAN’
Weak form: ‘Better than ever’
7 ‘HIS’ (when it occurs before a noun)
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8 ‘HER’
(When used with possessive sense, preceding a noun; as an object pronoun, this can also occur at the end of a sentence.)
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This group of pronouns has weak forms pronounced with weaker vowels than the and of their strong forms. We will use the symbols and (in preference to and) to represent them. There is little difference in the pronunciation in different places in the sentence, except in the case of ‘he’.
Weak forms:
‘SHE’
‘Why did she read it?’
‘Who is she?’
‘HE’ (the weak form is usually pronounced without except at the beginning of a sentence)
‘Which did he choose?’
‘He was late, wasn’t he?’
‘WE’
‘How can we get there?’
‘We need that, don’t we?’
‘YOU’
‘What do you think?’
‘You like it, do you?’
11 ‘HIM’
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15 ‘AT’
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16 ‘FOR’
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‘I don’t want to’
20 ‘AS’
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21 ‘SOME’
This word is used in two different ways. In one sense (typically, when it occurs before a countable noun, meaning “an unknown individual”) it has the strong form:
‘I think some animal broke it’
It is also used before uncountable nouns (meaning “an unspecified amount of”) and before other nouns in the plural (meaning “an unspecified number of”); in such uses it has the weak form
‘Have some more tea’
In final position:
‘I’ve got some’
22 ‘THERE’
When this word has demonstrative function, it always occurs in its strong form (before vowels), e.g.
‘There it is’
‘Put it there’
Weak forms: (before consonants)
‘There should be a rule’
(before vowels)
‘There is’
In final position the pronunciation may be or
‘There isn’t any, is there?’
The remaining weak-form words are all auxiliary verbs, which are always used in conjunction with (or at least implying) another (“full”) verb. It is important to remember that in their negative form (i.e. combined with ‘not’) they never have the weak pronunciation, and some (e.g. ‘don’t’, ‘can’t’) have different vowels from their non-negative strong forms.
23 ‘CAN’, ‘COULD’
Weak forms:
‘They can wait’
‘He could do it’
In final position:
‘I think we can’
‘Most of them could’
24 ‘HAVE’, ‘HAS’, ‘HAD’
Weak forms: (with initial in initial position)
‘Which have you seen?’
‘Which has been best?’
‘Most had gone home’
In final position:
‘Yes, we have’
‘I think she has’
‘I thought we had’
25 ‘SHALL’, ‘SHOULD’
Weak forms:
‘We shall need to hurry’
‘I should forget it’
In final position:
‘I think we shall’
‘So you should’
26 ‘MUST’
This word is sometimes used with the sense of forming a conclusion or deduction, e.g. ‘she left at 8 o’clock, so she must have arrived by now’; when ‘must’ is used in this way, it is rather less likely to occur in its weak form than when it is being used in its more familiar sense of “obligation”.
Weak forms: (before consonants)
‘You must try harder’
(before vowels)
‘He must eat more’
In final position:
‘She certainly must’
27 ‘DO’, ‘DOES’
Weak forms:
‘DO’ (before consonants)
‘Why do they like it?’
(before vowels)
‘Why do all the cars stop?’
‘DOES’
‘When does it arrive?’
In final position:
‘We don’t smoke, but some people do’
‘I think John does’
28 ‘AM, ‘ARE’, ‘WAS’, ‘WERE’
Weak forms:
(before vowels)
‘Why am I here?’
‘The coats are in there’
‘The questions were easy’
(before consonants)
‘Here are the plates’
‘He was here a minute ago’
‘The papers were late’
In final position:
‘She’s not as old as I am’
‘I know the Smith are’
‘The last record was’
‘They weren’t as cold as we were’
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