Elision in English: what it is, with examples
Elision is the dropping of a sound - or not pronouncing it fully - in fluent connected speech: "facts" is typically pronounced /fæks/ and "mashed potatoes" /mæʃ pəˈteɪtəʊz/. It happens mainly in unstressed syllables, as an economy of rapid colloquial speech, and there are three main environments: /t/ and /d/ in final consonant clusters, the loss of the weak vowel /ə/ (schwa), and the loss of /h/ in weak pronoun forms. This page, from our phonetics course, covers all three with IPA examples.
Elision, stress and ‘function’ words
Elision is part of the wider picture of sentence stress. In English, some words regularly attract stress while others almost never do. The regularly unstressed words are:
- auxiliary verbs - primary and modal;
- determiners (articles, demonstrative pronouns, etc.);
- subject pronouns (he, she, it, they…);
- short prepositions (on, in, at, upon…);
- conjunctions (and, but, so…).
These are grammatical or function words rather than content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives). Because they are unstressed, their sounds are the first casualties of fast speech - we glide over the weak forms and ‘lose’ some of them. Stress can shift with meaning, though: in “I want an apple AND an orange” (answering “apple or orange?”), the normally weak and is stressed and keeps its full vowel.
The three main environments for elision
1. /t/ and /d/ in syllable-final clusters
Final /t/ and /d/ are highly vulnerable when they sit inside consonant clusters (endings such as -pt, -kt, -st, -ft, -ʃt, -ʧt, -bd, -gd, -nd, -ld, -zd, -ʤd, -vd, -ðd):
| Written | Connected speech |
|---|---|
| conscripts | /ˈkɒnskrɪps/ |
| facts | /fæks/ |
| the fact that | /ðə fæk ðət/ |
| next day | /neks deɪ/ |
| mashed potatoes | /mæʃ pəˈteɪtəʊz/ |
| the last post | /ðə lɑːs pəʊst/ |
| Liz smiled gently | /ˈlɪz ˈsmaɪl ˈʤentlɪ/ |
Following /h/ and /j/ tend to block this elision, but most other consonants trigger it in rapid speech.
2. Elision of /ə/ (schwa)
The weak vowel /ə/ can disappear at word boundaries when it starts a word between two stressed syllables, and before a stressed syllable beginning with /r/ or /l/. It also drops out of the middle and ends of words:
| Written | Connected speech |
|---|---|
| go away | /ˈgəʊ ˈweɪ/ |
| police | /pliːs/ |
| preferable | /ˈprefrəbl̩/ |
| library | /ˈlaɪbrɪ/ |
3. Loss of /h/ in weak pronoun forms
/h/ is lost from the weak forms of pronouns when they do not begin the utterance. In “He passed his exam” - /hɪ ˈpɑːst ɪz ɪgˈzæm/ - the sentence-initial He keeps its /h/, but his in mid-sentence loses it.
This matters especially for French learners: French has no /h/, so students carry the habit over (‘e ‘asn’t seen ‘im today) even where English keeps the sound. One of our Global English tutors, Kerry McEwan, has her French-speaking students practise “I hear with my ears” to feel the aspirated /h/ in hot, head and heart.
How to teach elision
The key point for the classroom: learners need elision more for listening than for speaking. Elided forms are a large part of why native-speaker speech sounds impossibly fast, so build awareness - play short clips of natural speech, have students transcribe what they actually hear versus the written form, and point out patterns like the fragile final /t/ and /d/. Students do not need to force elision into their own speech; it tends to emerge naturally as fluency grows. Teach connected speech as it really is, rather than pointing students at isolated phonetic dictionary entries.
Get the full unit on the course
This page is the public guide. The original unit is part of the 30-hour Introduction to Phonetics and is released after you enrol - we do not publish purchased course PDFs as free downloads.
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Frequently asked questions
What is elision in English, with an example?
Elision is the loss of a sound in connected speech. For example, "round to" is usually pronounced /raʊn tə/ - the final /d/ of "round" is dropped because /t/ and /d/ are made in the same place in the mouth, so one of them (usually the voiced /d/) disappears in fluent speech.
Why does elision happen?
Elision - sometimes called gradation - is a simplification made in rapid colloquial speech. It happens mostly in unstressed syllables and weak forms: in natural conversation speakers glide over grammatical "function" words (auxiliaries, articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions) and lose some of their sounds.
What are the three main types of elision?
First, /t/ and /d/ dropped from syllable-final consonant clusters ("next day" → /neks deɪ/, "mashed potatoes" → /mæʃ pəˈteɪtəʊz/). Second, elision of the weak vowel schwa ("police" → /pliːs/, "library" → /ˈlaɪbrɪ/). Third, loss of /h/ in weak pronoun forms ("He passed his exam" → /hɪ ˈpɑːst ɪz ɪgˈzæm/).
Should learners of English be taught to use elision?
Learners need awareness of elision more for listening than for speaking: it explains why native speakers' rapid speech is hard to decode. Teachers should train students to recognise elided forms in connected speech rather than drill them to reproduce every elision themselves.