[English] Should, Would, Could

In this American English pronunciation, we are going to talk about the pronunciation of should, would, could. There words all rhyme. The pronunciation is simpler than it looks, the "L" is silent. So they all have their beginning consonant, the UH as in BOOK vowel, and the D sound. Should, would, could, they rhyme with 'good', 'hood', and 'wood. Yes, 'would' and 'wood' are pronounced the same. they  are homophones. So this is pronunciation of these words is full. But, as you know, Americans like reduce less important words in a sentence to make the important words stand out more. And these are three words that can be reduced. As with the many reductions, we change the vowel to the schwa and speed up the word: should, would, could. you'll hear Americans go Even further though and drop.

Let me give you some example:

"Should we get dinner?" 

One of the things I notice is that I'm dropping the D sound, "Shu", "shu", just the SH sound and the schwa, the lips are flared and the teeth are together. SH, the tongue tip pointing up to the roof of the mouth, but it's not touching it. Shu-, shu-, then for the schwa, everything relaxed and you go into the next sound, shu-, shu-, shu-we:

"Should we call her?"

Shu-we[2x], "I should go", shu-go, shu-go. 

Now, if the next should is a vowel or a diphthong, I wouldn't drop the D. it would be too unclear to go  from the schwa into another vowel. So for 'should I' for example, I make a really quick flap of the tongue for the D. 

"Should i say that?", "Should I try it?", "should I call him?"

if dropping the D feels like too extreme of the reduction for you, you certainly don't have to d o it. Just keep 'should' unstressed, really quick, should, should. 

Now let's look at 'could'. The K sound is made when the back part of the tongue comes. up and the touches the soft palate in the back, kk, kk, ku-. "Could we try later?" Again, just dropping the D. K should schwa next word. Say it with a D when the next word begins with a vowel or diphthong: 

"Could I come back later?"

Finally, 'would'. For the W sound, the lips are in a tight circle, and the back part of the tongue lifts, ww, ww, wuh:

"Would we want to do that?"

Or, with a really quick D sound: Where would I go? -> So you can reduce these words by changing the vowel to the schwa. You can reduce them further by dropping the D, unless the next sound is a vowel or the diphthong. If there's a word or phrase you'd like help pronouncing, please put it in the comments. 

Thank you for reading.

source : Rachel's English