Editing Elision (section)

===English===

Examples of elision in English:

{|class=wikitable
! Word
! IPA before elision
! IPA after elision
|-
| ''natural''
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|æ|tʃ|ə|r|ə|l}}
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|n|æ|tʃ|r|ə|l}}
|-
| ''laboratory'' ([[British English]])
| {{IPAc-en|l|ə|ˈ|b|ɒr|ə|t|ə|r|i}}
| {{IPAc-en|l|ə|ˈ|b|ɒr|ə|t|r|i}}
|-
| ''laboratory'' ([[American English]])
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|æ|b|ə|r|ə|t|ɔː|r|i}}
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|l|æ|b|r|ə|t|ɔː|r|i}}
|-
| ''temperature''
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɛ|m|p|ə|r|ə|tʃ|ər}}
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɛ|m|p|ər|tʃ|ər}}, {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɛ|m|p|r|ə|tʃ|ər}}, sometimes {{IPAc-en|ˈ|t|ɛ|m|p|ə|tʃ|ər}}
|-
| ''family''
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|æ|m|ɪ|l|i}}
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|æ|m|l|i}}
|-
| ''vegetable''
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|ɛ|dʒ|ə|t|ə|b|əl}}
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|ɛ|dʒ|t|ə|b|əl}} or [[devoiced]] into {{IPAc-en|ˈ|v|ɛ|tʃ|t|ə|b|əl}}
|-
| ''fifth''
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɪ|f|θ}}
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|ɪ|θ}}
|-
| ''him''
| {{IPAc-en|h|ɪ|m}}
| {{IPAc-en|ɪ|m}}
|-
| ''going to''
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|g|oʊ|.|ɪ|ŋ|_|t|uː}}
| {{IPAc-en|g|ə|n|ə}} (''gonna'')
|-
| ''it is'', ''it has''
| {{IPAc-en|ɪ|t|_|ˈ|ɪ|z}}, {{IPAc-en|ɪ|t|_|ˈ|h|æ|z}}
| {{IPAc-en|ɪ|t|s}} (''it's'')
|-
| ''I have''
| {{IPAc-en|aɪ|_|ˈ|h|æ|v}}
| {{IPAc-en|aɪ|v}} (''I've'')
|-
| ''is not''
| {{IPAc-en|ɪ|z|ˈ|n|ɒ|t}}
| {{IPAc-en|ˈ|ɪ|z|ən|t}} (''isn't'')
|}

Most elisions in English are not mandatory, but they are used in common practice and even sometimes in more formal speech. This applies to nearly all the examples in the above table. However, these types of elisions are rarely shown in modern writing and never shown in formal writing. In formal writing, the words are written the same whether or not the speaker would elide them, but in many plays and classic American literature, words are often written with an elision to demonstrate accent:

{{Quote|"Well, we ain't got any," George exploded. "Whatever we ain't got, that's what you want. God '''a'mighty''', if I was alone I could live so easy. I could go get a job '''an' work''', '''an' no''' trouble. No mess at all, and when the end of the month come I could take my fifty bucks and go into town and get whatever I want. Why, I could stay in a '''[[Brothel|cathouse]]''' all night. I could eat any place I want, hotel or any place, and order any damn thing I could think of. '''An' I''' could do all that every damn month. Get a gallon of whisky, or set in a pool room and play cards or shoot pool." Lennie knelt and looked over the fire at the angry George. And Lennie's face was drawn in with terror. "'''An' whatta''' I got," George went on furiously. "I got you! You can't keep a job and you lose me '''ever' job''' I get. '''Jus' keep''' me '''shovin' all''' over the country all the time."| [[John Steinbeck]]|[[Of Mice and Men]] 1937, 1.89<ref name=Shmoop.com>{{cite web|last=Steinbeck|first=John|title=Of Mice and Men Quotes|url=http://www.shmoop.com/of-mice-and-men/quotes.html|work=Of Mice and Men|publisher=Covici, Friede, Inc.|access-date=2012-09-09}}</ref>}}

Other examples, such as ''him'' and ''going to'' shown in the table above, are generally used only in fast or informal speech. They are still generally written as is unless the writer intends to show the dialect or speech patterns of the speaker.

The third type of elision is in common contractions, such as ''can't'', ''isn't'', or ''I'm''. The apostrophes represent the sounds that are removed and are not spoken but help the reader to understand that it is a contraction and not a word of its own. These contractions used to be written out when transcribed (i.e. ''cannot'', ''is not'', ''I am'') even if they were pronounced as a contraction, but now they are always written as a contraction so long as they are spoken that way. However, they are by no means mandatory and a speaker or writer may choose to keep the words distinct rather than contract them either as a stylistic choice, when using formal register, to make meaning clearer to children or non-native English speakers, or to emphasize a word within the contraction (e.g. ''I ''am'' going!'')

In [[Rhoticity in English|non-rhotic]] accents of English, {{IPA|/r/}} is dropped unless it's followed by a vowel, making ''cheetah'' and ''cheater'' completely homophonous. In non-rhotic accents spoken outside of North America, many instances of {{IPAc-en|ɑː}} correspond to {{IPAc-en|ɑːr}} in North American English as {{IPAc-en|æ}} and {{IPAc-en|ɒ}} are used instead of {{IPAc-en|ɑː}}.