Tim's Pronunciation Workshop: Been

Tim

Hi. I'm Tim and this is my Pronunciation Workshop. Here, I'm going to show you how English is really spoken. Come on, let's go inside. Today, I'm going to use two things to help me demonstrate a feature of English pronunciation. This is a bin and this is a bean. What's the connection? Well, I'm sure you know the past participle of the verb 'to be' – 'been', right? Well, we asked some people how long they had been in London.

Voxpops

I've been in London seventeen years.

I have been in London seven years.

I've been in London for more than a year now.

I've been in London every summer since I was eighteen.

Tim

Now, they all used the word 'been' – but nobody actually said 'been'. Listen again. What word do you actually hear them say?

Voxpops