This would mean it's become a function word.

这意味着它变成了一个功能词。

It's what we call a function word; it's not important.

这就是我们所说的虚词，它并不重要。

I don't think that we need to completely reduce those function words.

我不认为我们需要完全略读这些虚词。

And you start saying these function words in a relaxed way.

用一种放松的方式把虚词说出来。

It's just there for grammar purposes and this is what we call a function word.

它只是出于语法目的而存在，这就是我们所说的虚词。

It's very hard to do that, so we need to relax those function words.

这很难做到，所以我们需要放松那些虚词的发音。

[Dermot] It's so nice that you used the word " functioning" there.

- [Dermot] 你在那里使用“功能” 这个词真是太好了。

This one is a function word: him.

这是一个虚词：他。

A pronoun, which is a function word, which means it will generally be unstressed in a sentence.

一个代词，它是一个虚词，这意味着它在句子中通常是不重读的。

And finally, we have the word: " function" which is the working purpose of something.

最后，我们有一个词：“功能”，它是某物的工作目的。

It's the prosody of English where less important words, AKA function words, are reduced to allow the important words to stick out.

这是英语的韵律，像虚词这样不太重要的词会被略读，让重要的词突出来。

But because " bit" isn't really that much of an important word in that sentence, it's kind of what we would call a function word.

因为“bit”在句中不是一个很重要的词，它就像我们所说的功能词。

And the thing which makes the stress and the tone all come together is those function words making words weak when they're not important.

突出单词的重读和语调的是那些没那么重要的、弱读音的虚词。

Now, the other thing I'm going to mention, one more thing in this part of the sentence is that the word " you" could also be a function word, a weak form.

我要提到的另一件事，句子的这一部分还有一件事是，you 这个词也可以是虚词，一种弱读音。

And then we tend to use higher pitches on the most important words, what we could call the function words that the words that really carry most of the meaning and lower pitches on the other words.

然后我们倾向于在最重要的词上使用更高的音调，我们可以称之为功能词，那些真正承载大部分意思的词，而在其他词上使用较低的音调。