Function words are words that have a grammatical purpose.

虚词具有语法功能。

The reason Americans reduce helping verbs is because they are function words.

美国人略读助动词的原因是助动词是虚词。

Our content words fall on the beat. Function words are off beat.

我们的实义词都在节奏上面，而功能词则在节奏以下。

And prepositions are function words, which means they’ll generally be unstressed i n a sentence.

介系词是虚词，就是它们通常说在一句句子里被轻读的。

That is because these words are function words.

这是因为这些词都是虚词。

Function words have a grammatical purpose but do not carry much specific meaning.

虚词有语法目的，但没有多少具体的意思。

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。

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。

This would mean it's become a function word.

这意味着它变成了一个功能词。

Although function words are usually not stressed, Gregory stresses it because he is noting its importance.

虽然功能词通常不重读，但格雷戈里重读它是因为他注意到了它的重要性。

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。

So the vowels and the function words reduce through this " uh" sound.

所以元音和虚词就被缩减到了“uh”这个音。

But, as you have learned, in some cases, Americans stress function words.

但是，正如你已经学到的，在某些情况下，美国人会强调虚词。

Both content words and function words, both the more important parts and the less important parts.

实词和虚词都有，重要的部分和次要的部分都有。

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。

The other group is function words.

另一种是虚词。

That is because Americans often reduce – meaning to say in a softer and shorter way – function words.

这是因为美国人经常弱读虚词，也就是用一种更柔和、更简短的方式来表达。

The idea is that function words show relationships between content words.

其概念是，虚词表示实词之间的关系。

So don't always rely on these function words.

所以不要总是依赖这些虚词。

The beginning is a bunch of function words, so I'm going to reduce them.

句子的开头是一串虚词，所以我要缩减它们的读音。