In Twi, proper pronunciation of words is extremely important. Tones vary from word to word, and like many languages, the way that one says a word can have more meaning than the word itself. As I continue to study Twi, I’ve been learning more about the colloquialisms that I hear often. Formally, most words are pronounced exactly the way that they are written. However, most people don’t pronounce them the same way when speaking casually- they drop letters here and there. For instance, there are some Twi words that contain the letter ‘r’, but instead of pronouncing it, Twi speakers tend to slide over the ‘r’ with the vowels that come right before them. A few days ago I was going over how to say thank you with my mom. I said, “Me Pa Wo Chew (Mepa wo kyɛw),” and she laughed and said that if I said it like that, it would be really obvious that I was learning Twi. Colloquially, people say “Me Paw Cheh (Mepaa kyɛw).” Being surrounded by Twi all my life means that the correct pronunciations come more naturally for me, however, I still have to be careful when speaking so that others can easily understand.