Today, you're going to learn the best way
to understand native English speakers. Do you know what it is? The best way is to practice listening to native speakers and to expand your
vocabulary with natural expressions. And that's what you'll do today. Welcome back to JForrest English. Of course, I'm Jennifer. Now let's get started. Here's how this lesson will work. I'm going to say a sentence three times, and you need to write down exactly
what you hear in the comments. And I'm going to talk fast
and use natural expressions. And this listening test will progress
from beginner to more advanced. Let's get started. I'll say it three times. You're on A roll. You're on A roll. You're on A roll. Did you get this one? I said you're on A roll. Notice that contraction. You're this is you are and native speakers. We pronounce this very unstressed. You're you're you're you're on a
notice how on a sounds like one word, because I use that N from on, I transfer it to
a on na na, but I have to say it as one word. Anna, Anna, you're on A roll. You're on A roll. You're on A roll. What does this mean? This is a great expression
because when you're on A roll, it means your experience, a period of
continuous success or good fortune. So this is a very positive
thing in the sports world. If a sports team wins five games in a row, which means consecutively one after the
other, that team would be on a roll. Or in the workplace, let's say Muhammad has a
sales job and Muhammad made five sales today. He's on A roll because you need the
verb to be he is as a contraction. He's he's on A roll. He's on A roll. Or how about you? If you pass this listening test, the
next one, the next one and the next one. In this lesson, you can say I
pass all four listening tests. I'm on A roll, I'm on A roll. Or you could say I've studied
English every day this month. So that continuous success, one after the other. I've studied English every day this month. I'm on A roll and notice that verb tense. I've studied. I have studied. This is the present perfect, and it's being
used because it's an unfinished time reference. So if I say this month, it means
the month is still in progress. Maybe it's the 20th or 23rd. So put I'm on A roll. I'm on A roll because you're
watching this lesson and I'm sure you've watched other English
lessons, hopefully mine this week. So you can say I'm on A roll. Put that in the comments. Are we on A roll or are we on A roll? Our next listening exercise
a little more difficult. I'll say it three times. I'm not a fan of sports. I'm not a fan of sports. I'm not a fan of sports. Did you get this one? I said I'm not a fan of sports. Notice that contraction? I'm I am. I'm not ah can be linked
together so said as one word, but notice that T is between 2 vowels
so I'm going to pronounce it as a soft D nada The nada nada I'm nada fan of so
I can combine fan of together fan of. But I need to take that N and
transfer it to the next sound. Nuv Nuv Fan of I'm not a fan of sports. I'm not a fan of sports. This has a very simple meaning. To be a fan of something or
someone means you like it. You like that something or you like that someone. What about you? Are you a fan of American football, which
in North America we just call football, but to avoid confusion for you,
Are you a fan of American football? The NFL? To reply on the negative side,
you can say I'm not at all a fan. So this means you really dislike
sports or American football? I'm not at all a fan. A little less negative. I'm not a fan. I dislike it, but not really dislike it. I dislike American football. I'm a fan. I'm a huge fan. I'm a giant fan. If you love American football,
So which one describes you? Put it in the comments. For me, I would say I'm not at all a fan. I would rather watch football, soccer than
American football, which we call football. Now remember, you can use this
expression with something or someone. For example, I'm a fan of Taylor Swift, and
of course that means her music, what she does. I'm a fan of Taylor Swift. I'm a fan of Elon Musk or sports something. I'm a fan of yoga, biking. Technology is a great something. I'm a fan of Google Drive. Personally, I'm a huge fan of Google Drive. I love it. I'm a fan of Amazon, I'm a fan of Android. Whatever you want. So you can get a lot of
use out of this expression. I just wanted to tell you I'm a huge fan. I'm a huge fan. I'm a sports fan. Huh. Are you enjoying this lesson? If you are, then I want to tell you
about the Finely Fluent Academy. This is my premium training program where
we study native English speakers from TV, the movies, YouTube, and the news. So you can improve your listening
skills of fast English, expand your vocabulary with natural expressions,
and learn advanced grammar easily. Plus, you'll have me as your personal coach. You can look in the description
for the link to learn more, or you can go to my website and
click on Finally Fluent Academy. Now let's continue with our lesson,
our next listening exercise. I'll say it three times. You really hit the jackpot. You really hit the jackpot. You really hit the jackpot. Did you get this one? I said you really hit the jackpot. Now native speakers, we often
pronounce you as a very unstressed ya, you're really, you're really,
you're really, you're really hit. Notice I don't say hit and pronounce
that T because it forces me to take a pause hit the so you don't really hear the T. This is called a flap T hit the jackpot. Now, when you hit the jackpot, it means you
win the lottery, which is an awesome thing. Woo Hoo, I hit the jackpot. But outside of the context of the
lottery, when you hit the jackpot, it means you achieve a highly
desirable or fortunate outcome. And it's by chance, just like when you win the
lottery, when you hit the jackpot, it's by chance. They just pull a number and by chance
it's your number, you hit the jackpot. So when you use this expression outside
of the lottery, it's also by chance. So I could say I love fashion and my boss
just assigned me to the Vogue account. Vogue is a fashion brand and I get
to go to Fashion Week for free. I hit the jackpot. But this suggests that it was just by
chance that I was given the Vogue account. It's not because I spent weeks preparing
a presentation to try to get the account. It was just randomly assigned to me. I hit the jackpot. And just remember those conjugations of hit. It's hit, hit, hit. So very easy to remember. So in the past, simple, last week I hit the jackpot when my
boss assigned me to the Vogue account. Or I could say I've hit the
jackpot, the present perfect. I have. I've hit the jackpot with this new account. In this case, the present
perfect is for an action, a completed past action that
has a result in the present. And here's a true example. My students are absolutely amazing. All of you are so amazing. I truly feel like I've hit the
jackpot with such amazing students. Especially when I read the comments and
everyone is so positive and supportive. I truly feel like I've hit the jackpot. So thank you all. Our final listening exercise and the
most challenging listening exercise. I'll say it three times, she
really pushes my buttons. She really pushes my buttons. She really pushes my buttons. Did you get this one? I said She really pushes my buttons. And this is the most difficult one because maybe you heard the individual words,
but do you know what it means? If someone said this to you,
would you be able to reply back? Would you be able to have a conversation? Because this is an advanced idiom that
native speakers use for pronunciation. Maybe the word buttons wasn't clear because
native speakers, we don't pronounce those TS. I don't say buttons, buttons. That sounds very awkward for me to pronounce. I never ever say it like that. I always say buttons, but buttons, buttons. So those TS become flat TS. We don't push out the air. Now you can absolutely say buttons. You can pronounce the T, but it's
important that you know how native speakers pronounce it so you can understand
us and not be confused when we say buttons. And you can hear that
unstressed buttons in this clip. Let's listen now. Button, Button. Who's got the button? So now that you know how to hear buttons, let's learn about this expression to push one's
buttons and notice buttons is always plural. This is when you annoy someone on purpose. Now, why would you annoy someone on purpose? Well, you have maybe a sister, a brother, a
best friend, a husband, a wife, a mom and dad. And you probably know how to push their buttons. You know how to get a reaction out of them. And let's be honest, sometimes
you do it on purpose, right? So let's say you have a sibling. Your mom could say to you why do you
always push your sister's buttons? So notice your sister's buttons. The buttons belong to your sister
so you need the possessive there. And your mom is saying why do you
always purposely annoy your sister? And maybe you push her buttons by talking
about her ex-boyfriend and you know, just the mention of his name really irritates her,
but you do it on purpose to get that reaction. Let's be honest, we've all
done something like this. There are always little rivalries
in the workplace as well. So someone could say she's just trying
to push my buttons but it won't work. So she's saying someone else is trying to annoy
her on purpose but she's going to ignore it. It won't work. And maybe this other Co worker is doing this by
talking about the Vogue account that she lost. Remember she hit the jackpot
with the Vogue account, but then she forgot to do something
and they fired her from the account. So she's not going to Fashion Week and
she's not working on the Vogue account. So just talking about the Vogue account
really creates a reaction in her. This happens a lot. Let's say you have two friends. One of them supports this
sports team and the other friend supports this sports team and their rivals. And simply talking about the other sports team
gets that person really upset and annoyed. So you could say I know how
to push Alexander's buttons. Just mention how France lost the World Cup. He pushes my buttons. This kid is pushing my buttons. She really knows how to push buttons. Now let's do an imitation exercise so you can
practice all these natural pronunciation changes. I'll say each sentence again
three times, but this time, after I say it, I want you to repeat it out loud. Here we go. You're on A roll. You're on A roll. You're on A roll. I'm not a fan of sports. I'm not a fan of sports. I'm not a fan of sports. You really hit the jackpot. You really hit the jackpot. You really hit the jackpot. She really pushes my buttons. She really pushes my buttons. She really pushes my buttons. It's not a big deal at all. It's not a big deal at all. It's not a big deal at all. Did you get this one? I said it's not a big deal at all. It's it's a contraction of it is
not a we can combine these together, but notice we have AT between 2 vowels. So a native speaker is going to pronounce that as a soft D and say nada, nada,
it's nada, it's nada, big deal. And then we can do the same with at with that T. And then all I can put them together and
then I'll pronounce that T as a soft D. And it sounds like at all, at all, at
all at all, it's not a big deal at all. Let's talk about what this means to be a big deal. This describes something that's
important, serious, or significant. We use this in both positive
and negative situations. For example, when you do something and
the consequences are serious in a bad way, getting caught plagiarizing is a big deal. You could be expelled. So here the consequences are
serious in a negative way. You could be expelled, which means
permanently removed from your school. Is that that big of a deal? Yes, it's a big deal, but we
also use this in a positive way. Getting a promotion is a big deal. You can finally buy a house. So here the promotion is important and significant
for the impact it will have on your life. It's a big deal. No big deal. It's a huge deal. Now remember our example was in the negative. It's not a big deal at all. So we can use this in two ways. First, to say that something isn't
serious, significant or important. For example, missing the party isn't a big deal. Your friend will understand. So the consequence of that action? Missing the party isn't very
important or significant or serious. It's really not a big deal. Not a big deal Now. We also use this as a reply when someone offers
appreciation or their thanks for something we did. Your friend could say thanks for
agreeing to help me move this weekend. I really appreciate it and you can reply
back and say it's not a big deal at all. I'm happy to help. Now, if you want to sound
really American and casual, you can reduce that entire sentence to two words. No biggie, no biggie. So no biggie represents it's
not a big deal, No biggie. Ah, no biggie. It's really common with native
speakers in a casual, informal way. So I could show my appreciation to you and say thank you so much for liking
this video and subscribing. Don't forget to do those two things and
then you can reply back and say no biggie, no biggie, it's not a big deal at all. I'm happy too. So put that in the comments. No biggie, No biggie, no biggie. Put that in the comments. Let's try this again. I'll say it three times. So what are you into? So what are you into? So what are you into? I said. So what are you into? What are can combine together and that R can sound very reduced water water what
ER so in what are water water. So basically I'm forming a
contraction in spoken English. Although this does not exist as a
contraction is what we do in spoken English. So water you can become more of
an unstressed ya or ya ya ya. Almost identical in pronunciation. What are ya? Inta So you can take into and change it to inta. I didn't do that personally, but many native
speakers do, so be prepared to hear two as TA. So what are you into? What are you into? This is a casual way to ask someone
about their interests or preferences, so definitely add this to your vocabulary. It will help you sound like
a Native American speaker. So what exactly are you into, Jesse? To reply, you can say I'm to be
into I am, I'm into plus a noun. I'm into music, art, yoga,
Fatah, photography, hiking, biking, or whatever other
activity that you're into. It's also very common to answer what are you into
just with a verb of preference and simply say I like music, I love yoga, I adore photography
or whatever your interest or preference is so. What are you into? What about you? Sleeveless? What are you into? Let's try this again. I'll say it three times. Can we play it by ear? Can we play it by ear? Can we play it by ear? Did you get this one? I said can we play it by ear? Can it is an auxiliary verb. It's there to ask the question. When is an auxiliary verb? We pronounce it as kin, kin, unstressed,
because the main verb is what you hear. Play. Can you play? Can you play? We can combine play and it together. I'll take that Y and I'll use it to connect. Play it, it, play it, play it. But you say it as one word. Can we play it by ear? Do you know what this means? When you play something by
ear, it means that you make decisions as they happen rather
than planning in advance. If your friend or spouse asks you,
what should we do this weekend? And you don't want to make plans, you
just want to decide as it's happening. So you wait until dinner to decide
what you're going to have for dinner rather than planning it in advance the day before. You can say, let's just play it by ear. Let's just play it by ear. You're right, let's play it by ear. Or someone asks, what are you going to do on vacation because they know
you have a vacation planned. You can reply back and say we have a few
tours planned and we'll play the rest by ear. The rest being the rest of your vacation. We'll play the rest by ear. We'll decide what we want to do in the
moment, based on how we feel, based on where we are, based on the situation,
rather than deciding in advance. What about you? When you're planning a vacation, do
you prefer to have a full itinerary, which means every day all the activities you're
going to do on that day are decided in advance? That's a full itinerary. Or do you prefer to play it by ear? No plans, You're just going to decide
what to do based on how you feel. Or perhaps #3 a little bit of both. So put in the comments your preference. 1-2 or three? As for me, I would probably
choose #2 just to play it by ear. I like being more spontaneous. But my husband, Kevin, he is
definitely a full itinerary person, which I learned the first time
we planned a vacation together. So now we do #3 we do a little bit of both. So we both are satisfied. What about you? Share yours in the comments. I don't know, Play it by ear. Why? Let's try this one more time. I'll say it three times. Turns out I bought a knockoff. Turns out I bought a knockoff. Turns out I bought a knockoff. Did you get this one? Maybe a little more challenging, I said. Turns out I bought a knockoff. Turns out I can combine those
together and it sounds like. Turns out. So I'm using that S to glide to the
next word, but I say it as one word. Turns out turns out I bought a so bought is
pronounced bought so I can combine those together. Bada bada. Just like got a native
speakers commonly say gotta. Well you can do the same
thing with bought a bada bada. Knock the K is silent and
off because they go together. Knock off, it's one word. I'm going to use that knock, cough, cough. So I'm going to pronounce the final K on knock and I'm going to pronounce it
on off, knock off, knock off. Let's talk about what this means. Turns out to turn out this is an extremely
common phrasal verb and is used in many expressions in daily speech, so definitely
add it to your vocabulary in this context. Turns out is used to say that something is surprising or unexpected, so I
did not expect this situation. Turns out it was spam. So let's say you were supposed to work late
tonight and you knew about this last week. You've planned your your
entire week to work late today. You've made plans and arrangements. But then your boss says, oh, actually,
you don't have to work late tonight. We finished the project. So you can say, oh, turns out I don't have
to work late tonight because it's unexpected. It's surprising. It's not what you thought. Turns out grammatically there
should be a subject here. It turns out I don't have to work late tonight. But this is called a dummy subject in English, where the subject, it doesn't
actually represent anything. It's just the existence, the situation. Because it's a dummy subject in spoken English, we often drop it and just say, turns
out I don't have to work late tonight. But in written English, a subject
is required grammatically. Let's talk about a knock off. What is this? Because turns out I bought a knock off. What's a knock off? A knock off is a copy or an imitation of
something, usually a product or service. Knock offs are very common with designer brands. So the original is a Louis Vuitton handbag,
which has a very distinct look to it. But there are a lot of knockoffs. They're fake, they're fake Louis Vuittons. And from a distance you
probably can't tell at all. But when you examine the quality
of the material, it's very obvious. So in this situation, maybe it's My friend bought
a Louis Vuitton, but turns out it was a knockoff. At least designer or knockoff, it's just buy another knockoff that's
actually a cubic zirconia knockoff. Now let's do an imitation
exercise so you can practice all of these pronunciation changes
that take place in spoken English. I'll say each sentence again three
times, and after I say the sentence, I want you to repeat the sentence out
loud and imitate my pronunciation. Here we go. It's not a big deal at all. It's not a big deal at all. It's not a big deal at all. So what are you into? So what are you into? So what are you into? Can we play it by ear? Can we play it by ear? Can we play it by ear? Turns out I bought a knock off. Turns out I bought a knock off. Turns out I bought a knock off. Thanks for your help. You rock. Thanks for your help. You rock. Thanks for your help. You rock. Did you get this one? I said thanks for your help. You rock. Very easy, right? At a natural pace. Native speakers. We reduce sound, so four becomes fur. Thanks fur Your becomes your. Thanks for your. Thanks for your help. Your help. Thanks for your help. Now let's review a common mistake
that I hear beginner students make, and sometimes even advanced students. You can say thank you or thanks. You cannot say thanks you or thank and notice. In our example, we have thanks for your help. Thanks for your help. What is your help? This is a noun, so we have thanks for plus noun. You can also use Thanks for plus
gerund because for is a preposition. So what would things for your
help be in the Jaron form? Do you know? Thanks for helping me, thanks for your
help, thanks for helping me and you rock. This is a very natural way to say you're great. You're awesome. I use this in the comment section to reply
to your lovely comments all the time. But don't say you are rock. It is not to be rock. It is to rock. You rock. You rock. You're awesome. You're really great. You rock. Put that in the comments. You rock. You rock. Thanks for your help. Thanks for helping me. Thanks, Billy. You rock. You rock. Thanks, honey. Let's try this again. A little more difficult. I'll say it three times. She's starting to rub off on you. She's starting to rub off on you. She's starting to rub off on you. Did you get this one? I said she's starting to rub off on you. She's is our contraction. She is she's she's starting to So instead
of two, you can use an unstressed tub. She's starting to rub off because
rub off is a phrasal verb. They go together. I can take that B sound and connect it to the
next word, but I have to combine them together. I have to say them as one word. Rub off, boff, rub off, rub off. I can also take that on and add it together. So I'm saying those 3 words as one rub off on. So here I'm taking the F from
off and I'm adding it on. Fawn rub off. Fawn rub off on, rub off on you. What does this mean? To rub off on someone is when someones
behavior or personality effects someone else. Let's take Janice and let's say
Janice loves helping other people. Now let's say Fernando spends
a week working with Janice, and now Fernando starts helping other people. You could say Janice rubbed off on Fernando. Here we have it. In the past, simple rubbed, rubbed, rubbed
off on Janice, rubbed off on Fernando. Now you could also take the specific
personality trait or characteristic, in this case, Janice's helpfulness,
which is a noun, Janice's helpfulness, because the helpfulness belongs
to Janice, so it's possessive. Janice's helpfulness rubbed off on Fernando,
so that specific character trait of Janice transferred to Fernando because
they spent time together. Marcus is really rubbing off on you. Finally, I'm rubbing off on you. My deviousness has finally rubbed off on you. Let's try this again. I'll say it three times. He rubs me the wrong way. He rubs me the wrong way. He rubs me the wrong way. Did you get this one? I said he rubs me the wrong way. Notice this expression uses the verb to rub,
and our last expression used the verb to rub. But they have completely different meanings. And that's why this is a more advanced listening
exercise, because maybe you understood the words, but you don't know what this means
to rub someone the wrong way. This is to annoy someone,
but without intending to. Remember Janice from our last example. And she was very helpful, but maybe for
some reason she just rubs you the wrong way. She annoys you, but there's
nothing that she does to annoy you. Just maybe your personalities clash. They don't go together. So if you're planning a social gathering, you
might say, is it OK if we don't invite Janice? She rubs me the wrong way. Now an entire person like poor
Janice can rub you the wrong way, but it also could be something
specific that someone said or did. And overall you like Janice, but just that one
thing she said or did rubbed you the wrong way. For example, your comment
just rubbed me the wrong way. So maybe she said something in a
meeting that really annoyed you, but you know she did not intend to annoy you. So here your comment. This is a noun. Your comment rubbed the past
simple of the verb to rub. And notice that soft D rubbed
rubbed me, rubbed me the wrong way. Is it me? Like do I rub you the wrong way? Not Jay. Guy rubs me the wrong way. She rubs everyone the wrong way. But pop our final listening
exercise and the most advanced. I'll say it three times. I had a hunch he'd quit. I had a hunch he'd quit. I had a hunch he'd quit. Did you get this one? I said I had a hunch he'd quit. Notice for pronunciation. I had a. I had a had a. So I combine had a together as one word. I had a hunch he'd quit. Now, did you hear that? Duh. He'd he'd quit. Well, that D represents what
word would he would quit. He'd quit. He'd quit Very difficult for students to hear. Native speakers understand it based on
context and based on grammatical structure. It would sound awkward without it. So we know it's there even though
we can't really hear it either. When you have a hunch, A hunch is the noun
and then the verb that goes with it is have. So to have a hunch, this is when you think
or predict that something is going to happen, but it isn't based on facts. It's based on your intuition, your feelings. So you could say I have a hunch
she'll accept our invitation. Now if someone replies back and says why,
all you would say is because I have a hunch. I have a feeling, I have a gut
feeling and notice the grammar here. I have a hunch this is the present simple and then she'll accept she will
accept that's the future simple. I have a hunch she'll accept
our invitation because you're making a prediction about the future. But you could use this in the
past like our listening exercise. I had a hunch last week in the
past, so that's the past simple. Last week I had a hunch that he would quit. So would is the past simple of the verb will. I had a hunch that he'd quit
and using that is optional. You don't need it. You could simply say I had a hunch he'd quit. I had a hunch. Just a hunch. I had a hunch, but I wasn't certain. Now let's do an imitation exercise so you can
practice speaking fast, just like a native. I'll say each sentence again three times, and this
time I want you to repeat each sentence out loud. Here we go. Thanks for your help. You rock. Thanks for your help. You rock. Thanks for your help. You rock. She's starting to rub off on you. She's starting to rub off on you. She's starting to rub off on you. He rubs me the wrong way. He rubs me the wrong way. He rubs me the wrong way. I had a hunch he'd quit. I had a hunch he'd quit. I had a hunch he'd quit.
