The Secret to Understand Fast-Speaking Natives: Connected Speech

Hey guys what's going on! So in today's lesson  I'm going to tell you the secret to being able   to understand and even speak more like a native  but before we get into today's lesson I want to   let you know that if you're new here every single  week we guide you beyond the classroom so that you   can understand fast speaking natives communicate  confidently with anyone and connect to the world   so if you want to be able to do that and more  it's really simple you just have to hit that   subscribe button and the bell down below  so you don't miss any of our new lessons so today we're talking all about connected speech  so what is connected speech maybe you have heard   this term before but if you haven't it's going  to really revolutionize your English so connected   speech is how we natives cut and connect our words  together and really it's what gives English its   musicality it's what gives it its flow and rhythm  and normally non-natives don't do this so what   non-natives what English learners typically do is  they see a sentence and they think of it as every   single individual word in that sentence now when  you speak like this it can sound really robotic it   sounds really unnatural now what do natives do we  actually look at it more as units of words so like   which of these words actually come together and  it makes a lot of sense once you start to focus   on it but when you're new to it it can seem really  confusing but in fact this is so important because   a lot of learners actually say that we natives  just speak so fast a large problem of it is not   just that we speak fast but it's that this is  happening this connected speech is happening and   your regular traditional classes haven't really  prepared you for it so when you encounter it it   just seems like a jumble of words a jumble of  sounds and you really can't understand what   natives are saying now connected speech  exists in every single accent of English   but today I'm just going to focus on connected  speech in American English now I'm guessing   you're probably wondering why exactly does this  happen why do natives do this and how can I know   if different units of words are going to connect  to each other or if they're going to be separated   now this comes down to a principle called content  and function words now we emphasize content words   while we de-emphasize the function words so what  exactly are content and function words in case you   haven't heard about this before so content words  really bring the meaning of the sentence they are   the verbs the nouns the adjectives and really just  by looking at the content words usually we can   understand most of what the person is trying  to communicate and then the function words are   kind of what links everything together so this is  things like the articles the prepositions and the   other kind of smaller words that help to kind of  give a little bit of extra meaning to the phrase   so I'm not going to go too much into this  concept of content and function words here   because we actually did a lesson on our Learn  English with tv channel that I highly recommend   that you check out if you haven't yet because it's  a really fun way to learn about this concept with   some of your favorite tv series but just to give  you a quick example so let's look at the sentence   I am going to go to the store now that's probably  how you might hear an English teacher say it in a   really slow way or how a learner might even say  this because it sounds kind of robotic it's not   how you would actually hear a native say this now  how would a native say this a native would say I'm   going to go to the store now that probably to you  sounded like just a really big jumble of sounds   right it's just not very clear what exactly I  was saying if I hadn't said it slowly before   now it probably wasn't so hard for you to hear  those content words like the verb go or the noun   store but all those function words in the middle  probably if I hadn't said it slow before would be   completely lost to you so let's take a look at how  this kind of breaks down so we have for example   the helper verb m and that reduces and connects  to the I now this is actually a contraction   which we see all the time so we say I'm instead  of I am and we also have going to now you probably   have heard before that we reduce going to to  gonna then as I said we fully say go and store   but then we reduce the words that go in the middle  to the now this is really common so we would say   the or if it has a vowel before it dada so instead  of saying I am going to the store a native would   say I'm going to go to the store now as I said  before if you don't do this if you don't reduce   your function words then your speech could sound  kind of robotic and that's not necessarily a   problem because people can still understand you  so really the most important part of learning   connected speech like this is that you're able to  understand natives when we use it now if you want   to sound more like a native then of course you  can practice this a lot and it will help you a   lot to have more of a native accent like that but  as I said it's not a hundred percent necessary   now something else that we'll see where  this is really common is with phrasal verbs   so usually we have in a phrasal verb we have  of course a verb and one or two particles now   the verb gets emphasized that's a content word but  the particles are function words so we reduce them   so for example if I say come over i'd actually  connect that m to the next word so I say   come over or how about run out of now a native  wouldn't say run out of a native would say   run out of or run outta and we could also look at  another one catch up now that ch at the end again   we'll connect to the particle up so it becomes  catch up catch up now this probably seems kind   of confusing up till now but we're going to  actually look at some different principles of   connected speech that happen all the time and just  by learning those they're going to help you a lot   in being able to understand natives and to  start kind of tweaking your accent now you   probably already have noticed in these function  words when they reduce that schwa sound is really   common and if you don't know it that schwa is that  uh sound that's a vowel that is actually the most   common sound in american English actually I  think in all accents of English but before we   move on to those principles of connected speech  I wanted to tell you about a really fantastic way   for you to learn connected speech and to really  make it a part of your own speaking and that is   with our real life native immersion course now  with this course you will learn with real life   native conversations and with our pdf power  lessons we actually break it down the entire   transcript of every conversation and show you  every instance of connected speech and how you can   start identifying this better plus you also will  learn about vocabulary grammar pronunciation and   so much more so you can try that for free with our  power learning week and it's really simple just   click up here or down description below to learn  more and sign up for that and we look forward to   seeing you inside all right so now let's look  at some of those principles of connected speech   that are going to help you a ton in being able to  understand natives when you watch tv series or you   listen to the radio or music or anything else like  that so the first one maybe you've encountered   before so I'm not going to go into it in too  much depth because we talked about it all the   time over on our learn English with tv series channel  so definitely go check that out if you haven't yet   but this happens in American English when we have  a t between two vowel sounds so we actually saw   an example of this before when I said run out of  did you actually hear how I said that part out   of now I didn't say out of I said outta now this  is how most americans will pronounce this that t   sound in the middle actually morphs to kind of a  d sound now this is very similar to the r sound   in latin languages like spanish and portuguese  so it's just a very quick flick of the tongue   at the top of the mouth so I didn't say outta I  said outta and you can hear this in other words like   butter or cat and dog would become cat  and dog so this happens even between words   so the next thing we're going to look at that  happens all the time in native speech is what   happens to pronouns so pronouns that begin with  an h like he his or her we will often drop that h   sound and connect it to the preceding word so for  example if I say what did he do I would actually   drop that h sound in he and connect it to did so I  wouldn't say what did he do i'd say what did he do   now you could completely miss the he there  probably if you're not accustomed to this   and you wouldn't even be sure of like who are  we talking about let's look at a couple more   examples so we could say for example he doesn't  know her so did you see I drop the h sound and   I connected that w from no to her so he doesn't  know her nowhere we could also say that with his   that what is his problem for example so I would  say what is this problem so we have the american   t there happening because the t falls between wha  and is so it becomes what is what is and then the   s or actually that z sound from is connects to the  pronoun so what is his problem what is his problem   and this also happens with the pronoun them we  will drop that th sound and we're just left with   um so instead of saying I will call them I would  say i'll call them i'll column or similar to the   example we looked at before instead of saying  I don't know them I would say I don't know them   I don't know them so moving on another thing that  we americans often reduce is when we have an n   followed by a t so what happens in these cases is  that we'll actually drop the t sound many times   so this can happen for example in the middle  of words so let's take the word internet   and international what do you think happens here  so instead of saying internet or international I   would say internet international but this doesn't  just happen in the middle of words it can also   happen when we have a word ending in empty and the  next word begins with a vowel and you would have   to have a content word and a function word here  so for example the kind of common preposition if   we say that something is in front of something  else we would say in front of in front of let   me give you another example so if I say I went  out I would actually say I went out and another   expression that you might hear in american English  is we say I can't even now we say this for example   when we just can't believe something that  happened so we wouldn't say I can't even   we'd say I can't even and then finally with nt you  probably already know that when we have the word   not we contract it often with the verb so for  example we say does not doesn't and has not hasn't   but we don't actually say doesn't or hasn't we say  doesn't hasn't so we drop that t sound once again   so next we're going to look at the sound of  now we have this both in the preposition of   and we also have it when the verb have is part  of a contraction so let's take a look first at   the preposition of so this will reduce simply to  an uh sound that's the schwa sound once again so   for example if I say the queen of england I would  reduce that to the queen of england we have a   popular breakfast in the us that's called cream of  wheat but an american probably would say cream of   wheat or if for example I want to say I understand  your point of view I wouldn't say point of view I   would say point of view now actually there that's  interesting too because we have that nt that we   saw before so it becomes point of view not point  of view or point to view but point of view now   as I mentioned the same exact thing happens with  have when we reduce it and add it to a contraction   so instead of us saying could have would have  or might have will reduce that simply to the   schwa sound again so I would say coulda woulda  or maida now did you hear that american t in   might now when I just say the word might I  say true tea but because it's might have and   we reduce that again it becomes mai da so that's  that american tea once again okay so next we have   reductions with y now this is really common  because the word u is often a function word   so we will actually have some sound morphing  here now this happens in two cases with two   consonants the first one is when we have  a t plus a y now this becomes a ch sound   and the same thing happens when we have d  plus y but instead of it being it becomes   a j sound so it's j now I'm not going to give  you too many examples here or anything because   I recently explained this in another lesson  where we talked about school English what they   taught you at school versus real life English so  I highly recommend you check out that lesson next   fantastic so we only have two more and the next  one that we're going to look at is something   really funny that happens when we have two  consonants together so what I mean by this is   when we have a word that ends in the consonant and  the next word begins with the same exact consonant   so let's look at some examples of this to make it  clearer so for example if I say that a store has   cheap prices now I wouldn't say both of those  p's because that's kind of difficult for me to   pronounce in my mouth so this actually makes your  speaking a little bit easier because you don't   want to get all tripped up by that you can just  drop one of those p sounds so a native instead of   saying cheap prices would say cheap prices so we  drop that first p and then we link them together   cheap prices so let's look at some more examples  of this how about a place that you would go if   you have a car the gas station becomes the gas  station so gas station and maybe you like reading   so you would join a book club but a native one  and say a book club because that's really tricky   for our mouths again we'd say book club book club  and then finally i've given you all examples of   consonants but this also happens with vowels  so if for example I want to say we each have   a fantastic time learning English I wouldn't say  we each i'd say which we each have a great time   we each have a great time so we're going to  look at something else now the final principle   also has to do with when we have a vowel  sound and that is the vowel u because we get   a really strange sound morphing there so when  a word ends in a u sound and I don't just mean   the letter u I mean the sound u so that's that oo  sound we will actually often transform it to a w   if the following letter the beginning letter of  the next word is a vowel as well so for example   if I want to say who is it say I have someone just  knocked in the door and I want to say who is it   I wouldn't say who is it I would say who is it so  did you hear what happened there listen again who   is it now what happens when we have a u sound  followed by another vowel is it becomes a   w sound so who is it that's a very strange  sound morphing I know but it happens all   the time in native speech and as I said you  notice that there who ends in an o but it's an   ooh sound so say you want to give a friend a  compliment and you want to say you are the best   that's a really great alternative to saying thank  you but you want to say you are the best you'd say   you are the best you are the best and you could  also say you always do that maybe someone does   something that really annoys you so you  say you always do that that w sound again   all right so I hope this has given you a little  bit of clarity I hope you've taken notes and it's   really important that you start actually paying  attention to this in anything that you watch   or listen to now something really great that  you can do is when you're watching something   either with subtitles or without you can actually  check yourself if you didn't understand something   go back and listen again and this is where the  subtitles come in handy because say you watched   it first without subtitles you didn't understand  something you go back you watch again with   subtitles what I want you to do when this happens  is actually try to figure out what didn't I   understand here and why was that now was that due  to some connected speech and you can actually take   a look at some of the principles that we looked  at today and try to figure out what exactly was   happening here was there some sound morphing was a  function word here reduced now if you start doing   this you're just going to see huge improvements in  your ability to understand your favorite tv series   music the radio podcasts and so much more and  another thing that can be really helpful here is   if you have a teacher or the guidance of a native  so one way that you can do this of course is by   getting a really fantastic coach or teacher and  make sure that it's someone who knows a little bit   about how natives actually pronounce things and  that they can kind of coach you in this connected   speech whether you're wanting to actually speak  that way or just be able to understand it and   another great way to do this as I said is with our  real life native immersion course because I and   justin and another teacher chad will actually be  the ones that are guiding you through the journey   of learning English so I hope you've had a lot of  fun today thanks so much for joining me and i'll   see you next week now it's time to go beyond the  classroom and live your English ah yeah so let's   look at some instances of this that you will find  all the time so in school they probably taught   you to say these like serious sam let's see got  to want to have to going to however it's pretty   uncommon that you will hear natives speak this way  most natives will actually speak like my friend   street stan yeah man i'd say like gotta wanna  gonna so maybe you already know about those ones

Channel: RealLife English

Views: 120,699

Keywords: Learn English with TV, Natural English, Real English

Id: FPXqVKgZuJU

Length: 18min 13sec (1093 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 25 2020