Why Natives Speak English SO FAST (to Your Ears) — You can speak fast too!

do you want to change the way you speak English and speak English faster then you need to learn word chunks word chunks are basically about connecting the words in a sentence think about Lego blocks that instead of separate pieces scattered around they are put together to form something really special so stick around because today we're going to be putting connected speech and word chunks in practice and you will see how these connections apply in real conversations so XM as we always say here at real life English the best way to practice the language is by using real relevant content and media so in order for us to get this pronunciation word chunk connected speech practice in today I actually brought a nice clip from a podcast for us to watch together and also discuss not only the topic but also explain the pronunciation of the connected speech here and maybe some vocabulary as well it's um a topic on relationships so to kick off the conversation before we watch the clip I would like to ask you what do you consider extremely necessary for a successful long-term committed relationship I think from my personal experience I would answer that spending enough quality time together to give yourself the opportunity to bond with your partner with your kids uh we're talking about marriage right so basically it's about your uh second half it's yeah it's that it's quality time spending quality time together awesome uh what is bond by the way you said the word bond that's the connection the special chemistry you buil this relationship this trust you built with your partner interesting I would add to that also Communication open honest and frequent communication is really important active listening as well communication for me is not only like one way yeah so it always should be like like this nice saying like it takes two to tango communication here is the S the same yeah like active listening and communicating cool so the clip we're going to watch now from this podcast is exactly about that it's a clip from the Tim feris podcast and the guest is BR Brown and she's talking about marriage and she share something really cool here about um how you can succeed in our long-term relationships all right so just like there is a special bond or connection that you have to nurture in a relationship talking about English pronunciation let's say that there's a special bond and connection between the words that it's important that you guys as Learners pay attention to how the words connect and how the sounds are formed all right so let's watch the clip and get started the other the other two hacks that I think have saved our marriage um besides just showing up and kind of using some of these things like what's working what was hard is the 8020 so everyone says marriage should be 50/50 it's the biggest croc of I've ever heard it's never 50/50 yeah ever and so what we do is we quantify where we are so if Steve comes home and he'll be like I got 20 just in terms of energy Just Energy investment kindness patience I'm out of 20 and I'll be like I I'll cover you I got you brother like like I I'll pull the 80 sometimes we come home which we have done a lot my mom has been sick and I'll say I've got 10 and Steve you know Steve like two days ago said I'm riding a solid 25 so we know that we have to sit down at the table anytime we have less than 100 combined and figure out a plan of kindness toward each other oh I love that yeah because the thing is marriage is not something that's 50/50 a partnership works when you can carry their 20 or they can carry your 20 and that when you both just have 20 you have a plan where you don't hurt each other nice so talking about the approach here this reminds me of when I was learning English many years ago whenever I saw a clip like that uh I would really pay attention to certain phrases so for example one phrase that caught my attention here was the very first one that she says she says uh just showing up you see how she connected everything there yeah she goes just showing up so first of all the T for just is not really there it's a stop consant just and then the G for showing is also kind of not voiced so it's almost like you are joining the N for showing with the up the vowel U so showing up showing up so she goes just showing up just showing up that's what happens EX exactly when we talk and whe there is this connecting uh connected speech right it's just like you and your brain perceives it not like a separate word by word in a sentence but like rather like chunks that you mention yeah so that's what a chunk is right it's a group like just showing up just showing up it's almost one sound that you're making even though you have three words it makes it possible for us to analyze this the information quicker and speak faster because if we like in terms of understanding if we heard it just like showing and then up our brain would first start searching for the meanings of the verb to show but it's not to show it's showing up which is something different right by the way what does it mean to show up that is a good point that you're making there so in this context here she's talking about relationships and marriage so I I think she means working actively on the relationship and not passive L you show up meaning that you do your part to make it work but in general uh showing up could be uh being consistent with a habit for example let's say you want to practice your English every day for 15 minutes if you do that every day we can call this showing up you show up you do what you need to do yeah well said uh anything else caught your attention here related to the pronunciation of the connective speecher so there is this very common uh it's not a filler word but maybe it is like kind of when we want to um say something but we're not very specific like we say something like for example so we can use the word kind of kind of using she was saying yeah BR use this ver kind of using some of these things and the connected speech here is kind of turns into kind of and that's very common to hear right in the native speech it is yeah so if you want to pronounce it fully you can you could say of but then you can say kind of using kind of using it's also in quick Su succession kind of using or you can make that reduction you just explained right kind of using to bring the Lego analogy back to the conversation that's exactly it right because we have kind of using think about each word as one Lego block kind is one piece or one block and of and using another but let's put this together and let's form in this case one unit of sound kind of using or kind of using right do you enjoy watching our videos here on the channel and learning with us there are many other people out there who still don't know about this channel so please help us reach those people by subscribing if you are already a subscriber share this Channel with your friends and family so they can tell their friends and family and then more people can get to know the awesome content we are putting out here because our goal is to help you go from feeling like a lost insecure English learner to becoming a confident natural English speaker so help us help more people by subscribing and sharing this Channel with your contacts uh BR here talks about the 8020 and she's going to explain what what she means by that but as a general concept what is the 8020 I remember I heard this from you because seems to me you were reading a book or something right about 8020 principle and I think you would put it better in words than me but as I understand it is that very often uh what you were talking about like sometimes 20% of something brings the 80% of result but here in this context what she means is that because later in the clip she says that relationships are never 50 50 so uh she talks about percentage Yeah like for example I give today 80% of my energy yeah of my commitment and you give 20 because you are lower at a lower level of energy yeah is that how it goes here yeah I think she's using it in a more literal sense here yeah like we said in terms of percentage of energy investment patients in our relationship but you you're right usually when we talk about the 8020 it's related to that General principle of doing only the necessary things or the most important things that will bring the most results in our life right that was interesting it's the same numbers here 80 and 20 I also notice in this like expression 8020 uh the connected speech this phenomenon that in a combination of letters and t uh natives usually drop the T sound right so it's not 20 it's 20 that is true yeah especially in American English right because uh in British English maybe you might hear people pronouncing the t's more often like 80 and 20 the 8020 like that since she's American it makes perfect sense that she goes 8020 so first of all the T there for 80 is a flap sound right 80 80 and then we have the 20 that you mentioned right the anti you've already explained that briefly exia but when she says marriage should be 50 what's that like you know everyone says marriage should be 50/50 what does that mean marriage should be 50/50 it's a common assumption that there is sort of give and take to a relationship so I give my 50% and you give your 50% and that what builds this partnership we are equals and I actually like that Renee here debunks this myth saying that never true like ever she even emphasized it like it's never ever true that it's 50/50 and I kind of agree because we all as human beings we have our ups and downs highs and lows right and you just can't be 100% can't bring your best self like every day so what's important in a relationship that you have that other person you trust you rely on who can like she says pull your 20 yeah that is true yeah I love that because uh I think it goes well with the idea that life is not black and white if you say that a long-term relationship is 50/50 you see that's smack in the middle it's too black and white and as we all know life is not black and white it's full of Shades different Shades of Gray so the fact that she's actually advocating for 8020 makes more sense sometimes you don't even have 10% to give in a relationship right because things happen um and then um you use that nice word right s she debunks this myth of the 5050 oh we've already used this word many times it means to um prove that a belief is wrong and the way she does that is by using this phrase this idea of the 5050 is the biggest croc of I've ever heard could you explain that like what is a Croc of something Croc of something is like um we use this word when we want to say that something is nonsense that was just like a you know I won't be using those that words here but yeah actually it's like nonsense yeah yeah and about the connected speech that is really interesting because uh there's a lot going on here it's uh we were talking in the intro here that the trick is noticing how the words connect especially in longer sentences this is one example of a longer sentence guys so we have it's the biggest here you have your pieces right your your blocks so she goes it's the biggest it's the biggest so again that t for biggest kind of disappears it's a stop consonant it's the biggest it's the biggest if you guys are listening to us now at the gym for example running on the treadmill or something you can repeat along with us come on it's the biggest it's the biggest like that and then she continues Croc of I believe she reduces of herc and the same way you explained earlier right croca yes off is reduced to awah sound it's just like we hear a uh and the two words link together like Croc of really cool yeah so Croc of becomes croca botion crocan Croc ation and then she says I've ever heard I've ever heard one difficulty I notice in students sometimes is pronouncing the contractions or the abbreviations like that because I've is an abbreviation for I have the full version here is I have ever heard uh I usually see students uh reading the contraction but not actually speaking it they tend to speak fully like I have ever heard but you see to practice this should go we can go I've I've I've ever this is something you have to practice and you know actually I noticed it right now my has her English classes and they already see uh contractions like this um in their textbooks and she stops for a minute to understand what it is because she knows I have but I've she's right now in the process of learning what it is yeah there you go SOA could you read this entire sentence but applying all these connected speech features we just discussed yeah sure so is the biggest cck of I've ever heard it's the biggest crck of I've ever heard very nice you spoke that last sentence like really quickly and that's amazing right so it's the biggest crck of ocean but you see it's that word chunk thing again we are chunking all these words together like putting them in a group and almost just making one sound yeah it's also emphasizing and stressing the uh function words like got reduced but we stress the main words in the sent right yeah and ideally uh for you guys out there who are listening to us uh you should be doing this also playing the clip again here uh because of time we are just talking about it and we are not replaying the clip but ideally you would listen to that sentence for example multiple times so that you really make sure you get all the connections right because for example uh maybe if you listen again you might notice that even the T for Bullit is joined with the the I for I with a flap sound so she goes b i b i so you see there's another connection there but maybe if you listen just once you might not pick it up that's why it's important for you to listen to it multiple times so I've ever heard and then she goes on by saying it's never 50/50 ever I find interesting the word ever here uh you guys can can just memorize this whenever you say a sentence with never if you want to emphasize what you just said you can end the sentence with ever so she's she's going it's never 50/50 to be more emphatic to her Point she goes ever all right so for example um I never wake up late ever you see I'm just emphasizing what I just said about waking up late yeah what I also wanted to add here is that sometimes these two words go together like never ever yeah so my example would be I'll never ever let you down very nice because normally you could just say I'll will never let you down but if you really want to uh reassure the other person you could go I'll never ever let you down and it's a typical sentence you could use with your partner in a romantic relationship right uh what does it mean when you let someone down you betray them in a way that you don't meet their expectations or you break your promise for example yeah you disappoint them right that reminds me of that Beetle song don't let me down you know don't let me down you knowa what else did we notice here in terms of pronunciation and connected speech yeah so there are two more instances where we have this um anti reduction so we drop the sound T in the word quantify uh quantify is to express in numbers right to show some number uh and again 20 uh when she brings this example when uh she comes home and she says that I got 20 she again drops the T in 20 I got 20 and quantify quantify right and I I really found interesting that she goes she was talking about her husband Steve and then she says he'll like I got 20 I did a podcast with Ethan recently and we actually defined that so you can use this short phrase uh he was like I'll be like I'm like when you want to preface what you or somebody else speaks where says so she's going basically she's saying if Steve comes home and he says I got 20 the same thing as he says he'll be like I believe that was the podcast with Ariana Grande in her songs so this is like it comes from the lyrics of this song yeah yeah but you see how amazing it is right it to um practice your English with real media and real content so there is the song uh music yeah that you can use now we are working with a podcast clip on a very interesting topic you see so this is what we call living your English right because living your English is about consuming content that is relevant to you and we are also activating our English here as well because activating your English has to do with that Curiosity that deliberate stopping pausing analyzing the language just like we are doing right now we are actually deliberately intentionally analyzing the language how the guest speaks the phrases and how we can speak it as well so this is activating so guys if you really want to take care of English to the next level you got to combine these two elements leaving your English and also activating it are you trying to improve vocabulary I know it can be hard to find great tools to help you master English vocabulary but you know what the real life English app can be the ultimate companion that you need to master new words phrasal verbs and expressions with the app you can practice new vocabulary using intelligent flashcards our app works with the space repetition system which presents you with the words you're trying to learn at strategic times so you never forget them again here's what one app user has to say it's a great app for all kinds of English levels now I can speak confidently and correctly with this app also have increased my vocabulary Bank we understand that consistent progress comes from small but actionable steps so let me invite you right now to take one small but powerful step for your English fluency download the app you can find the link in the description and try it out today andm moving on here she goes I'll cover you I got you brother if Steve her husband says look I only have 20 today I got 20 like my energy is really low she says I got you brother what is the connected speech here yeah so when uh the word ends in t and the next word starts with Y very often we have this CH sound the new sound appears in the combination of Ty letters so I got you uh instead of I got you this cha sound right I got you got you this is a really cool thing that she's sharing here right uh basically it's about if your partner is not right there like you know the person is not at a high level of energy or investment or patience you carry that person's 80 right as she puts it really beautiful yeah it reminds me Chago about about do you remember the chapter in Steven ki's Seven Habits of Highly successive people about the emotional bank account so there are those deposits and withdrawals so basically when you selflessly uh commit to showing up and you know bringing that extra energy for your partner you make it dep deposit yeah into your bank account emotional bank account and that's something that is also Al very important in relationship because we unfortunately or not but we all have some kind of expectations as I already said it's so hard to be always 100% uh bring your best self and when you don't meet those expectations of your partner inevitably there is some kind of frustration right it happens it's just like natural so in order to keep that balance to keep that emotional bank account always profitable in terms of your emotions your relationships your trust it's always good to remember from time to time just to contribute value to your relationship yeah to have that you know to to make deposits uh to cover up those withdrawals that also happen in relationships yeah I love that idea of the emotional bank account because it's literally this uh imagine you do something nice for your partner maybe you were more patient than he or she that day or more giving more loving and supportive is like a little credit that you are you know having for yourself in the future so that in the future if you are the impatient one the one that is really frustrated you can use that like you said you can withdraw that credit right in this case or that you deposited before I really like that this reminds me of something I heard actually from my wife's grandmother you know uh we were once having uh I think dinner at my mother-in-law's house and uh my wife's Grandma she's in her 90s now you know and uh but you know she's super Lucid she was married for many years and now she's a widow but you know she raised three kids one of them being my mother-in-law today and then once she she told me she said that in a relationship if the other person is really angry or mad you should be the calm one The Oasis you know so because if you feed into the same negative feeling the other person is feeling things just escalate so if one person is really freaking out frustrated tired whatever it is you you need to try to be the opposite at least in that moment uh which is kind of connected to what we are discussing here yeah and Bren is saying uh it it's about pulling the other person's 80 whenever necessary CH let me ask you uh when you were telling about your wife's Grandma you use the word Lucid could you define it yeah what is lucid we usually use that word for especially we're talking about Elders or elderly people if an elderly person is lucid it means that the person still has their brain uh working well working normally just like a younger person you usually uh the older you get the more let's say uh uh problems related to your mental capability um appear but in her case I mean she she can hold a conversation she can think clearly so she's Lucid teach you some lessons on how to keep your marriage healthy yeah you see got to listen to the the old and wise yeah right yeah that's how they say it yeah getting back to the clip here and the connected speech BR continues by saying sometimes we come home which we've done a lot which we've done a lot I really like this connection here because first of all we have done she goes we we we've done which we've done and then you can also connect the which which we which we've done which we've done a lot the a there the article is also a schw sound uhuh and the T for lot is not pronounced fully it's a stop con again a lot a lot which we've done a lot which we've done a lot and this is also interesting to point out guys because for example as we are going through this clip here now I've already explained more than once about the stop consonant the stop T like lot which means that guys there are patterns these patterns tend to be repeated in the language so if you are able to identify those patterns it becomes much easier for you to start understanding and also speaking this way in a more connected faster manner yeah and there are also those groups of words that usually go together so when you are exposed to those um Clips videos with like real interviews real uh conversations just try to pick up which words just go together and uh use them because it's a more natural way to speak uh right when you uh you use those connections those chunks smaller chunks you mentioned earlier in the episode today about the importance of active listening listening with intention attention deliberately uh just now you were you know talking and I was paying attention to what you were saying and I noticed that you said go together go together so you see you you didn't pronounce the two there go together but go together uh this is a nice phrase here from the clip I'm writing a solid 20 when BR Brown was talking about her husband Steve she said oh my husband sometimes says I'm riding a solid 25 what is that mean I see it I don't know you might add to my explanation Chago but I saw it like imagine a surfer who rides a wave right so his wave is pretty low right now but he's writing it he's writing a solid 25 right solid in this case is T so he says that I feel sure that I have this 25 uh% right and I'm writing on it MH yeah I think that's it it's just a a more colloquial way of saying this basically what he's saying here is look today my energy level is a stable 25% I'm writing a solid 25 it's almost like a a fun way to say that I like the wave analogy though yeah my my wave is really really weak today and really shallow you know I'm riding a a low wave of energy I like that uh what else do we have here to point outa from this clip so I think I use this phrase a lot figure out something so she says that when they both don't have 100% combined they have to figure out a plan of kindness right so figure out is to come up with something is to solve something come to some solution after thinking over uh and there is a connected speech here figure out a plan because the T from out is between two vowels it turns into a flap T right with this du sound figure out a plan and finally she says the thing is and then she continues with her idea that marriage is not something that's 5050 but it's actually more 8020 but this little phrase here the thing is you can use to again preface what you want to say to prepare the other person to whatever you're going to explain next like look what I want to say is the thing is and then you you go right I really like that it makes your speech more natural yeah that's the thing you sound more natural and also you um in a communication uh so you draw attention to what you are about to say is important so please pay attention to this for you guys out there listening to us as you've noticed we've defined a lot of nice phrases here today and vocabulary so if you want to take your vocabulary to the next level don't forget to download the real life English app you can practice vocabulary there with intelligent flashcards with images definitions examples so you're missing out if you're not using the app yet and since our Focus today was on connected speech pretty soon we are working towards adding connected speech features in the app so you can also practice these connections and sounds inside the app as well but do check it out download the app because you don't want to miss it all right s uh wonderful clip really nice conversation but now I want to see what you are digging this week to wrap up this [Music] episode I'm happy that this weekend I was uh able to finish a book I was reading for our flua Circle book club the book was was the metamorphosis by Kafka and what I liked uh actually I am rereading this uh short story because it's an our school program and I read it uh at school um what I liked this time is I noticed so I like I took note of so many things that I overlooked as a young reader and it really fascinates me how I'm right now with all the background with all the knowledge with a wider world viiew how much more I can notice in such important um works of art could you give me one example maybe now um off the top of your head of something that you overlooked as a younger reader but now read the again you were like oh yeah I think as a young reader uh what caught my attention was primarily this transformation of a human into a Vermin into a bug so that's the only thing that was oh wow and that was this um Supernatural thing about it that was captivating but right now I paid attention more to the relationships what we were talking exactly about today to the relationship with the family towards this poor guy who turned into a bug how his sister who she really loved and they really had that Bond how she changes her attitudes towards him and how his parents also change and he in his uh turn um doesn't change at all uh I mean inner his inner side his uh inner world doesn't change he changed how he looks right uh his uh his looks changed but he didn't change this inner World wow that's such a an in-depth analysis of the character but it's interesting because you're only able to get that analysis now maybe older more experienced so I I don't even think I paid attention to it yeah reading in school really really yeah so uh what I got from this story is it's important for us to maybe periodically come back to books that we've read in the past or movies or any type of thing that we consumed in the past definitely after a few years because maybe older your experience is much different consuming that content right I 100% believe in that there's always something to pick up something different and speaking of books I can also share a book that I've started reading recently called antifragile by Nasim TB and I'm only at the beginning now but it's a really interesting book because it talks about this concept of anti fragility which is about being able to withstand or endure hardships obstacles difficult moments in your life but not only that but getting better each time you face a challenge a stress or an obstacle um being resilient is a personal value that I have the importance of resilience but what I'm hoping to get from this book is actually a higher level understanding of resilience because resilience it's just about enduring things and going through them without uh maybe fading right but the concept of being antifragile is that plus improving it's not just you know overcoming obstacles with sheer Brute Force but also improving each time you go through a challenging situation so uh that is a book I'm digging in the moment nice interesting all right guys so I hope you guys enjoyed today's episode and conversation I hope you enjoyed these connected speech and pronunciation features of English here and also the clip that we listen together and discussed stay tuned for next week's episode coming your way and remember a free way for you to support us is by leaving us a festar review wherever you are listening and if you are on YouTube don't forget to subscribe to the channel so you don't miss a single new video and of course remember that no matter what divides us that witch Unitus is far greater 1 2 3 a yeah do you find it hard to think in English are you always translating in your head do you speak slowly because you know first you have to think about your idea in your native language translate it to English and then say it believe me I know exactly how that feels after all I also had to learn English as a second language just like you so stick around because today we're going to share some tips with you to help you start thinking in English and say goodbye to translation once and for all

Channel: RealLife English

Views: 61,321

Keywords: reallife english, real life english, podcast, english podcast, podcast in english, listen, listening, comprehension, practice, conversation, pronunciation, native, connected speech, english lesson, class, advanced, intermediate, fluency, fluent, english course, ingles, ingles intermediario, curso ingles, fluencia, podcast ingles, aprender ingles podcast, aprender ingles, aula ingles, conversação, vocabulary

Id: ipF5b6nNL6U

Length: 36min 26sec (2186 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 11 2024