Continuously vs. Continually - How To Speak English Fluently and Continuously

hi there I'm Drew Badger and I help

guide english learners all over the

world to english-speaking confidence and

fluency in this video I just wanted to

talk about how to speak continuously and

fluently and now this is a topic that we

regularly discuss on the channel so i

often get more and more questions about

this so it's a topic we like to return

to so something we like to cover again

and again so let's just talk about this

I don't want to spend too much time

talking about it because there really

are just some very simple things you

need to know about how to speak fluently

and how to especially develop the

ability to speak continuously now

continuously I'll just contrast this

because people will often use

continually and continuously and so

these are related words but their

meanings are actually different so this

is another video about that but I

thought I would just cover both of these

since we're here so continuously means

you actually have something that's

continuing non-stop but continually

means something happens and then maybe

stops and then something happens again

and then that same thing happens and

stops and stops and stopped so you have

something that again continually like

the lights are flashing continually so

like say maybe the light would come on

and then light would go off and then the

light would go on again but continuously

means I'm doing something and it's not

stopping ever so continuously so maybe

like the alarm was playing continuously

for I don't know two hours like a car

alarm was continuously for two hours

anyway just to get that out of the way

so continuously versus continually and

these are the kinds of things like you

can elevate your English to a much

higher level if you study these more

kind of intricate and difficult things

about the language and if you can use it

properly it's really noticeable to

especially more educated native speakers

or people higher up in maybe companies

and various academic circles anyway so

let's talk about fluency and being able

to speak continuously now if you watch

these videos and you're wondering how

I'm able to just speak like this am I

thinking in my head before I speak and

it's kind of a tricky thing really I

don't really have

a particular idea in my mind about

exactly what I want to say I mean I know

okay right now I want to speak about how

to speak continuously but I don't have a

specific thing in my mind about what I

want to say so I'm not really thinking

about exact words or how exactly I would

express it it's almost like I'm kind of

leading myself forward with a specific

idea and then the language comes from

that so I try not to do the thing where

i'm like pushing the language out of me

by thinking of a particular thing I'm

thinking about where I want to go and

having the language kind of being pulled

out of me I know that sounds kind of

weird but if you think about it in your

native language when you're expressing

yourself especially if you're not really

thinking about what you want to say it

becomes a bit more clear how you can do

that but the ability to do that comes

from developing habits and this is why I

talked about the seven English fluency

habits a lot and why it's such an

important thing to not think about

English learning and fluency in general

as a thing or a series of ideas that you

have to learn like a whole bunch of

grammar points or how to pronounce

certain words or even vocabulary of

course all of these things are important

but the most important thing is to take

some bit of information and you really

work with that thing so like we do in

master English conversation we approach

things from many different angles so we

might have a phrase where people would

practice saying it they would write it

down they would listen to it they would

try using it in conversations and they

would try teaching it to someone else so

all of these give you an opportunity to

take one thing and really develop a

strong sense of how it works and then

actually become able to use it

automatically so when you're thinking

about how do you express yourself in the

same way I'm doing now or in the same

way you do with your native language you

have to develop the habit of just

speaking like this and letting letting

like the idea the place you want to go

the thing you want to express you let

that lead you and then the language

comes out of you in this way and again

it's not something you can really

consciously do about thinking what do

you want to say because the whole point

of fluency is that you're doing it

automatically so right now I'm speaking

automatically I'm not saying

about what i want to say first the words

are just naturally coming out of my

mouth but the only way I can develop

that and the same way I develop it in

Japanese is just by thinking about okay

I'm going to learn this particular

phrase and I'm going to use it with a

bunch of different people so there's

this joke that I use often when I'm

speaking Japanese I won't say the

Japanese well I guess I could like well

it doesn't really matter but I mean the

point is that you're you're talking

about an example of like all right here

I'll give you a better example so I was

at a grocery store near my house and I

saw one of the staffs women that was

there and she was talking with the

customer but she was holding something

in her hand and I said oh are you buying

something like Jack I'm honest cops are

you buying something today like are you

shopping today and she was like oh no no

I'm working here I was just getting

something for the customer but so she is

standing there and I was like a bit

confused then I said oh I bet you get an

employee discount so I shiny wat ABT

morality show so like you I bet you get

like an employee discount and and like

she laughed and the other woman laughed

also and that woman was like wow like

your Japanese is really good and like I

was just like oh well you know I didn't

really think much of it but it's because

I practice that joke a lot and that joke

works with I mean every Japanese person

I've used it on even like American

speakers i use that on like if i go to

the movie theater or whatever and like I

see somebody there you know they're

selling popcorn I'm like oh I bet you

get like all the free popcorn you can

eat or whatever or some situation like

that but anyways typically where people

like usually don't get some kind of

employee discount and it's kind of the

opposite of what's expected but the

point is that i've used this joke with

people and i try not to use it with the

same person again and again so only like

i have to remember who did I use that

with and it's kind of an interesting

game for me but I'm thinking about that

thing and how to express it but because

I practiced it so many times it comes

out automatically when I speak so no

matter where I am I know like it's made

like the last ten people laugh and it's

probably going to make the next person

laughs as well so all of these things

like when you're just thinking about it

and like right now if I want to if I if

I try to stay in my own head

and think about what i want to say next

it stops me from from actually getting

into the float and this is a big problem

for a lot of work of learners of English

so they are thinking they're kind of

spending more time in their head than

just trying to like let the language

naturally come out so kind of spend your

time not thinking about the words you

want to say but the idea you want to

express oh don't worry about the exact

words that you'll use for that even what

I'm saying right now there could be many

different ways of expressing this in

different ways and maybe much better

ways if I took some time and thought

about it so that's why the way I speak

is often different from the way I write

because i can write something down and

then take time to edit it and i go back

and change a few things but right now

this is called stream of consciousness

so i'm just letting the words come out

of my mouth and this is the same thing

that you can do if instead of staying

inside your head and kind of project

like to think about an idea that you

want to express yourself or express and

then let the words kind of be pulled out

of you this is the same way that I just

live my life in general I try not to

think about things too much just like I

had a live lesson here on YouTube not

that long ago the first one ever and I

just began without knowing anything

about how the system works so if you go

back and watch that video you'll see me

sitting there just like okay I'm like

talking to people but I felt confident

about it anyway but I knew I didn't

really know what I was doing and I

thought it was an interesting kind of

weird interface because the comments

weren't right where I could see myself

so I actually had to go to the page on

YouTube where people would be normally

watching the video and then pause that

video and then look at the comment

scrolling over there but the point is

that I'm stepping forward into the place

I want to be and then pulling myself

that way so instead of what native

speakers or I guess learners when you're

trying to learn another language people

kind of stay in their head and they're

trying to make sure they collect

everything perfectly before they take

the next step but you should be doing

the opposite so this is how you develop

that ability to speak continuously so

number one you have to kind of get

outside of your head and just think

about the general idea you want to say

and then just start maybe working

towards that like it

I see there's a red fire truck over

there so I say oh there's a truck over

there like I'm just I'm just beginning

to say and I talked with someone else

and usually the conversation when you're

speaking with the native speaker or

you're even just listening to someone

else speak you can get a sense for

what's correct by are they able to

understand what you're talking about so

do they are they able to follow your

instructions are they able to connect

with you in the conversation but these

things happen over time as the words

begin to come out so what you say

initially might not be perfect but it's

a start and that's really the best thing

you need to do to get flung so the

number one thing is kind of to stay out

of your own head and don't worry about

trying to express yourself perfectly

because just by again doing this stream

of consciousness you develop the habit

of being able to speak without thinking

about it I remember back maybe when i

was in maybe elementary school and we

had to give some kind of one minute long

speech and i couldn't do it so I got up

and it was even like a thing I had

selected to talk about which was plants

or something like that but I got this

topic and I had to walk up to the front

of the room and stand there in front of

all my classmates and talk for just one

minute and I found like looking at the

counter and I'm like speaking for 10

minutes right in this video and I'm not

even thinking about it i'm just going on

and on and trying to explain trying to

not only explain how a stream of

consciousness works but also just to

give you an actual example of that so

again all the things that I'm saying

right now like I'm not thinking about

them first they're kind of coming out of

my head and I'm almost thinking about

them as I say them but i just don't

really worry about whether it's the

exact right thing i should be trying to

save so again try to stay out of your

own head don't try to create the

language perfectly yourself try to

project where you want to go and then we

just begin speaking just begin trying to

express yourself and then over time you

develop the habit so the second part of

this is that developing the habit comes

from actually doing it you can't get the

opposite and this is why you can't like

magically go from learning the textbook

way to being able to speak confidently

you have to go through the process of

crossing what i call the english fluency

gap and this is the current level of

English that you have

now where you can understand what I'm

saying but you can't speak fluently so

the only way to do it is really to

develop the habits of a native fluent

English speaker and you can do that by

just taking these two steps think about

what you want to say but just project

the idea and let it pull you let it pull

the language out of you and then over

time you will learn how to direct that

naturally and without thinking about it

well if you have enjoyed this video and

you maybe agree with this idea maybe you

disagree with the idea you can click

that like button or even click the

dislike button if you didn't like it but

let me know down in the comments if this

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fluent English speaker and want to learn

the specific habits you need to focus on

in order to get fluent whether this is

maybe remembering vocabulary or

improving your pronunciation or even

learning more vocabulary we can help you

do that absolutely free at English

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quiz and again when you speak like this

like you might not speak fluently and

perfectly all the time but you develop

the habit of doing it pretty well over

time but again even this habit is

something we can help you with

absolutely free by clicking on the link

in this video to take our free quiz well

that's it and I look forward to seeing

you in the next video get out plan what

it is you want to talk about without

trying to think about the exact words

you notice I have no script for these

videos i just have an idea and i start

speaking and you can do the exact same

thing if you just try doing it as well

so don't worry don't try to express

yourself perfectly just speak have a

fantastic day and i'll see you next time

bye bye