How fluent are you in English? - English Fluency Test

Today we are talking about fluency.

To be fluent is the aim of many people who learn  another language but it is very difficult to  

achieve. You could have a university degree in  English, you could have been learning English  

for years and years, you could be able to read  and write English perfectly, but none of these  

things necessarily make you truly fluent. The dictionary definition of fluent is:  

To be able to express oneself easily and articulately. But fluency is a gradual process and there is  

no set way to learn that is guaranteed to  make you fluent, but today we’re going to  

be discussing some checkpoints for English  proficiency so you can work out where you  

sit on the scale and work towards fluency. You do not have to know or understand every  

single word in the English language in order to be fluent.  Believe it or not, there are some English words  

that I don’t even know the meanings of. Anything  that is particularly scientific for example,  

because it is not vocabulary that I have ever  needed to use. So you don’t need to learn the  

entire dictionary to be fluent, but in this video  I am going to outline 10 ways that you can tell  

if you are fluent, or how close to fluency you  are. Make sure you watch all the way to the end  

of the video to hear about my new mini-series  which will help you on your journey to fluency.

1. You no longer need to translate in your  head before speaking or understanding. Once  

you are fluent, these things come naturally  and you’ll even find that sometimes you can  even

speak or listen to something in English, without  even realising that it’s in another language. 
 

2. You can understand and join in with  jokes and humour in English. In Britain,  

understanding sarcasm is key to this step  so if you’re not sure how to use sarcasm,  

then that might be a good starting point  to understanding lots of British humour. 
 

3. You can understand when somebody is not  saying exactly what they mean. This includes  

things like sarcasm and idioms, although even  I come across some idioms I don’t understand  

from time to time. Many idioms are regional  or used within a specific group of people.  

It’s okay if occasionally you come across one  or two you don’t understand but a firm grasp  

of common idioms is essential for fluency.
 4. You know the right thing to say because  

it just feels right. This could apply to grammar  tenses and the way that when you speak your native  

language, you’re probably not thinking about  what tense you’re speaking in- you’re just saying  

what sounds right. This will be how you speak  English too if you are truly fluent. You might  

even forget the rules or names of certain tenses  but you know how to use them ‘just because’. 
 

5. Your sentences flow very naturally. You  don’t find yourself pausing to think or  

reaching for vocabulary, you are just able to  speak freely. You will also find that you don’t  

need to repeat words or phrases very often  because your vocabulary and understanding  

is vast enough that you have multiple phrases  that you could use in almost any situation.
 

6. This one is very important: you are able to  pick up on your own mistakes and correct them.  

As a native English speaker, even I make small  mistakes or misspeak sometimes. The important  

thing is that you can catch these mistakes  as they happen and correct them yourself.
 

7. You find that sometimes you are thinking in  English, and occasionally even dreaming. There  

are some phrases that use don’t translate  well from one language to another and to be  

truly fluent is to be able to recognise when  some things just make better sense in one  

language than another. You might find yourself  thinking about English customs in English,  

or about something that was originally  told to you in English. You don’t feel  

the need to try to translate these things  because your understanding of the language  

runs so deep that you can use keep hold of that  information in the language that you learned it.
 

8. You can watch tv shows and films, read books,  magazines or newspapers and listen to music,  

podcasts and radio without the need  for translations. No subtitles,  

no pausing to look up definitions necessary. When  you are truly fluent, you will be able to keep up  

with the speed of native speakers, so watching a  film will be just as easy in English as it would  

be in your native language. This is one you can  definitely practice! You could try watching an  

episode of your favourite tv show without  subtitles because your familiarity with the  

show would hopefully help to fill in any gaps you  have for now. Then you can give yourself something  

a little more advanced each week until you are  watching all new episodes without subtitles.
 

9. You’ll know you’re fluent because you feel  like yourself when you’re talking in English.  

This comes with all of those things I’ve already  mentioned: understanding humour, not having to  

translate everything, etc. When learning a  language, it can be really difficult to make  

genuine connections with native speakers sometimes  because you feel as if you can’t really express  

yourself properly. Once you are fluent, that  feeling will go away and you will feel completely  

yourself while speaking another language.
 10. And finally, you stop worrying that  

people aren’t going to understand you. You can  walk into a shop, a bank, a dentist, and so on  

without worrying about a language barrier getting  in the way, and the same applies to business and  

social conversations. You won’t have to prepare  what to say in advance and you’ll find that people  

don’t have to adapt their usual way of speaking  to accommodate for your English proficiency  

level. You will be able to have any conversation  as confidently as an English Native speaker.

So that’s 10 ways that you can tell  if you are fluent in English! Let me  

know in the comments how many  of these things apply to you.

Now let’s talk about how you can improve your  fluency. Do you know about the 6 levels of  

learning English? This is a specification  supplied by Cambridge English to determine  

how advanced your English is, and how close  to fluency you are. The levels run from A1,  

which is beginner, to C2 which is proficient.  Over the next few days, I’m going to be posting  

videos to help you test which level you’re  at and links to previous videos of mine that  

will help you move up to the next level. Are you  ready for the challenge? Firstly make sure you’re  

subscribed to my channel and then click here  to see if you can pass the A1 test. Good luck.