YES, you can understand fast spoken English

- Hello, lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy. Before we start today's

lesson, I've got a question for you. Can you understand what I'm saying and I really hope

you said yes because I often read comments on my videos saying things like I can understand

you perfectly but I can't understand my coworkers. Or why can I understand you but I have to

watch British series and films with subtitles. Well, in today's lesson I'm going to explain

why you have so much difficulty understanding native speakers and I'll give you some tips

to help you overcome these challenges. Now, before we get started, don't forget to download

today's PDF. It's a free PDF that comes with today's lesson. It's going to give you a detailed

explanation of each of today's points as well as a quiz to test your understanding. We'll

also mark out some key vocabulary, so you get a little vocab bonus there. If you would

like to download that free PDF, all you've got to do is click on the link in the description

box. You enter your name and your email address. You sign up to my mailing list and then the

PDF arrives directly in your inbox. And after that you've joined the PDF club. You will

automatically receive my free weekly lesson PDFs along with all of my other news course

offers and updates. It's a free service you can unsubscribe at any time. Okay, let's get

started with the lesson. Tip number one, understand that spoken English is different from textbook

or school English. This is a really important concept to understand is going to help you

so much. Now, simply put the English that native speakers use in everyday life is generally

very different to the English that you learn at school. I'm talking about casual everyday

type English that you'd use in daily conversations. Now, I'll admit it when I speak in my YouTube

and course videos, I do speak at a slightly slower pace. I choose my words carefully and

I make sure that my register is suitable for English learners. I want you to be able to

understand each word I say. But most native speakers you meet on the street will not necessarily

have the same mindset. Or they might not be as able to change their register to adapt

to learners of English. Take my mother for example. Many years ago I had a Spanish boyfriend

who didn't speak English and watching my mother try to talk to him was pretty hilarious. She

was using idioms, phrasal verbs, dropping her Ts, messing around with the pronunciation

and the poor guy stood no chance for a number of reasons and not just when it comes to understanding

my mother. Here are some examples of how spoken English and textbook English might differ

from a grammar standpoint. There are certain tenses and grammatical structures that are

far more commonly used in written English than they are in spoken English, like the

passive voice which is a grammatical construction used to emphasise the action or object rather

than the subject or doer. It's often preferred in academic writing formal reports and professional

documents. For example, the decision was made by the committee. Sticking on the topic of

grammar you may have been taught that you shouldn't end sentences with prepositions.

Well I'm here to tell you that native speakers do it all the time. It might be confusing

to hear a random preposition at the end of a sentence, but trust me, it's really common.

Like in this example, who are you going with? It honestly sounds way too proper to say With

whom are you going? Obviously, if you say it without the accent with whom are you going

it sounds slightly less proper but it sounds old fashioned at best. Another example, it

sounds way more natural to say she didn't know who to give the gift to rather than the

textbook English version she didn't know to whom to give the gift. I also want to point

out that we tend to bend other rules a bit when speaking. For example, you might hear

someone say I haven't got any money which is common in spoken British English. While

in school you're most likely taught to say I don't have any money. Another example of

this is in the expression can't believe it, where we drop the subject and utilise the

contraction of cannot. Obviously, you are taught in school to always include a subject

like I cannot believe it but that doesn't always happen in conversation. Tip number

two. Get feedback from trained, qualified professionals. If you are serious about truly

mastering English there really is no better way than one-on-one sessions with a qualified

professional. Trying to progress without feedback is really bloody hard. There's no better place

to do this than LanguaTalk which is a company that I think is so awesome. I decided to become

a part of it. So technically I'm sponsoring myself here. LanguaTalk is an online language

tutor platform with incredibly high quality teachers. Across all the languages they only

accept around 10% of applicants, but for English it's much lower. Their standards are that

high. I'm currently using it to learn Italian. My husband will uses it to learn Spanish and

you can join us and learn English there. The teachers are top notch. Now, a little incentive.

I will give you $10 in lesson credit if you sign up and take your first lesson after watching

this video. So as well as being able to log in, look through all the teacher's profile

videos, book a 30 minute trial lesson for free. You can also claim $10 towards lessons

by messaging their support team with the code EWL10. This is valid for anyone signing up

from today onwards. The link is in the description box. Have a look, have a browse, and find

your perfect fit for a tutor. Tip number three, native speakers don't articulate. This is

the topic of connected speech. So one of the things I'm sure you'll pick up on while listening

to British content or in conversations with your LanguaTalk tutor or native English speaking

friends, is that we love to squish our words together and get information out as quickly

and efficiently as possible, and this is known as connected speech which refers to the way

words are linked together in natural fluent speech. Now, there are several key aspects

of connected speech that you need to be aware of. And I'm not going to go too deep into

this right now but I want you to be aware of certain features you will definitely hear

in spoken British English. We'll start with elision. Elision is the omission or leaving

out of certain sounds and speech often to make pronunciation more efficient and fluid.

In British English, the most common example is the dropping of the final t sound in words

like not, but and what. For example, I don't know, might be pronounced as I don' know,

no t sound to be found there. Assimilation. Assimilation occurs when a sound changes to

become more like a neighbouring sound. In British English this often happens with the

t and d sounds when followed by a y sound t and y often sounds like ch and d and y often

sounds like j. For example. Got you, go'chew. Would you, wou'jew? Now, this one is really

fun. The intrusive r. In British English an r sound is sometimes inserted between two

vow sounds to make the transition smoother and this is particularly common in non-erotic

accents such as received pronunciation or modern received pronunciation, my accent.

For example, law and order may be pronounced as law-r-and order. I've inserted an Ur R

sound that isn't meant to be there but I've put it there because it's easier for me. Now

as well as the intrusive r we also have the linking r, and this is really similar but

it occurs when a word ending in the letter r is followed by a word beginning with a vowel

sound. In non-erotic accents the r is pronounced to connect the two words. For example far

away may be pronounced as fa-raway, fa-raway. Far on its own no r sound, but when followed

by a word starting with a vowel sound fa-raway, it's just natural to put it in there. And

let's look at weak forms. In connected speech, certain words are often pronounced with a

reduced or weak form. And this is particularly common with function words such as prepositions

articles and auxiliary verbs. For example, two may be pronounced as t and and maybe pronounced

as n. So. That was a very quick overview. We do have more videos on connected speech.

It is actually one of my favourite topics. Understanding how frequently connected speech

is used will go a long way in improving your comprehension skills. Let's move on to tip

four contractions and unique language features. I feel like contractions go hand in hand with

connected speech. Contractions as I have talked about in previous videos refer to the shortening

of words by combining two or more words, there are sometimes triplets in there, together.

This process involves emitting certain letters and replacing them with an apostrophe. In

spoken English native speakers pretty much always use contractions. For example, we don't

say, I am from England. We say I'm from England, I'm is the contraction there. Here are some

common contractions, but please be sure to download today's PDF to see a full list. As

I said before, the link is in the description box. We have, I'm, you're, we're, they're,

he's, she's, it's, I've, you've, we've, they've, I'll, you'll, we'll, they'll, can't, didn't,

won't, coulda, woulda, shoulda let's, there's, that's, I could go on forever about contractions

and maybe I should let me know if you want a focused video on contractions. Now we also

have informal contractions which combine two or more words into shorter words but they

are quite informal and they're used in very casual conversations like in this sentence.

I hafta go to the shops if you wanna come rather than I have to go to the shops if you

want to come. These kinds of informal contractions are extremely popular and tend to cause a

lot of confusion for English learners so the more familiar you become with them, the quicker

your listening skills will improve. Here we have some very common ones like usta, kinda,

lotsa, coulda, Ida, sheeda, how'dja, and what'dja. Final tip, learn idioms and slang. If you

want to understand native speakers this is unavoidable. As English learners I'm sure

you were taught to speak in a very direct form of English to say exactly what you mean.

But unfortunately native speakers don't often speak in such a way. We tend to use a lot

of slang and idioms because it adds colour and character to what we're trying to say

and I'm sure you do the same in your native language. I know I said that connected speech

is one of my favourite things to teach, but I actually think that idioms and slang is

too, I can't decide, so I won't. I'll just enjoy them both. Slang and idioms are often

used to express ideas or emotions in a more creative and nuanced way than standard direct

English but this also tends to make it challenging for English learners to understand. Here are

some very common slang terms that you will most likely encounter in daily conversation.

Grub. Food, particularly pub food or unhealthy food food that fills you. Lurgy. An unspecified

mild illness or feeling unwell. It's like a general call or I've got some sort of lurgy.

Dab hand. If you're a dab hand at something you are skilled or proficient at something.

Fit, this is used to mean attractive rather than just physically fit which which it means

a normal English and slang English. If I say you are so fit, it means you are so attractive.

We also have merry or tipsy meaning slightly drunk while wasted or pissed signifies being

heavily intoxicated. Be careful because pissed in British English means heavily drunk and

pissed in American English means angry. In British English we tend to say pissed off,

a phrasal verb. One of my favourites, I use this all the time, knackered, if you are knackered,

you are extremely tired. I also like to say chuffed. Ah, which means very happy or pleased

or kind of smug and satisfied. I'm chuffed with my exam result. Okay, I have put loads

more idioms and slang phrases in the pdf, so don't forget to download that. If you enjoy

learning about slang and idioms let me know and I can make a dedicated video for you.

It's something I enjoy teaching, so if you like it and I like it, I mean we should get

together and and make a video. Right, that's it from me. That's it for today's lesson.

I really hope these tips help you. Again, don't forget about the PDF. The link is there.

It's designed to help you and don't forget about that offer on LanguaTalk. It really

is an awesome platform. Otherwise, I wouldn't have become a part of it. Use that code for

your discount. Just send it to the support team after enrolling in your first lesson.

If you weren't aware, we have recently launched our B1 B2 and C1 programmes. Please don't

forget to check those out if you're looking to take your English really, really seriously.

And I will see you soon for another lesson. Bye.