5 Techniques to Understand Fast-Talking Native Speakers

- Hello, lovely students and welcome back

to "English With Lucy."

Today we are covering such an important topic.

I am going to teach you how to understand native speakers

especially when they talk fast.

As always there is a free PDF that goes with today's lesson.

Today's PDF contains the full transcript

so you can check your understanding.

We've also highlighted key vocabulary.

The pronunciation is written there

and there is a quiz with some comprehension questions.

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click on the link in the description box,

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Okay, let's get started with the tips.

My first and I think most important tip is

that you need to understand

that you won't understand every single word you hear

especially when you're first starting out.

Too many English learners focus

on the parts they don't understand

rather than the parts they do.

This is perfectly understandable, but it's important

that you know that you don't need to understand every part

of a sentence to figure out its meaning.

It is all about one key word, context.

Context is the situation in which something happens

and that helps you understand it.

Let's say you're at a cafe with your friend.

You were both given your coffees and your friend asks you,

- [Friend] "Can you pass me over some sugar?"

- What do you think she wants?

It's pretty likely that she wants you to give her the sugar.

We don't need to understand the other words

to figure out the meaning.

It's about using context.

You were in a cafe, you were just served your coffees.

It makes sense that your friend might ask for the sugar.

This is an important aspect

of understanding native speakers.

Think about the context of what you are speaking about.

Tip number two, equally important, find a language partner.

Find a language partner.

This was the key for me becoming fluent in Spanish.

If you really want to take your English listening,

speaking pronunciation, reading, writing,

all of it to the next level

then I highly recommend finding a language partner

minimum or even better, a language tutor.

You need at the minimum

someone who can help you with conversation

but even better is someone who can correct you,

who can guide you in the direction

and who can teach you what you need to be taught.

They can help correct grammar and pronunciation mistakes.

They can help continue the development

of your English skills in a comfortable environment.

I have recently become a part of LanguaTalk

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As an extra incentive when you book your first paid lesson

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Let's move on to tip number three.

Learn the contractions.

We need to move on

to the mechanics of speaking and listening.

Practise reading this sentence.

She will go to work later.

Okay, and what about this one?

Now, most native speakers will probably use contractions

in these sentences.

She'll go to work later.

I'm from Canada.

It's extremely important to understand

how to use contractions

because they are so widely used in spoken English.

If you aren't using contractions in your speaking

it might be a good time to start

because it will help you improve your listening

and speaking skills at the same time.

Here are some examples

of contractions you can start using today.

I'm, he's, yours,

she's, it's, aren't,

didn't, can't.

To learn more about contractions

and how to properly pronounce them,

you can watch my video on the topic.

I've left a link in the description box.

Tip number four, learn the weak forms.

What is a weak form? You might be asking.

Well, when a word is in its weak form, it is unstressed.

It has a softer pronunciation.

Many words in English typically have

both a strong form and a weak form

and when native speakers converse naturally,

they use a mix of strong and weak forms in their sentences.

This is because English is a stress timed language

which is a language where the stressed syllables,

the strong forms, are said

at regular times and the unstressed syllables,

the weak forms, shorten to fit the rhythm of the speech.

Let's take a look at a few examples

of words in both their strong and weak form.

We have at, it,

for, fir,

but, bit,

was, wiz,

you, ye.

Non-content words such as auxiliary verbs, pronouns,

conjunctions, articles and prepositions are

often pronounced in their weak form.

This is important because you won't often hear

native speakers say she was waiting for you.

You would hear she wiz waiting fir ye

or if she wiz waiting fir you, and finally, tip five,

familiarise yourself with connected speech.

Native speakers love to squish their words

and sentences together and get what they are trying to say

out as quickly as possible, but it becomes difficult

for English learners to understand them.

We're going to look at four key points

to help you understand connected speech.

Firstly, we have catenation.

This is the process of joining a consonant sound

at the end of a word

with a vowel sound at the beginning of the next word.

It's also called linking.

An apple becomes anapple.

What about this sentence?

I don't say put on a jumper before you run away.

I say, puton a jumper before you runaway.

Instead of stop it, I say, stopit.

We also have intrusion

which is when an extra sound is added

between two words to help

with the fluidity of the ending vowel sound

of one word and the beginning vowel sound of the other.

These intrusive sounds are very soft.

They're only used to help connect the words

in a way that is more comfortable for the speaker.

The three most common intrusive sounds are, ye,

whe and er.

Ye typically comes after words

that end in E, A, I and oi.

We ate, weyate.

My office, myyoffice.

If you end with your mouth in this position, E,

we normally add, ye, the whe sound often comes after words

that end with your mouth in a round shape.

Uh, ooh, ow, oh.

Go up.

Gowup.

Show it.

Showit.

Blue umbrella.

Bluewumbrella.

Try reading this sentence here.

I'll give you a few seconds.

Did you say this?

We will have tea and biscuits today at four

in the new office.

We will have teayand biscuits todayat four

in the newoffice.

It's very, very soft.

Next, elision.

Elision refers to the omission

or leaving out of syllables, sounds or words when speaking,

typically the T or D sounds.

We do this as a way to speak more quickly

and with better flow.

Late night, late night.

Left before, left before.

Did now, did now.

The T and D sounds vanish.

When a word ends with T or D and is followed by another word

beginning with a consonant sound,

we typically do not pronounce them.

Sat by, sat by.

Keep in mind that this is typically only true

when a word that ends in T or D is followed by a word

that starts with a consonant.

We do not drop these sounds

if the following word begins with a vowel sound.

Baked another, baked another, we don't drop it.

Finally, let's talk about assimilation

which is when two sounds combine to make a new sound.

When a word ends in T and is followed

by a word that begins with, ye, we often combine these two

consonant sounds to form ch.

Won't you, wonchoo.

Can't yet, canchet.

We also do something similar with words that end in D.

If it's followed by a word beginning with ye,

we often combine the two sounds to make dj.

Would you, wouldjoo.

Did yesterday, didjesterday.

Okay. There you have it, your five tips

for understanding native speakers when they talk fast.

Just to mention one more time to try out LanguaTalk

and find your perfect one-on-one tutor.

The link is in the description box.

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There I've got a fantastic interactive

pronunciation tool where you can click on phonemes

and hear me say words that contain those phonemes.

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That's it from me.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

(Lucy blows kisses) (upbeat music)

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