Why You Understand English but Can’t Speak Fluently | How to Sound More American in English?

hello guys and welcome back to my youtube channel  in this video i want to teach you some of the  

rules of connected speech in particular linking  words together guys to be completely honest  

i think i always talk about the importance of  connected speech because it is just so important  

connected speech is something that allows all  of us to sound like native speakers and this is  

exactly why i want you guys to learn more about  it the first thing i'd like to talk about is  

linking a consonant to a vowel let's look  at these examples together i like it a lot  

instead of saying i like it a lot we should say i  like it a lot as you can see i connected the words  

like with it and it with a do you speak  english i connected speak with english do you  

speak english speak english have a good evening i  connected half with uh have a have a good evening  

and then good with evening good evening i'd like  a cup of coffee i connected like with a lika i'd  

like a cup of coffee i connect a cup with of  you can say cup of coffee but you could also say  

kappa i'd like a cup of coffee also guys here a  very important thing always remember to link the  

article n with the next word because obviously the  next word is always going to start with a vowel  

sound he has an american accent so we connect has  an american he has an american accent american  

accent that's an interesting question that's an  interesting so i connected all of these words  

together that send an interesting that's an  interesting i live in an apartment live in an  

apartment i connected all of these words together  i live in an apartment i'll be there in an hour  

there in an hour again i connected all of these  words together very important thing here guys as  

you can see the word our begins on a vowel sound  right we then look at the letter the first letter  

is h which is not a vowel but we don't pronounce  it in this word so that's why we have to use  

n and connect n with the word hour an hour i'll be  there in an hour and guys to memorize all of these  

rules successfully you need to practice them in  conversations with other people and this is where  

the app hi local can really help hi local is a  place where you can discover new language partners  

trainers and friends by having audio calls with  people from all over the world if you're too shy  

to speak you can just choose to be a listener and  just send chat messages images and emojis so once  

you've created an account it's pretty easy to  use if you see that there is a class right now  

and you would like to join for example you're  at the elementary level you could just press  

listen so let's try big part of rice production  yeah it's in the chat box there but thank you  

anyway you've done your best as you can see guys  there is a teacher and a couple of students who  

are interacting who are talking to each other  who are replying to this teacher's questions  

and they're also listen only students and i'm one  of them and as you can see guys they have a lot  

of different tables here for example reading if  you're interested in reading you can choose this  

table because first you can only listen if you're  still you know a little bit shy but then you can  

join the conversation and get feedback from the  teacher so if you want to take your english to  

the next level to start speaking english because  guys we all have to agree speaking english is the  

hardest thing to do and it's always really hard  to find reliable speaking partners but with the  

help of hi local you can do just that make sure to  use my link below to download hi local and start  

practicing english the second rule we should  talk about is linking a consonant to the same  

consonant the words that contain these sounds are  also called geminates or twin sounds for example  

my social life is a mess so you don't  need to pause after you say the word  

social you don't need to say my social life is a  mess just say my social life that's it she speaks  

spanish again there is no need to pause she speaks  spanish just one s here it was such a good day  

good day good day again no need to pause  it was such a good day i can never do that  

i can never can never again i see this  n sound only once that's it i can never  

i can never do that let's move on to the third  rule when we have to link two two different  

consonants together so in english there is a very  interesting type of consonant called a stopped  

consonant a stop sound is created by stopping the  airflow and is especially true for such sounds as

i'll show you how it works with the examples but  for now all you have to remember is that we don't  

release the air right because if you release  the air you create this additional sound which  

we really don't need and don't want because we  want to link the words together and the sun is  

back guys i'm trying my best to control the light  in here but it's just impossible because i'm using  

natural light today and yeah but bear with me so  let's look at the examples the first example is  

can you help me please so instead of releasing the  air and saying help me i'm saying help me help me  

i'm stopping the airflow can you help me please  it was a great day so here we have two situations  

where we didn't release the air when i said it  was instead of saying it was i said it was in the  

next two words great day right instead of saying  great day i'm just saying great day did you eat  

that cupcake eat that cupcake again because it's  letter t i'm stopping the airflow and i'm saying  

eat that cupcake did you eat that cupcake next  sentence her stepmother is really nice stepmother  

it's also true for just words in english right  it's one word stepmother but again we don't  

release the p here we don't say step mother her  step mother is really nice no i'm just saying step  

mother right i'm not releasing the air step  mother stepmother now let's move on to linking a  

vowel to another vowel so if one word ends on a  vowel and another word begins with a vowel you  

don't need to pause for a smoother transition  we sometimes add this quick this really short  

e sound especially if the next word begins  with the front vowel for example i a or e and  

sometimes we can add the short was sound after a  back vowel such as ooh or o why you're so upset  

why r wire right we just add this quick e  sound why are you so upset so upset it's a  

really short voice sound do i really need to do  it again we add this really quick what sound do  

i do i really need to do it do it how are you how  are you again we are the short wasan how were you  

and here guys i just want to quickly mention  that it's really important to pronounce  

the correctly so if the next word begins on a  consonant we have to say the write for example  

the table or the mug or the chair but if the next  word begins with a vowel sound we have to say thee  

for example the apple the orange the ice cream but  guys let's look at this last example together i  

met d james yesterday first of all why did i say v  if the first sound of the next word is a consonant  

james and second of all isn't james a name like  we're not supposed to use articles in english  

before names and it happens when we want to stress  the importance of something for example here  

i'm stressing that i met the james like maybe he's  a very famous actor or maybe we just talked about  

him maybe he's our best friend that we haven't  seen in like 10 years so i can be really excited i  

can come up to my friend and say oh my god can you  imagine i met d james yesterday and obviously just  

means that i'm super excited and i'm talking about  this particular james about this particular person  

named james and this is also the reason why i'm  saying the james again because i'm emphasizing i'm  

trying to get this point across that this person  is really important and we know this person like  

the people who are communicating they know about  this person now let's move on to contractions in  

english and especially those we use in conditional  tense the conditional tense is something like this  

if i had known it was your birthday today  i would have gotten you a present saying  

each word separately obviously sounds very  unnatural and native speakers would probably  

never say it like this instead they would use  contractions if i'd known it was your birthday  

today i would have gotten you a present see now  this whole thing sounds a lot more natural i  

guess and obviously because of contractions i'm  speaking a lot faster what would you have said  

what would you have said you have right instead of  saying what would you have said you can just say  

you have you have said you shouldn't have  done that instead of saying you should not  

have done that i can just say you shouldn't  have done that and the last example here is  

i could have given in to you last night i could  have or i could have given it to you last night  

and right now let's move on to the last rule  it's not really going to be a rule more like  

a thing to pay your attention to casual speech i  just want to read this little dialogue with you  

guys because it contains a lot of examples of how  people change words in casual speech i found this  

text in the book mastering the american accent  and i'm a huge fan of this book in general so if  

you want to get this book you can click the link  in description and get it for yourself but now  

let's look at this dialogue together it's called  invitation to a movie what are you doing tonight  

what uh instead of saying what are you doing  tonight we can just say what uh what are you  

doing tonight as you can see this person instead  of saying doing they're saying do it which is also  

cool like people say it all the time i don't know  yet i think i'm gonna just stay home again instead  

of saying i don't know yet we can just say i don't  know yet i think i'm gonna just stay home instead  

of saying i'm going to just stay home you can say  i'm gonna i'm gonna just stay home want to go to  

a movie instead of saying do you want to go to a  movie we could just drop this do and you and just  

say wanna wanna go to a movie i'm kinda tired i  gotta get up early tomorrow instead of saying i'm  

kind of tired we can just say i'm kind of i'm kind  of tired i gotta get up early tomorrow instead of  

saying i have to get up early tomorrow we can  say i gotta i gotta get up early tomorrow did  

you go out last night jew is do you and this is  not how people like spell this word this is more  

like for you to understand how people say these  two words together so instead of just saying  

do you people say jew do you go out last night but  people don't write it this way this is like it's  

really important to understand do not like text  your friend jew because it looks really weird yeah  

i shouldn't have gone to bed so late i would  have had a lot more energy today so see here  

instead of saying i should not have gone we can  just say i shouldn't have gone and that's it  

and the next example here is i woulda instead of  saying i would have we could just say i woulda  

i would have a lot more energy today  why don't you just take it easy then  

and we'll go out some other time again guys people  don't write it this way please don't write don  

cha this is just how we pronounce these two words  instead of saying don't you we can just say doncha  

why don't you just take it easy then and that's  it okay let me know when you're free again see ya  

instead of saying let me know we can just say  lemmy and this is how people spell it actually  

you can for sure just text your friend let me  let me know let me know when you're free again  

see ya again this is also how people text you  can just text c yeah instead of c you actually  

guys going through the stacks just gave me an  amazing idea would you want me to make a video  

about the english that people use while texting  because i think this is an extremely interesting  

topic and every time you want to text anyone  in english especially like this informal  

casual situation right i'm not talking about  sending emails to your colleagues i'm just talking  

about like chatting with your friends so yeah if  this is something you're interested in please let  

me know in the comments and i'll make sure to  make this video because i think i have a lot to  

teach you guys here so yeah guys i think is going  to be it for this video make sure to check out hi  

local to speak english and to practice everything  you've learned today because i taught you  

so so much and the most important thing now is  practice and you can use hi local to practice  

all of those rules just use my link below and  download the app if you like this video make  

sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my  channel and i'll see you guys in my next video bye