Why Do Americans Speak So Fast? | How to Speak English Fast and Understand Native Speakers

63,597 views

2022-04-19 ・ English with Veronika Mark


New videos

Why Do Americans Speak So Fast? | How to Speak English Fast and Understand Native Speakers

63,597 views ・ 2022-04-19

English with Veronika Mark


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
americans speak so freaking fast i know let me  help you now and explain how they do this so that  
0
80
6560
00:06
you can start speaking english faster and sound  more native let's first watch this short clip  
1
6640
5440
00:12
from an american movie called saw and using this  clip as an example i'll be explaining some of the  
2
12080
5600
00:17
main features of the american accent well as  your lawyer and your friend my advice to you  
3
17680
5360
00:23
is to bite the bullet and give them yellow by now  because no one's going to believe you later but  
4
23040
6240
00:29
before we actually start talking about the movie  i want to share something with you guys so while  
5
29280
4880
00:34
preparing for this video i was googling some  information on why americans speak so fast and  
6
34160
6800
00:40
this is exactly what i googled i was like why do  americans speak so fast and basically guys this  
7
40960
5760
00:46
is what i found i think the explanation that it's  their native language is definitely not helpful  
8
46720
5520
00:52
you know especially for non-native speakers we're  like okay and what are we supposed to do with this  
9
52240
4960
00:57
information right we understand that this is their  native language but we also want to speak fast we  
10
57200
6320
01:03
also want to sound more american so that's why  i decided to make this video for you guys so the  
11
63520
5120
01:08
main reason why americans speak fast is because  of connected speech connected speech is a huge  
12
68640
5680
01:14
part of the american accent in general and it is  basically a continuous sequence of sounds forming  
13
74320
6320
01:20
conversations in a spoken language and connected  speech is a part of every single language  
14
80640
6640
01:27
when we speak our native languages we connect  all the words together because we want one word  
15
87280
5520
01:32
to flow into the next one and then the next one  flows into the next one we want to have this  
16
92800
5120
01:37
flow right this natural flow and this is why in  english or in any other language we have connected  
17
97920
6640
01:44
speech but the reason why american english is  especially difficult for some people is that  
18
104560
5920
01:50
when they connect certain words together they  sometimes change the sounds and this might be  
19
110480
6720
01:57
pretty tricky for non-native speakers especially  when you don't know the rules and a lot of the  
20
117200
4640
02:01
things i'll be mentioning in this video i've  learned from the book mastering the american  
21
121840
4160
02:06
accent it's a great book that i highly recommend  to every single person on this planet who wants to  
22
126000
6800
02:12
master the american english because it helped  me so much it opened my eyes to what american  
23
132800
6080
02:18
english actually sounds like and i fell in love  with the american accent thanks to this book so  
24
138880
5360
02:24
first guys to give you an understanding of what  linking actually is of what connected speech  
25
144240
6400
02:30
is i want to show you this little exercise  we can do together so here you can see how we  
26
150640
5040
02:35
write the expressions but also how we actually  pronounce those expressions so we don't say  
27
155680
6000
02:41
hold on it sounds more like hold down right so  we actually create a different word like whole  
28
161680
10720
02:52
done but it sounds exactly the same as hold on  right because our goal guys is to connect these  
29
172400
6720
02:59
two words together to merge them together that is  our goal so instead of saying i like it you can  
30
179120
7600
03:06
say i like it these two expressions sound exactly  the same next one instead of saying deep and  
31
186720
8640
03:15
you can say depend instead of saying  get up late you should say get a play  
32
195360
6880
03:22
again our goal here is to connect all these three  words together so i hope guys this little exercise  
33
202800
6640
03:29
give you a small idea of what connected speech  is right so instead of saying every single word  
34
209440
6880
03:36
separately which is a mistake a lot of non-native  speakers have and actually i used to have this  
35
216320
5440
03:41
mistake too because i used to think that to  sound clear i need to pronounce every single word  
36
221760
7840
03:49
separately but unfortunately it's not the case and  this is exactly what we see at the very beginning  
37
229600
5200
03:54
of the clip i just showed you well as your lawyer  and your friend my advice to you is to bite the  
38
234800
5200
04:00
bullet and give them your hello by now because  no one's going to believe you later so the guy  
39
240000
6080
04:06
says as your lawyer and your friend instead  of saying as your lawyer and your friend he  
40
246080
7680
04:13
connects all these words together so the first  thing that i really like about this phrase is  
41
253760
5040
04:18
azure lawyer so instead of saying as you're  again we connect these two words together and  
42
258800
5680
04:24
we say azure imagine it's just one word azure as  your lawyer and then guys should you hear how he  
43
264480
6320
04:30
connected lawyer plus and he didn't say lawyer  and your friend he said lawyer and your friend  
44
270800
9440
04:41
very natural in a one word ends and another one  begins it's a natural flow it's a pretty common  
45
281040
5600
04:46
rule in english when one word ends on a consonant  like for example in the word lawyer it ends on  
46
286640
5920
04:52
an r and another one begins on a vowel sound for  example and and especially when it's the word and  
47
292560
7360
04:59
we very often just merge these two words together  and what's more we often don't pronounce this d  
48
299920
6480
05:06
sound or t sound for example in the word  and we're gonna say and we're gonna say an  
49
306400
6880
05:13
lawyer and your friend that's it and to practice  holding the last consonant let's do this exercise  
50
313280
6960
05:20
together so here you see a couple of expressions  and the first word ends on a consonant and our  
51
320240
6320
05:26
goal here guys is to hold this consonant do not  release it so let me just give you an example  
52
326560
6080
05:32
so instead of saying up there you should say  up there so you hold the air you don't say up  
53
332640
7840
05:41
there right you don't release the air the goal is  to hold it hold the air up there okay next one is  
54
341120
7600
05:48
help me again not help me but help me if they're  saying baked beans we're going to say baked beans  
55
348720
10240
05:58
it's also a pretty common rule in american english  to drop the ed ending all together and to just say  
56
358960
6160
06:05
bake beans i love baked beans and you good music  again we don't say good music we say good music  
57
365120
8480
06:13
and last one here guys with the letter t we don't  say great day we say great day you could just say  
58
373600
6480
06:20
great day again we hold the air we don't  pronounce the t sound fully the next thing  
59
380080
6400
06:26
that i wanted to direct your attention guys is  how the guy in the clip says the word them well  
60
386480
6160
06:32
as your lawyer and your friend my advice to you  is to bite the bullet and give them yellow by now  
61
392640
5760
06:40
because no one's going to believe you later so he  says give them your alibi now he pronounces the  
62
400080
5920
06:46
word them fully but i just want to let you guys  know that it is very common in informal english  
63
406000
5760
06:51
to drop this th sound so instead we're just going  to say m give him give him your alibi now and this  
64
411760
7760
06:59
word also applies if a pronoun starts with the  letter h for example him or her we can also say  
65
419520
6960
07:06
giver instead of saying give her we can say  giver instead of saying give him we could say  
66
426480
6480
07:12
give him and that's it and the reason for this  is that americans like to be casual and in casual  
67
432960
5120
07:18
speech sentences are shortened and grammar is  simplified and people are generally less careful  
68
438080
5040
07:23
about pronouncing every single sound so now  that i want us to go through this table together  
69
443120
4960
07:28
from the book mastering the american accent  because it has a lot of great examples of how  
70
448080
4720
07:32
casual americans like to be and i highly  recommend you guys to also implement all of  
71
452800
4240
07:37
those rules when you speak english so let's start  with you so instead of saying you we can just say  
72
457040
6320
07:43
yeah and this is something that people text to  each other pretty often so you can just text i'll  
73
463360
4880
07:48
call ya or see ya the next one is because instead  of saying because all the time we could just say  
74
468240
6240
07:54
cuz and this is exactly what we can type as  well just because i did it because i wanted  
75
474480
4960
07:59
to i'm tired because it worked all day the next  one that i really like is i don't know instead of  
76
479440
6880
08:06
saying i don't know you can just say i don't know  or don't know i don't know why i don't know what  
77
486320
6400
08:12
to do next one is let me again guess remember  we don't release this to a son we just say  
78
492720
6720
08:19
let me let me do it let me help you let me talk to  him and the same issue forgive me we can just say  
79
499440
6880
08:26
give me give me a call give me a break can you  give me a minute next one is probably going to  
80
506320
4880
08:31
be my favorite because very few non-native  speakers actually know about this rule so  
81
511200
5120
08:36
we often say did you did you go to that party  last night right but instead it's better to  
82
516320
6960
08:43
say jew we obviously don't write this way but we  always say jew instead of did you do you call me  
83
523280
8560
08:52
why'd you do it did you go out last night next one  is do you want to instead of saying do you want to  
84
532400
7920
09:00
you can just say wanna wanna go out wanna dance  what do you wanna do instead of saying have got  
85
540320
6720
09:07
to we should say gotta and again guys here very  important in american english we pronounce this  
86
547040
6560
09:13
word with a flap t so we say gotta so it's kind of  like between an r and a d sound it's not a gatta  
87
553600
9040
09:22
right we don't say i got to go we say i gotta go  i gotta go you gotta do it so instead of saying  
88
562640
6080
09:28
should've would've could've must stop we can just  say shoulda woulda coulda you should have told me  
89
568720
8560
09:37
it would have been nice we could have come you  must have seen it and again the same is true when  
90
577920
5120
09:43
we want to create negative sentences so instead of  saying shouldn't have wouldn't have and couldn't  
91
583040
5680
09:48
have we could just say should na wouldn't could  not you could not done that i wouldn't have known  
92
588720
6240
09:55
it couldn't have happened and of course the next  one is going to you're probably familiar with  
93
595520
4800
10:00
this one guys so we just say gonna i'm gonna go  it's gonna rain what are you gonna do and ghana  
94
600320
5840
10:06
is actually something that you can also text so  if you're texting with your friends you can just  
95
606160
4160
10:10
type in what are you gonna do or something like  that and right now let's move on to what do you  
96
610320
5360
10:15
so instead of saying what do you you can just say  what are you what do you want what are you doing  
97
615680
6960
10:22
what do you think next let's go to a lot of so  instead of saying a lot of we can just say a lot  
98
622640
8320
10:30
and again here we also have this flap t sound  that's a lot of money i've got a lot of friends  
99
630960
6000
10:36
the same is true for a kind of so instead  of saying this off we can just say kinda and  
100
636960
5120
10:42
again this is also something you can type to your  friends so you can say it's kind of hot what kind  
101
642080
5680
10:47
of car is that and the same is true for out of  so everywhere we have this off we can just say  
102
647760
6240
10:54
ara get out of here i'm out of money you're out  of your mind meaning you're crazy go to so when  
103
654000
8640
11:02
you want to say go to you can just say gotta i go  to work let's go to a concert now let's talk about  
104
662640
7120
11:09
yes and no so yes is actually a very interesting  word because for a lot of non-native speakers for  
105
669760
7200
11:16
them you know if you ask them a question they're  always gonna say yes but it's actually better to  
106
676960
5920
11:22
say yeah or yep yep is definitely more casual more  informal so instead you should try to stick to  
107
682880
6960
11:29
yeah even though maybe you're taught that you  know if somebody is asking your question you  
108
689840
4800
11:34
should say yes but yeah is definitely more natural  yeah it's good yep i did it so no yes you should  
109
694640
9280
11:43
say no because nope is very informal so if you're  talking to your boss i mean obviously it depends  
110
703920
6240
11:50
on what kind of relationship you have with your  boss but generally nope is definitely more casual  
111
710160
6320
11:56
nope i'm not going nope that's not right and the  last one here is ing ending so maybe this one  
112
716480
6880
12:03
thing is going to be something that i don't really  recommend you do because it depends you know if  
113
723360
4720
12:08
you want to make a joke if you want to sound  funny yes go ahead you can definitely drop this  
114
728080
5440
12:14
g sound and just say in instead of ing so what  are you doing right instead of what are you doing  
115
734160
6720
12:20
but generally i would not recommend  you to speak like this because it's  
116
740880
4640
12:25
obviously better to pronounce this ing sound  fully again when you're making a joke or texting  
117
745520
6960
12:32
it's totally fine to drop this g sound and the  last thing that i wanted to talk to you about is  
118
752480
5600
12:38
idioms and phrasal verbs americans love using  phrasal verbs and idioms and even in the movie  
119
758080
6400
12:44
clip we saw this idiom by the bullet it's a very  american idiom well as your lawyer and your friend  
120
764480
7360
12:52
my advice to you is to bite the bullet and give  them yellow by now because no one's going to  
121
772640
6080
12:58
believe you later my advice to you is to bite  the bullet it just means to finally decide to  
122
778720
4960
13:03
do something you've been putting off for quite  some time for example i had to buy the bullet  
123
783680
5600
13:09
and tell them that it was all my fault and i think  here you probably might ask me veronica how can we  
124
789280
6080
13:15
find all of those american indians because we also  want to speak like americans we also want to have  
125
795360
5360
13:20
great pronunciation and have rich vocabulary  so here there are two options the first one is  
126
800720
5680
13:26
a book that i recommend called the great book of  american idioms and again guys all the links are  
127
806400
5120
13:31
going to be in the description i love this book  because it has over a thousand idioms expressions  
128
811520
7200
13:38
phrasal verbs and all of these phrases are very  very native and i personally read through this  
129
818720
6640
13:45
book and i i don't know i'm just a huge fan this  is for people who love books you know i love books  
130
825360
5840
13:51
and this is definitely a way for me to learn and  the second option is to just you know watch some  
131
831200
5520
13:56
movies or shows or youtube videos where americans  actually speak like american movies american tv  
132
836720
6160
14:02
shows and just try to notice notice when they  use phrasal verbs and idioms and write them down  
133
842880
5520
14:08
and also try to memorize them and then use them  yourself and yeah guys i think that's gonna be it  
134
848400
5120
14:13
for this video i hope you now know more about the  american english and you feel more confident and  
135
853520
5200
14:18
you're ready to understand all the americans and  to speak as fast as they do i also wanted to let  
136
858720
5360
14:24
you guys know that i teach english on italki and  i also teach russian as a second language there so  
137
864080
6160
14:30
if you ever wanted to have a class with me here  is your chance again the link is going to be in  
138
870240
5040
14:35
the description and thank you guys so much for  watching this video if you want to see more videos  
139
875280
4560
14:39
about accent trading you can click right here and  watch my playlist all about the american accent
140
879840
5600
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7