Why do Americans speak English so fast? | Go Natural English

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Hello.

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Really good.

I am so excited you're here, Stephanie.

Thank you.

Welcome.

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I should introduce Stephanie to you, if you don't know.

You might be familiar with me, Gabby,

but Stephanie is our teacher here at Go Natural English.

And she has a lot of experience, over 10 years

of English teaching experience.

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Just like me!

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So we have a really interesting question today.

Why does it seem like Americans speak so fast?

Did you catch that?

Why do we speak so fast?

Why do we speak so fast?

Why do Americans speak so fast?

So I, actually, don't think that most Americans speak so fast.

I think that there's things that happen with the sounds,

like when sounds blend together.

Yes.

There's all kinds of crazy things that happen.

Like, for example, contractions, right?

So when we have should have, we say shoulda.

Shoulda.

Shoulda.

Right?

Yeah.

When we say I'm going to, we say I'm gonna.

I'm gonna.

Right?

Yeah.

There's a few different contractions that we have.

But those are great examples.

Yeah.

And then, I mean, there's other things

that happen like when we have a phrase, not just

individual words.

And this is why I don't like when students

have to memorize vocabulary lists,

because those words are all by themselves.

They're all by themselves.

And they sound very different when

they're alone compared to when they're all in a phrase.

This is a big complaint that I hear from students.

They say, I know a lot of words, but I

don't know how to say them together

in phrases or sentences.

Right.

So we're going to help you.

Yes.

We have a really kind of fun example.

Yeah.

I'm going to have to read it because it's really long.

But I'm going to read this sentence as

if all the words were separate.

Very slowly.

I want to go to the beach and get some juice and ice

cream or popsicles.

OK.

Now I'm going to say it like a native speaker.

I want to go to the beach to get some ice

cream and some popsicles.

Wait.

I think I messed it up.

Let me say it again.

OK.

Oh, wait.

Here it is.

I want to go to the beach to get some juice and ice

cream or popsicles.

So listen how I said juicin.

Juicin.

What's juicin?

Yeah.

What's ice creamor?

Ice creamor popsicles.

What is ice creamor?

So those words and and or--

Is that what you put in your coffee?

Yeah.

Exactly.

Right.

It's really hard to understand unless you

know the secret of English, which

is that those little words, like, jump

onto the other words.

Yeah, they like, link.

We call them linking.

And we reduce them.

So instead of saying and, we say n.

Instead of saying or, we say r.

R.

And really quick, really quick and quiet, right?

It's such a funny little sound.

Like we almost take off letters, and we make a mix

with the word before it.

So in your English class-- I'm assuming

you took an English class before-- you

might have learned to say or.

Right.

But when do we say or?

We don't.

Ice cream or popsicles.

I mean, we really don't.

Yeah.

I would say, if you are pretending to be a robot--

An angry robot.

--an angry robot, or maybe if you're

giving a very formal speech, but even then, I mean,

I think of the way presidents speak.

Like even then, you probably wouldn't use or or--

And even with gonna and wanna, it's not slang.

No.

That's what I think is really important to understand.

You can't write them in an essay.

Yeah.

Don't write them.

But we say them.

Text message is OK.

Yeah.

Email not so much.

That's true.

Yeah, that's a whole nother topic.

That's another topic.

But yeah, so I hope you enjoyed this example.

It's just to show you why it sounds

like Americans talk so fast.

But it's not really that we're talking so, so quickly.

It's that things happen.

Yeah.

Funny things happen to the sounds when we actually

say words together, not just as a vocabulary list.

Yeah.

Ice cream.

Popsicles.

Right.

Beach.

That's not how we talk.

And you know, so if you want more practice

with your English, I highly suggest to take the Go Natural

English course.

Thank you.

It's awesome.

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They can help you sound more like a native speaker

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This is really key.

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All right, so I hope to see you.

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See you there.

By for now.

Bye.