Improve Your English Listening Skills IN 15 MINUTES with FAST ENGLISH!

When you watch movies or TV in English, do you  think to yourself, oh, they're speaking so fast,  

or I can understand my teacher. Why  can't I understand this? Or I still  

need subtitles after years of learning  English. Let's fix that today so you can  

understand fast English speakers the first  time. Welcome back to JForrest English.

Of course I'm Jennifer. Now let's get  started. To understand fast English,  

you need to practice listening to fast  English. So that's what we'll do right  

now. You're going to listen to a sentence  I say 3 times, and you need to write down  

exactly what you hear in the comments. Don't  worry after I'll explain everything you need  

to know. Here's our first sentence. I'll say it  3 times. Keep your eyes peeled for the street.

Keep your eyes peeled for the street.

Keep your eyes peeled for the  street. So how'd you do? I said,  

keep your eyes peeled for the street. Now  let's talk about those pronunciation changes.  

Keep your eyes peeled. Your can sound  very unstressed. Your. Keep your eyes,  

keep your eyes. And notice how your and eyes  link together. You're going to hear that R sound.

On both sides of the word if we link them,  your eyes, your eyes. So the second word  

instead of eyes really sounds like rise because  it has that R, but you have to say it together,  

your eyes, your eyes, and of course peeled.  ED is a soft D. Keep your eyes peeled, peeled.

And 4 also becomes very unstressed fur. Keep  your eyes peeled for the street. Now notice  

you hear that are the most in the word street.  Make sure you get that R sound street. Now,  

do you understand what this means? To keep  one's eyes peeled is an idiom. It means to  

stay alert and watch carefully. So carefully  watch for the street so we don't miss it.

Now you could say keep your eyes peeled for the  client. Notice you use that preposition for and  

then something or someone. You can keep your  eyes peeled, watch carefully for someone, the  

client. Now in this example, it's the imperative,  which is used for an instruction or a direction.

I could also say to you, keep your  eyes peeled for any opportunities  

to practice your English. So remember  4 and something, and in this case the  

something is any opportunities to practice  English. Watch carefully. So are you going  

to keep your eyes peeled for that? If  you are, put that's right, that's right,  

put that's right in the comments. Now let's  look at this sentence. She kept her eyes peeled.

For the trail markers during the hike. So  remember you need to conjugate your verb  

keep. In this case it's the past simple  kept she kept, and you have to make sure  

the possessive matches the subject. The  subject is she, so it's her eyes peeled.

If you're ever in the neighborhood, keep  your eyes peeled. So keep your eyes peeled  

for the headlines that will bring it. So  while I don't have answers for you here.

Keep your eyes peeled.

Let's do this exercise again. I'll say it 3 times.

Are we still on for tonight?

Are we still on for tonight?

Are we still on for tonight? Did you hear  what I said? I said, are we still on for  

tonight? Notice how still and on linked  together, and you'll hear that L sound on  

on. So it will sound like still on, still on,  still on Again, 4 can become fur still on fur.

da da. So notice that syllable stress. The  first syllable is unstressed, so 2 becomes  

that unstressed ta, and the night is your stress  syllable tonight, da da tonight. Now, what does  

this mean? Well, this means that we made plans and  I'm confirming that our plans are still happening.

So this expression is used socially shortly  before plans, maybe the day before or the  

night before to confirm the person isn't going  to cancel that plan. They're still going to go  

to show up so you could say, are we still on for  lunch? Now notice for something in this case,  

lunch is the plan we have. Now  you can use any time reference.

You can say for lunch today, this afternoon or  tomorrow. And this is an alternative to simply  

asking, are we still having lunch today?  So that's the activity, and then I can say,  

are we still on for lunch? Now, if the activity  is known, I can simply say, are we still on for  

tomorrow if it's known that we're having lunch,  so you can just use the time reference. You could.

Also say, are we still on for studying English  tomorrow? So the activity is studying English.  

Now if I send you a text message and  say, are we still on for tonight? you  

could reply back and say yep, which  is a casual way of saying yes, yup,  

can't wait. So show some enthusiasm or you can say  absolutely see you at 7 p.m. You're questioning.

We still on? The confident woman  assumes that you're still on. I'm great,  

thanks. Are we still on for the kayak trip? Oh,  

you bet. I have the kayaks and the equipment.  Are you enjoying this lesson? If you are,  

then I want to tell you about the finally  fluent academy. This is my premium training  

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your personal coach. You can look in the  description for the link to learn more,  

or you can go to my website and click on finally  fluent Academy. Now let's continue with our  

lesson. Let's try this exercise again. I'll say  the sentence 3 times. Is the museum walkable?

Is the museum walkable?

Is the museum walkable? Oh, did you  get this one? Is the museum walkable?  

So let's talk about the pronunciation  for museum. So notice you have that  

voiced Z sound museum, and there are  three sounds museum, museum, museum.

And then the word that maybe  you're not familiar with,  

walkable, Walkable. So here there are  three sounds walkable. So notice that uh.

And then bull, it's not able it's walkable,  

walkable. Now let's talk about a very useful  word for you to know to be walkable. So this  

means that something is close enough to be  able to comfortably walk to the location.

So is the museum close enough that we  can walk there and not be exhausted  

or sweaty or feel really bad after we  get there? Is the museum walkable? So  

if I send you a message and say,  are we still on for lunch today?

You could reply back and say absolutely, but I  only have 30 minutes. What's walkable? What's  

walkable? So what can we walk to quickly because  we're short on time? Or I could say a new Thai  

restaurant opened last week, but I don't think  it's walkable. So you can use I don't think,  

but to make walkable negative, remember it's  the verb to be, so you would say but it's.

Not walkable or it isn't walkable. There  are two ways to form that contraction in  

the present simple. Walkable can be used in a  different way. So listen to this sentence. One  

thing that makes New York City unique is  how walkable it is. Most residents don't  

even own cars, so in this case, walkable  is used to describe a geographical area.

It can be a small area such as  a neighborhood or a large area  

such as a city and it means that  it's easy to walk in that area.

It's walkable on top of our residential and  commercial uses. These are very different.  

These are in downtown walkable  space, no drivers. They're banal,  

they're not sustainable, they're  not walkable, they're certainly not

beautiful.

Let's try this again. I'll say it 3 times.  Let's head out early to beat the traffic.

Let's head out early to beat the traffic.

Let's head out early to beat the traffic. Did  you get this one? I said let's head out early  

to beat the traffic. Notice how head out combined  together to sound like head out doubt. So you hear  

that D sound on out, head out, head out. In the  word early you want that long R as well early.

You want to make sure you hear that R early.  Now, to beat, because 2 is a preposition, it  

becomes unstressed to beat, to to beat. And then  traffic, you don't want to hear the R, you want  

to hear the vowel, traffic, traffic. And then beat  is the same pronunciation as the vegetable beat.

Now, do you know what the phrasal verb  to head out means? Native speakers love  

using this phrasal verb. It means  to leave a place or start a journey.

So someone could ask you what time are you  heading out? What time are you leaving? but  

it's whatever place you're at. If you're  at your home, it means your home. If  

you're at work or a restaurant, it means those  locations and then you can reply back and say  

I'm heading out in the present continuous.  I'm heading out around 6:30 a.m. so I can.

Beat the traffic. Now notice here I said so I can  beat, but in my example sentence originally I said  

to beat the traffic. This is the short form of  the purpose clause in order to beat the traffic,  

but native speakers generally drop in  order and just say to beat the traffic.

Now, native speakers also commonly start sentences  with a purpose clause. To beat the traffic,  

let's head out at 6:30 a.m. Remember, this  means in order to beat, this is a purpose  

clause. It's not the infinitive because in  English grammar, we don't start sentences with  

the infinitive. To make a general statement,  you would use the gerund verb, for example.

beating the traffic in New York City is always  a challenge. Of course, to beat the traffic,  

this means to avoid the traffic and if  you beat it, it means you get ahead of it,  

so you leave earlier or later to avoid it.  You can also just take specific streets to  

beat the traffic to avoid the traffic. Hey  everybody, let's head out to our areas.

Let's head out into the rainforest  and see how she's doing. Let's head  

out to the lake. I'll show you around.  Let's do this exercise again. I'll say  

it 3 times. I tried to get a  little shut eye on the brake.

I tried to get a little shut eye on the brake.

I tried to get a little shut eye on the break.  Did you get this one? I said I tried to get a  

little shut eye on the break. Let's talk  about to get a little because those sounds  

really blended together to get a little,  get togea. So 2 becomes that unstressed  

ta get ah combines together geta getagea.  Now little native speakers, including me.

Generally pronounce the T's as soft D's  little little. Some native speakers really  

reduce this word and it just sounds like  little little get a little get a little,  

but you can pronounce those as softies, get a  little, little, get a little to get a little.

And then shut I we turn that t into a soft  d because it's between vowels and you'll  

hear it on both words, should  I die, die, should I, should I.

Now what is shut eye? It's  a noun and it means sleep,  

so you can say I tried to get some  shut I, a little shut I, a few minutes  

of shut eye. You could replace shut I with  sleep and all those examples on the break.

Now shut eye is commonly used for a short  period of sleep, such as a nap. For example,  

he managed to get some shut eye on  the plane. Now notice the verb is get,  

so you could say he got in the past  simple, he got some shut eye on the  

plane. And notice that preposition I used  with break on a break. You could also say.

During a break, native speakers commonly use on  and of course a break in the context of work is  

a short period of time when you're not working.  You can say I called my friend on my break to  

see in order to see, so the purpose clause to  see if we're still on for coffee after work.

Now you could also say, hopefully I can get a few  minutes of shut-eye before we meet. I'm exhausted.

Now let's get some

shut-eye. New studies show that  those who are under stress and  

don't get enough shut eye could age up to  6 times faster than they would otherwise,  

giving a whole new meaning to the term  beauty rest. For others, losing shut eye.

Result in hormonal imbalance,  illness, and in extreme cases, death.

Now let's do a shadowing exercise so  you can repeat after me and practice all  

these pronunciation changes. I'll say each  sentence and you need to repeat after me,  

and I'll say each sentence 3 times.  Keep your eyes peeled for the street.

Keep your eyes peeled for the street.

Keep your eyes peeled for the street.

Are we still on for tonight?

Are we still on for tonight?

Are we still on for tonight?

Is the museum walkable?

Is the museum walkable?

Is the museum walkable?

Let's head out early to beat the traffic.

Let's head out early to beat the traffic.

Let's head out early to beat the traffic.

I tried to get a little shut eye on the break.

I tried to get a little shut eye on the brake.

I tried to get a little shut eye on the brake.

Amazing job. Do you want me to make another  lesson where we practice fast English?  

If you do, put yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,  yes, yes, yes in the comments below. And of  

course make sure you like this lesson, share  it with your friends and subscribe so you're  

notified every time I post a new lesson, and  you can get this free speaking guide where I  

share 6 tips on how to speak English fluently and  confidently. You can click here to download it or  

look for the link in the description. And here's  another lesson I know you'll love. Watch it now.