English Listening Practice (Get Fluent Easily!)

Today you're going to test your  listening skills of fast English  

so you can better understand native  English speakers the first time,  

and you can add a lot of advanced vocabulary  and natural pronunciation to your speech.

Welcome back to JForrest English, I'm Jennifer.

Now let's get started.

Here are your instructions for the entire lesson.

1st I'm going to say a sentence three times,  

and you need to write down exactly  what you hear in the comments.

After, I'll explain exactly what I said, and  I'll explain the natural pronunciation changes  

that take place, and I'll also explain  the advanced expressions that I used.

Are you ready?

Here we go with the first listening exercise.

I'll say it three times.

Have you edited it yet?

Have you edited it yet?

Have you edited it yet?

Did you get this one?

I said, have you edited it yet?

This is extremely difficult to say.

It was difficult for me to say just now.

Have you edited it?

So notice we have edited, edit, and then in the  Ed form, the past simple form edited, edited.

That's the past simple of to edit, edited.

Now we have to add on it and you're  going to combine that sound to edited.

So we already have a did, did, now  we're going to add on it to it.

Have you edited it yet?

Have you edited it yet?

That is extremely difficult even for me to say.

I would say this is a tongue twister,  and most likely I wouldn't even use it.

I would change it to the noun to avoid  this very difficult pronunciation.

Have you edited the report yet?

Have you edited the document yet?

Now let's talk about the grammar.

What do you notice about this?

Well, first of all, it's in question form.

And what verb tense is this?

It's the present perfect.

Have you edited?

So we have have or has conjugated  with the subject have you?

And then the past participle edited and then we  have yet because yet is commonly used in question  

form with the present perfect, yet is also  used in negative form with the present perfect.

So to answer this negatively, I  could say I haven't edited it yet.

I haven't edited it yet, and remember  that we use already with the present.

Perfect for affirmative  statements, positive statements.

Yes, I've already edited it, edited it  together on my Mac, took that video, edited it,  

and I'm glad I don't have to say that anymore,  because it was very difficult even for me.

Let's try this again.

Here's your listening exercise.

Does she have what it takes to move up?

Does she have what it takes to move up?

Does she have what it takes to move up?

I said.

Does she have what it takes to move up?

Let's talk about does.

She does is an auxiliary verb, so we can pronounce  it very quickly in an unstressed pronunciation.

Does does now.

She begins with a sh.

So we're going to combine  those two sounds together.

Does she?

Does she?

Does she?

Does she.

We can combine what it into what it.

Notice I have a soft D because we have a T between  2 vowels, which we pronounce as a soft D sound.

What it what it does she have what  it takes to move up to to move up.

So 2 will become unstressed to move up.

So I'll use that to combine those together.

To move up, move up.

To move up.

Let's talk about what this means.

Let's talk about the expression  to have what it takes.

This means that you have this skills or the  characteristics necessary to become successful.

Right now I hope you're thinking, Jennifer,  I have what it takes to become fluent,  

which means you have the skills or the qualities  to become successful in that particular area.

So right now you be you might be thinking, well,  

I don't have the fluency skills, but do you  have the qualities, the qualities required?

Patience, consistency, motivation, dedication.

Those are the qualities necessary to  be successful when learning a language.

So you don't need the skills,  

you need the qualities in order to say yes,  Jennifer, I have what it takes to become fluent,  

so put that in the comments because  I know that you have what it takes.

Now let's talk about to move up,  to move up in a business context.

When you move up, it means you get a more  important position within your company.

So basically you get a promotion,  which is a very good thing.

And it's amazing that you're  here right now doing this,  

because improving your communication  skills will help you move up a lot faster.

It will help you advance in your  career, get a promotion a lot faster.

I don't have what it takes.

Do you have what it takes?

Because I have what it  takes, let's try this again.

I'll say it three times.

I'm finally all caught up.

I'm finally all caught up.

I'm finally all caught up, I said.

I'm finally all caught up.

Of course caught.

Sounds like aught aught caught  now because up is a vowel.

So now we have caught up, we  have a T between 2 vowels.

Again, I'll pronounce it as a soft D, but  I have to combine the sounds together.

Caught up, caught up, dub.

Caught up, caught up.

I'm finally all caught up.

Let's talk about what this means.

The expression is to be caught up.

I am caught up.

I'm finally all caught up to be caught up.

This means that you've finished all the  tasks that you were previously assigned.

So maybe you had some tasks that  you were supposed to do last week,  

but you didn't have time and now today  you had time so you completed those tasks.

So then you can say I'm finally all caught up.

Notice in my example I said all caught up.

Here all simply means 100% entirely.

It's unnecessary to include it.

But native speakers really like to include  this word and we use it quite frequently.

So you could say I'm caught up, I'm all caught up.

They have the exact same meaning,  

but a native speaker will likely  Add all to share another example.

Using this expression I could say  I'm all caught up on my emails.

So here, notice I mentioned  the specific task on my emails.

So that means I either read the emails that I was  

supposed to read last week or even  yesterday or even earlier today.

Or maybe I responded to the emails as well.

I'm all caught up on my emails.

All caught up.

OK, we're all caught up.

You all caught up.

Do you want to try another listening exercise?

I'll say it three times.

Do you have a SEC to bring him up to speed?

Do you have a SEC to bring him up to speed?

Do you have a SEC to bring him up to speed?

I said, do you have a SEC  to bring them up to speed?

Let's talk about do you have a I  can combine do you and say do ya?

Do ya have a have a do you have a do you  have a do you have a Do you have a SEC.

Notice that sound in there.

SEC.

Do you have a SEC to bring them?

I can reduce the them just get rid of that th and  

I'm left with M and I have to add  it to the word before Bring them.

Bring them up to up to speed.

Up to speed here, sack.

This is the short form of the word second.

This is very commonly used as a question.

Do you have a sack?

Do you have a sack?

I'm asking you for a short amount of time.

Do you have a sack,  

and this is commonly used before you ask for  help or before you want to to start a discussion.

Do you have a sack?

Can you review this document?

Do you have a SEC?

Can we discuss the conference?

Let's talk about to bring  someone up to speed, Up to speed.

This is an expression, and when it's when you  

share the latest or most recent news  and information on a specific topic.

So let's say you were on vacation for one week,  

and during that one week you  weren't checking your emails.

You weren't talking to anyone  at work, so you don't have the  

latest information or news when you get back.

You might say I was on vacation for a week.

Can you bring me up to speed on the conference, so  you can specify something specific the conference  

on the conference and the person knows to  share information or news related to the  

conference within the last week because that's  the information or news that you don't have?

Dr.

Cox, do you have SEC?

Hey, Jack, do you have a SEC?

Do you have a SEC to talk about my piece?

Let's try this one more time.

I'll say it three times.

Are you going out tonight?

Are you going out tonight?

Are you going out tonight?

This was an easy one, right?

Are you going out tonight?

The pronunciation is quite clear.

Notice how we can combine out tonight together?

When I say out, I'm not going  to pronounce that T out, out.

The T is just silent.

But tonight starts with a T, so I can  use that T from tonight for both words.

If I say them together, out  tonight, out tonight, out tonight.

So you can combine those together,  are you going out tonight?

I included this easy example because this is a  very common expression that native speakers use,  

and perhaps you don't know what it means or you  don't feel confident using it yourself to go out.

That's the expression to go out.

This is when you do a social  activity outside of your home.

So you leave your home to do  something social, so something fun.

Perhaps it's to have a nice dinner with your  significant other, or your family or friends.

Or it's to go to a movie.

Are you going out?

Are you going out tonight?

Notice that this is in the present continuous  because it's asking about a plan in progress.

Are you going out tonight?

But the expression is to  go out, so your verb is go.

If it were last night, you would  say, oh, I win out last night.

Now this isn't clear what you did, so someone  would have to ask you, oh, what did you do?

And then?

You could tell them, oh, I went to the movies.

Wanna go out tonight?

Are.

We going out tonight.

You wanna go out tonight?

Now let's do an imitation exercise so  you can practice this fast pronunciation.

I'm going to say each sentence again,  

and I'm going to give you time  to say the sentence out loud.

And then I'll repeat each sentence three times.

Have you edited it yet?

Have you edited it yet?

Have you edited it yet?

Does she have what it takes?

To move up.

Does she have what?

It takes to move up.

Does she have what?

It takes to move up.

I'm finally all caught up.

I'm finally all caught up.

I'm finally all caught up.

Do you have a SEC to bring them up to speed?

Do you have a SEC to bring them up to speed?

Do you have a SEC to bring them up to speed?

Are you going out tonight?

Are you going out tonight?

Are you going out tonight?

Amazing job with this.

Now to be honest, I really regret using edited  it as one of my examples because it was extremely  

difficult for me to say so I'm sure it was  extremely difficult for you to say as well.

So I'm going to say that's a tongue  twister and it's very difficult.

So remember, have you edited  You need edited 3 sounds.

Have you edited it yet?

Have you edited it yet?

Have you edited it yet?

Put that in the comments.

Have you edited it yet?

Put that in the comments.

And now I'm feeling more comfortable with that.

So you can practice that as well.

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 I recommend watching this lesson  next because you'll learn a lot lot of  

vocabulary that will also help  you understand native speakers.

So make sure you watch this lesson right now.