USE THIS to Improve Your Speaking and Listening Skills from A1 to C1 Level

Hello, my lovely students.

Today you're going to practice  listening to fast English,  

and you're going to expand your  vocabulary with natural expressions.

Welcome back to JForrest English, of course.

I'm Jennifer.

Now, let's get started.

Here's how this lesson will work.

I'm going to say a sentence in fast  English, and I'll say it three times.

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

Are you ready?

Here we go.

I'll say it three times.

It's not a big deal at all.

It's not a big deal at all.

It's not a big deal at all.

Did you get this one?

I said it's not a big deal at all.

It's.

It's a contraction of.

It is not A.

We can combine these together, but  notice we have AT between 2 vowels.

So a native speaker is going  to pronounce that as a soft D  

and say nada nada, it's nada, it's nada, big deal.

And then we can do the same with AT, with  that T And then all I can put them together  

and then I'll pronounce that T as a soft D And  it sounds like a doll at all, at all, at all.

It's not a big deal at all.

Let's talk about what this means to be a big deal.

This describes something that's  important, serious, or significant.

We use this in both positive  and negative situations.

For example, when you do something and  the consequences are serious in a bad way,  

getting caught plagiarizing is a big deal.

You could be expelled.

So here the consequences are serious.

In a negative way you could be expelled, which  means permanently removed from your school.

Is that that big of a deal?

Yes, it's a big deal, but we  also use this in a positive way.

Getting a promotion is a big deal.

You can finally buy a house.

So here the promotion is important and significant  for the impact it will have on your life.

It's a big deal.

No big deal.

It's a huge deal.

Now remember our example was in the negative.

It's not a big deal at all.

So we can use this in two ways.

First, to say that something isn't  serious, significant or important.

For example, missing the party isn't a big deal.

Your friend will understand.

So the consequence of that action,  

Missing the party isn't very  important or significant or serious.

It's really not a big deal.

Not a big deal.

Now we also use this as a reply when someone  

offers appreciation or their  thanks for something we did.

Your friend could say thanks for  agreeing to help me move this weekend.

I really appreciate it and you can reply  back and say it's not a big deal at all.

I'm happy to help.

Now, if you want to sound  really American and casual,  

you can reduce that entire sentence to two words.

No biggie.

No biggie.

So no biggie represents.

It's not a big deal.

No biggie.

Ah, no biggie.

It's really common with native  speakers in a casual, informal way.

So I could show my appreciation to you and say  

thank you so much for liking  this video and subscribing.

Don't forget to do those two things and then  you can reply back and say no biggie, no biggie.

It's not a big deal at all.

I'm happy too, so put that in the comments.

No biggie.

No biggie.

No biggie.

Put that in the comments.

Let's try this again.

I'll say it three times.

So what are you into?

So what are you into?

So what are you into?

I said, So what are you into?

What are can combine together and  that R can sound very reduced.

Water, water, water.

So in what are water?

Water.

So basically I'm forming a contraction  in spoken English, although this does  

not exist as a contraction is  what we do in spoken English.

So water you can become more of an unstressed ya  or ya Ya ya almost identical in pronunciation.

What are ya inta so you can  take into and change it to inta.

I didn't do that personally, but many native  speakers do, so be prepared to hear two as TA.

So what are you into?

What are you into?

This is a casual way to ask someone  about their interests or preferences,  

so definitely add this to your vocabulary.

It will help you sound like  a Native American speaker.

So what exactly are you into, Jesse?

To reply, you can say I'm to be  into, I am, I'm into plus a noun.

I'm into music, art, yoga,  Fatah, photography, hiking,  

biking, or whatever other  activity that you're into.

It's also very common to answer what are you into,  just with a verb of preference and simply say I  

like music, I love yoga, I adore photography  or whatever your interest or preference is.

So what are you into?

What about you, Sleeveless.

What are you into?

Let's try this again.

I'll say it three times.

Can we play it by ear?

Can we play it by ear?

Can we play it by ear?

Did you get this one?

I said, Can we play it by ear?

Can.

It is an auxiliary verb.

It's there to ask the question  when is an auxiliary verb.

We pronounce it as kin, kin, unstressed,  because the main verb is what you hear.

Play.

Can you play?

Can you play?

We can combine play and it together.

I'll take that Y and I'll use it to connect.

Play it it, play it, play it.

But you say it as one word.

Can we play it by ear?

Do you know what this means?

When you play something by ear?

It means that you make decisions as they  happen, rather than planning in advance.

If your friend or spouse asks you  what should we do this weekend?

And you don't want to make plans, you  just want to decide as it's happening.

So you wait until dinner to decide what you're  

going to have for dinner rather  than planning it in advance.

The day before, you can say,  let's just play it by ear.

Let's just play it by ear.

You're right, let's play it by ear.

Or someone asks what are you going to do  

on vacation because they know  you have a vacation planned.

You can reply back and say we have a few  tours planned and we'll play the rest by ear.

The rest being the rest of your vacation.

We'll play the rest by ear.

We'll decide what we want to do in  the moment, based on how we feel,  

based on where we are, based on the  situation, rather than deciding in advance.

What about you?

When you're planning a vacation, do you prefer  to have a full itinerary, which means every day?

All the activities you're going to do  on that day are decided in advance.

That's a full itinerary.

Or do you prefer to play it by ear?

No plans.

You're just going to decide what  to do based on how you feel.

Or perhaps #3, a little bit of both.

So put in the comments your  preference, 1-2 or three.

As for me, I would probably  choose #2 just to play it by ear.

I like being more spontaneous.

But my husband Kevin, he is  definitely a full itinerary person,  

which I learned the first time  we planned a vacation together.

So now we do #3.

We do a little bit of both,  so we both are satisfied.

What about you?

Share yours in the comments.

I don't know.

Play it by ear.

Why?

Let's try this one more time.

I'll say it three times.

Turns out I bought a knockoff.

Turns out I bought a knockoff.

Turns out I bought a knockoff.

Did you get this one?

Maybe a little more challenging, I said.

Turns out I bought a knockoff.

Turns out I can combine those  together and it sounds like turns out.

So I'm using that S to glide to the  next word, but I say it as one word.

Turns out turns out I bought a  so bought is pronounced bought.

So I can combine those together.

Bada bada just like got a native  speakers commonly say goda.

Well, you can do the same thing  with bought a bada bada knock.

The K is silent and off because they  go together knock off, it's one word.

I'm going to use that knock, cough, cough.

So I'm going to pronounce the final K on knock  

and I'm going to pronounce it  on off, knock off, knock off.

Let's talk about what this means.

Turns out to turn out this is an extremely  common phrasal verb and is used in many  

expressions in daily speech, so definitely  add it to your vocabulary in this context.

Turns out is used to say that something is  

surprising or unexpected, so I  did not expect this situation.

Turns out it was spam.

So let's say you were supposed to work late  tonight and you knew about this last week.

You've planned your your  entire week to work late today.

You've made plans and arrangements,  

but then your boss says, oh, actually,  you don't have to work late tonight.

We finished the project so you can say, oh,  

Turns out I don't have to work late  tonight because it's unexpected.

It's surprising.

It's not what you thought.

Turns out grammatically there  should be a subject here.

It turns out I don't have to work late tonight,  but this is called a dummy subject in English,  

where the subject it doesn't actually represent  anything, it's just the existence, the situation.

Because it's a dummy subject in spoken  English, we often drop it and just say.

Turns out I don't have to work late  tonight, but in written English,  

a subject is required grammatically.

Let's talk about a knock off.

What is this?

Because turns out I bought a knock off.

What's a knock off?

A knock off is a copy or an imitation of  something, usually a product or service.

Knock offs are very common with designer brands.

So the original is a Louis Vuitton handbag  which has a very distinct look to it.

But there are a lot of knockoffs.

They're fake, they're fake Louis Vuittons, and  from a distance you probably can't tell at all.

But when you examine the quality  of the material, it's very obvious.

So in this situation, maybe it's  my friend bought a Louis Vuitton,  

but turns out it was a knock off  at least designer or knock off.

It's just by another knockoff that's  actually a cubic Zirconia knockoff.

Now let's do an imitation  exercise so you can practice  

all of these pronunciation changes  that take place in spoken English.

I'll say each sentence again three  times, and after I say the sentence,  

I want you to repeat the sentence out  loud and imitate my pronunciation.

Here we go.

It's not a big deal at all.

It's not a big deal at all.

It's not a big deal at all.

So what are you into?

So what are you into?

So what are you into?

Can we play it by ear?

Can we play it by ear? Can we play it by ear?

Turns out I bought a knockoff.

Turns out I bought a knockoff.

Turns out I bought a knockoff.

So did you enjoy this lesson?

Do you want me to make more  lessons just like this?

If you do, then put knockoff Put  knockoff, knockoff in the comments below.

And of course, make sure you like this video,  

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 why don't you keep expanding your  vocabulary with this lesson right now?