How to Ask Fast and Natural Sounding Questions in English

A lot of people who are learning English will say,

English speakers speak way too quickly.

I can read English and understand it,

but when I listen to an English speaker

speaking at normal speed,

sometimes I can't understand what they're saying.

And yes, we're definitely guilty of that.

Although I betcha you're guilty of doing that

in your own language as well.

In this English lesson, what I'm going to do

is I'm going to show you five different English questions.

I'll show you how we would write those English questions,

how we would say them slowly and properly,

and then I'll teach you how we actually say them

when we have an English conversation

with another English speaker.

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All of the questions and responses

that I'm going to teach you today

are from a pretend conversation between two people,

and one of those people is going on a trip.

So here's the first question you might hear

in a conversation like that.

One person might say, where are you going?

Where are you going?

They want to know, what's the destination for this trip?

So that's the way we would write it.

That's the way we would say it

if we said it very slowly and carefully.

We would say, where are you going?

But there's actually two faster versions.

We would say, where're ya goin'?

Where the word "are" gets shortened,

we almost drop the A off,

and combine it with the question word where,

and we drop the G off going.

Where're ya goin'?

But there's an even faster version as well.

We might get rid of the word "are" completely,

and just say, where ya goin'?

Notice as well, the word you becomes ya

when we say it really quickly.

So slow version, where are you going?

Fast version, normal version in an English conversation,

where're ya goin'?

And then how would we answer this?

Well, we would say, I am going to England,

if that was the destination.

But what's the fast way we would say, I'm goin' t'England.

Notice how the word going,

well, first of all, I am became I'm.

Going, became goin', we dropped the G.

And to England becomes t'England.

I'm goin' t'England.

So we kind of crunched that sentence way down.

So that's your first question and response.

Let's move on to the next one.

The next question you might hear

in this conversation would be the question,

how are you going to get there?

Maybe you're in Europe,

and you can take a car, or a train, or a plane.

Someone might ask, how are you going to get there?

So that's the slow, careful version of the question.

How would we say it faster?

We would actually say this.

How ya gonna get there?

So instead of saying, how are you going to,

we say how ya gonna.

Notice you turned into ya,

and going to turned into gonna.

How ya gonna get there?

So the long version, how are you going to get there?

The short version, how ya gonna get there?

By the way, the second sentence up here,

this is kind of just Bob's spelling.

This is Bob English.

This isn't any official way to write fast sentences,

but it just gives you an idea

of how you would say the sentence quicker.

So how would you respond to that sentence?

You would probably say something like,

I am going to take a plane.

And if we sped that up, you would say,

I'm gonna take a plane.

Slow version, careful version,

I am going to take a plane.

Normal, fast version, I'm gonna take a plane.

Notice we've combined I am into I'm,

and going to into gonna once again.

So the full question, how you gonna get there?

And the answer, I'm gonna take a plane.

The next question you might hear

in a conversation about a trip

is what are you going to do there?

If you're going on a trip, you probably have plans.

There's something you are going to do.

So the long slow version would be,

what are you going to do there?

But in an actual conversation, you would hear this.

What're ya gonna do there?

Notice how, what are you going to do there

becomes what're ya gonna do there?

It really, really gets sped up.

A lot of things get crunched together.

So instead of what are you,

it gets crunched into like, what're ya, what're ya.

What're ya gonna do there?

Going to becomes gonna again.

Definitely that sentence is very, very compressed.

But how would you answer?

You would say something like this.

I am going to visit London,

and the fast version, I'm gonna visit London.

So notice, and by the way, I'm not speaking extra fast.

That's literally how fast I would say it.

I would say, what are you gonna do there?

And the answer would be, I'm gonna visit London.

The next question you might hear in a conversation like this

would be, why are you going to England?

Someone just might be curious,

why are you going on this trip?

Why are you going to England?

But how would we say that question at normal speaking speed?

We would say, why'r'ya goin' t'England?

Why'r'ya goin' t'England?

Why'r'ya goin' t'England?

We really compressed that sentence

almost down into one word.

Why'r'ya goin' t'England?

Why'r'ya goin' t'England?

And the response would be this.

I want to see Big Ben.

And the fast version of that answer would be this.

I wanna see Big Ben.

When you say want to,

and you say it quickly, it becomes wanna.

So, why are you going to England?

Why'r'ya goin' t'England?

I want to see Big Ben.

I wanna see Big Ben.

We've used almost all the question words, except for when.

So let's do a question with the word when.

We could say, when are you leaving?

So when someone goes on a trip,

it's nice to know when they are leaving.

So the slow, careful version,

when are you leaving becomes, when'r'ya leavin'?

When'r'ya leavin'?

So again,

we compressed that whole question down almost into one word.

When are you leaving?

When'r'ya leavin'?

And the response could be something like this.

I am leaving next week, or I'm leavin' next week.

Again, we often drop the G's when we have ing,

and I am becomes I'm, the contraction.

When are you leaving?

I am leaving next week.

When'r'ya leavin'?

I'm leavin' next week.

Well, thank you so much

for watching this little English lesson

where I tried to speak slowly,

and then I tried to speak quickly at a normal rate,

the speed that an English speaker would use

in everyday conversation.

I hope you can go now, and practice those fast sentences,

and kind of improve your ability

to sound more and more natural when you speak English.

Anyways, I'm Bob the Canadian, thanks for watching.

If you're new here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,

and give me a thumbs up

if this video helped you learn a little bit more English.

And if you have the time,

why don't you stick around,

and watch another English lesson?

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