FAST ENGLISH: Native Speakers CAN’T Understand!

Since I’ve been teaching American English  pronunciation, I have developed a theory  

that if you take certain words in a sentence  and a native speaker hears just those words,  

they’ll have no idea what they’re hearing. Even  though it was spoken by a native speaker so I  

tested it and I was right. Even native  speakers can’t understand this. I mean  

can you understand this? Or this? We’ll  figure out what’s going on in this video.

In every sentence we speak in English, we have  words that are more clear and words that are  

less clear. Even they are more clear, less clear  these words were clearer but and words that are  

wasn’t so clear. I said it like this:

and words that are

In every sentence we speak in English, we have  words that are more clear and words that are less  

clear. That’s natural English. and words that are,  and words that are. And when I’m teaching this to  

my students sometimes, they think no, no way,  that’s to unclear that can’t be right. But in  

fact, it’s so unclear that even native speakers  can’t understand it and it is right! What?  

How is this possible? One word, context. In a  whole sentence we understand every word, the  

clear words and the unclear words. But if I chop  up a sentence and play just the unclear words,  

even native speakers don’t always know what  they’re hearing. Isn’t that incredible? With  

the context of a sentence, no problem, hear  it once they get it. But the words alone,  

no idea. We’re going to test some native speakers  in a second and all you native speakers out there  

watching, I want to know if you pass or fail. Do  you understand or not? But first, I just want to  

point out from my non-native viewers, people who  are trying to learn to speak natural English,  

this is a lesson in simplifying and  speeding through certain words to get that  

contrast of long and short which is important  in natural, easy to understand English. So,  

here we are at my parent’s house out on the back  deck. I’m playing part of a sentence. A couple of  

unclear, unstressed words in a row. Let’s see if  my friends and family can guess what I’m playing.  

This is the clip they’re going to  hear: Do you know what’s being said?

Put your guess in the comments  right now what is being said.

Let’s see if my parents and my  friends could figure it out.

This first one I think is a little  bit easier but I’m not sure.

Okay. Okay, here it is.

Hear it again?

No.

Okay, hey this is what I was hoping would happen

It sounds like

Can you guys tell what it is? Should I turn it up?

Yeah.

Okay, I’m going to turn the volume all the way.

Jonathan.

You think it’s Jonathan? What do you think?

Hit me.

Don’t know. Something, don’t know.

You think don’t know, you think  anything, you think Jonathan.

Come again.

Okay, here’s the last time.

Jonathan!

Their guess is

Anything

Jonathan

Not a thing

Don’t know

None of those are right. Really they have  no idea what this native speaker is saying.  

And I played it for then several times. Now  I’m going to play them the whole sentence.

You don’t have to face the  horrible pressures of this holiday.

You don’t have to.

Do you totally understand it without  hesitation when you hear it in a sentence?

Right, yeah.

‘Cause it puts it in context.

And they get it right away. No problem.  

I’ll play the whole sentence for  you. This is a clip form Friends.

So let’s think about this. Natural spoken English  involves some words being so unclear that native  

speakers can’t understand them alone, out of  context. You’re going to have to really simplify  

your mouth movements to make your unstressed  words fast enough. When we have more than one  

unstressed or reduced word in a row, I like to  call this a reduction string. A reduction is when  

we change a sound or drop a sound. For example  the word “to”. We usually pronounce that [tə]  

with the schwa said quickly that’s a reduction.  Example sentence: I’m about to leave. To, to.

Let’s look at the sentence from Friends.

You don’t have to face the  horrible pressures of this holiday.  

Chandler said the first four words like this:

You don’t have to---

Let’s slow that down.

You don’t have to---

You. Very unclear. Don’t have. I don’t hear a T in  don’t and I don’t hear an H in have. Both dropped.  

These are both known reductions, I’ve done  videos on both of these. The V sound changes  

to an F because it’s followed by a T. I also have  a video on that. Have to becomes hafto, hafto.  

You don’t have to becomes you  don’t have to, you don’t have to.  

Listen again in slow motion then  we’ll repeat it. We’ll do this twice.

You’ve got to say it out loud to  get used to this way of speaking.

Now, speed it up. I’ll play it 8 times in a  row with a pause each time. You hear it, you  

say it eight times over. As you do this, you’ll  make minor adjustments and be able to simplify  

your mouth movements more. Just go with the  flow. It’s not clear and it’s not supposed to be.

How did you do? I know my students often can’t  believe just how quickly and unclearly they  

should be making some words. Here’s another  one. Can you understand what’s being said?

Pretty tough right? Let’s  see what my family thought.

It was gonna.

I was gonna.

You think I wasn’t gonna?

"I was gonna" is what I thought.

We want to hear it again.

No idea.

I don’t know.

Ginny had a good guess. She  guessed “I was going to” or  

“I was gonna”. I was gonna.  I played them the full clip.

Okay, let’s listen to the sentence  and see if it becomes clear.

I knew it wasn’t gonna work  out the moment that I --

Wasn't gonna

I knew it wasn’t gonna

Yeah It wasn’t gonna

I knew it wasn’t gonna. That’s funny.

Because it doesn’t really ch like that.  It can go either way in that sentence.

But when you hear the whole  sentence you totally get it.

You slow them

Right away. They don’t even need to  hear the full sentence. They understood  

that “It wasn’t going to”.

One other thing I notice when doing this with  my family is they keep asking me to turn it  

up. It’s too quiet. That’s another quality of  unstressed syllables. They’re not just faster,  

they’re quieter. Just another way they contrast  with stressted syllables which are louder.  

Let’s listen to that reduction  string in slow motion.

I wasn’t gonna--

Now that you know it, do you hear it better?  I don’t hear either T. Iwasn’t gonna.  

And gonna is so unclear I don’t hear a very good  n. Gonna, gonna, it wasn’t gonna, it wasn’t gonna.  

Listen in slow motion and repeat it twice, make  sure your lips are moving as little as possible.

And now, play it say it at regular  pace eight times. Focus on relaxation.

Now try to put that in the whole  sentence. Listen repeat five times.

Now, jump to my niece and  sister-in-law. I played them this.

Can you tell what you’re hearing?

This is just a. (laughing)

Yeah.

This is just a, your guess?

This is just a.

Okay.

Now let’s play the whole sentence.

Maybe it’s just a kidney stone.

Maybe it’s just a kidney stone.

Right. It’s so clear in a sentence, isn’t it? Like  you would never hear that like what is she saying?

Right.

When you hear just the fast words.

It is hard to tell. Listen in slow motion.

Maybe it’s just a kidney stone.

Maybe. Not so clear. It’s just a. I hardly hear  any vowel in it’s or just. It’s just, it’s just.  

In the whole sentence though, we get  it. I want you to try simplifying this  

too with the play, it say it. Here  it is. Unclear speech eight times.  

Repeat each time, mouth  movement is minimal, simplify.

And not let’s try the whole sentence five times.

The next time you’re working with  my analysis videos like this,  

I’ll link to some playlist with this kind of video  in the video description. Think about this: When  

you’re working with unstressed or reduced words,  they’re simplified. In fact, they maybe simplified  

so much that a native speaker can’t even  understand the words out of context. But  

in a whole sentence, that contrast magically it  all comes together and everything becomes clear.

I love thinking about spoken English this way  and teaching you what I learn. Keep your learning  

going now with video. Thanks for watching  and be sure to subscribe with notifications,  

I make new videos every Tuesday. That’s it and  thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.