Speak FAST English in 30 Minutes: Advanced Pronunciation Lesson

Vanessa: Hi,  

I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.  Let's speak fast English. Let's talk about it. 

Let's imagine the scene. You have had a  long, hard day at work. So you come home,  

sit down on the couch, you're ready to  relax and watch the new English TV show  

or movie that you've been waiting to watch.  You turn on the TV and, oh my goodness,  

they're talking so fast. Can other people actually  understand this? Is there some kind of secret?  

Do they know something that you don't know? Well,  today, you are going to learn what makes American  

English fast, so that you can understand fast  English and speak like an American yourself. 

To help you never forget what you've learned,  I've created a free PDF worksheet that you can  

download for today's lesson. You will find all  of the pronunciation points, sample sentences,  

and you can answer Vanessa's Challenge Question  at the end of the worksheet. Make sure you click  

on the link and the description to download it  now. In today's lesson, you will see my most  

popular videos about how to speak fast English,  so that you can speak fast too. Let's watch. 

Today we're going to talk about the 10 most  important sentences in English, at least according  

to me. And because you use these sentences a lot,  all the time in daily conversation, it's a great  

opportunity to practice using them naturally,  and pronouncing them correctly. So if you say  

them three or four times each day, you want to  make sure that you're pronouncing them correctly,  

and that's what we're going to do today. Your  challenge today is to try to imitate and repeat  

exactly what I say. I don't care if you are on the  train. If you're at work and your boss is looking  

at you. I don't care where you are, it's your  job to speak out loud, because if I say them,  

it's okay, but I already know how to say them. So it's your job to practice and to use those  

pronunciation muscles to the fullest. All right,  let's start with the first sentence. "Hey,  

how's it goin'? Pretty good." This is our first  sentence today. "Hey, how's it going?" And the  

most common response, which is, "Pretty good."  So let's break down this expression. Hey, pretty  

clear. Can you repeat that with me? Hey. Then the  next part, "How's it goin'?" Here in the middle,  

it sounds like a Z sound. "How's it... How's it  goin'?" With the word going, we're going to cut  

off the G at the end, so make sure you say goin'. Can you say this all together with me? Try to  

imitate with me. Ready? Hey, how's it goin'?  Hey, how's it goin'? I'm going to pause in just  

a moment after we practice the reply. The reply  is, "Pretty good." Pretty good. Now if you want  

to sound like an American, the word pretty, even  though it has Ts, it's going to sound like a D  

sound. So try to say it with me. Pretty. Pretty.  Pretty. And then that final word. Good. Good. Make  

sure that your lips are kind of out a little bit.  Good. Good. Can we put it all together? Pretty  

good. Pretty good. Okay. Let's try to imitate  this full sentence together and the reply,  

and then I'm going to pause so that you can say  it yourself out loud, no matter where you are. 

All right, let's say it together.  Hey, how's it goin'? Pretty good. Hey,  

how's it goin'? Pretty good. All right. I'm  going to pause and it's your turn. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go on to the second sentence.  The second sentence is, "Do you want to go?" Do  

you want to go? And you might say this when you  want to invite someone to an event or maybe to  

your house, or if you want to tell them to go to  a restaurant with you. And it's a great expression  

for someone who you just met, if you want to  continue spending time with them. So let's  

break down the pronunciation for this common  question. Do you want to go? Do wanna go? Why  

does the first two words sound like "Joo?" Do you  becomes Joo, kind of a J, J sound. Joo. And then  

what about wanna go? Wanna go. Want to go are  all of the words, but you're going to combine,  

want and to, to become wanna. Wanna. This is really common and conversational  

English. So let's try to say this full question  together. "Do you wanna go? Do you wanna go? Do  

you wanna go? Do you wanna go? All right, try  to imitate this with me. Are you ready? Do you  

wanna go? Do you wanna go? Do you wanna go to the  park? Do you wanna go to the restaurant? Okay,  

I'm going to pause and I want you  to say this by yourself. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go onto the third sentence.  The third and fourth sentence are, "I'm not  

sure," and, "I don't know." These both mean the  same thing, but the first one, I'm not sure, is  

a little more casual. And you might use this more  in daily conversation. So if you say it quickly,  

it sounds like, I'm no' sure. I'm no' sure. I'm  no' sure. Let's break this down. Listen carefully,  

especially to that second word, not, I'm  no' sure. I'm not sure. Do you hear T, the  

T sound? I'm no' sure. Not really. Often  in daily conversation in fast English,  

the T at the end of words is cut off. So your tongue is going to be at the top of  

your mouth, almost going to make the T sound, but  there's no air that comes out. So let's practice  

saying this, especially with that T stuck at the  top of your mouth. Can you do it with me? I'm no'  

sure. I'm no' sure. I'm no'. No'. No'. All right.  Let's focus on that last word. Sure. Sure. Sure.  

Do you see my lips here? Can you say it with me?  Sure. Sure. Can we say this all together? I'm  

no' sure. I'm no' sure. I'm no' sure. Okay. I'm  going to pause. And now it's your turn. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go on to the fourth sentence.  The fourth sentence as I just mentioned, is "I  

don't know." I don't know. And there are a lot of  different ways you can pronounce this. So let's  

start with maybe the most clear and then working  down to the least clear. So let's start with,  

I don' know. I don' know. Do you notice that that  T in the contraction don't, is similar to not in  

the previous sentence. That T, your tongue is at  the top of your mouth, but you're not letting the  

air come out to finish T, that T sound. So it's  going to sound like, I don', don' know. If you  

can see inside my mouth at the moment, you'll  see that my tongue is stopped up there. Don'.  

Don'. But I'm not saying don't. I don't know. Usually that T in negative contractions is cut  

out. If you'd like to see the natural  pronunciation for 81 contractions,  

I made a video. You can watch it up here. I hope  that that will be useful to you. But let's say  

this in the most clear way. I don' know. Can you  imitate that with me? I don' know. I don' know.  

I don' know. Okay, let's go to the next one,  which is a little less clear. You could say,  

I dunno. I dunno. I dunno. It kind of sounds  like D-U-N-N-O. Dunno. I dunno. I dunno. And  

you would use this in familiar situations. I  don't recommend using this to your boss or maybe  

in a work situation, just because it's really  relaxed. So you need to be in a really relaxed  

environment. But you could say, I don't know.  Do you know how many people are in your city? I  

don't know. I don't know. I don't know. All right. There is a couple more ways that you can pronounce  

this. So let's go to another one that is even less  clear. Let's take that same pronunciation and cut  

out the D sound. I 'unno. I 'unno. I 'unno. Can  you say that slowly with me? I 'unno. It sounds  

weird when you're saying it slowly, but don't  worry, when you say it quickly it's perfectly  

natural. I 'unno. I 'unno. I unno. There's no D  sound here. I don't know. Like the previous two,  

instead, you're just cutting that out. I  'unno. Okay, let's go onto the last one.  

And it is the least clear. But native speakers  will definitely understand what you're saying. 

In this final way to pronounce, I don't know.  You're really going to be cutting out all of the  

words, and you're just going to be leaving  some sounds and some intonation. So you're  

going to say, "Uh uh uh." Uh uh uh. It seems  really strange to just say this by itself. But  

trust me, native speakers say this a lot. So I'm  going to say it slowly, and I want you to try to  

imitate my intonation. Imagine that you're kind of  riding this wave of intonation, and you're going  

to say it exactly with me. And then I'm going  to pause, and we're going to practice these  

clear and unclear pronunciations together. All  right, Are you ready? Can you imitate with me?  

Uh uh uh. Uh uh uh. Uh uh uh. Let's say someone asks you,  

"How long has Vanessa been teaching online?" And  if you respond with, "Uh uh uh." It means that  

maybe you don't really care about the answer.  It's not something that's important to you.  

If you said, "I don't know." It really just means  you don't have that information. But if you said,  

"Uh uh uh," it's so relaxed that it means I  don't really care. So you could use this in  

another situation that maybe isn't rude,  make sure that you're in a really casual,  

comfortable situation. If someone asked you, "Oh,  I'm trying to make this dish. Do you know how many  

eggs I should put in?" You could say, "Uh uh uh,  maybe look it up." Uh uh uh. Uh uh uh. Look it up.  

Because you're with your family or your friends,  and it's something that's not so important. 

But if someone asks you something really  important, maybe something emotional or  

sentimental, or especially something for  your work, that's really important. Don't  

say uh uh uh, because it's too relaxed.  So this is for really casual situations,  

and I'm certain that you're going to hear this in  TV shows and movies. So let's take a moment to try  

to pronounce, I don't know, in these casual,  comfortable ways. I want you to choose which  

one you'd like to say. I don' know. I dunno,  I 'unno, or uh uh uh. You can choose which one  

you'd like to imitate. I'm going to pause and  give you a moment to say it yourself. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go on to the next one.  Our fifth sentence is about the weather,  

because it's really common in almost every country  and every culture to have small talk about the  

weather. And it's really true in the US. We have  small talk about the weather all the time. When I  

was taking a walk the other day, my neighbor  was sitting on his front porch and he said,  

"Oh, it's a hot one today, huh?" And I said,  "Yep, sure is." So let's practice this sentence  

together to talk about the weather. You can  change the word hot for cold, rainy, snowy,  

whatever you'd like. But let's practice with  hot and cold because those are the most common. 

So let's say this sentence together. It's a  ho' one today. It's a ho' one today. It's a  

ho' one today. Or it's a cold one today. It's  a cold one today. What does one mean? Why are  

we saying one here? Well, it just means day.  It's a hot day today. But we use this in daily  

conversation a lot. So I wanted to make sure that  you are familiar with this sentence, and you can  

use this when you're talking about the weather to  sound more like a native speaker. So let's slow it  

down and practice that pronunciation word by word.  It's a ho' one today. Did you notice something  

about the word hot? What happened to that final  letter? Well, we have a theme here. It's gone. 

Your tongue is at the top of your mouth. You're  going to say hot, but instead of letting the air  

through, your tongue just sticks there. So let's  say it together and make sure that you say the  

word ho' correctly. It's ho' one today. Today.  Today. Do you notice what's happening with this  

final word? It's T-O-D-A-Y. But do you hear  today? Today. You might hear this in maybe  

an audio that goes with your textbook. Today  is a lovely day. But in daily conversation,  

we hardly ever pronounce this full word. Instead,  you're going to cut out that O sound and just say,  

t'day, t'day. Just make that T sound to  day. T'day. T'day. T'day. Can you say  

that final word with me? T'day. T'day. T'day. Okay. Let's say this full sentence together,  

and I hope that you can use it in your daily  conversations when you're having some small talk  

about the weather. It's a hot one today. It's a  hot one today. It's a hot one today. All right,  

your turn. Go ahead. I want you to  say it yourself out loud. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go on to the next one. The sixth  most important or most used sentence in English,  

according to me, is, "You gotta try it." You gotta  try it. This is something that is commonly used  

when someone is suggesting something, or maybe  they're telling you about a new restaurant,  

or a new drink, or some experience that they've  had, and they want you to also do it. They might  

say, "Oh, you gotta try it." You gotta try it.  And this word, gotta is really common in daily  

conversation, but it's a reduction of a couple  other verbs. So the full sentence could be, "You  

have got to try it." But have got to is reduced to  gotta. In fact, I have a full pronunciation lesson  

for this word, got to, havta, wanna, all of these  kind of reductions. You can check out the link up  

here to get some more detailed pronunciation  for that word and also how to use it. 

But let's talk about this sentence. You  gotta try it. You gotta. Gotta. Do you  

notice that the middle of this word doesn't  sound like gotta? Gotta with a T. Instead,  

it sounds like a D. This is going to be  similar to the word we talked about earlier.  

Pretty. Pretty good. Do you remember that from  number one? Pretty good. Pretty good. Here,  

it's going to sound like godda. Godda. Godda.  Just add a D in the middle, especially if you  

want to sound like an American English speaker.  That's what we do. We add D's in the middle of  

words all the time. So try to say those first two  words with me. You gotta. You gotta. You gotta. 

All right. Let's say this full sentence.  You godda try it. You godda try it.  

Do you hear it with that T pronounced at the end?  Well, now you are an expert at Ts at the end of  

sentences, and you know that that T is cut short.  So let's try to say that together. Gotta try i'.  

You can see my tongue at the top of my mouth.  It's just stop there. There's no air coming  

out. So let's say that full sentence together  and remember to say, godda and i', i', i'. Are  

you ready? You godda try i'. You godda try i'. You  godda try i'. All right. It's your turn. Go ahead. 

Excellent work. Let's go onto the next one. The  seventh most common, most important, most useful  

expression, according to me is, "Thanks.  I appreciate it." Thanks. I appreciate it.  

There's a couple different ways to pronounce this,  whether it's clear or a little bit less clear, but  

let's start with the first word. Thanks. Thanks.  Make sure that when you say the TH your tongue  

is between your teeth and you're also feeling a  little stream of air coming out. Thanks. Thanks.  

Thanks. We use this word all the time, and you can  use it by itself. But if you want to really show  

your appreciation, you can add another sentence.  Thanks, I appreciate it. I appreciate it. 

Let's focus on that second part quickly. I  appreciate. Appreciate. Can you say that word  

with me? Appreciate. Appreciate. Am I saying  appreciate? Nope. Here, the Ts cut out again.  

I appreciate i'. I'. Oh, another T is gone. All  those T are gone. Having a vacation, having a  

good time together. They're not in this sentence.  So make sure that there's not air coming out of  

your mouth finishing that T sound. I appreciate  it. I appreciate it. This is the most clear way.  

I appreciate it. Because you're saying the first  part of that word. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. 

Can we say this full part together clearly before  we go onto the relaxed one? Thanks, I appreciate  

it. Thanks, I appreciate it. I hope you can repeat  with me really quick. Thanks, I appreciate it. All  

right. Let's go onto the relaxed version. Let's  imagine that someone does something pretty simple,  

like open the door for you. You're carrying a lot  of groceries, and someone in front of you decides  

to be kind and holds the door open for you. You  can say, Thanks, Appreciate it. Appreciate it.  

What happened to, I appreciate it. Well, those  parts of the sentence are just gone, so you're  

going to just start with the P sound. Appreciate.  Appreciate it. So you can say this all together,  

try to imitate it with me. Thanks, appreciate  it. Appreciate it. Let's say it together. Thanks,  

appreciate it. Thanks, appreciate it. All right.  I want to pause and I want to let you try to  

say this all together. Try to say it in that  relaxed way. Thanks, appreciate it. Go ahead. 

Excellent work. Let's go onto the next one.  The eighth sentence is a response to "Thanks,  

I appreciate it." If you are the one holding the  door for someone else and someone says to you,  

"Oh, thanks, appreciate it." What can you say in  return? You don't want to just stand there and go.  

It's a little bit awkward. So one of the  most common sentences that you could say is,  

"No problem. No problem. No problem. You could  say, "You're welcome." But it's a little bit  

strong maybe for this simple act of kindness. If  you dropped your groceries and someone helped you  

to pick them up, you could say, "Oh, thanks so  much, I appreciate it." "You're welcome." That's  

fine, because it's a little bit more effort. But one of the most common things to say is,  

no problem. No problem. So let's break this down.  No problem. Problem. Problem. Let's focus on the  

middle of that word problem. Problem. Here, your  lips are just kind of smacking together a little  

bit, bl, blem. That B and L together is the focus  of this word. You want to make sure that you're  

pronouncing it correctly. So let's practice the  word problem. Blem. Blem. Blem. It looks a little  

bit funny, but don't worry about it. I hope that  you're on the train right now, and everyone around  

you is think, "Why is that guy saying, problem,  problem, problem?" You are improving your English,  

so who cares what they think? Let's say this  together. No problem. Blem. Blem. No problem. No  

problem. No problem. All right, I'm going to pause  and I want you to say it by yourself. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go on the next one. The ninth  and the 10th expression are common ways to say  

goodbye. At the beginning of this lesson, we  started with number one, some common introduction,  

some common ways to say hello, and then some  common expressions used in conversation,  

and now we're finishing up the conversation.  So you might say, "See you later." See you  

later. This is the clearest way to say it. See you  later. See you later. Let's practice this slowly  

and go word by word. See you, you later, later.  Later. Here we have another T that's changed to  

a D. You don't say later. See you later.  Americans would never say that. So let's  

practice changing the T to a D. See you later. See  you later. See you later. See you later. Later.  

Later. I hope you can pronounce that with me. Now, let's go on to a little more relaxed and  

maybe a more common version, especially because  see you later, is just a casual way to say  

goodbye. So you're most likely already going to  be in a familiar situation. Let's change you to,  

ya. See ya later. See ya later. That final  word is the same later, but the middle word,  

you, which is clearly pronounced, changes to  ya. See ya later. See ya later. Can you say  

that with me? See ya later. See ya later.  See ya later. See ya later. See ya later.  

Okay, I'm going to pause and I want  you to say this yourself. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go into the final  expression. The 10th most common,  

most useful, most important expression is, "Let's  go." Let's go. Let's go. Maybe someone asks you,  

"Do you want to go?" Do you want to go? One  of our earlier sentences, and then you talk  

a little bit and you say, "Hey, let's go. I want  to eat. Let's go to that restaurant you mentioned.  

Let's go to the movies." Let's go. Let's go.  So let's say this slowly together. I want you  

to imitate my voice. Try to say it slowly and  clearly with me, and then we'll speed it up.  

Let's go. Let's go. When you say the  T in the middle of the word let's,  

your tongue is just tapping the top of your  mouth. Let's. Let's. It's stopping up there  

and then going to the S sound. Let's go. Let's  go. Can you say that with me? Let's go. Let's go.  

Let's go. All right. I'm going to pause and  I want you to say it by yourself. Go ahead. 

Excellent work. You used those pronunciation  muscles. You imitated 10 valuable, important  

common sentences in English. I hope that  you'll use these sentences again and again,  

so that you can really sound like a native speaker  and also pronounce them like a native speaker. 

Today we're going to practice the most  important introduction sentences in English,  

at least according to me. Because you're going  to say these natural sentences again and again  

in daily conversation, this is a great  opportunity to practice pronouncing them  

correctly each time that you use them. Number  one, "Hi, I'm Vanessa. What's your name?"  

Ooh. Of course, you're not going to say, Vanessa,  

you're going to say your name. But let's slow  this down so that you can say it naturally. Hi,  

I'm, plus your name. Hi, I'm Vanessa. What's, make  sure that you say that Ts here. What's your name?  

What's happening with the word your here? Notice my lips when I say your compared to  

yer. It's a little bit different. It kind of  sounds like Y-E-R. This is the most natural  

fast pronunciation for the word your. So let's  say that quickly. What's your name? What's your  

name? What's your name? Hi, I'm Vanessa. What's  your name? I'm kind of emphasizing, "What's your  

name?" Because I just said mine, so I want to know  now what's your name. Hi, I'm Vanessa. What's your  

name? Now I'm going to pause and I want you to  fill in your name and I want you to say this  

sentence out loud. Practice speaking. Are you  ready? Hi, I'm... What's your name? Go ahead. 

Excellent work. Let's go onto the  second sentence. Sentence number two,  

"Nice to meet you." Nice to meet you. Lots is  going on in this seemingly simple sentence.  

Let's start at the beginning. Nice. Say it with  me. Nice to meet. To meet. Here, the word to is  

being reduced to simply t', just the sound t'. The  vowel O is gone. So we're going to link together  

t'mee'. T'mee'. But do you hear that final T  sound on the word t'meet? Not really. Instead,  

your tongue is going to be at the top of your  mouth, ready to make the T sound, but no air  

comes out. So we're going to say t'mee'. My tongue  is stopped at the top of my mouth. T'mee'. T'mee  

you. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. Can you  say that out loud with me? Nice to meet you. Nice  

to meet you. I'm going to pause and I want you to  say it by yourself. Nice to meet you. Go ahead. 

Excellent work. Let's go onto the  third one. Sentence number three,  

"I'm from the US and you?" You're probably  not from the US if you're watching this. So  

you can fill in the name of your country.  I'm from Mexico and you? I'm from India,  

and you? Let's break down this pronunciation.  I'm from. F-R-O-M. Sounds like a U here, from.  

I'm from, plus your country. And then you want to  reciprocate and ask the other person, "And you?"  

Did I say, "And you?" In this situation, the  D is cut off. It's gone. It's on vacation  

somewhere. So we're just going to say an'.  An' you? An' you? An' you? Where are you  

from? An' you? Let's say this all together.  I'm from the US, and you? I'm from the US,  

and you? I'm going to pause. I want you to fill  in your country and say it out loud. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go to the next  one. When you first meet someone,  

it's common to talk about your surroundings.  Maybe you're both at the grocery store or you're  

both at a friend's birthday party. You have  this in common, so you're going to talk about  

it. Let's imagine that you go to another country  and you're talking with someone and they ask you,  

"How long have you been here?" You might say,  "I've been here for two weeks." I've been here  

for two weeks. I've been here for two weeks. You  can also substitute if you're at a university  

or maybe if you're at a job. I've worked here  for two weeks. I've studied here for two years. 

You could change that verb, but we're just going  to stick with, I've been here for two weeks. Let's  

break this down. I've been. This sounds like  a short, I, B-I-N. Bin. I've been here fer.  

Why does for change to fur? I don't know,  but that's what happens. So this is going  

to sound like F-E-R, fer. Kind of sounds  like the fur of an animal, which is F-U-R,  

but same pronunciation, fer two weeks. I've been  here for two weeks. I've been here for two years.  

I've been here for five minutes. I've been here  for two weeks. Let's say that quickly one time,  

and then I'm going to pause so that you can say it  yourself. I've been here for two weeks. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go on to the next one. Common  introduction number five is, "What do you do?"  

This is asking, what's your job? This is the most  common way to ask what someone's job is. What do  

you do? What do you do? What do you do? A lot of  this is linked together, kind of mumbled together.  

So I want to help you pronounce it in the same  way. What do you? What do you? Can you say that  

with me? Wha' do you? Wha' do you? The T in what  is cut out, and instead, it's replaced by the word  

do, which is linked together. Wha' do you do? Notice my lips aren't really moving much  

here. What do you do? What do you do? Inside my  mouth, my tongue is moving, but on the outside,  

what do you do? What do you do? It's not moving  that much. So I want you to say this with me.  

Let's go slowly and then we'll speed it up. What  do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What  

do you do? What do you do? What do you do? What  do you do? All right, it's your turn. Go ahead. 

Excellent work. Let's go onto the next one. The  sixth sentence is, "I'm a designer. I work for  

the marketing department." If you don't know how  to describe your job or what your job title is,  

you can check out this video I made 100 job  titles. Hopefully, it will help you to be  

able to describe your job in these introduction  situations. You could say, I'm a designer I work  

for, we're using that same pronunciation again,  F-E-R. I work for the marketing department.  

Make sure that if you use this reduction  fer, you're speaking a little bit quickly,  

you're linking things together. If you said,  I work for the, it's a little bit weird. You  

need to link it together if you're going to use  that reduction, because the point of a reduction  

is to reduce your speech to make it faster. So let's say that together. I'm a designer.  

I work for the marketing department. I work for  the marketing department. You can link those two  

words together. Work for. Work for the marketing  department. I work for the marketing department.  

I'm a designer. I work for the marketing  department. All right, it's your turn. Go ahead. 

Great work. Let's go to the next one. The seventh  introduction is for when you have a mutual friend.  

Let's imagine that you're walking down the street  and you see your friend James. And James is  

walking with someone else, and he introduces  that person to you. So you start to have a  

conversation with that person. You could ask  them, "So how do you know James?" This just means  

where did you meet? Do you work together? Are you  his brother? What's the situation? And this is  

pretty common. Maybe you're at a party and you're  just making small talk with people. If that person  

who's hosting the party is James, everyone at  the party knows James. So it's a good question to  

ask. So how do you know James? Great. You're just  kind of figuring out each other's relationships. 

Let's pronounce this together. So it's a good  way to introduce a new topic. So how do you know  

James? This is similar to what do you do, that  kind of lazy, not moving your lips very much type  

of pronunciation. So how do you know James? So  how do you know James? How do you know James? Can  

you say that with me? So how do you know James?  How do you know James? So how do you know James?  

I'll say that one more time and  then I'm going to pause so that  

you can say it yourself. So how do you  know James? Go ahead. It's your turn. 

Great work. Let's go to the next one. In  continuing with this same idea, this person,  

who knows James might say, "Oh, we used to work  together." We used to work together. Used to often  

gets reduced to usta. We used to work together.  We used to work together. Let's break down this  

sentence. We used to work. This is a lovely word,  it has an O, but it sounds like W-E-R-K, work  

together. Together. It almost sounds like ta,  T-A together. Together. We used to. We used to  

work together. We used to work together.  And when you link used to stuff together,  

that means that you're reducing and you're  sounding more natural. So let's say this  

full sentence, and then I'm going to pause so  that you can say it yourself. We used to work  

together. We used to work together. We used  to work together. Go ahead, it's your turn. 

Excellent work. Let's go to the next one.  The ninth introduction or common expression  

that's used the first time you meet someone  is, "I don't want to hold you up." I don't  

want to hold you up. This is probably what you  would say at the end of that quick conversation  

together when you first meet someone. And  it means, "Oh, I see that you probably have  

something else that you want to do." Maybe you  want to go grocery shopping and you see each  

other at the grocery store. Or maybe you're  trying to talk to the host of the party,  

James, and you just quickly had a quick  conversation. So now you want to let that  

other person leave the conversation and  continue what they were doing previously. 

So you might say, "I don't wanna hold you up."  This doesn't mean hold you physically, but here,  

let's break down this sentence. I don't. Hmm,  the T here is cut out. Your tongue is going  

to be at the top of your mouth, but you're  not going to let the air through. I don't  

wanna hold you up. Want to is linked together  and makes wanna. I don't wanna hold you up.  

Great. Let's say this all together. I don't  wanna hold you up. I don't wanna hold you up. I  

don't wanna hold you up. It's your turn. Say it  yourself. I don't wanna hold you up. Go ahead. 

Thanks so much. Great work. Let's go to the next  one, and the final expression that's often used  

the first time you meet someone is, "Maybe see you  around sometime." Maybe see you 'round some time.  

What does this mean? It means that maybe  you'll never see this person again,  

or maybe you will. I don't know. But it's  just kind of a polite way instead of saying,  

"Okay, let's make plans to see each other  on Saturday 5:00." No, you're just saying,  

"Okay, it was nice to see you. Maybe see  you again sometime." So you might say,  

maybe see you 'round sometime. What's  happening with the word around? 

Well, we're cutting off the first letter.  We're cutting off the last letter. And we're  

just saying the middle part, 'roun'. 'Roun'. This  means around town or just somewhere in general.  

This is the common reduction. When we're speaking  quickly, you'll probably hear people say this in  

movies or TV shows or in conversations. And now  you can say it too. Let's say it all together.  

Maybe see you around sometime. Maybe see you  around sometime. Maybe see you around sometime.  

Maybe see you around sometime. All right. I'm  going to pause and it's your turn. Go ahead. 

Great work. Congratulations on  speaking real English with fast,  

natural reduced pronunciation. Don't forget  to click on the link in the description to  

download the free PDF worksheet for today's  lesson. Never forget what you've learned. Well,  

thank you so much for learning English with  me. I will see you again next Friday for a  

new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. The next step is to download the free PDF  

worksheet for this lesson. With this free  pdf, you will master today's lesson and  

never forget what you have learned. You can  be a confident English speaker. Don't forget  

to subscribe to my YouTube channel for  a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.