Fast Speech 2 | How To Sound Like A Native Speaker

Hey guys what's up Stefanie the English coach here from EnglishFullTime.com

in this video we are gonna talk again about fast speech now I say "again"

because I already made a video about fast speech or what is known also as

connected speech and you guys really seemed to like it and you asked me to make

more videos like that so that's what I'm doing so here's the deal you guys

already know that English actually sounds nothing like the way that it's

written and that's because it's not a phonetic language so you might see for

example a T in a word and realize that native speakers don't pronounce the T

when they say it okay that's quite common and that's just something you

have to make your peace with the writing system of English is old it's outdated

and it just doesn't work very well okay so spelling in English writing in

English is completely different than the way that native speakers speak and when

we are speaking in casual conversation we combine words in many different ways

so as long as you're paying attention to the way that we combine the words you

can imitate us and do this too you just really have to get away from trying to

pronounce things the way that they're written because if you separate every

single word in a sentence you're gonna sound like a textbook you're not gonna

sound natural and you know what even though every word might be clear because

you're clearly pronouncing them it'll be difficult for native speakers to

understand you because they really have to focus on what you're saying and put

the words together in their head okay because it'll say on choppy so for

example if I say "hi what are you doing today?" right that's kind of slow and it

just sounds choppy or like whoa what is she saying right and if I just say "hey

what are you doing today?" okay what are you doing today I'm sure you understand

that and it sounds more natural okay so we're gonna talk about phrases like this

and words that get reduced when we're speaking in casual conversation and

actually I want to go back to the example that I just gave "what are you

doing today" because in the first video that I made

about fast speech the example that I gave you was "hey whatcha doing later?"

right whatcha doing later?" we don't always say what are you doing

later cuz that's just way too choppy we say whatcha doing later but we can

also say whatter you doing later what are

becomes "whatter" what are what are you doing later what are you doing later

okay and I wanted to give you that example

because when I watched the other video I realized oh that's not the only

way we say it okay so with fast and connected speech sometimes we you know

we combine the same words differently so what are you can become whatcha or

"whatterya" "whatterya" next the word especially okay when something is

especially funny or especially interesting the word is especially it's

spelled with an e in the front so it looks like it should be especially but

the way we say it is just especially but here's the thing in fast speech when I'm

just talking in a regular conversation with somebody I don't really say

especially unless I'm really exaggerating the word and trying to draw

attention to it I just say 'specially like I really like dessert 'specially

chocolate ice cream okay 'specially now the reason why I'm telling you about

this is not just for the pronunciation because I think a lot of you know that

we say specially you've picked it up but what happens is sometimes when you

write comments on my videos you say 'specially in the comments and we don't

do that we don't write 'specially we only say it okay we write especially the

next one is similar excuse me if you're in a formal situation you're gonna say

oh excuse me I'm sorry I didn't understand you can you repeat yourself

or something like that okay excuse me but if you're just at the grocery store

and someone's in your way you can say oh 'scuse me we take off the "ex" okay so

instead of saying excuse me you are in my way excuse me you're in my way I just

say "scuse me" okay the next word is fundamental fundamental fundamental now

this is a pretty long word and words like this get reduced all the time and I

said this the other day but I didn't say fundamental okay I said "funamenal"

funamenal okay so I actually said funna funna menal now maybe I'm

actually saying that wrong maybe it's supposed to be "fundamenal" fundamenal

where you actually still pronounce the D a little bit like funda menal but I

don't even do that so who knows maybe I'm saying it wrong but that's how I say

I just say yeah "the funamenal rules of XYZ are blah blah blah" okay so if you

want to speak like me feel free to say that if someone makes fun of you just

tell them to shut up I'm just gonna don't say that don't think you're mean

okay the next example really makes me laugh the word is "probably" okay probably

probably the thing is when I'm speaking quickly I actually don't really say

probably so let me give you an example let's say my sister asks what I'm gonna

do today let's say she says "hey Stefanie whatcha gonna do today?" and

I'll be like I don't know I'll probably go to the store I'll probably call my

friend I will I don't know I'll probably work a little bit so what am I saying

there I'm not saying probably I'm literally

saying prolly like prolly except when I say prolly by itself it sounds

ridiculous it sounds bad but when I'm speaking quickly I'm saying prolly but

I'm saying it very very fast I'm not saying probably I'm saying prolly look

I'll prolly go the store later prolly there's no way I can say

probably that quickly okay so I'm eliminating a ton of sounds so I can get

it out of my mouth fast anyhow I didn't realize how much English speakers reduce

sounds until I started really paying close attention to it for you guys so I

could make more videos like this and I'm realizing yeah we reduce sounds all over

the place so I'm sorry English is really hard but you know you guys are doing

good and the fact that you're watching these videos and you're learning from

them and you're improving your own speech it shows how dedicated you are so

just keep it up okay and by the way that's an extra tip it has nothing to do

with this video but a lot of times you guys say hey keep going like you really

like something and you say "keep going!" in English we don't say "keep going" we

say "keep it up" okay so it means the same thing but that's like the English way of

saying it like I don't want to say the correct way it's just the normal way

okay so keep it up you guys are doing great keep it up next the word

comfortable this is really hard for a lot of non-native English speakers to

pronounce because there's so many syllables okay so listen "comfter-bl"

comfortable comfortable comfortable so what gets confusing right is the M and

the f come-fff com-fff e so we put that together we just say come come come it's really

weird it's it's I don't even know how I'm making that sound come like that

okay come the yeah the M and the F just get squished together so comf just say that

comf usually when I'm working with a student and I say repeat after me and I

just make the sound and then they make it right after me they almost always do

it correctly the problem is doing it correctly in

other situations right you have to develop the muscle memory to be able to

make these sounds quickly in natural conversations so that takes time but if

you just repeat what I say I think you're gonna do pretty well anyhow so

the big problem with this word is you guys tend to separate it and create

syllables that are non-existent and you might say something like comfortable

nobody says that so don't say comfortable okay

just say comfortable comfortable are you comfortable I hope you're comfortable I

hope this video doesn't make you uncomfortable

okay next can vs. can't a lot of you guys have problems with this and you've

asked me to talk about it so that's what I'm gonna do okay can that's can like I

can go can't you can hear the T at the end but the problem is in fast speech we

eliminate the T we just say I can't go so I can't go sounds a lot like I can go

here's how you can tell the difference there's a couple different ways first

can usually has a longer "aaa" sound like we draw it out I can go I can go can't

stops okay I can't go it can't go the A is a lot shorter now

the easier way to tell the difference is just to realize that we rarely say can

drawn out like that we usually say "cn" right so check out this question "hey cn

you go" cn you go cn you go I'm saying cn "cn you go" can you go right it's very

very subtle it's very reduced I'm not saying can at all I'm saying can

you go and then if you say can't you say no I can't go

I can't go so now there's a huge difference between cn and can't ok cn

and can't can you go can you go and can't hopefully that helps you tell the

difference next let me know when I'm talking on the

phone with somebody and I say hey maybe we can do this maybe we can do this let

me know let me know what you think okay I'm not saying LET me know I'm not

saying le' me know I'm saying "L'mmie know" let me know let me know what you

think let me know let me know ok let me know but I'm not even really saying "e"

ok the sound just gets so reduced it's almost not there ok so it's not really

let me know you don't want to say let me know ok and put the stress in the wrong

place just say hey let me know let me know let me know so practice that

practice repeating it right after me and I know that's gonna help you be able to

say it better ok the last one this is actually something that I said to my

husband the other day I was getting up to get myself some tea and I asked him

if he wanted any but I said hey you know "do you want water or tea or anything?" ok I

was asking him if he wanted water or tea or anything that I could get for him ok

and I realized I wasn't saying "or" you know the word or do you want water or

tea or anything I'm saying "er" ok "er" do you want water or tea or

anything and then the water er water er that's kind of a tongue twister so when

I say it quickly I say hey do you want water er tea er

anything water-er-tea water-er-tea water-er-tea it almost just sounds like water

tea right but it's not exactly water-er-tea right you have to fall back on the

"R" again so water-er water-er water water-r water-r water-r do you want water-er-tea

er anything so you guys recognize what I'm saying because you understand

English right you understand the fast speech but you struggle to make it

because you're like what is she actually saying because you know how everything

is spelled and you're just trying to figure out ok wait why doesn't it sound

like that so I'm going to give you some tips now that will hopefully help you

with your pronunciation and your speaking skills so you can start

speaking more fluently combining your words and just sounding

more like a native speaker okay so my first tip for you is the way words sound

changes based on the environment so you have to think of sentences and phrases

as environments that words are in okay so the word or for example when it's by

itself it's not in any kind of environment I'm not really using it in

any specific way I'm just saying the word or and that's why I pronounce it so

clearly but when it gets put into an environment with other words around it

the words around it are going to affect the way that it sounds that's why you

hear me say things like "hey do you want water-er-tea-er anything?" I'm saying or

or is in the sentence the meaning of or is in the sentence but I'm not saying or

so you have to understand that the way words sound changes based on the

environment okay and then recognize this is my second tip recognize that your

ears won't deceive you 99% of the time you know what you're hearing and you're

hearing it correctly but because you're thinking about the way words are spelled

that's what's confusing you 99% of the time that's the case so just realize

that your ears won't deceive you but your eyes will so just be very careful

do not try to learn how words sound by reading them because it won't work

and lastly repeat what you hear right after you hear it so all the examples

that I gave in this video you should repeat them right after you hear them

because that's what's gonna help you say them correctly instantly right you hear

it you say it you hear you say it and 99% of the time when I do this with

students they say it correctly right after me the trouble is getting that new

sound into your long-term memory so that's gonna take repetition and

practice and then bonus tip I wasn't even gonna include this but I just

thought of it don't get frustrated with fast speech okay just really listen to

what you hear and practice shadowing practice shadowing my videos say what I

say say how I say it practice my intonation patterns you know my voice

goes up and down etc practice all of that and soon

start feeling really natural to you alright guys the last thing that I want

to say is that it's really helpful to practice your English with native

speakers and I'm sure you know this already maybe you have trouble finding

native speakers and you really wish you could practice with people and so I made

a guide for you that will help you meet native English speakers and be able to

practice with them and you can download it it's in the links in the description

lots of people have downloaded this guide already and they found it to be

very helpful so practicing with native English speakers is definitely not the

only way to practice and improve your English but it really helps right

because you can listen to the way that they talk you can talk with someone like

me you can listen to them and respond to them directly and practice imitating

them like if they say a word you can repeat it back to them in the next

sentence anyhow like I said I have a guide on my website that's about

practicing your English with native speakers how to meet native English

speakers online and you can go ahead and download it the link is in the

description okay guys that's it for this video let me know if you liked it feel

free to give it a thumbs up and also comment which of these phrases are

difficult for you to pronounce what kinds of videos do you want me to keep

making how are you doing with your English what do you want to improve let

me know in the comments because I read every single one ok that's it guys I'll

see you in another video bye

now that's probably that's probably I just said probably that's probably ugh now I'm

getting tongue-tied okay the sound it just gets so reduced it's

just like a "uhhhhhhhhh" it's just like a hard to say to learn maybe I don't know but when I

start saying it quickly the sound changes a little bit so I don't say

"comfortable" comfortable?... Yeah I do! what am I talking about? Sorry.