5 TIPS TO SOUND LIKE A NATIVE SPEAKER

- Hey guys, welcome to my channel.

My name is Marina and I'm your

English language teacher today.

I just remembered a problem when I had

when I first came to an English-speaking country.

So, imagine you've been learning English

for 10 years, you come to a country

where everybody speaks English

and you realize that they use the words

that you've learned, they use the same phrases,

but somehow they pronounce them differently.

And it's not about the way that they open their mouth

or they intonate the phrase, but it's the way

they connect the words.

Today, we're gonna practice and we're gonna learn

how Americans pronounce words that we learn.

So, if you're interested in sounding like an American

person, please continue watching this video.

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You need to remember one thing,

Americans and people, in general, are very lazy.

They're trying to do everything

to shorten the amount of work they have to do

and that concerns the speech as well.

For example, I'm gonna talk about linking right now.

So, when we have a couple of words

that come one after another, sometimes

we'll link them and we omit some of the sounds.

For example, when two same consonants are together,

like this school, you don't say this school.

Hey, I wanna go to this school.

That sounds really weird.

You say, this school.

It's like one S, but it's a little longer.

This school.

- On every teacher's addition in this school.

- Another phrase, really useful, good day.

You don't say good day.

You say good day.

So, D here is a little longer.

Practice it with me.

Good day.

- Good day.

- This is very American.

The linking is also true to phrases

when one word ends with a consonant

and another starts with a vowel.

For example, big elephant.

You don't say big elephant.

You say big elephant.

So it sounds just like one word

and exactly this can cause confusion

in non-English native speakers.

But, when you practice it, when you learn

how Americans speak, it's gonna be easier

for you to understand native speakers' speech.

Another very American thing in linking

is that when one word ends with T,

Americans would convert it to D.

For example, that orange.

An American would sound that orange.

You hear that?

That orange.

That orange.

So T actually converted to D.

Other examples of linking, good boy.

And here, this is very American,

when you see a dog and you like it,

you say, "Ah, such a good boy," when he's behaving well.

- Good boy, good boy.

- Di goes into your throat and then

you concentrate on B, so good boy.

(laughs)

So, it's somewhere in your throat.

I cannot even describe what you feel,

but like if you were swallowing something.

Good boy.

This is another way to omit a sound.

The second thing that Americans do is called intrusion.

Think of two words, one word ends with vowel,

another word begins with vowels.

For example, he asked.

We don't say he asked, we say he asked.

And, somehow we insert a new sound,

which is Y and something.

Yeah, he asked.

And in some cases, we would insert the wuh sound.

For example, instead of saying do it,

you would say do it, do it.

So there is a W sound, which somehow got into this phrase.

Other examples.

- Do it, do it!

- Three apples.

Three apples.

It's like singing.

Three apples

By the way, singing really helps with pronunciation.

When you sing along with your favorite singer.

Go out.

You would actually say go out, together as one word.

And there is a general rule, when to insert

Y and when to insert W as a sound.

If the words end with iy, -ey, -ay, -oy, y,

you insert Y.

A good example of a sentence that combines

both of these rules, intrusion rules,

is at the end of the movie, we'll all go out.

At the end, there is a Y sound.

Of the movie we'll all go out.

Instead of go out, we say go out with an extra W sound.

Number three, it's illision.

And illision is when one sound just disappears.

For example, next door, you would say next door.

So there is no T, it's just the D.

Next door.

- Let's go next door.

- Fourth is my favorite.

And fourth is assimilation,

and it's very, very, very American.

Assimilation means when two sounds blend

in together and they form a completely new sound.

This often happens with T and J,

which form chu together and with D and J,

which form Ju together.

Let's look at some examples, very American.

Don't you, don't you.

If you wanna go even more American, say don't ya.

And you remember the song, "Don't you wish

"your girlfriend was hot like me?"

Don't ya.

♪ Don't ya wish your girlfriend was hot like me. ♪

♪ Don't ya wish your girlfriend was a freak like me. ♪

♪ Don't ya. ♪

- Won't you.

Won't you, won't ya.

Meet you.

So when you say, "It's nice to meet you,"

again if you wanna sound British,

you can just let it stay.

It's nice to meet you.

You see?

It's nice to meet you.

Try and practice it with me.

It's nice to meet you.

So, it's a very common phrase

and you need to sound more like a native when you use it.

Did you.

Did you.

I cannot even say did you because nobody says it.

Did you.

Did you.

Did you.

Would you.

Would you.

The last thing that Americans do

is called geminates and we've partly touched it

in the first rule.

So this is basically when word ends with one letter

and the second word begins with the same letter.

And you will connect them together

and they will just one word.

Good day.

It basically sounds just like one word.

Social life.

It's a long L.

Social life, but sounds just like one word.

Okay, these were the rules that would help you

sound more like an American person

and that would help you understand Americans.

My homework to you is to write down

a comment below with an American song

or maybe Canadian song that you use to practice

your English so that maybe somebody who is still

unaware of that song or is looking for songs

to inspire them to learn English

would look through the list and select some songs.

So, write down below a song that helps you learn English.

Thank you so much for watching this video

up to the very end.

There is a subscribe button down here.

Please like this video if you want more

videos about sounding like an American,

because this is something that I love

doing in my life 'cause I moved to America

and I want to sound more American

so that people don't get confused

when I talk in some Russian accent

or something else.

So, yeah, waiting for your likes,

waiting for your comments, and I will see you

in the next videos.

Bye!

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