Pratica di Shadowing: Why Your English Still Doesn't Sound Natural... - Impara a parlare inglese con i video
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If you fix these five things, your English will instantly sound more natural.
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And I'm not talking about more vocabulary or more grammar rules.
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I'm talking about tiny small changes, small habits that native speakers do without even thinking about.
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And once you start doing them too, your English will sound so much more natural.
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Because here's the thing, most learners really a point where their English is good, their grammar is good, their vocabulary is good,
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but something still sounds a bit off.
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A bit like a textbook.
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And it's almost never because of a missing rule, it's because of one of these things I'll tell you about today.
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These little habits that English speakers have that no one really teaches you explicitly until now.
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So today I will take you them.
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I will show you examples, talk you through them.
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So by the end of this video, you will have concrete changes that you can make to your English speaking that will have a transformative effect.
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Let's start with the first one, and actually it's probably the easiest fix of them all.
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Contractions.
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You have probably heard of these.
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This is where we squish two words together.
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So, I am, I'm.
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Do not, don't.
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You are becomes your.
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It is, it's.
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Sometimes it has, it's.
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I would have becomes out of.
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Yes, that one really exists.
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"Hannah, I know about contractions.
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I've learned about them." That might be true, but honestly, most learners don't actually use them when they speak.
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Or they don't use them enough when they speak.
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And honestly, it makes a huge difference.
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Listen to the difference between these sentences.
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I will do the full version and then the contracted version.
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It has been wonderful.
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It's been wonderful.
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"I am going to the shop
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because I have not got any milk." "I'm going to the shop
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because I haven't got any milk." Can you hear the difference?
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The second one sounds like an actual person using everyday speech in real life.
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The first one sounded like a textbook.
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So, the fix is
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easy just start using them consciously i'm your we're there don't i'd he'd won't you've i've i could go on
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because there are
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so many in your speech try not to use the full
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forms yes try not to use the full forms use contractions where you can
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because as i've said many learners know about So that is the first simple fix.
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Number two is the use of fillers.
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And this one might surprise you because perhaps in school, you were taught that fillers were bad.
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You were taught not to use them, to never say mm or uh.
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But in reality, native speakers use them all the time.
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We use fillers to give ourselves a second to think, to soften what we're saying, to ease ourselves into a sentence.
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English.
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Um and uh.
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Yes, um and uh you can use.
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Obviously don't make them every other sentence, but you definitely can use them to buy yourself time to think.
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And other actual words you can use, I mean, you know, well, kind of, sort of, to be honest,
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actually, basically, all of those are Listen to the difference between these two sentences.
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Tell me which one sounds more natural.
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Yesterday I went to the cinema and it was good.
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So, um, yesterday I went to the cinema and yeah, it was actually really good.
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Again, the second one sounds more realistic, like a real person telling you about their evening.
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But the sentence without fillers sounds more like something you would say in an exam.
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Now, a word of caution.
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Don't overuse them.
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Fillers should be spread out and not concentrated.
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For example, a very annoying tick for native speakers is to make every other word like.
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That's not what I mean.
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Or every other word you know.
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They should be used in a measured way and spread out so they're not really concentrated in one place.
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If you overuse them, it runs the risk of sounding like you don't know what you're talking about.
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But if you sprinkle them in naturally, that makes you sound fluent, relaxed, and confident.
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As strange as it sounds,
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"relinking" and this is a big one.
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It's something I think that really separates English learners from native speakers.
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When a native speaker speaks English, we don't say every word separately.
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Neat little blocks.
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We link them all together.
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The end of one word flows into the next.
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Let's A native speaker would say an apple.
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An apple.
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The N would flow seamlessly into the A.
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an apple.
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Or this, we wouldn't say "pick it up", we would say "pick it up", pick it up.
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The consonant would get pushed forwards.
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I actually go into a lot more detail about this in this video where I talk about the different types of linking, so if you want more detail on this, have a look at that.
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And sometimes it links and condenses even more than you think.
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So, "what are you doing?" Separate, really shortened and linked.
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What are you doing?
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What are you doing?
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What are you doing?
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Obviously that third one is much less formal and only to be used in very casual circumstances.
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But even that second one, "What are you doing?" We would say that, not "What are you doing?" Now,
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I'm not saying you need to learn all of the technical rules when it comes to linking,
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but I am saying you need to be aware that native speakers don't speak word by word.
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We speak in phrases, and often those phrases become one whole shape.
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So, when you're practicing your English, try and let your words flow into each other instead of carefully separating them.
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sound so much more natural.
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Well done, three down, two to go, you're doing brilliantly.
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There is a free PDF accompaniment to go with this video where I summarise the content of today's lesson.
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It's completely free and linked below.
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Number four is sentence stress.
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Again, this is a big one and one that learners often miss.
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In English, we don't give every syllable or syllables are stressed.
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So they are louder, stronger, clearer in a sentence.
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But other words or syllables are squashed.
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They get swallowed.
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Usually we stress the main content words of a sentence.
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The main words that are giving the information.
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For example, the nouns or the verbs for all of those,
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the function words, as we call them, the function words get squashed.
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Again, compare these two sentences.
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I am going to the shops to get some bread.
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I'm going to the shops to get some bread.
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The stressed words are going shops get bread, but all the other words and syllables get reduced.
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If you stress every word equally,
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I am going to the shops to robotic and actually more effort to listen to,
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more effort to discern what the real meaning is.
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Because really the meaning words should stand out, they should be stressed and the other words should get out of the way.
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I'm going to the shops to get some bread.
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So the fix here, when you're speaking, pick out the most important words in your sentence and lean into those.
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Let everything else go softer because that rhythm of up and down, that is the rhythm of English.
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It is not equally weighted.
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Some words or syllables are stronger than others.
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It's a stress -timed language, so think which are the important words that you need to stress.
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and reduce the others.
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Number five is typically British, and that is tone softening.
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As I've spoken about before, British people don't like to come across as too direct, so we soften almost everything we say.
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And the way we do that is with these little softening phrases that take the edge off what we are saying.
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So, for example, instead of saying "I don't like it," we'll say "I'm not sure about it,
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not sure about it, to be honest.
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Instead of "you're wrong" we'd say I'm not sure that's quite right.
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Instead of "can you read this now?" "Would you mind looking at this when you get a chance?" Softeners, which I've talked about before, words like "just", "a bit",
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"quite", "I think", "maybe", "to be honest", "if you don't mind", "would you mind", we use all of these constantly.
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I didn't actually realise how often I used the word "just" until my daughter started She'd say things like,
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"I'm just coming," or, "I'm just tidying up." And then I realised she was copying me.
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I say just all the time.
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And it's not because we are being unclear.
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It's because we are softening.
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We're being more polite, less direct.
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And as I've said, politeness and indirectness is important in our culture. to British people.
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You will instantly sound more natural and more polite.
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So a double benefit there.
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It's just a small fix, but it makes a huge difference.
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So those are the five.
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Contractions, fillers, linking, sentence stress, and tone softening.
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And none of those are about learning more.
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They're about making what you've already learned more natural.
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Focus on these five things next week or two and I promise you, you will sound noticeably more natural.
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Let me know in the comments how it goes because I love to hear about progress.
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And don't forget your free PDF outlining the content of today's lesson so that you don't forget it.
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It is linked below and completely free.
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If you found this video helpful, please like and subscribe.
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Although no pressure, just your being here is enough.
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Have a wonderful rest of your day and hopefully I will see you in the next one.
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Bye.
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Per chi è questo video?
Se sei un apprendista di inglese con una buona base grammaticale e un vocabolario solido, ma ti senti che il tuo parlato non suona "naturale" come quello dei madrelingua, questo video è per te. È perfetto per chi vuole passare da un livello "corretto" a "autentico", specialmente se pratica la conversazione in inglese o il shadowing in inglese: quelle piccole modifiche che ti mostriremo faranno la differenza!
Espressioni da rubare (e usare!)
Il video introduce alcuni "segreti" che i madrelingua usano senza pensarci. Ecco le più utili:
- Contrazioni: "I'm" (io sono), "don't" (non), "it's" (è/ha). Non sono solo abbreviazioni, ma il cuore del parlato quotidiano. Usale spesso per evitare il "tono di manuale".
- Fillers: "Um", "uh", "mm". In scuola ti hanno detto di evitarli, ma i madrelingua li usano per "pensare aloud" o lenire il discorso. Non li temere: li rende più umano il tuo parlato!
Come rendere il tuo accento più naturale
Il segreto non è l'intonazione perfetta, ma le piccole abitudini. Ecco come lavorarle con il shadowing (o "shadowspeak"):
- Imita le contrazioni: Ripeti frasi come "It's been wonderful" invece di "It has been wonderful". Nota come il suono si "schiaccia" e imita la fluidità.
- Inserisci i fillers: Quando fai shadowing, aggiungi "um" o "uh" dove senti che il madrelingua li usa. Aiuterà a creare un ritmo più naturale e meno "forzato".
Ricorda: il shadowing in inglese non è solo ripetere, ma assimilare le abitudini dei madrelingua. Queste due modifiche semplici ti faranno sembrare più fluido e confidenziale nella conversazione in inglese. Provalo oggi stesso: la differenza la sentirai subito!
La grammatica di questo video
Le strutture che chi parla usa di più, con le parole esatte del video:
| Struttura | Nel video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + participio passato — un’azione passata che conta ancora adesso | have probably heard · I've learned · has been |
| Forma passiva be + participio passato — conta ciò che accade, non chi lo fa | were taught · should be spread · are squashed |
Cos'è la tecnica dello Shadowing?
Shadowing è una tecnica di apprendimento delle lingue supportata da studi scientifici, originariamente sviluppata per la formazione dei traduttori professionisti e resa popolare dal poliglotta Dr. Alexander Arguelles. Il metodo è semplice ma potente: ascolti un audio in inglese di madrelingua e lo ripeti immediatamente ad alta voce — come un'ombra che segue il parlante con un ritardo di solo 1–2 secondi. A differenza dell'ascolto passivo o degli esercizi di grammatica, lo shadowing costringe il tuo cervello e i muscoli della bocca a elaborare e riprodurre simultaneamente i modelli di discorso reale. La ricerca dimostra che migliora significativamente la precisione della pronuncia, l'intonazione, il ritmo, il discorso connesso, la comprensione dell'ascolto e la fluidità del parlato — rendendolo uno dei metodi più efficaci per la preparazione alla prova di speaking dell'IELTS e per la comunicazione reale in inglese.