Shadowing Practice: How to speak fast and understand native speakers - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Hey guys, welcome to Lingua Marina.
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Today, we're going to have a longer class where we're going to work on our pronunciation.
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And speaking like a native is not just about the right pronunciation of words.
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It's also about understanding native speakers who tend to speak really fast, who tend to swallow sounds.
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And sometimes when you come to a new country or even if you travel to another part of an English-speaking country, you encounter
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so many different people speaking in a weird way this video
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is for you to understand everyone now this is a compilation of my best classes
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so make sure you have a notebook make sure you're all
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ears let's do it let's learn to speak like a native
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the first trick sometimes we say i should have done this
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normally like at school they would teach us to contract things
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so they would teach us to say I should have done this
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but again when we're speaking English and
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when we try to sound like native speakers the rule of thumb here
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and rule of thumb is like what you normally would do is to sit down
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and relax and
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when you sit down relax you just don't want to speak
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like this should have is a little well it it sounds natural but still it could be done easier
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So what is an easy way?
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Shoulda.
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I should have done this.
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Try.
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Just try pronouncing it yourself.
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Maybe we should have done this online.
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Again, another trick with English.
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Whenever you hear something, try pronouncing it yourself.
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Because just because you hear it doesn't mean you're going to use it.
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You're going to use it if you pronounce it.
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And if your muscles are like, oh, this is the way it works.
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And it's like exercise.
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The more you exercise, the better you are at what you're doing.
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So pronounce with me.
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I should have done this should I okay now we're talking about English
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that you can use in your daily life we're not talking about English
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that you're going to use in the classroom or when you're
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passing an interview to Harvard
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when you're speaking academically you'll be like I should have done this
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but when you're like with your friends
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when you're in the environment I should have done this I should have done
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that this morning the same with could have and would have I could have done this, I would have done this.
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Why I showed this like dance to you?
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Because again, English is very optimized for like singing.
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When I was doing a lot of singing classes, my singing teacher would tell me that I sing a lot better in English.
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Just because, you know, the way people speak English, it's like a song, they connect words.
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Shura, kura, and it adds some rhythm.
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So practice with me.
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I should have done this, I could have done this, I would have done this.
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The next word is a preposition of.
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First of all, it's not of.
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It's of.
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We're going to show some transcription here.
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So it's not this.
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It's not of.
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It's of.
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Cup of tea.
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But if you want to sound like a native speaker, if you listen to how they're saying this, they're saying it cup of tea.
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And this is very British.
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Cup of tea.
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Okay, American.
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Lot of stuff.
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Cup of tea.
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It's no longer of.
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It's just a cup of tea.
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A cup of tea.
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Lot of stuff.
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It's got a lot of stuff.
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So whenever you have off in your phrase and the next word starts with a consonant,
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there is a big, big chance that a native speaker would replace off with a lot of stuff.
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I did a lot of stuff here too.
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Lot of water.
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It's a lot of water.
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Lot of trash.
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A lot of trash.
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Lot of clothes.
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a lot of clothes if you want to learn more english with me
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if you want more materials that you can use
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while watching my classes i have a huge kind of huge workbook it's over 180 pages
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and it has a lot of exercises
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that you can practice with it has a lot of tables
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that have idioms or other vocabulary
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that you can use it has a lot of grammatical explanations
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so i highly recommend you to go ahead
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and purchase this book it's less than eight dollars
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and it will really enhance your learning experience and this is something
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that i've done a year ago and the reviews about this workbook have been amazing
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so the link will be down below now let's talk about reductions
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that are words that sound with an h like him her he have
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and if they are unstressed in a sentence and remember in english
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when we're pronouncing something like a sentence we have a stress
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that goes on a particular word there is no like stress in every single word
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so when these words go unstressed people tend to just omit the letter h
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and the sound that it corresponds to example
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i tell her about that very kind of artificial not artificial way native speaker way i tell her
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about that so we don't even have two words here we don't have to tell
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and we don't have her we have one word that is teller teller I tell her that teller
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instead of I tell him I say I tell him again
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new word I tell him tell I told her nah I
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told her let's look at more examples was he there just
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try yourself was he there say it in a native speaker
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way was he there was he was he there we went
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to a party yesterday was he there why was he there
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and once you see like now you understand like
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if I showed this race to myself maybe like seven years
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ago i would be like what is she saying just
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because i didn't know all the tricks
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and now you know them write them down don't forget about
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them at first he was surprised at first he was surprised
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firsty instead of first he at first he was angry what
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have we done what have we done i saw him yesterday
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i saw him yesterday saw him yesterday at the bank faster smoother more natural
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let's move further let's talk about intonation oh it is
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so difficult which means yeah it's difficult but when you say oh it's
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so difficult sarcasm it is not difficult at all again the way you stress
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words the way you phrase something is really really important now let's make a quick exercise What do I mean here?
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Yeah, the movie was really scary.
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That's number one.
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Number two, yeah, the movie was really scary.
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What did I mean in both sentences?
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First sentence that it was scary, second sentence that it wasn't scary at all.
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In one of my previous videos, we talked about assimilation and if you haven't watched that video, the link will be down below.
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Please don't forget to watch the whole series about how to speak English fast
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and understand native speakers really important
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and the example of assimilation was don't you versus don't cha
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or meet you versus meet ya
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that was assimilation today i'm going to talk about some other examples
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that are maybe not
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so obvious contraction of the phrase what are you sounds like
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watcha what you're doing instead of what are you doing you
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say what you're doing what are you talking about what you're talking about what are you saying?
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Whatcha saying.
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Contraction of what have you sounds like watcha.
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What you've been doing, what you've been up to..
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Watcha is also a contraction of a phrase what do you.
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What do you think?
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Whatcha think.
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What do you want to do now?
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Whatcha want to do now.
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And watcha is also a contraction of what you do, what you gotta do, instead of do what you got to do.
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Do what you gotta do.
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Again, this is something that you learn as you go.
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They all sound like watcha, but you will guess the meaning from the context.
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And you're going to get there.
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It's not that difficult.
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But once you know the trick, it makes it easier.
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Something that happened to me, well, I would say recently, a couple of years ago, when I was babysitting my aunt's dog,
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I started to talk to a lot of Americans who had a dog as well, because I was walking my dog.
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And I walk with the dog and I hear people say, who's a good boy?
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Good boy.
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Or another phrase, who's a good girl?
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So basically what I heard there, I heard them saying, not good boy.
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Who's a good boy?
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Nobody said that.
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They took the word good and replaced D with the first letter of a word that followed.
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Who's a good boy? good boy, who's a good girl?
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And if you pronounce it the way they did it, it was like, who's a good boy?
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Who's a good girl?
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And I was like, am I hearing something?
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And I was like, yes, I'm hearing something and this is the way I learn accents I just listen to people
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and I'm like wow this sounds confusing.
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This is not the way it's written Sometimes I would just ask them to repeat
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Because I want to understand what's going on and they go on
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and explain me the way they pronounce it and It's not a rule guys.
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So whatever we're talking about in my videos about the pronunciation these are not rules this is just something
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that I notice when I walk around California and I hear people speak
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when I travel and these are just notes that I'm sharing with you
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again when we're talking about learning a language
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and understanding others it's all about you know first of all it's all about understanding
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because when you know the tricks you're able to understand them better
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but also like if you decide someday
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that you want to adopt some of the accents like I did when I first came to the US.
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I was ordering coffee and I said hot coffee
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and they gave me cold coffee
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because you pronounce hot this way not hot you say hot and you know I had to drink cold coffee
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in it was New York and it was kind of cold it was May
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and I was a little upset
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and I told myself you know I gotta learn I gotta learn American accent
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and I think my accent has changed completely since moved to the us
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and it's changing every year it's changing because i encounter more
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and more people i encounter more and more situations where people would say something
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and i would be like wow this is weird like we need to stop here i need to analyze this
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so let's move into the video let's continue with whatever i
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just mentioned why do native speakers do this why do say good boy good girl again the rule here is
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that they just want to speed up everything
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and English is this great language to sing in
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so whenever you're singing you just want to admit sounds you want to admit something
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that stops you that makes you kind of stop
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and take a breath you just want to connect everything
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so good boy is a look good girl is a little but if you say good boy it's like one word Goodbye.
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Easy, right?
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This is why people do that.
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This is called assimilation or sound change in the English language and it is quite, quite common.
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Another example of the sound change is white paper.
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White paper.
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So I kind of say white paper, but because I'm connecting it's even like one sound.
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It's not white paper.
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White paper is British.
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So British is this formal kind of language where you pronounce, where you try to pronounce more sounds than Americans do.
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And white paper is very British.
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White paper is very American.
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Another great example, speedboat.
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We don't, well, Americans, I guess, don't say speedboat.
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I don't say speedboat.
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I say speedboat.
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Speedboat.
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But then it's connected.
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It's a speedboat.
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A speedboat.
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So you see what's happening here?
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Just, you know, I do not expect that you would use it.
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I just want you to realize that it is happening because it would help you understand native speakers a lot better.
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And because of the way the different sounds are made in our mouth, sometimes we get a completely different situation.
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Let me give you an example.
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I can go now.
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And it sounds like can't go.
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So we kind of add another G at the end of the word can.
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I can go.
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Can't buy.
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I can buy.
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Instead of saying can't buy, I say can't buy.
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I can't buy this.
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I can buy new ones.
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Again, because can't buy is just a lot of movement that has to happen in my mouth.
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But if I say can-by, I'm already shutting my mouth in order to pronounce the sound B.
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And it's can-by.
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So, yeah, I know.
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They don't teach that at school because there is no formal rule on when you replace the sound N with M.
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This is something you learn on this YouTube channel.
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So if you're not yet subscribed, you know what to do.
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Green Park.
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It's Green Park.
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It's not Green Park, the way it's pronounced.
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Do you want to take a walk at Green Park? On Monday? On Monday.
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Are you joining me for a class on Monday?
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On Monday Something like this.
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Some of the other thing we talked about in my previous videos about how to sound like a native speaker
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and Speak English faster.
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If you haven't watched them, you totally have to watch them.
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The links will be down below They're really important for I guess anyone who's learning English
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because if you don't want to speak fast at least you want to be able to understand other people.
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So we talked about elision where sounds disappear
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and just wanted to remind you of a couple examples
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because sometimes when letters T and D appear between two consonants they tend to disappear.
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Let me give you some examples.
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That was the worst job I've ever had.
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But I would say that was the worst job I've ever had.
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You see T disappeared.
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Worst job.
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Where is it?
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I don't know.
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Just one person came to the potty.
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Just one person came to the party.
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Where is she?
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I don't know.
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Just one.
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And let me give you a couple of last examples that would blow your mind.
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Handbag.
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It's handbag, but N and D are replaced by an M.
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So D disappears, right, because of elision.
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And then N is replaced by M because of sound change, assimilation.
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So handbag, D disappears, N is changed into M handbag.
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Who taught you that?
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I don't know.
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St. Paul's Cathedral.
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Again, what happens here?
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T disappears because of elision, but then N is replaced with an M because of assimilation.
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St. Paul's Cathedral.
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It's not St. Paul's Cathedral.
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In Great Britain, it's St. Paul's Cathedral.
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But in America, St. Paul's Cathedral.
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The next tip, open your mouth.
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When you try to speak English fast
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and you hear native speakers speak English fast you are tempted to just speak fast
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but the way it works with native speakers they've done
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so many many times they pronounce so many
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so many sounds it comes naturally
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when you try to speak fast without enough practice we tend to eat sounds
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and I made this mistake again
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when I came to the US I wanted to sound more natural
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and I started just speaking as fast as I could I normally I'm a fast speaker
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or even like when I'm speaking Russian people complain on my Russian channel
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that I speak too fast maybe you complain you don't complain
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you're you guys the nicest audience I've ever had you never complain you only thank me
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but I know I can be too fast sometimes the thing
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is in some cultures like Russian well I would say some
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Asian cultures you don't open your we don't open our mouth the way Americans do
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so and sometimes it is crucial like pen
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and pan two completely different words And you see how I open my mouth when I say pan?
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That makes a huge difference.
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Bad versus bed.
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Two completely different words.
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Again, if you mess it up, if you forget to open your mouth, people probably guess the meaning of the word just from the context.
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But, you know, sometimes the context is also confusing and you don't want to confuse people too much all the time.
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So, open your mouth.
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Bed versus bad.
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Bed.
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Pack versus peck.
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And let's practice some listening skills.
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I'm going to say a word and you need a guess which word it is, which one came first. And, and.
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Beg, bag.
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Pat, pet.
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Completely different words.
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Present perfect versus past simple.
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Another thing kind of differs from British English to American English.
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But basically what happens in British English they tend to use
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present perfect more in Great Britain They say I've just arrived home
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Which is kind of grammatically more correct than using past simple
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because when you say I've just arrived That means you're saying the fact
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that you're at home
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and present perfect would be the perfect tense here in America Again people tend to simplify everything
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and Americans would say I just arrived It's faster right in terms of like grammar I would say well it works,
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but still when we use past simple we want to add more details We're telling a story,
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but we're not stating our current state We state actions in the past with present perfect.
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We kind of want to emphasize that we're at home So in this very case,
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I would say present perfect is more correct But Americans use past simple that doesn't mean that
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If you are learning American accent, you don't have to learn a present perfect you have to Oh, and by the way guys, if you're still confused about the tenses, if you need more information on tenses,
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if you need tables, if you need explanations, if you need additional videos from me, I have the whole workbook that focuses on English language, but we have the whole section on English tenses.
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I try to explain them in the easiest way possible because I know how important they are and how confusing they are.
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And we also have a lot of tables that would help you learn more idioms, learn more vocabulary, necessary grammar
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so the link will be down below it costs seven dollars ninety five cents
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and i think it's a great chance for you guys to um have some materials
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while you go through my videos and learn English.
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The link down below.
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Check it out.
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My English language workbook.
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And the last but not the least for today, exaggerate.
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Americans exaggerate everything.
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I guess, well, American culture is like everything is so bright here.
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Everything is so amazing.
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And you know, people just, I don't even know when they're positive they're really positive
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when they're they tend to be less negative
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and i kind of like it again coming from a culture
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where people are not like showing their emotions too much
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but the thing is when i came to the us
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when everyone is smiling when everyone is like oh my god your dress is amazing
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that just helps me get through the day i feel happier
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i don't know it depends on the kind of person you are
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but i personally like it and
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if you want to sound more American this salad is not
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good this salad is absolutely the best salad I've ever eaten
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my whole life this is the best thing I've ever tasted
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or this video is not just a good video oh my
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god this was the best video I've ever seen in the
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past few years oh my god Marina you're amazing do this in the comments
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or another thing that's kind of confusing when you text someone on the phone
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and you've been texting each other for a couple of months
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and they call your friend again in a culture where I
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come from this is unacceptable like friends are people who you
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hang out with for years who you trust you've seen many many times again it's just another cultural aspect
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that you have to understand have to learn not necessarily use it
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but just understand
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that this is the way it works most of the times
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in the US you know accents are beautiful you can speak
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with whichever accent you prefer British Canadian your own maybe some
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Russian accent for to make some difference on this channel maybe we should teach this
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but anyways you choose whatever you want to do it's up to you
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but i think it's really important to understand what native speakers do
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when they speak english
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because once you know what they're doing it's easier for you to understand them
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so switch on your ears write things down
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because some of them you'll be like oh my god really that's exactly what they're doing why haven't i noticed
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that before the exact same thing happened to me
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when I started kind of studying American accent
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when I started exploring what are those people doing out there what are they doing with their mouths
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and lips what is going on so today we're going to talk about
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that continue watching this video but before we get into the topic please hit subscribe
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and hit the like button okay did you hear how pronounced button button
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and this is the first thing that we're going to talk about today It is glottal stop.
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So if you watched my previous videos on this topic and if you haven't watched them
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The links will be down below Please watch them
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because they are really interesting really exciting
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and they're performing really well on this channel
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So glottal stop glottal sound I think T is one of the most difficult sounds in English just
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because it has so many variations in different accents in different dialects
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and just the way people pronounce it in one of my last videos We talked about the word beautiful
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which actually is pronounced as beautiful It's almost D that is almost an R.
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It's be beautiful You know I'm using this mic
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so you could hear all the nuances beautiful I think it's almost are not penny beautiful, but beautiful and then what water it's water.
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It's not water Water it would be British water is what Americans say water So again,
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I would have been confused if I heard this word maybe 20 years ago
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when I was just starting learning English And if I learned water and then somebody says water, I would be like what?
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What does that mean?
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And the same with letter and then Americans say letter letter, but this was T
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changing into D or R now we're gonna talk about T kind of disappearing and and evolving into this glottal sound.
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Glottal sound.
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The glottal stop is not officially recognized by the English language rules.
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It's just something that you learn from videos like this.
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If you're wondering how do you actually pronounce what is this glottal stop, if you say, uh-oh, uh-oh,
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so something that comes in between those two sounds is this glottal stop.
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This is gonna as if somebody somebody's holding you by the neck This is the glottal stop.
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So for example, let's say the word button
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Here you go initially you would pronounce button With a T but native speakers would often use the glottal stop here.
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So it's button button button You know just try
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and mimic this that's the only way I can explain
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so first train with oh oh this glottal stop
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and then you just add it into the word button todd
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hit the button what button there are some other examples this glottal stop is both used in american
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and british but i feel like the british people use it more
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if you are studying british accent correct me if i'm wrong
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but i feel that mountain is very british this is
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when i'm replacing a t with the glottal stop mountain elf
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curtain is very british curtain in america would say curtain curtain the curtain rises kind of disappears
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but it's still kind of there so
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when we pronounce the regular t my tongue would touch my teeth the back of my teeth
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when i'm kind of speeding everything up
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and trying to sound like a native speaker i would say curtain
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so my tongue kind of goes there
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but it stops before it hits my teeth it's curtain but
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if i want to sound more british i'll say curtain in
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the british version my tongue doesn't even make an attempt to
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hit my teeth another example to sound very british forgotten you
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replace t for the glottal stop forgotten again there is no
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rule uh where you replace t with a glottal stop glottal
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even even in the word glottal you replace it you just listen to people around you like
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if you're in great britain you would just hear people using it more
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and more if you're in the us you will sometimes hear people using it but my advice would be
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learn that it exists
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and then once you're in the language speaking environment once you're in the US
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or Great Britain just you know depending on where you are listen to people around you
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and you would eventually I guess you will eventually just mimic people who are around you
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that what happens to me all the time
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when I'm in California I kind of speak like Californians
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when I'm in Great Britain I adapt it depends on the way your brain works my brain works
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that I'm mimicking everything But yeah, closed off, here you go, now you know what it is.
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By the way, guys, if you want more explanations when people talk about where your tongue goes, or how your mouth opens, or how your muscles should work,
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I'm not a specialist in that.
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I'm more especially describing what's going on with the sounds.
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But my friend Venia, who's originally from Russia, but no one could ever tell that, well, I can tell that,
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he has mastered the skill of like explaining people how to open their mouth to sound like an American
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and he has the whole course on a platform called LinguaTrip
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which I co-founded and
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if you want to check out this course highly highly recommend it one of my friends recently took it
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and he was at home with me one of the classes he listened for six minutes of the class
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and he said I now know more than I learned at school about like how to open his mouth
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and instantly his speech was a lot more natural.
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So highly, highly recommend this course.
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The link will be down below.
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The next trick, can versus can't.
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Here we have a very unique situation.
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So T in the word can't and wouldn't and shouldn't and couldn't,
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this T is super, super important because it changes the meaning of the whole sentence because I can't help you with this.
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But the problem is Americans don't really pronounce this T in the end.
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They say, I can't do this.
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And the only way for you to understand whether they meant can't with a T
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or can without a T is to pay attention to which word they stress when they talk about something.
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Let's look at a couple of examples.
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I can't help you.
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So I say I can't help you, but because I'm emphasizing can, that really means I can't help you.
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I cannot help you.
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I can't help you.
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But on the other hand, if I want to say I can help you, meaning that I'm able to help you, then I'm emphasizing the word help.
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I can't help you versus I can help you.
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I can't help you.
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I can help you.
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So again, the rule here is when you emphasize that you're able to do something, you emphasize the verb.
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I can cook lasagna.
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But if you want to emphasize that you can't do something, you emphasize the word can't.
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I can't cook lasagna.
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Never done that before.
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Let's just try another example so that you remember and understand correctly.
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My husband can drive a car.
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That means he's able to drive a car.
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My husband can't drive a car.
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He's unable to do that.
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Again, I'm kind of doing this over the top so you could hear the difference, but normally people would say i can't do
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that not i'm unable to do
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that that's it another tip um it's not gonna relate to
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the way you pronounce words it's just gonna relate to the way you learn the language
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so basically what happens to me is that i know some words
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but then people start using them in a context
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that i do not understand so whenever you don't understand something google the whole phrase because sometimes
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The whole phrase has a completely different meaning from what you've expected
472
because you knew only one meaning of the word that it's used in the phrase.
473
And sometimes words have like 10 different meanings.
474
There are a couple of resources that I just wanted to recommend.
475
I would always, always use urban dictionary because, you know, sometimes people are like swearing at you
476
or saying inappropriate things or just saying things that mean completely different things that like a normal dictionary would tell you.
477
So whenever I'm confused and whenever I feel
478
that we are something I'm reading online
479
or just engaging with people on social media When I feel
480
that this is an informal kind of speech I would go to urban dictionary first
481
and check what that means And normally I would get the right definition
482
Because if I just googled this word on its own I would get something really formal
483
and it wouldn't make sense And another great website is called dopeoplesay.com On
484
that website you also find words that people use in their everyday lives
485
and they might use them in completely different meanings versus what
486
the standard dictionary tells you the next you versus you
487
when i started on youtube in the us i would say youtube
488
because british people say youtube
489
and this is where i've heard about this platform for the first time
490
and i continued saying youtube and then the underground in london is the tube
491
and i just said you all the time and people laughed at me
492
and I was like why are they trolling me YouTube is YouTube
493
and then I started watching more American bloggers
494
and I realized it's actually YouTube
495
so the thing is in American English in the words like
496
student YouTube duty new you would just say the sound ooh instead of saying you
497
so instead of saying student it's kind of British right kind
498
of what we were taught at school student is what people say in the US.
499
The word ain't.
500
Is he coming?
501
No, he ain't coming.
502
I ain't gonna do that.
503
Have you heard that before?
504
Of course you have.
505
I've heard it many, many times.
506
So first of all, ain't is this word that kind of replaces a lot of different things.
507
Am not, is not, has not.
508
So basically, if you don't want to learn grammar you can just use ain't all the time
509
but it is super spoken like spoken english you can't really
510
use it in an interview you can't really use it in
511
an essay not all of the native speakers use it
512
but it is pretty common to say he ain't doing that
513
so when you hear it next time you know it's replacing either is not has not am not
514
and you can also use it in your speech if you want.
515
The next word that you need to know and absolutely use it.
516
It's spoken but it's super useful.
517
Appreciate it.
518
And please pay my attention to my mouth.
519
It's not appreciated, it's appreciated.
520
So for example, your server brings you food at a restaurant.
521
Instead of saying thank you, which is kind of basic and of course you can say that, you say appreciate it.
522
Or somebody gives you a favor there is a long line
523
and you're with a baby and somebody tells you of get in front of the line
524
and get your coffee faster than we do you like appreciate
525
it appreciate it this is just the way to fasten your speech
526
and to sound more let's say american i know a lot
527
of examples here by the way guys i'm not a native speaker i live in the u.s
528
and a lot of things that i notice in my everyday life are very american
529
because i live in california pretty sure
530
if you travel to other countries you would notice other things
531
but i think american english is the most popular version of english
532
so we're learning it here prepare the next one is gonna blow your mind no yeah
533
you have two words no and yeah which actually means yes do you want a coffee no yeah
534
i don't know it exists in my native language russian it exists in american english In California, a lot of people also say,
535
yeah, no, yeah, no, which is again two words, and this phrase actually means no. Do you want to go out tonight?
536
Yeah, no, I don't want to.
537
I'd rather stay home.
538
Yeah, no means no, no, yeah means yes.
539
I know, super confusing, just write it down.
540
But also, you will notice based on the intonation, based on visual signs, you would understand whether it's a yes or no. Don't be sorry, be afraid.
541
When you want to say I'm sorry, but in reality you did nothing wrong, you actually say I'm afraid.
542
Like for example, oh my god, listen to this guys, this is super crazy.
543
We're trying to buy a car right now.
544
This is a real thing that's happening right now.
545
We are trying to buy a car in the US.
546
We're trying to buy a new car a cadillac there are no cars
547
and uh because there is a chip shortage and chips
548
that are manufactured at a particular plant somewhere in china they had to stop due to coronavirus
549
and now all the new cars require this chip that's why i've been waiting for my tesla for 10 months
550
and now we're trying to get a cadillac
551
because we want a big family car
552
and it's unavailable you have to wait for like four months if you're lucky so we come to this car dealership
553
and i tell them i want to get a cadillac
554
and instead of saying i'm sorry miss we don't have any
555
cadillacs available they tell me i'm afraid we don't have anything available
556
because like they haven't done anything wrong they don't need to apologize
557
and say i'm sorry so they say i'm afraid we don't have any available
558
or just to give you a couple more examples
559
so you understand how the phrase is used um sometimes you talk to a person
560
and they explain some concept and you're like i'm afraid i don't understand it
561
because you're not making a mistake by not understanding what they mean
562
but you say i'm afraid i don't get it
563
or i'm afraid i don't understand it
564
and i hear this phrase i'm afraid a lot normally when people don't have anything left like cadillacs or chocolate
565
i'm afraid we don't have any chocolate left i'm afraid we
566
don't have any apartments available i'm afraid we don't have any
567
tables up till february 2023 like america is this crazy country where people i guess have a lot of money
568
and you have to compete for basically everything we competed to
569
get this house we're competing to buy a car i don't
570
know just you know sharing some reality with you guys well
571
this is probably particular to silicon valley uh probably different different places
572
but silicon valley super competitive okay let's move on to the next
573
tip on how to sound like a native speaker have you ever heard a phrase
574
or something similar to this phrase they are a great doctor i'm glad i found them
575
but they are a great doctor so we understand we're actually talking about a person
576
but we are relating to that person as they or them
577
why is this happening basically
578
when you don't know the gender of the person you can relate to
579
that person as they
580
or them they are a great doctor they are a great teacher whatever um also like
581
because of this thing especially in california again like for example people here can choose their gender
582
and can change their gender and sometimes they don't want any gender at all
583
And you might have noticed that sometimes on Instagram you see
584
that people ask them to refer to themselves as he or she or they.
585
So when they choose they, that means they are gender neutral.
586
They don't want to be associated with male or female.
587
My pronouns are they, them, but no worries.
588
And yeah, you refer to them as they.
589
So don't get confused.
590
It's actually a single person.
591
Just the way we refer to that person.
592
um
593
and also again california there are a lot of gender neutral
594
restrooms there are certain rules for example you don't have to have a gender on your birth certificate anymore
595
because you might decide later
596
when you grow up you know you can have different attitude to what's happening uh
597
but i also see how it's beneficial for some people um
598
again something that's happened in california again sounds really weird for me as a russian we don't have something like
599
that in russia but
600
this is a reality here thank you guys
601
so much for watching this video up to the very end i hope it was useful
602
and i hope you practiced your pronunciation all along and i hope
603
that now whenever you listen to a song by an american
604
you'll be like oh i know what she just said i know what he just sang
605
because marina taught me if you're not yet subscribed hit the red button down below
606
and i will see you very soon in my next videos bye
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “How to speak fast and understand native speakers”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: word, sound, english. This video has 606 sentences and 6539 words to shadow. The speech runs for 37:21. The speaker talks at a natural 175 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 87% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pronounce verb | /pɹəˈnaʊns/ | To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously. |
| glottal adjective | /ˈɡlɑ.təl/ | Of or relating to the glottis. |
| accent noun | /ækˈsɛnt/ | A higher-pitched or stronger (louder or longer) articulation of a particular syllable of a word or phrase in order to distinguish it from the others or to… |
| curtain noun | /ˈkɜɹt(ə)n/ | A piece of cloth covering a window, bed, etc. to offer privacy and keep out light. |
| disappear verb | /dɪsəˈpɪɹ/ | To vanish. |
| speedboat noun | /ˈspidˌboʊt/ | A fast boat, usually small (for 1-8 people). |
| emphasize verb | /ˈɛm.fə.saɪz/ | To stress, give emphasis or extra weight to (something). |
| assimilation noun | /əˌsɪməˈleɪʃən/ | The act of assimilating or the state of being assimilated. |
| confuse verb | /kənˈfjuːz/ | to puzzle, perplex, baffle, bewilder (somebody); to afflict by being complicated, contradictory, or otherwise difficult to understand |
| contraction noun | /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/ | An act of incurring debt; also (generally), an act of acquiring something (generally negative). |
| handbag noun | /ˈhændˌbæɡ/ | A small bag used chiefly by women for carrying various small personal items, sometimes considered as a fashion accessory. |
| workbook noun | /ˈwɝk.bʊk/ | A book, used by a student, in which answers and workings may be entered besides questions and exercises. |
| pronunciation noun | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken. |
| tense noun | /tɛns/ | The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists. |
| dictionary noun | /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/ | A reference work listing words or names from one or more languages, usually ordered alphabetically, explaining each word's meanings or senses, oftentimes also… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| close off verb | To seal or block the entrance to a road, an area, or a building so that people cannot enter. | |
| do out verb | To decorate, tidy, or clean (a place). | |
| get through verb | /ɡɛt ˈθɹu/ | To overcome; to endure. |
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| go out verb | To leave, especially a building. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- Why I showed this like dance to you?
- What did I mean in both sentences?
- What do you want to do now?
- Have you heard that before?
- Do you want to go out tonight?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you're in great britain you would just · if you're in the us you will sometimes |
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | have been amazing · you've been doing · you've been texting |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | i've done · haven't watched · you've been |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | could be done · are unstressed · is called |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 226 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: thumb /ˈθʌm/, rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: assimilation /əˌsɪməˈleɪʃən/, contraction /kənˈtɹækʃ(ə)n/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, elision /ɪˈlɪʒ.(ə)n̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: assimilation /əˌsɪməˈleɪʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, dictionary /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹi/, exaggerate /ɛɡˈzæd͡ʒ.ə.ɹeɪt/, intonation /ɪntəˈneɪʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pronounce, glottal, accent.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.