Shadowing Practice: Repeat-After-Me + Shadowing Practice: Future Conditional - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

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Hello everyone and welcome back to another shadowing practice.

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113 sentences

Hello everyone and welcome back to another shadowing practice.

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If you're new here, welcome.

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My name is Claire and I am a native speaker from the U.S.

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but I am also an English teacher and a professionally trained singer.

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So a big focus here on my channel is pronunciation and shadowing practices.

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So if you like this video, there's more where that came from in my shadowing practice playlist, which I'll link here for you to go check out.

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The purpose of these videos is to practice your pronunciation specifically in American English as that's the accent I have.

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But it's not just about getting rid of any accent you may have, but just feeling more confident in your speaking skills and honing your pronunciation of words and phrases, which includes your overall tone and inflection and word stress so that you can be understood when you speak English.

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So if that all sounds good to you, then let's jump right in and begin our shadowing practice.

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So the format is to repeat after me and I will point out any specific pronunciations or intonations that I think would be good for you as an English learner to focus on.

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And then you'll have the opportunity to shadow the sentences.

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So that's saying it with me.

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So first repeat, and then we'll shadow.

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And for this shadowing practice, I thought we could focus on contractions, specifically contractions with the word will.

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for that I am going to use the future conditional.

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If you want to learn more about the conditionals in English, I will also link the video that I did on that here, but we'll practice talking in the future conditionals and practice contracting pronouns with the verb will.

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Okay, let's get started.

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This weekend, my friends and I are planning to hang out.

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You repeat.

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This weekend.

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This weekend.

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my friends and I, my friends and I, so we can really link those words together, my friends and I, so we can almost think of the word and just becoming an nn sound.

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My friends and I, My friends and I are planning to hang out.

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If it's sunny, if it's sunny, we'll meet at the park around noon.

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Wool meat.

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So here we have our first contraction with will.

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So if it's not in a contraction, this would be we will meet.

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But we often contract the word will with the pronoun.

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So we say will, will.

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And a lot of people might say we'll, we'll meet at the park.

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But many native speakers will pronounce this word as a schwa sound, this uh sound.

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We'll meet, we'll meet.

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We'll meet at the park around noon.

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If I get there early.

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If I get there early.

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I'll be sure.

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I'll be sure.

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Here we have the words I will contracted to become all.

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All.

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Again, the word I does not need to be fully pronounced to be I'll, I'll be.

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You might have learned that pronunciation and it's not wrong, but in rapid speech, it's often I'll, I'll be, I'll be sure, I'll be sure.

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So it's this schwa sound again.

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I'll be sure.

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Of course, I'll be sure is also correct.

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I'll be sure a little bit faster.

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I'll be sure.

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I'll be sure.

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I'll be sure to grab a good spot by the trees.

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I'll be sure to grab a good spot by the trees.

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If Sam comes...

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If Sam comes...

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He'll bring his guitar.

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He'll bring, he'll bring, not he'll bring.

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We don't generally pronounce this contraction, which is he will as he'll, but we say he'll, he'll, like a short I sound.

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He'll bring his guitar.

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He'll bring his guitar.

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and if Olivia comes, and if Olivia comes, she'll bring, here we have she will contracted to become shall, shall.

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The schwa sound again, shul and then we just have the L sound at the end.

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She'll bring, she'll bring snacks because she always does.

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She'll bring snacks because she always does.

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and of course cuz is a shortened way to say because but many native speakers will leave off the b of because and just say cuz.

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Now if you struggle with the l sound in these will contractions then I would suggest not having the L sound too far back in the back of your throat.

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We don't want it to be too dark because in American English we do have very dark L's in most words especially if the L comes at the end of the word we pronounce it very far back in the throat but if that is difficult for you, don't place the L at the back of the throat on purpose.

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So you don't necessarily need to pronounce it shul, shul, really far back, but keep it nice and forward and light.

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Shul, shul.

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And I can definitely understand what you're saying.

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Shul brings snacks.

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Shul brings snacks.

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I would say if you're struggling with the L, pronounce it more forward, shill, the tip of the tongue touching your top front teeth, shill.

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Pronounce it like that at first and once you sort of get the hang of it and it naturally may darken over time, shill, shill, then that's also fine and how a lot of native speakers in American English speak.

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If it rains, if it rains, we won't go to the park.

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Here we have the contraction for will not, which becomes won't.

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Or of course, we usually stop the T at the end of this word.

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Won't.

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Won't.

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We won't go to the park.

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And they'll probably all come to my place.

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Here we have the contraction for they will.

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They'll.

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They'll.

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And they'll probably all come to my place.

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I'm looking forward to seeing my friends this weekend either way.

9:48.23 – 9:54.89 (6.7s)

In this sentence, I'll just point out that the word to is often pronounced to in rapid speech.

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I'm looking forward to seeing, to seeing.

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I'm looking forward to seeing my friends this weekend either way.

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Okay, now we will shadow the whole thing together.

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So this time you're going to say it with me.

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I won't stop until the end.

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And you may want to repeat this part of the video several times to really become used to the pronunciation and how you form the words with your mouth.

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So repeat it as many times as you like until you feel comfortable with the pronunciation, the intonation, the inflection.

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So try to match me as best you can as we read this together.

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Okay, here we go.

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This weekend, my friends and I are planning to hang out.

11:12.10 – 11:16.84 (4.7s)

If it's sunny, we'll meet at the park around noon.

11:17.48 – 11:21.84 (4.4s)

If I get there early, I'll be sure to grab a good spot by the trees.

11:22.96 – 11:30.48 (7.5s)

If Sam comes, he'll bring his guitar.

11:31.50 – 11:35.28 (3.8s)

And if Olivia comes, she'll bring snacks because she always does.

11:36.10 – 11:41.96 (5.9s)

If it rains, we won't go to the park.

11:44.14 – 11:47.94 (3.8s)

And they'll probably all come to my place.

11:48.14 – 11:51.90 (3.8s)

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I'm looking forward to seeing my friends this weekend either way.

11:53.34 – 11:58.86 (5.5s)

101

Okay guys, so repeat the shadowing section as many times as you like.

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Go back and if you still have questions, you can repeat individual phrases after me as many times as you like as well.

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I really hope this video was helpful.

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Specifically pronouncing contractions with the word will.

12:19.34 – 12:23.28 (3.9s)

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Let me know in the comments if you have any specific words or tenses or concepts that you want to focus on in an upcoming shadowing practice.

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I do read all the comments and I have made a list because there's many more shadowing practices to come.

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So I will be sure to cover as many of the words or topics that you would like me to in these videos.

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Of course, if you are a member on my channel, those comments do get priority.

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So if you want to learn more about that, click the join button below.

12:56.46 – 13:01.36 (4.9s)

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And of course, if you liked this video, another great way to support me and what I do is to give it a thumbs up, subscribe to my channel if you haven't already, and share it with a fellow English learner.

13:01.22 – 13:15.42 (14.2s)

111

Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you guys in the next video.

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112

Bye for now.

13:19.94 – 13:21.08 (1.1s)

113

Thank you.

13:21.48 – 13:34.58 (13.1s)

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.

How to Practice Effectively on ShadowingEnglish

Choose your video: Pick a YouTube video with clear, natural English speech. TED Talks, BBC News, movie scenes, podcasts, or IELTS sample answers all work great. Paste the URL into the search bar. Start with shorter videos (under 5 minutes) and content you find genuinely interesting — motivation matters.
Listen first, understand the context: On your first pass, keep the speed at 1x and just listen. Don't try to repeat yet. Focus on understanding the meaning, picking up new vocabulary, and noticing how the speaker stresses words, links sounds, and uses pauses.
Set up Shadowing mode:
- Wait Mode: Choose +3s or +5s — after each sentence plays, the video pauses automatically so you have time to repeat it out loud. Choose Manual if you want full control and press Next yourself after each repetition.
- Sub Sync: YouTube subtitles sometimes appear slightly ahead or behind the audio. Use ±100ms to align them perfectly so you can follow along accurately.
Shadow out loud (the core practice): This is where the real work happens. As soon as a sentence plays — or during the pause — repeat it out loud, clearly and confidently. Don't just mouth the words: mirror the speaker's exact rhythm, stress, pitch, and connected speech. Aim to sound like a shadow of the speaker, not just a word-by-word recitation. Use the Repeat feature to drill the same sentence multiple times until it feels natural.
Scale up the challenge: Once a passage feels comfortable, push your limits. Increase speed to <code>1.25x</code> or even <code>1.5x</code> to train high-speed language reflexes. Or set Wait Mode to <code>Off</code> for continuous shadowing — the most advanced and rewarding mode. Consistent daily practice of 15–30 minutes will produce noticeable results within weeks.

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ShadowingEnglish.com – English Shadowing Practice

Speak English fluently using the Shadowing technique. Listen to native YouTube videos, repeat sentence by sentence, and build real pronunciation and fluency — used by IELTS learners worldwide.

Shadowing Practice: Repeat-After-Me + Shadowing Practice: Future Conditional - Learn English Speaking with YouTube

About This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

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What is the Shadowing Technique?

How to Practice Effectively on ShadowingEnglish