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

  • In this video we are going to talk about fast speech and specifically the sounds

  • that change and are eliminated when you start speaking quickly. Now when I say

  • fast speech, I'm not talking about speaking you know super super super fast.

  • I'm actually talking about speaking regularly the way native speakers speak,

  • so what happens is English is not a phonetic language. Okay. Words are not

  • pronounced exactly the way that they're written and especially in everyday

  • conversation and casual speech even when you're in a business meeting. Okay. Just

  • because this is fast speech (and) doesn't mean you can't use words like this in a

  • business setting. So if you want to learn how to sound more like a native English

  • speaker, this video is going to be really helpful. It's also probably going to be

  • frustrating because you're gonna learn and realize so many things you didn't

  • learn before and you're gonna feel like "oh my gosh.

  • I have so much more to learn." Don't worry. You'll get there anyhow before I begin.

  • I want to say a couple things: One, I'm from California so I speak with an American accent.

  • This video is gonna be really helpful to you, if you're trying to learn

  • how to speak more with an American accent. If you're trying to learn British

  • English or Australian English, I honestly don't think a lot of the things that I'm

  • gonna say will apply to the kind of English that you're trying to learn. Okay.

  • So bear that in mind if you decide to watch this video and last thing before

  • we get started I just want to let you guys know that you can also find me on

  • Instagram, Facebook and of course my website so I'll put all those links in

  • the description. With that said let's get into it.

  • Okay, so fast speech, what is it? It's not speaking quickly. It's not speaking super

  • fast. Okay. Fast speech, when I say fast speech, I'm literally just referring to

  • the way native speakers speak English. It's not necessarily fast. It's just that

  • we tend to run words together and by doing that we end up eliminating sounds

  • and changing sounds so I want to go over some examples of that in this video.

  • So that you guys can be more aware of it when you're hearing English. The problem

  • is that you probably started learning English with textbooks and

  • grammar books so you see how a word is written and then you think okay that's

  • how it should be pronounced but that's not the case because English is not a

  • phonetic language so words are not usually pronounced the way that they're

  • written, and then when you include fast speech into this, everything gets more

  • complicated on top of that. So let me give you some examples of what fast

  • speech is and how we do it. So for example, the question "what are you doing

  • later?" I never asked like that. When I'm talking to my friends, I do not say "what

  • are you doing later" because I have to put so much effort

  • into that entire sentence. It's exhausting, right? So what will I say?

  • I'll say, "Hey what you're doing later?" Okay. That is an example of fast speech

  • and you can learn how to do this just by imitating me, right. So instead of saying

  • "what are you" it reduces down to "what ya", "what ya". Okay? And even that ya

  • like that's not even how we say it. I'm over pronouncing it just so you can hear

  • that it's not you but it's so reduced, okay. It's so reduced that it doesn't

  • even sound like ya in the sentence "what you're doing later?", "whatcha", "whatcha".

  • Do you hear that, okay? it's crazy, right? And then "doing" becomes "duing", and then

  • "later". "What you're doing later?", "What you doing later?", "Hey what you doing later?"

  • Okay, another example that I have for you the question, "Where is he at?", "Hey where is

  • he at?", "Where's he at?". It sounds like "Where's he at?", right? "Where's he at?"

  • "Where's he at?" and that's because in fast speech, we often eliminate the H.

  • "Where's he at?" or "Did you give it to him?", "Did you give it to him?". I'm eliminating

  • the H there. "Did you give it to him?", "Did you give it to him?", "Did you give it to him?"

  • And then the "you" I'm not even saying you. I could say "Did you", "Did you give it

  • to him?" "Did you", okay? So this is one of the reasons why English gets so

  • complicated for people. We reduce things down so much that we eliminate sounds

  • and sounds change completely so that what we're saying is not even

  • what you're reading, or what you think you're hearing. So in this lesson I just

  • want to encourage you guys to really pay attention to what you hear. If you want

  • to sound like a native speaker, you're gonna have to learn how to do all of

  • these reductions that we do and eliminations but here's the thing.

  • There are patterns for everything so if you really wanted to you could study the

  • patterns, like when do native speakers eliminate the H and why?

  • When does "did" and "you" change to "Did you" and when does it not. Okay. You can really get

  • into the nitty-gritty of all of this or you could just listen and listen for the

  • patterns, hear them and then incorporate them into your own speech. Okay, let's go.

  • Over some more examples. Okay, another question we can ask is "How did it go?",

  • "How did it go?" but I never say "How did it go?". I say "Hey, how'd it go?", "How'd it go?".

  • Now, this is crazy because I'm not even saying "How". I'm saying "Ha", "Ha", "Had it",

  • "Had it go", alright no. Now I'm getting a little bit crazy with the pronunciation

  • there but seriously I really just ask people I say, "Hey how'd it go?", "How'd it go?".

  • "How'd it go?", if I try to break that apart for you and show you each individual

  • piece, the actual sound becomes contorted, right. Because if I say first we start by

  • saying "Ha" and then "dee" and then "go", all of the sounds are now contorted because

  • I lengthened them in order to slow it down and show you and then here's what

  • happens that's no longer the true sound. That's still not what I'm saying so by

  • extending it and trying to slow it down for you to understand it more. It's still

  • not what I'm saying so you really have to just listen and

  • train your ear to hear the fast speech and then to incorporate it. Okay, and your

  • tongue will learn how to do this quickly but just listen and repeat, right.

  • "How'd it go?", "Hey how'd it go?", "Hey you went to an interview yesterday. How'd it go?" Alright.

  • Another question "What do you mean?". I never asked it like that "Hey what do you

  • mean?" that's just too complicated, right? So I say, "No, what do you mean?"

  • "What do you mean?", okay. Again I'm I struggled to slow this down

  • because then it's no longer authentic "Hey what do you mean?", "What do you mean?".

  • "What do you mean?", "What do you mean?". Another one "Can I go?", "Can I go?".

  • We don't usually ask it like that the "Can" gets reduced and it becomes "Kuhn".

  • Something like that, okay. Listen, "Can I go?", "Can I go?", "Hey can I go with you?".

  • "Hey where you guys going? Can I go?" I'm not saying "can". I'm totally

  • eliminating the vowel sound altogether it becomes "khnn", "khnn" the C sound and then the "nn".

  • "khnn", okay. Again, when I slow it down, it's not gonna sound like it usually sounds.

  • So I just have to say it fast. "Hey can I go?", "Can I go?", alright. How are you guys

  • doing? Are you hanging in there with me? Because I have several more examples for you.

  • Right, I know these aren't easy. The next one, "How is it going?". Okay, I don't

  • say "How is it going?". I say "Hey, how's it going?", "How's it going?".

  • Now you can think of it like "How's it going?" but with the pattern of the speech,

  • it actually sounds like "How sit going?", "Hey how's it going?", okay?

  • or with the "going", I can also eliminate the G and say "Hey how's it going?".

  • "How's it", "How's it", "How's it going?". Another one is when we

  • say "Give it to me.", "Give it a me.". I can just say it like that "Hey will you give it to me.".

  • "give it". I can't! oh my gosh! I'm trying to

  • give the example and I can't even do it because I start thinking about it too

  • much that's the other thing with fast speech. It's like something you don't

  • even think about right but you will have to think about it to practice it and

  • then to get it. Okay, so let's say my sister has something and I say, "Hey where

  • is that thing?" and she says, "Oh it's over here." and then I can say, "Oh would you

  • give it to me?", "Would you give it to me?" so now "Would you" instead of "Would you".

  • It becomes "would", "Would you", "Would you give it to me?".

  • Okay and then the "you" gets reduced also. You guys, I just had to take a moment to

  • say that this is complicated, isn't it? "Would you give it to me?" It does it like

  • does it sound like a completely different language does it still sound

  • like English because this is how I talk like this is how I speak with

  • native english-speakers right anyhow let me give you another example of an H that

  • gets eliminated okay I have to go to the store I have to okay so we can say hafta

  • but we also eliminate the H a lot of times I'll just say yeah I have to go to

  • the store later I have to go I have to go I have to go to the store

  • later okay I'm literally saying I afta I have to go to the store later

  • I'm not saying to also did you notice that the to in English gets reduced

  • almost every time to a ta right I have to go to the store later and then go to

  • becomes goda goda I have to go to the store later so at this point you might

  • be feeling overwhelmed like oh my gosh Stefanie there are just so many

  • different ways that English speakers reduce sounds what do we do how can we

  • learn this well a lot of you are gonna want to break this down study each sound

  • individually and learn how the speech is connected and learn all the rules for

  • this but I'm telling you that there are hundreds of rules and it's gonna take

  • you a very long time to learn them unless you're some kind of genius or

  • something what I recommend is that you just listen more to English and repeat

  • things as you hear them close your eyes don't think about how things are spelled

  • just close your eyes and listen to what you're truly hearing because if you

  • really listen you'll notice that we eliminate sounds you'll notice that we

  • change sounds completely and then if you want to sound like a native speaker

  • you have to incorporate those changes as well don't stick to pronouncing things

  • exactly as you read them in a textbook because then you will sound like a

  • textbook okay and people just don't talk like that that's not natural

  • alright I have a few more examples for you the next one is where did you get

  • them where did you get them I actually said this the other day to my nephew but

  • I didn't say like that I say Oh where'd you get'em where'd you get'em

  • so listen where did you became where'd you where'd you and then get them

  • became get'em get'em where'd you get'em so I'm not even saying them it's

  • crazy right now the word of a lot of the time reduces to ah right so I just said

  • a lot of the time I said it well but that's not usually what I say I'll say a

  • lot of the time a lot of the time a lotta a lot of the time

  • all right now I have another sentence with how I could say I don't know how to

  • do it but instead of saying that I just say I don't know how to do it I don't

  • know how to do it how to do it how to do it and I don't know is I don't know it's

  • not even I it's ah like I don't know how to do it I don't know I don't know do

  • you know and then there were I said do you know I didn't say do I said da did do

  • you know do you know do you know and my final tips about reducing sounds

  • changing them eliminating them is for individual words you'll notice that in

  • American English we don't say for a lot like it's for her we say fur hey yeah it's

  • fur her it's for her and we also don't say the word well we don't say well I

  • could call you later we say well I could call you later

  • wol wol wol I could call you later and then other words like all right we

  • don't really say all right we just say a'right a'right a'right

  • basically we eliminate the L all right you guys that's it I gave you a ton of

  • examples in this video again I know it can be really frustrating but the point

  • of this video was not to teach you every single reduction and deletion that we

  • make in fast speech it was just to make you more aware of certain changes that

  • you will hear so you can start listening better learning them and incorporating

  • them into your own speech so you can sound more like a native English speaker

  • anyhow that's it for this video if you guys want a free guide on 79 words that

  • you still say wrong these are words that are very very simple everyday common

  • words but a lot of non-native English speakers mess them up if you guys want

  • this guide go ahead and in the description of this video you'll

  • get the link you'll be able to download it and listen to the audio file right

  • away and hopefully you're not making any of these mistakes with these simple

  • words are you guys that's it and I'll see you in another video

  • bye.

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

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