چگونه سریع صحبت کنیم؟

In today’s video we’re going to go over how to speak English fast. And we’re also going to go over one mistake you want to make sure you avoid when you’re trying to pick up your pace speaking English.

First, let’s listen to a native speaker speaking quickly. This is my friend Tom who you might recognize because he’s been on this channel before. He is an outstanding accent coach in my online school, Rachel’s English Academy.

Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. That sounds pretty natural, doesn’t it? Pretty American. To me, it sounds completely conversational and completely natural but it is really fast. What is he doing? Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. He is speaking with reductions. He takes, I am going to, and pronounces it: I’m going to. We actually have three reductions there and they each show a very good example of how to speak fast in American English. So let’s break it down and study.

Actually, first let’s compare this sentence. What if he said the sentence with no reductions at all? Then what would it sounds like? Hi, Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. Wow, there is a big difference there. One’s natural sounds fast, very American. The other one sounds completely unnatural. All of the sounds are American and the melody is American but somehow it just doesn’t work out to sound like a natural conversational English. Hi, Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks.

Let’s look at the very beginning. He takes I am and says I’m, a contraction. Tip number one, use contractions. Americans use contractions when speaking English all the time. If you never use a contraction, it would start to sound a little unnatural. A contraction is a kind of reduction and I guess I should define reductions here. A are reduction is when we change or drop a sound. So in the combination, I am: we have the I of thong, the A vowel, the M constant, I am. But when we make a contraction, we drop the A vowel and it becomes: I’m, I’m.

So that dropped sound means this is a reduction. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. Notice, he’s not saying I’m, he’s saying I’m, I’m, I’m. He’s saying it really quickly. You can, too. Practice that with me. I’m, I’m, I’m. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks.

There are so many contractions in American English. Take for example, you are, that becomes, you’re. But actually even that reduces it’s very common to pronounce that you’re, you’re, you’re. We change the vowel to the schwa and we make it super fast. You’re gonna love this. You’re, you’re. You’re doing so well, you’re, you’re. I think you’re right, you’re, you’re, so fast.

Because there are so many contractions and tricks to their pronunciation, I’m going to put together a playlist on how to speak English fast and I’m going to put lots of videos in there that supplement what we’re learning here today. So I’m going to put in videos on contractions, including a really fun one that includes some real life English.

That’s because she’s a good teacher. That’s because, did you hear that? Another contraction, that is, that’s. Okay, let’s go back to Tom’s sentence. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. I’m going to, going. An ING verb, he changed the NG ending sound at the end and made it an N, instead. Going instead of going. So when we make this change, it changes the vowel, too. The E vowel when it’s followed by NG tends to sound more like E. But when it’s followed just by N then it does sound like a pure E. So going, ing, ing, ing, sounds like E plus, NG, and going, ing, ing, ing sounds like the E vowel and the N consonant.

And I do feel like I’m able to make the ending faster, going going. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. We’ve changed a sound, an example of a reduction. So tip one was use contractions. Tip two expand that. Use reductions. We have so many of them in American English and Americans use them all the time when they speak. It is common to change the ING ending to an IN ending. You’ll hear other people do it. So we’re doing more to help you find jobs, worthy of your incredible talents. Good to know somebody’s doing worse than you, right? Did you hear that? Doing, instead of doing. So, we do it especially with really common words in casual conversations. If you do this all the time, always change the ING ending to an IN constant, it will probably start to sound like a southern dialect. Nothing wrong with that if you live in the southern part of the US and you want that dialect. But if you want a more standard American accent, use this reduction a little sparingly.

Let’s go back to Tom’s sentence. Wow, it is a tiny sentence and he is showing us so many things that make us speak faster when we speak American English. We’re gonna learn one more tip on how to speak English fast, before we get into our mistake that we’re gonna make sure that you avoid. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. The word to, how did he pronounce it? Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. I didn’t hear T and I didn’t hear O, to. What did you hear? Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks.

Let’s listen to this sentence when he is fully pronouncing everything. Hi Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Now there I did hear the true T and the O vowel, but both of those sounds changed when he was speaking more casually. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. What’s happening? Two things. First, the true T, T, he’s changing that to a flap T. The true T is a stop constant. It has two parts, a stop and a release. The flap T is a quick single flap of the tongue against the roof of the mouth so I can make that more quickly, rather than T, which sort of stops the momentum. In American English, it is very common to change a T to a flap T in certain situations. Those situations are when the T sound comes between two vowels or when the T sound comes after an R and before a vowel. And I should say when I say vowel in these rules, I do mean vowel or diphthong.

Let’s listen to how Tom says it again. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. Okay, now there it came after an N before a vowel. Okay, sometimes with the word to, the word today, the word tomorrow in those three words probably together to, the beginning T can become a flap T, even if the sound before wasn’t a vowel diphthong, or an R. You can do that when the sound before was voiced like in this case, the N, that sound isn’t voiced. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. So he makes the T a flap T. He changes the vowel to the Schwa, very common reduction. This word will almost never be pronounced to, it will usually be pronounced T, with the true T or r with a flap T.

Now he did the flap T as we’ve already discussed and we talked about we make a flap T when it comes between certain sounds. What is that mean comes between? It’s the beginning of the word. The letter T is the beginning of the word to, but wait, this brings us to tip three and that is linking. Linking will help you speak more quickly and it is how Americans speak all the time. Let’s listen to his sentence again. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. The N sound goes right into the flap T with no break. In American English, the unit of the word doesn’t matter in spoken English. We don’t do anything to signal the end of a word, the beginning of the next word. Within a single thought group, all of the words, all of the sounds link together smoothly transitioning from one sound to the next.

Because of this, it means a phrase like for getting my sounds just like forgetting my. It’s my fault for getting my hopes up, for getting my, for getting my. I keep forgetting my homework, forgetting my, forgetting my. For getting my sounds just like forgetting my because the sounds are the same, the stress is the same, and there is no differentiation between word units in spoken English. The unit we use in spoken English is a thought group, that is the words that make up a single thought that we articulate. Now that might include breaks as we think of what to say and those breaks each make a new thought group.

But the important thing to note is linking. Within a thought group, everything links together smoothly with no breaks. That means a T can become a flap T when it links two words together and follows the rules. Another example linking the word at with the article a, at a, at a, at a, at a. That becomes a flap T, that sound links the two words together. I do have a playlist on linking. I go over the different kinds of links and how to practice them to really smooth out your speech, click here or in the video description and actually all add that to the playlist, how to speak fast in American English.

So we have the flap T. We talked about a true T, T, T. This stop in the release. We actually have another way that we pronounce the T and that is as a stop T. That means we make the stop but we don’t release. For example, in the word thoughtful, though full. You didn’t hear T, but you heard thought full. A quick break, I’m exaggerating it there, thoughtful, thoughtful. There it is at regular spoken pace. Do you hear that little lift between syllables, thoughtful, thoughtful. It’s not thoughtful, thoughtful. That little lift between syllables is the stop is the stop T.

And just so you know, there are two other ways you might hear the T sound pronounced. First, totally dropped. We do this sometimes after N, like in the word interview or Internet or center. And the other thing that we do with the T is we can make it, actually, we often make it a CH sound when it’s followed by R, like in the word train. T is maybe the most complicated sound as far as how much it changes. I will make sure that I link to a whole playlist on all of these T pronunciations here and also in the video description. But this video is not about T pronunciations, it’s about how to speak English fast.

Let’s go back to Tom’s sentence. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. Okay, so we’ve talked about tips for speaking English fast. Use contractions, use reductions, use linking. I said there is one thing I wanted to tell you to make sure not to do. And that one thing is cheat your stressed syllables. Let’s listen to his sentence again, what is the stressed syllable? Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. Starbucks, it’s very clear. It’s longer. It has an up down shape and pitch. That is the shape of stress, Starbucks.

Now, what would that sentence sound like if he had cheated that, if he had also made that syllable really fast? Then it would sound something like, I’m going to Starbucks, I’m going to Starbucks, I’m going to Starbucks, I’m going to Starbucks. Listen to how he says it again. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. And I need that, I need that longer syllable, that stressed syllable, it gives me my anchor. And that’s why we still understand each other. If everything was reduced and linked and said extremely quickly, I wouldn’t be able to understand anything. But it’s these longer stressed syllables that give me my anchors in the sentence, that help my mind organize when hearing, that help me understand.

And when you don’t use reductions at all and everything is fully pronounced, then I lose my anchors. There’re less clear. So that’s why it’s actually really important for people to understand you, for you to use reductions. It seems like, well that’s not a very clear pronunciation, I shouldn’t use it. But actually you should because it’s that contrast of really fast with the longer stressed syllable that helps us understand you. It gives us the context, the structure of American English.

Let’s listen to the two sentences in contrast one more time. Hi Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks. Did you notice how we were wearing different outfits? This is from a fun video series that I did with Tom a while back where we wear casual clothes when we were speaking natural American English, and then we wear very formal clothes, when we were speaking with no reductions and only true T pronunciations. And I want to say that’s not a formal way of talking, it’s just an unnatural way of talking, but we did this outfit change to add to the contrast. Hi Rachel, I am going to Starbucks. Hey Rache, I’m going to Starbucks.

I don’t want to tease you with just that one sentence. Let’s go ahead and watch the full lesson. You’ll be able to study how we speak English fast, how we speak English really quickly by using reductions, linking, contractions and things like the flap T. Do you want to come along? Do you want to come along? Do you, do is reduced so much that we almost don’t hear it, just a light D sound. The vowel and U isn’t quite a pure O either. It’s a little more relaxed, heading towards the schwa, do you, do you, do you. Do you want to? Want to reduces wanna. Do you wanna? Do you wanna? Do you want to come along? Do you want to come along? Do you want to come along? Do you want to come along? No thank you, Tom. No, thanks. Thank you becomes, thanks, one less syllable. No thank you, Tom. No thanks. No thank you, Tom. No thanks.

I have got too much, I want to get done here. I’ve got too much, I want to get done here. I have becomes I’ve. Got to just one T between those two words, got to, got to. Want to becomes wanna, wanna. Get, we use a stop T sound here because the next sound is a consonant, get done, get done. I have got too much, I want to get done here. I’ve got too much, I want to get done here. I have got too much, I want to get done here. I’ve got too much, I want to get done here.

Okay, I will be back soon. Okay, I’ll be back soon. I will becomes I’ll, reduced to I’ll. Okay, I will be back soon. Okay, I’ll be back soon. Okay, I will be back soon. Okay, I’ll be back soon. Oh, I would love a coffee though. Oh, I’d love a coffee though. I would becomes I’d. Oh, I would love a coffee though. Oh, I’d love a coffee though. Oh, I would love a coffee though. Oh, I’d love a coffee though. Medium? That will be fine. Medium? That’ll be fine. That will becomes that’ll. A two syllable word with stress on the first syllable. The T at the end of that is a flap T because it comes between two vowels, that’ll, that’ll. Medium? That will be fine. Medium? That’ll be fine. Medium? That will be fine. Medium? That’ll be fine.

Great, see you in a bit. Great, see you in a bit. Great with a stop T, this is because it’s the end of the sentence. You is more relaxed here, not an O vowel, but more of a schwa, see you, see you. And finally, bit with the stop T, bit, bit. Again because it’s coming at the end of the sentence. Great, see you in a bit. Great, see you in a bit. Great, see you in a bit. Great, see you in a bit. So many options for reductions and contractions in such a short conversation.