Hey there it's Hadar and today we're gonna talk about fast English and how to
speak English faster. Now there are two types of fast English the good fast and
the bad fast.
The good fast is normal American speech
that is considered as fast by non-native speakers and today we're going to talk
about that and the three things you need to in order to be a good fast English speaker.
The bad fast is that when you just speed up your entire speech and you
sound something like this
well the noise twelve years old growing up on Long
Island owes a several palsy fair few blocks away at my house and they not
said they would donate two thousand dollars to serve applause for anyone the
broken Guiness record so at first I wanted to ride the roller coaster at
Coney Island so I called Coney Island they said hey kit take a hike you're 12
years old when I gonna let you strap yourself into the cycle
And the reason why it's bad fast and it doesn't matter whether you're a native speaker
or a non-native speaker is because it makes you sound unintelligible
unclear
and a lot of times people associate fluency with speaking fast right
so and they think that if they were to slow down it would reflect on their fluency and their level of English
and it's gonna sound like their English is not good enough
which is a huge mistake. First because when you speak fast your brain and mouth
are not usually synced you lose your breath and you start making silly mistakes
that you wouldn't normally make.
Also when you speak fast you don't allow
the long vowels in English to exist and then you start narrowing down sounds
the accent is more noticeable and then the result may be that the words are less clear.
So ultimately you are going to be less clear when you speak fast.
And also you need to allow what you say to sink in with the other person.
And when you speak fast you don't give that time for them to understand what you're actually saying.
So this type of fast speech is not something that you want to go for.
However, if you want to speak English faster I'm going to tell you
the three things that you need to take into consideration to be a good fast English speaker.
You have to understand that not all words are created equal.
For some words you might want to go really really fast and speed up through them
and for other words you might want to slow down.
Words that deliver the message, words that carry the content,
words that describe something are words that you need to take your time with.
These are usually the nouns and the adjectives and the adverbs.
And in comparison to that words, that connect those words, all the small words.
All those words that we usually confuse when we try to structure a sentence.
So all of those words are less important, I don't have to emphasize them.
Those are the words that you want to speed through.
So let's look at an example.
read this sentence out loud for me, please.
Now if you're we don't take into consideration
that not all words are created equal
then we will put
the same emphasis on each and every word.
'If I had gone to bed early instead of
watching Netflix all night
I would have been a lot more focused today'.
So let's say I say it fast.
right if I just say everything faster
it's going to be hard to understand what I'm trying to say.
And maybe just simply unclear.
So not all words are created equal.
So here if we look at the sentence we need to look
and see what are the most important words.
Is it 'If'?
Is it 'I?
Is it 'had'?
We can see that some words are going to help me convey the message better
than the other words.
So, for example,
the word 'gone' or 'bed'
or 'early' and 'Netflix'
are going to be a little more important than
'had'
or 'to'
or'of'.
It's not that these words are less important .
They're important to structure the sentence
or at least a grammatical sentence
but I don't need to emphasize them okay
and even within the words that I've mentioned right
'bed', 'early', 'Netflix' ,
even among them they're words that I
might want to slow down more on
and other words I might want to say a little faster right
I'm going to slow down on the words that convey my message
If I've GONE to BED EARLY
instead of watching NETFLIX all night
I would have been
a LOT MORE FOCUSED today.
So these words are going to be pronounced a little slower
but for the rest of the words I can go faster okay.
So you need to detect the words that will convey your message
in the clearest way
and the rest of the words
can be a little faster okay.
So there is a balance
between the more important and the less important
when the more important is slower
and the less important is faster.
Usually function words 'on, in, at, could, would, should
am, is, are,
has, have, a, an, the, this, that'
function words are usually less important.
So usually these words are going to be pronounced faster
but that's not just itю
Here are two other things that can really get you to speak English faster.
The second thing you need to take into consideration
if you want to be a good fast speaker of English
is that you need to tame your tongue in order to control your speed.
So a lot of times people confuse fast speech
with reduced speech.
All those less important words
function words,
'on, in, at, could, would, should, am, is, are'.
are usually reduced when they're unstressed.
So whatever vowel you have in them
this vowel is pronounced as a reduced vowel, which is the schwa.
Let me explain
So for example, if I take the word 'and'
'and'
here I have a pure vowel ə
when I say it properly
'and' right
and then my tongue is doing something like this
'əəəənd'
now when this word is unstressed I completely reduce the vowel there
and instead of pronouncing the 'əəəənd'
I just pronounced it as 'nd, 'nd
so if this is my tongue for the 'ə'
this is my tongue for the 'nd,
'bread-and-butter' ,
'ladies and gentlemen' ,
boys and girls
'n, 'n, 'n.
So it's completely reduced.
So you need to train your tongue and control your tongue
and ultimately tame your tongue
because right now it's doing its own thing.
You have no idea whether it's going up or down,
when you want to stick it out it comes in,
when you want to pull it back it goes out .
Sometimes it behaves like a little toddler that does its own thing
and doesn't listen to anything that you say.
So that's your tongue.
So you need to train it and tame it
and control it
and when it comes to those words instead of pronouncing the full vowel
you need to teach your tongue to go down
and pronounce this very neutral sound
'ən'
Instead of 'on' you say 'ən',
instead of 'of' you say 'əv'.
Okay, get the point?
So all of these words,
dozens of words are actually pronounced
with this very reduced vowel
that the only way to be able to do that
is by training your tongue and teaching it
to pronounce these words differently.
So it's not at all about going fast,
it's not at all about just saying one word after another
really really fast without breathing.
No! It's about changing the position of your tongue.
So if we go back to our sentence
Let's take a look at what happens there.
If I had gone to bed early
if I had gone to bed early
So
the content words here are
BED, GONE and EARLY.
GONE, BED, EARLY.
The function words here are
IF, I, HAD and TO.
so instead of just thinking:
'okay, I'm just gonna say them fast'.
change the vowel in them into that schwa sound
so instead of 'If' you pronounce 'uhf'
Now what happens here is that
instead of pronouncing a vowel that is this long
'I'
you pronounce a vowel that is just shorter
uhf
You're changing the pronunciation
but ultimately it changes the length of the word
because it's a shorter word.
IF - UHF
I'm not saying it faster
I'm just changing the vowel
'I had'
I want to connect those two words together
to contract them
and instead of saying 'I had' with a pure a sound
I will probably drop the H
and the 'a' will turn into ə
I'd, I'd, I'd,
I'd,
'if I'd gone to bed'
to
listen what happens to the word 'to'.
if I'd-gone t'bed.
So instead of saying the full u sound
I'm just pronouncing it again with the schwa
to − t', t', t'
and the t also turns into a D
but that's another story.
That's another lesson
If I'd GONE to BED EARLY
instead of watching NEFTLIX all night
okay
I-wudda-b'n, I-wudda-b'n, I-wudda-b'n
would have been
Again I'm reducing
'would' turns into'wud',
'have' turns into 'əv'
I actually dropped the H, drop the V.
Function words are less important I take out some sounds
and I take the vowel and I change it.
I reduce it, I lower it, I flatten it
and I shorten it.
Okay
and then when I put it all together
everything is more squeezed in together
and it sounds like it's fast but it's not fast
just squeezed in together
and the pronunciation has changed
okay
'It would have been a lot more focus today'.
And I slowed down on the parts that are more important
A LOT and FOCUSED.
Now let's try together
'If would have gone to bed early
instead of watching Netflix all night
I would have been a lot more focus today.
Third thing is that you need to chill out
okay
because it's not enough
that you choose the right words to reduce
it's not enough that you
actually reduce the vowels in the words that are less important
to function words
if you still invest a lot of energy
in those parts that are supposed
to be spoken a little faster
in those parts that are a little as important
okay
because if you enunciate every single consonant super clearly
and you invest a lot of energy in it
then you're gonna get stuck
then everything is going to feel heavy
and you won't have that nice flow that you're looking for
and you won't be able to transition from one sound to another smoothly.
Let's take a different example this time.
Let's begin with a full pronunciation
and maybe that might be how you are pronouncing it right now.
'I don't know what I'm going to do about it'.
Normal speech:
I don't know what I'm gonna do about it.
Now I know it seems like I said it really really fast
but let's break it down.
Now I'm gonna prove to you that I didn't just say it fast I
did those three things.
One, I chose the right words to stress
and what words I don't want to stress
and then I changed the pronunciation in the words that
I don't want to stress
and third
I chilled out.
So I pronounce those parts that are less stressed effortlessly,
I invested very little energy, a lot less energy in the words that I did want to stress.
I don't know what I'm gonna do about it.
Know, do.
First of all you can see right away that these two words are more stressed.
They stick out more, they're longer.
Everything else is sort of reduced.
I. I just said it kind of fast and low.
'I don't know'. I cannot reduce these words to a schwa no is a verb anyway.
So I can't reduce it but I just said it effortlessly, softly.
don't know
Notice that consonants are so soft.
I'm not saying 'Don't know' right
The consonants are super-super soft 'I don't know' .
It's like I'm investing 50% of the energy that I would normally invest
in pronouncing a word separately.
I don't.
And then we have this chunk 'what I am going to'.
Listen to how it sounds:
wuh-daim-g'nna
what-wuh, I am -I'm, going to - .
g'nna, g'nna.
that's' how I reduce it.
So I reduce the vowel and I also connected it
and then I just set it together with very little effort.
what I'm gonna do
what I'm gonna
what I'm gonna do
what I'm gonna
and then I have the time to linger on the 'do'
do
what I'm gonna do
about it.
it-it.
See how a reduce it as well
about it.
I did not say it fast necessarily.
I just reduced it.
What I'm gonna do about it.
I don't know what I'm gonna do about it.
Now I know that chilling out in your speech is not something easy
and you might have to work on it.
Sometimes the hardest thing is to dial it down, is to say everything with less effort.
but it would only do you good.
I always tell my students to imagine English as this classy lady dressed in
black sitting on the couch holding a glass of wine.
She doesn't want to work hard.
She doesn't want to mingle with all you know with all the people there.
She's just like chilling
and that's what you need to think about and that's how you need to feel when you say:
What I'm gonna
What I'm gonna do.
What I'm gonna do about it.
You can choose your own imagery of English if you want but that's mine
That's my. That's how I see my English okay.
She doesn't need to work hard.
People come to her okay.
What I'm gonna do
I don't know what I'm gonna do about it okay.
Okay, let's wrap it up.
To be able to speak English fast, faster
and to be a good fast speaker of English
here are the things that you need to do:
1. Understand that some words are pronounced slower
but other words can be pronounced faster.
So you don't need to just speed up your entire speech.
2. The words that are less important you need to change your pronunciation
tame your tongue, control your speed.
So instead of pronouncing the full vowel you're pronouncing a shorter vowel,
a reduced vowel and that is the schwa sound.
And it happens throughout the entire speech as you pronounce function words
all those small words that connect content words.
And 3. when you have those chunks and parts that are a little more reduced
that you want to go a little faster you have to chill out
and invest a lot less energy in the pronunciation of the consonants in the entire chunk
because that's the only way for it to come out smoothly and effortlessly okay.
Remember that practice makes better.
So you have to do it over and over again.
Understanding it is not enough you have to do it and drill it and practice it.
Now if you're looking for good sentences to practice with
and to implement everything that we've done here
then come on over to my website and in the blog post where I posted this video
I added a bunch of sentences that you can practice with.
So I'm inviting you to come and check it out and practice
and while you're there be sure to subscribe to my newsletter.
So you can get a new video lesson to your inbox every single week.
I don't spam, I promise.
So thank you for watching.
Have a wonderful beautiful lovely day fast and slow.
And I will see you next week in the next video, bye.