What's a schwa? Do you know how word formation works? What is a phrasal
verb? You don't know what they are? Well neither do some of these native speakers.
So, I'm in Cape Town, South Africa and in case you don't know, English is the native
language here. So I decided to interview four native speakers to test their English skills.
Do you know what a schwa is?
Well the schwa, or uh sound, is the most common vowel sound
in the English language and is a very important part of speaking English naturally and fluently.
It can be confusing because it's spelled in so many different ways. As in seller, wonder, hour,
favor, leisure...
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That was pretty interesting. But now let's see if these native speakers know what phrasal verbs are.
So phrasal verbs are phrases that indicate actions. They are generally used in spoken English
and informal texts. A phrasal verb combines a normal verb with an adverb or preposition to
create an entirely new verbal phrase. For example, the phrasal verb "pick up" means to grab or lift,
which is entirely different to the definition of "pick" or "up" alone. Oh I thought I'd take
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I definitely didn't expect those answers.
Now let's see who knows what word formation is and how to use it
So word formation basically refers to word families or adding a prefix
at the beginning of a word or suffix at the end of a word to create a new word.
So, for example, you could take a word like color and add the prefix multi to create multi-color,
which means many colors. For example, she's wearing a multi-colored dress.
Or you could take a word like cash and add the suffix less and create a new word cashless,
which means without cash. For example, after he went to the casino, he was cashless.
Okay, so as you can see, native speakers aren't necessarily perfect at understanding the grammar
points of the language we use every day. Don't get me wrong, these things are a very important part
of becoming a fluent and natural speaker. This is why input is an important part of learning any
language. You need to commit to spending time each day listening to, watching or reading English.
This way you'll develop a natural understanding of how to use the rules in daily life,
just like native speakers do. So forget about waiting until you've learned all of the rules
in your grammar book, forget about waiting until you pass that English exam. Start speaking now!
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