today I've got five tips to instantly
sound more like a native speaker and the
good news is you don't need to spend
hours learning them and practicing them
these are small changes that will
immediately make a difference sometimes
I find there is a gap between the way
that native English speakers use English
and the way that English learners speak
even when they have a high level sounds
like they learnt English rather than
grew up with it but today we're going to
bridge that gap so here are five things
that you can learn fast and these tips
are for all levels of English even if
your English is not fantastic follow
these steps and you're going to sound
more confident and more fluent and more
like a native speaker
today so stay tuned
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hello and welcome to let them talk so
we've got five tips for you today to
instantly sound like a native speaker
plus a bonus tip too so stay tuned for
that so the first tip is use may and
might for probability in English you've
got these beautiful modal verbs
talk about probability but I find most
students hardly use them even with
really advanced students I hear for
example maybe I go to Greece this year
is that right maybe I go to Greece no it
isn't or it is possible I will be late
when a native speaker would say I may go
to Greece this year or I might be late
don't complicate your life just use may
and might before a verb to talk about
probability if I assembly say maybe I go
maybe I do I know I'm not speaking to a
native speaker and is there a difference
between may and might well a very small
difference may has a slightly higher
level of probability so 70% I may go to
Greece 70% yes I might go to Greece 50%
yes I don't have the statistics but may
is a slightly higher level of
probability but don't worry too much
about that
just try and use may and might for
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tip number two use have got for
possession in English the most common
way of talking about possession in the
present is have got or haven't got in
the negative so for example I've got a
pen but I haven't got any money this is
especially true in questions have got a
pen that's what most native English
speakers will say do you have a pen
yes it's correct sounds a bit formal
it's correct but I hae some students say
have you a pen hand other statistics
it's grammatically correct but nobody
speaks like that so tip number two is
use as much as possible have got for
possession it's more natural it's more
native
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so tip number three is try to find
alternative words too much many and a
lot of these words are perfectly correct
but don't use them all the time try to
use different more advanced words and
these will really give your sentence
lift so for example instead of saying I
did a lot of work on this project you
could say I did a great deal of work on
this project
instead of saying many people got
involved you could say a large number of
people got involved you see it sounds
better for uncountable things you can
use a large amount finding a place to
stay took up a large amount of time okay
and if you want to be sound informal use
loads of I ate loads of doughnuts today
and I might be sick okay I spent loads
of money on my Hello Kitty collection
and I may have the best hellokitty
collection in the world so there you are
to sound more advanced or more informal
just like native speakers find
alternative alternatives to much many
and a lot
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tip number four is don't use very use
understatement British people love
understatement
understatement is saying something is is
less important than it actually is and
we use it all the time and by using it
you'll give your sentences a lift
the nuance and Sam Moore native so
instead of saying very try and use some
of these words fairly quite pretty or
rather so instead of saying I'm very
tired say I'm rather tired instead of
saying I'm very angry saying say I'm
pretty angry instead of saying I'm very
surprised say I'm quite surprised
instead of saying Renaldo is a very good
footballer say Renaldo is fairly good
the differences between these four words
we'll discuss another time but do use it
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Sydenham five is don't say thank you
well that's not quite true but if
someone gives you something or does a
small favor for you native
english-speakers might use another word
in London we just say Cheers
sounds friendly some people say thar of
course sometimes you can say thank you
if someone does your big favor or saves
your life then by all means say thank
you but if it's just a small act of
kindness someone holds the door open for
you then just say Cheers
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and here's that bonus tip I promised you
if someone asks you do you speak English
what do you reply don't say yes or yes I
do
you want to give the impression that the
question is so ridiculous so absurd that
you won't even dignify it with a serious
response subtext is why are you asking
me this stupid question okay so don't
stand there like a robot and say yes I
do
instead say something like I get by I
manage just a smattering if you don't
know what a smattering is then look it
up on Google you have Google don't you
but by using one of these phrases you'll
sound more confident and people will
believe you it's also linked to the
British love of understatement
that we talked about earlier okay
there you are I hope you found them
useful and I'll just say cheers
and Moorings language videos coming soon
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