Finally Understand Spoken English – Here’s How

Buongiorno!

È arrivato il momento che aspetti con ansia ogni settimana: la nuova edizione di The English Breakfast—la rubrica settimanale di consigli e trucchi di Business English pensata appositamente per i professionisti italiani.

Oggi risolviamo una difficoltà molto comune tra chi usa l’inglese come seconda lingua. Vediamo se ti riconosci in questo commento:

Se questo commento ti suona familiare, questa edizione di The English Breakfast è proprio per te.

Guarda il video sotto e scopri come migliorare subito la tua comprensione dell’inglese.

@danieltannerenglish

Perché è difficile capire i native speakers? #ingleseperitaliani #imparareinglese #businessenglish #englishtips #learnenglish #esl #lezion... See more

🇬🇧 OK, let’s switch to English only 😎 

Let’s practise

The reason native speakers can be so difficult to understand is because they often use relaxed pronunciation when they speak quickly and naturally. This means that the words and structures you expect to hear are not what you actually hear.

Match the examples of relaxed pronunciation below with the sentences 1 - 14 (You can find the answers below. Don’t look until you’ve finished. No cheating! 😉)

*the words written between these lines “//” show you how they are pronounced. We only use these spellings in written English for lyrics, subtitles or in books to show a natural delivery of dialogue. Use normal English spelling when you write emails at work e.g you should write “want to” not “wanna” 👍️ 

1. Do you want to join the call? "Want to" → /……........../ 

2. I’m going to send you an update soon. "Going to" → /……........../

3. I’ve got to get up super early tomorrow to catch my flight. “Got to” → /……........../ (*Common alternative  → "/godda/")

4. Do we have to attend this meeting? It’s so boring! "Have to" → /……........../

5. She has to approve the budget first “Has to" → /……........../

6. He had to leave really early to catch the 4am flight! Ouch! "Had to" → "/……........../"

7. I am out of ideas. Can’t we just use Chat GPT? "Out of" → "/……........../"

8. It’s kind of complicated. "Kind of" →  "/……........../"

9. We have a lot of deadlines this week. "Lot of" → "/……........../"  (*Common alternative  → "/lodda/")

10. Let me check my calendar. "Let me" → "/……........../"

11. Give me a second, I will check. "Give me" → "/……........../"

12. Tell them I’ll call them later. "Tell them" → "/……........../"

13. I don’t know where the file is. "Don't know" → "/……........../"

14. I bet you five euros it will be late. "Bet you" → "/……........../" (*Common alternative  → "/bet’ya/")

The answers 👀 1. /wanna/ 2. /gonna/ 3. /gotta/ 4. /hafta/ 5. /hasta/ 6. /hadta/ 7. /outta/ 8. /kinda/ 9. /lotta/ 10. /lemme/ 11. /gimme/ 12. /tell’em/ 13. /dunno/ 14. /betcha/

Challenge 🏆️ - How many examples of /gonna/ can you hear in this Oasis classic? Count them and check your answer below. Let’s go 🎸 

The answer 👀 I heard nine examples of /gonna/. Did you get the same answer? Check the lyrics to see more examples of relaxed speech.

Let’s do something harder 💪 

Whether you’re still finishing your chocolates from Valentine’s day or swiping right, here’s an interesting video from The School of Life on the topic of good relationships.

Challenge 🏆️ See if you can recognise any of the examples of relaxed speech we’ve seen today.

☝️ This is really hard so just focus on understanding the general idea of what’s said, also known as “listening for the gist”). Don’t get frustrated if there are parts you don’t understand.

Infine, se non sei soddisfatto del tuo livello di inglese e vuoi fare progressi quest’anno, sono disponibile per lezioni private online. Ho una disponibilità molto limitata, quindi, se questo ti interessa, clicca sul link qui sotto per vedere i miei corsi o semplicemente rispondi a questa email con la parola “corso” e ti contatterò per discutere i tuoi obiettivi e vedere se posso aiutarti a raggiungerli, senza impegno 😀 

All right, that’s it for today’s edition. What did you think? Reply to this email and let me know 📧 

“😍 Loved it”

“🙂 It was OK”

“😐️ There was nothing for me“

Ciao for now,

Dan

#englishlesson #learnenglish #learnenglishforfree #speakenglish #howtospeakenglishfluently #englishconversation #englishgrammar #fluentenglish #businessenglish #ingleseperitaliani #imparainglese #inglese #ingleseperlavoro #pronunciainglese #grammaticainglese #englishteacher #englishcoach #insegnatediinglese

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