The way to understand native English speakers is by learning reductions/relaxed speech.
‘Could you slow down?‘
Do you have difficulty understanding native English speakers?
Do you ever wish they would speak more slowly?
Have you spent years studying grammar and vocabulary but struggle to understand native speakers?
Do you need subtitles to understand TV and movies in English?
Would you like to be able to understand TV and movies without subtitles?
To Understanding Native Speakers, Learn Reductions
The key to understanding native speakers is learning the reduced forms used in spoken English.
What are reductions?
Reductions = lost sounds.
Reductions are a natural part of spoken language. There are different types. One very common type of reduction is contractions. For example, ‘Can’t’ is the contracted form of ‘cannot.’ Letters are dropped, the words are combined, and sounds are dropped.
Practical Example
Elsa: Whaddaya gonna do this weekend?
Ollie: I’m just gonna take it easy.
Here is the conversation again, in its unreduced form.
Elsa: What are you going to do this weekend?
Ollie: I am just going to take it easy.
As you can see, when Elsa speaks, she reduces 5 words to 2 words.
- What are you becomes Whaddaya.
- going to is reduced to gonna
- I am is reduced to the contracted form I’m
Listen to the audio to hear the difference:
Reductions, or relaxed speech, are normal and extremely common. All native speakers do this naturally. The good news is: You can learn them! They follow patterns. By learning the patterns and getting lots of listening practice, you can train your ear and start understanding native speakers, TV shows, and movies. You can learn about and listen to more reductions on my post Small Talk: How was your weekend?
With practice and training, you can start making sense of native English speakers.
To help you, I’ve created a Spoken English Reduction Guide with more than 25 common speech reductions.
Related Listening
Here’s an interview with Nina Weinstein on ManyThings.org called “Wanna, Gonna, Hafta: Getting Relaxed With Reduced Forms of Speech.” It’s about 5 minutes long in MP3 format and includes a read-a-long transcript. The MP3 speed can also be adjusted to be faster or slower.
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Recommended Lesson on Reductions
English Pronunciation Practice: Reductions
Never stop learning!
~ Trey
