Takeaways from Understand Native English Speakers with this Advanced Listening Lesson by English Speaking Success

Sep. 16, 2024

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The biggest mistake

It’s not good to focus on individual words and try and translate them, because words change in context.

We drop sounds (vowels and consonants) when words come together.

  • Good day -> Goo_ day (drop the ‘d’)
  • Excuse me! -> Scuse me! (drop the ‘e’)
  • Shall we go? -> Shwe go? (drop the ‘all’)
  • That’s fine. -> sfine. (drop the ‘that’. Even drop whole words.)

When we put words together, we also link sounds.

  • Have a -> hav_a /Hævə/.

Sometimes when we link words, we add another sound.

  • Go and -> go_w_an (also drop the ‘d’).

A complicated example:

  • Shall we go and have a good day? -> Shwe go_w_an hav_a goo_ day?

Besides, we (1) stress certain words, (2) reduce some words, (3) add intonation, (4) add rhythm, and (5) add tone. So, start to focus on the SOUNDS rather than INDIVIDUAL WORDS.


Five essentials for better listening

Word stress

Focus on the stressed words (that carry the main meaning): nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.

  • I’d like to get a ticket to London.
  • Can you pay by cash?
  • You should’ve asked, I would’ve been happy to do it.
  • Ah, it’s fine, I didn’t want to trouble you.

Two kinds of listening:

  • Intensive listening: short clips you analyze
    • Focus on stressed words, underline them, listen for the main idea (the gist).
    • Don’t need to be focusing on every words.
  • Extensive listening: longer clips to enjoy, like films and podcasts.

Focus on chunks

A CHUNK is a piece of language where we focus on the sound, not the word.

More grammatical forms are chunks.

  • I’d like to …
  • I should’ve …
  • I would’ve …
  • Can you …
  • I want to …
  • I didn't want to …
  • I wanted to …

Many idiomatic expressions and phrases are chunks.

  • It’s a piece of cake.
  • It doesn’t matter.
  • Have a good day!

Weak forms

We say the strong form when we stress these words.

  • Who is this FOR?
  • Who do I give it TO?

Most of the time we don’t stress and we use the weak form.

  • For: /fə/
  • To: /tə/
  • Do: /də/
  • Are: /ə/
  • You: /jə/

e.g.

  • Do /də/ you /jə/ like pizza?
  • a ticket to /tə/ London.
  • a table for /fə/ two

Those words (small words) that have weak form.

  • Auxiliaries
    • was /wəz/
    • were /wə/
    • do /də/
    • have /həv/
    • can /kən/, …
  • Personal pronouns
    • you /jə/
    • he /hi/
    • she /ʃə/, …
  • Prepositions
    • to /tə/
    • at /ət/
    • of /əf/
    • for /fə/, …
  • Conjunctions
    • and /ən/
    • but /bə/
    • than /ðə/, …

By and large, it’s a schwa sound /ə/ that we’re using in the weak form, not always, but usually.

Using contractions

In spoken English we normally use contractions.

  • I will = I’ll
  • I am = I’m
  • I would = I’d
    • I’d like to get a ticket to London.
  • I should have = I should’ve
    • I should’ve called you before coming.
  • I would have = I would’ve (or, I’d’ve)
    • You should’ve asked, I would’ve been happy to do it.
  • It’s fine = sfine.

Connected speech

Connected speech is the big one that makes listening really difficult but once you get this, your listening skills are gonna rock it. When a word ends with a consonant sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound, we usually connect the two words. We can connect the sounds or we can add a sound to make the connection.

  • I’d like to get a ticket to London.
  • I should’ve called you /kɔːldjə/ before coming. (/də/ -> /djə/)
  • You should’ve asked /væsd/. (also drop the ‘k’)
  • to do it /duːwit/.
  • I didn’t want to /didnwɒntə/ trouble you.