The Rhythm Mistakes Almost All English Learners Make

Do you speak English clearly, but it still doesn't sound natural? Do you have a hard time understanding native speakers? There are two big reasons that native speakers are hard to understand. First, we use a lot of idiomatic expressions. And second, and this is just as important, written English and spoken English are quite different. In this video, I'm going to focus on the second point. Native speakers don't give every word the same weight. In English, we stress the important words and we reduce the small ones and we connect the important words with the small ones. And doing this immediately improves your rhythm and your flow. You will practice this native speaking style while also learning some everyday expressions that native speakers use so that you can also improve your overall English fluency. Listen carefully to this example. What did I say? A or B? Would you like a super salad? Super salad sounds the same as soup or salad. I didn't say or. I said super. Usually in a restaurant when you order your main entree, they ask you if you would like a soup or salad with it. But they don't say soup or salad. They simply say super salad. And one time a non-native speaker answered yes, expecting to receive a big huge super salad. And the waitress was confused because she asked him if he wanted a soup or salad. And she said, "Sup salad. " Let's listen to a native speaker saying it. — You can re-enter the line for a super salad. — Let's repeat that. Repeat after me. You can re-enter the line for a super salad. Or is a conjunction. Conjunctions are not key words. We don't say soup or salad. That would sound mechanical, robotic, and sometimes even distracting. If we speak slowly, we can say Monday or Tuesday. But in natural speech, we often reduce the O and we simply say Monday or Tuesday. I'll call you Monday or Tuesday. Five or six. It'll take five or six minutes. I didn't say said five or six minutes. Let's look at another example where the vowel sound is reduced in a conjunction. Let's look at these two words than and that. They both have the same vowel sound, the a sound. Now listen to a sentence that contains both of these words. It's bigger than that. What happened to the vowel sounds? Do they sound the same? Listen again. In natural connected speech, we reduce than. It's not a key word. It's not an important word. It sounds like this than that. Repeat after me. It's harder than that. This one is better than that one. You say it. Let's say that again. To help you with your overall fluency, I will now teach you some common idioms and expressions that contain or and you will practice saying them with the correct English rhythm that will help you sound natural and fluent. Do you know the meaning of this expression? Let's pronounce it first. Sink or swim. And that means you must succeed or fail on your own. You will either quickly succeed or you will quickly fail by trying to figure something out on your own. And this is to sink. This ship is sinking. It's going underwater. We can say, "I didn't know anything about my new job. On the first day of work, it was sink or swim. " Have you ever been in a sink or swim situation? Let's listen to some native speakers saying it. — You're going to sink or swim. And that's all right because you're going to learn. — We can't leave people to sink or swim on their own. Whether it was school or anything else, you know you had to sink or swim. — Let's look at the expression like it or not, like it or not. And that means something is true or something must happen even if you don't like it. Change is coming. Like it or not. Like it or not, learning English takes time. Whether we like it or not, everyone lies. — It's a bill that, you know, like it or not, is going to increase taxes. telling us whether we like it or not. — Listen to how the T of it sounds. It's not like it or not. It's like it or not. — Telling us whether we like it or not. — Let's repeat that last one. Let's pronounce the next expression. Take it or leave it. And that means this is the final offer with

no room for negotiation. This is the price. Take it or leave it. We don't say take it to. We say take it or leave it. Let's listen to some native speakers saying it. — It would be like I can take it or leave — So, it's either take it or leave it. Yeah, we're not going to negotiate that. — It's up to you. You can take it or leave it. Okay. Take it — Here is another expression that native speakers use all the time. Give or take. And that means approximately plus or minus a small amount. We can say the trip takes 2 hours. Give or take. And notice that give or sounds like giver. Give or take. — About 15 years, a year and a half ago now, I guess. Give or take. — Our bodies are made of 37 trillion cells. Give or take. — In the next clip, the native speaker uses ore twice. Listen. — And there's a 100red billion give or take a billion or two galaxies in the universe. And there's a 100 Give or take a billion or two. Let's look at the next expression. Make or break. And that means something that will lead to complete success or total failure. It's an important moment that will result in big success or big failure. We can say the interview is make or break for my career. First impressions can make or break a business relationship. And we often use it this way. A make orb breakak moment, decision, a makeorb breakak interview, a makeorb breakak test. Let's say the next expression for better or worse. If you do something for better or worse, you accept the bad results as well as the good ones. You don't know what's going to happen, but you have to accept it for better or worse. I moved to New York followed his advice for better or worse. And this is a very common wedding vow. When two people get married, they have to promise each other that they will stay together for better or for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, and in health. This is a traditional thing you say when you exchange marriage vows. Is it the same in your language? Let's look at the next expression with or. Rain or shine. That one's pretty logical, right? It means something will happen regardless of the weather. The conditions don't matter. We can say, "I run in the park. Rain or shine. " We're going to the parade. Rain or shine. Let's listen to how some native speakers use it. — Every Sunday, rain or shine, — we work no matter what. Rain or shine, we always work. — Just go out whenever you can. Rain or shine, doesn't matter the weather. In the next clip, listen to how he says or two times. He said, "Rain or shine, hot or cold. " — And we do rain or shine, hot or cold. — Now, let's practice reducing a different word so that you can continue practicing English rhythm. And let's learn some common expressions. Let's look at the conjunction than. You know that we use than for comparative adjectives. bigger than, taller than, more expensive than. But in natural speech, we pronounce it like this than. We don't say he is taller than his brother. We say he's Than becomes then. And I said all of those words in one breath. I didn't pause. He's taller than his brother. Let's learn a few expressions with than. Let's practice by saying those expressions naturally. You've probably heard this one before. Easier said than done. And that means something sounds simple, but it's difficult to do. Losing weight is easier said than done. I didn't say said done than done. Staying calm in the stressful situation is easier said than done. Have you used this expression before? Better safe than sorry. And that means it's wiser to be careful than to take a risk. Wear a helmet. I brought an umbrella. Let's look at more often than not. That means usually most of the time. More often than not, I get to work early. the meeting starts late. More often than not, I drink coffee in the morning. Let's look at the next one. Repeat after me. Better late than never. And that means it's better to do something late than to not do it at all. They finally arrived. Better late than

never. He apologized a week later. Better late than never. Let's continue practicing English rhythm with the preposition from. Listen to the difference between these two sentences. Where are you from? When it's at the end of the word, we fully pronounce from. But listen to this one. I'm from Spain. In this case, it's reduced from from. Do you know the meaning of this expression? From head to toe. Completely all over. She's dressed in black. From head to toe, he was covered in paint from head to toe. Let's listen to how some native speakers pronounced it. — If you're trying to take a selfie, from head to toe. And his entire body began to shake from head to toe. — So they felt great and looked great. — Do you know the meaning of this expression? From scratch. If you start doing something from scratch, you begin it without using anything that existed before. It wasn't prepared before. We can say she baked the pie from scratch. They built their business from scratch. From the bottom. This is a great expression from the get-go. And that means from the start. From the very beginning. I didn't like that idea from the get-go. The project had problems from the get-go. Let's listen to how some native speakers used it. But let's make something very clear from the get-go. — So to take the time to really do this right from the get-go, it's vital. — They were excited by the idea from the get-go. — This one is pretty logical. From bad to worse, becoming increasingly worse. It was bad, but then it got even worse. From bad to worse. The situation went weather To keep improving your English rhythm, I suggest that you practice reading aloud. Find something that is conversational, such as an interview or a TV script, and then highlight all of the unimportant words. They're called function words, prepositions, conjunctions, articles, and make sure that you reduce them when you say them and connect them with the words around them. Usually there's a noun or a verb next to it. Make sure that you say those words as one unit. We wouldn't say for example, we would wouldn't say from Japan. We would say from Japan. I'm from Japan. And make sure that you stress the key words. And stress means the vowel sound of the stressed syllable of the key word is longer and it's louder. I'm from Alaska. I'm from Japan. So that second a in Japan is longer. I'm from Japan. Practice speaking this way every day. Practice English rhythm even if it's just 10 minutes per day and your accent will sound a lot more natural. And pay close attention to native speakers. Pay attention to the way they're stressing words and reducing words and you will start hearing that music and then you'll be able to understand them better. Thanks for watching and keep practicing. Take your English to the final level of fluency with my online courses, the American accent course, the 400 advanced words you must know for fluent English course, and the phrasal verbs for fluent English course. Go to accurateenglish. com.