FAST ENGLISH: Native Speakers Can’t Understand it

Learn to speak English quickly by taking a brief quiz. You’ll be amazed to see even native speakers facing challenges.

YouTube blocked? Click here to see the video.

Video Transcript:

You will fail this quiz. I’m going to play you little bits of casual American English conversation, anywhere from 2-4 words in a row, and you will not be able to tell what the words are. Even native speakers will fail this quiz. I’ve done this with my parents, my brother, my friends and husband, they all failed.  

In a minute, I’m going to test you. This failure illustrates an important point for my non-native English-speaking students.  No wonder English is hard to understand if you’re not a native speaker. It’s okay. It’s not you, it’s English. 

Click here or in the video description to get a free cheat sheet, the sounds of American English, it’s a great reference tool and even I use it quite a bit.   

Now, Let’s get to that quiz.  Question number one.  What is being said here.   

Do you need it again?  Here.  I’m even going to give you a hint. You’re hearing four words.   

Now, one thing you might be saying is, can you turn it up? That’s too quiet to understand. YES. volume is one of the differences between stressed and unstressed syllables. American English is a stress-timed language which means we need this contrast.  

A stressed syllable is longer, louder, usually has an up-down shape of the melody of the voice, has more vocal energy.  An unstressed syllable is shorter, quieter, flatter in pitch, less vocal energy. In fact, all these characteristics of unstressed syllables can make the speech so unclear that if you isolate just those words, native speakers can’t understand.  

Before I give you the answer to question 1, let’s see how my friends and family did with this question.  

I need to hear it again.  

Okay, here it is again.  

I have no idea.  

No idea.  

Not a clue.  

No, they don’t get it. Do you? Here it is again.
 

I don’t get it.  

No idea.  

No idea? Okay.  

Should I just wanted to. I think something like that.  

I was going to say something about do I ask. Do I something.  

Okay.  

Great, but, totally wrong. I’m going to tell you the answer in just a second, first let’s see just two more people fail.  

It’s so, I mean I even know what it is and that even that time it was, I was like, what. Okay.
 

Something my husband?  

No. So seven native speakers, not one person got it.  These are four words in a row. It’s not like a single syllable.   

I’m going to play it for you one more time.  Be bold, right now, put it in the comments, “I think the answer to number one is …”  Ok, here, for the last time.  

Now here’s what’s crazy. I’m going to play you the whole sentence. If you’re a native speaker, you’re probably going to understand every word I say, effortlessly. My friends and family did.  

 

Before we hear the full sentence, a huge thanks to all my supporters here on YouTube, everyone who has joined my channel, they get special badges to make their comments pop, early release of videos when available, and also the top tier gets a free monthly audio lesson. Thank you! Click JOIN to learn more.  

OK, here’s the sentence.   

And yeah, I’m just trying to get whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer.  

Did you get it?  

Let me play the whole sentence. Tell me if it seems clear now.  

And yeah, I’m just trying to get whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer. 

I’m just trying to get whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer. 

Exactly. So, right away you understand it.  

When you hear the whole sentence, those little words make a lot of sense. And it sounds a lot more natural than each word being clear. 

Whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer. The contrast of stressed and unstressed is vital to natural spoken English. And sometimes I have a hard time convincing my students just how much you need to take out of unstressed words. They think, I can’t do it like that, no one will understand what I’m saying. Exactly. Just these unstressed words, maybe no one would understand. But in the context of a whole sentence, yes, we understand. And we’re used to that rhythmic contrast. It puts us at ease.  

And yeah, I’m just trying to get whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer. 

And yeah, I’m just trying to get whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer. 

Exactly right. That was me. Very good. That was this one. It was the first one I played.  

Between us and the photographer. 

Right.  

Between us and the 

Between us and the 

Between us and the 

Right. When you know what it is, I think it is a little bit easier to pick it up but it is so funny how you hear the sentence and you’re like total comprehension. You hear the snippet and you’re like, and it’s not even like it was part  word, it was like three or four words  

Hmmhmm. 

Blows my mind.  

Have you ever noticed, like, even an English teacher might say “like” too much?  Hmm! But magically, this snippet, that was so unclear, that no one could understand it, is immediately understandable in the whole sentence.  I’m going to give you 6 more questions.  I think, at best, you will get one right.  

And yeah, I’m just trying to get whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer. 

And yeah, I’m just trying to get whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer. 

Yes, between us and the photographer. 

Did you hear us or did you hear me?  

And yeah, I’m just trying to get whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer. 

Yeah, us. 

Yeah.   

Ok, so you guys get how the game goes. I play a clip, you will not be able to understand it. I will play clips of my friends and family also failing the quiz question, everyone fails. No one needs to feel bad. Then I’ll play the whole clip and you’ll get it. We’ll watch the lightbulb go on “I get it! for my friends and family.  

Remember the point. Understand the contrast of American English. Understand that, to get the contrast, some speech needs to be unclear. For my students, at the end, I’ll give you some training on unstressed words like these in a row, like what we’re hearing here. 

Question number 2. What is being said.  

Need it again?   

Put your guess in the comments.  

Is it hold on, look at?   

That’s partially correct.
No, I’m okay? 

I’ll play it again.  

Sounds like a child.  

Um, I don’t know. I don’t know sounds.  

No guesses. Okay. 

Want to look at?  

I don’t know what he said.  

Want to look at? You want to hear it again mom?   

Yeah.  

It could be want to look at.  

I’m going to play it for you one more time.  

Did you get it?  My brother did actually get this one right.  

Want to look at?  

Bravo Ian!  

The whole sentence is:  

So you want to look at me, okay?  

You want to look.  

Yup. Ian got it.  

That’s probably the easiest one out of the set.  

So you want to look at me, okay? 

So you want to look at me, okay? Molly.  

Right.  

Photography shoot with the boys.  

That was one which is like, “so you want to look at.”  

Oh, it sounds like a small child. 

In the context, it doesn’t sounds that high? But it is funny to me also how sometimes if you take a snippet it seems unnaturally high. And you know, she was talking to kids and her energy was a little bit higher but in the sentence, it doesn’t sound too crazy.  

No.  

So you want to look at me, okay? 

So you want to look at me, okay? 

It’s so clear, isn’t it?  

Question number 3. Identify this. 

Gif?  

You?   

I love this so much.
 

I love stumping native speakers with their own language.  

Eve?  

Give.  

Okay.  

My dad had the same guess as John, give. But that’s not right.  

Give.  

Do.  

Play it again.  

Oh, do maybe.  

That’s last time I heard gif.  

When she planted the seed.
 

I’m going to give you one more listen  

Got it?  Here’s the whole sentence. 

So when do you think these are from?  

So David got it right on the second listen, this is ‘do you’.  

So when do you think these are from? 

So when do you.  

Which you guys also got.  

Two for seven.  

Yes.  

So when do you think these are from? 

When do you think these are from? 

Hmm.  

Yeah.  

So when you. So what you heard in that little fragment was do and you.  

Yeah.  

That was really short.  

But in the sentence, clear.  

So when do you think these are from? 

So when do you think these are from? 

Exactly.  

No one is having any problem with this sentence, hearing it just once. No one is thinking they’re hearing ‘give’.  

Question 4. Here it is. 

Let me play that for you again for you.  

Can I have it?   

No, but that is what it sounds like.  

What?  

Can I have it?  

Can I have it?  

They have the same guess as John and Amanda. Close, but not quite it.  

Can I have it?  

That one seemed pretty clear to me.  

You heard it too. 

I heard it too.  

For the record, that’s not correct.  

Good.  

I’m like, I’m definitely sure I guessed that.  

But I agree, it sounds like that.
 

Everyone guessed the same. That’s the only time that happened with this quiz. Is that what you also guessed?  Let’s listen again. 

Here is the full sentence. 

Not as much daily, and I haven’t found my daily ring look.   

Not as much daily, and I haven’t found my daily ring look.   

The snippet that you didn’t understand before was “and I haven’t”.  

Oh.  

Not as much daily, and I haven’t found my daily ring look. 

Not as much daily, and I haven’t found my daily ring look? 

Yes, exactly. 

What is a ring look?  

Out of context, she was talking about a ring. 

Oh.  

Out of context, I feel like that is hard but you still totally got it.  

Not as much daily, and I haven’t found my daily ring look? 

And I haven’t.  

Tricky, isn’t it?  

Question 5.  What do you hear?  

Hmm. Let’s play it again.  

Cheers? 

It does sort of sound like that, that’s not what it is.  

But it does sort of say, it does sort of sound like that.  

Chirp.  

It sounds like Dad.  

It’s actually Steven Colbert.  

Oh.  

Chirp.  

Chir. It’s part of “it’s your.”  

It’s your?  

Hmm.  

Maybe.  

I have to give a shoutout to my Dad here. In general he was terrible at this game. But this was a great guess. Not a hundred percent right but close. 
 

Cheers.  

To your?  

To your like chur.   

Yeah. Let’s hear it again.  

To your, to your point.  

What do you think? You listen one more time.  

David and Renee were right. Here’s the whole sentence.  

Now you recently have added a new credit to your name. 

Can you hear it now?  TO YOUR, ‘chur’.  

Now you recently have added a new credit to your name. 

Now you recently have added a new credit to your name. 

Yeah. So that was ‘to your’ that I think you guys were sort of on to. I think you guys maybe said that.   

Okay.  

Yeah. 

Actually, they had both gotten it.  

Now you recently have added a new credit to your name. 

Now you have recently added a new credit to your name. 

Exactly.  

That sounds like a talk show.  

That’s Steven Colbert. 

Sounds like Colbert.  

Now you have recently added a new credit to your name. 

To your.  

To your name.  

Chur.  

If you’re wondering where the CH sound is coming, it comes from the T and the R.  Take the word ‘train’, for example.  Most native speakers will say ‘chrain’, with a CHR not TR. The CHR pronunciation is more common for TR words than the TR pronunciation.  So in the phrase ‘to your’, there is so much reduction, so many sounds dropped, that the TR sounds are coming together to make that CHR sound, chr.   

Just two questions left. Question 6.  

Hmm.  

Gonna.  

Done a.  

Done a? Gotta?  

Or Gonna.
 

Done a, gonna, or gotta.  

Down in?  

Down in, do you have a guess?  

Belly?  

Done a, gonna, gotta, now we add the guesses ‘down in’ and ‘belly’. Are any of these your guesses? 

Got it?  

Hear it again.  

It does sound like got it.  

Ballot, got it.  

Ballot? Got it? Listen one last time.
 

This one is tricky.  Here’s the full sentence.  

Did you get all it?  Here it is again.  

Walked out of the movie Lake House. 
 

Walked out of the movie Lake House?  

Yeah. Zack Galafanakis talking to some.   

This was a clip from the Zack Galafanakis show Between Two Ferns.  

Walked out of the movie Lake House? 

What was the sentence?  

Walked out of the movie Late Ones.  

I thought he said Lake House.  

Here, let’s play it again.  

Walked out of the movie Lake House.   

Walked out of the movie Lake House.   

Yes.  

Apparently, the movie “Lake house” was terrible. Out of the. Did you get that one? Out of the.  

Here’s the last question. I think it’s the hardest one. 

What do you hear?  

Okay, again.  

It’s so ridiculous, isn’t it?  

This is actually three words  

Yup. Sounds like as if something.  

Uhuh, Uhuh.  

Actually, it’s not ‘as if’. 

What? 

David doesn’t even hears anything that sounds remotely like a word.  

No idea.  

Wishup.  

Wishup?  

Wish upon a star?  

Okay, do you have a guess, Ian?  

One more time?  

Okay.  

Nope. I don’t have a guess.  

My Dad’s guess is ‘wishup’, which, for the record, is not a word in English. I’m going to play you the whole sentence now. Can you get it?  

Was the whole thing clear? Let’s hear it again. 

That was a really long time ago, honey. 

The three words in question were ‘that was a’.  

That was a really long time ago, honey. 

You guys crushed every single word in the sentence, no problem whatsoever.  

It was a really long time ago, honey. 

It’s actually ‘that’, I think.  

That was a really long– 

But it’s true that ‘that’ and ‘it’ can actually reduce to the same sentence. I was a really long time ago, honey.  

That was a really long time ago, honey. 

It was a really long time ago, honey. 

It’s actually ‘that’. That was a really long time ago, honey. 

That was a really long time ago, honey. 

Alright.  

No wonder people can’t understand this.   

People can. They just have to learn the tricks.  

Okay, so sentence 1.  

And, yeah, I’m just trying to get whatever conversation happens between us and the photographer.  

The fragment in the quiz was this:  

Between us and the 

Between us and the 

Between becomes tween. ‘Be’ kind of sound in front ‘tween’. But not really it’s own syllable. Tween us and the, tween us and the. The n links right into the uh for us, tween us and the. The word and reduces, us and, us and, us and the, us and the. The word the, we have the voiced th beginning an unstressed word, you don’t need to bring your tongue tip through for this th sound. It can just touch the backs of the teeth, don’t lift the tongue tip and release it, that will sound like a d but rather bring it forward and pull it back. The, the, the, the. Tween us, tween us and, tween us and. You’re going to have to really simplify your mouth movements to match this speed. Tween us and. Now, you try it. I’m going to play it then there will be a gap for you to say it, we’ll do it 5 times in a row. Play it, say it. Really simplify your mouth movements as you do this.    

Sentence 2  

So you want to look at me, okay?  

And the fragment in the quiz was this:  

Want to look at  

Want to look at. Want to look at, want to look at. Want to becomes wanna, very common reduction. Want to look at. The word ‘looked’, not stressed here. Wanna look at. Lower in pitch, lower energy. The word at reduces to the schwa, ət, ət, ət. And the t is a stop t because the next word me begins with a consonant that will usually be a stop t. It can sound dropped to my students but we don’t hear it as dropped. Native speakers still hear it as a T. Because of just the little stop quality, the little lift, at me, at me, at me, at me. Wanna look ət, wanna look ət, wanna look ət. We’ll have a play it, say it training section, match exactly what you hear, don’t stop, don’t fix, just hear the next iteration and hear it again.  

Sentence 3 

So when do you think these are from?  

The fragment in the quiz:  

Do you 

Do you, do you, do you, do you  

You can think of both of these vowels as the schwa, I can do this without living my lips at all.  Do you, do you, do you, do you. It’s just the tongue moving inside. Do you, do you. Linking together like a single word, no separation.  

Here’s your training section, play it, say it five times.  

 Sentence 4  

Not as much daily, and I haven’t found my daily ring look.  

The fragment in the quiz:  

And I haven’t  

And I have not and I haven’t becoming n I haven’t, n I haven’t. And reduces, it’s just the n sound. That links right into the I diphthong, nI, nI. In the word haven’t, she’s dropping the h. nI aven’t, nI aven’t, nI aven’t.  

Not as much daily, and I haven’t found my daily ring look.  

The t at the end of an apostrophe contraction can be dropped or stop t. In the whole sentence, I feel more as a stop. Haven’t, n’t, n’t, n’t. That abrupt stop of air that symbolizes the t. And I haven’t.      

Okay now, play it, say it 5 times in a row.   

Sentence 5  

Now, you recently have added a new credit to your name.  

And the fragment in the quiz: to your  

To your, to your. The t sound a little bit more like a ch, that’s the influence of the r coming later. To your, to your.  

Play it, say it 5 times  

Isn’t it interesting? It’s not to your. There’s a lot less happening with your mouth. To your.  

Sentence 6 

Walked out of the movie Lake House.  

And the fragment: out of the  

Out of the, out of the. Really unclear. The T in out becomes a flap. The word ‘of’ reduces to just the schwa so out of becomes outə but not pronounced nearly that clearly. Out of, out of, out of the, out of the. Again, the word the, that voiced th, tongue tip won’t come through the tip. It just touches the backs of the teeth and then pulls away quickly, the, the, the. Outəthe, outəthe. If you’re thinking the words ‘Out of the’, it will be impossible to pronounce this so quickly so forget the words, forget what you see in black and white, just focus on what you hear.  

Now, the play it say it 5 times. You repeat in the pause.  

The last sentence  

That was a really long time ago, honey.  

And the fragment was: That was a  

That was a. The th can be dropped in the word that and that’s what’s happening here. The vowel in that can reduce to the schwa so ‘that’ becomes ət. Super quick schwa then a stop t because the next word begins with a consonant, the word was, absolutely not fully pronounced but it becomes ət was, ət was, ət was. So fast. Then the article, just a schwa at the end, wəzə, wəzə, wəzə. So that was a becomes,  ətwəzə, ətwəzə, ətwəzə.  

Now, you do it, play it, say it 5 times.  

I call these reduction strings when we have these unstressed words or syllables in a row. If you want to train more of this kind of audio, I do have a chapter that has reduction string training in it in my Academy, this would be in the stress 3 course, so check out rachelsenglishacademy.com and sign up if you want more of this kind of work.    

If you’re interested in training all the reductions of American English, not to mention all the sounds, check out my online school and #1 accent training ground RachelsEnglishAcademy.com.  I would love to have you as my student. It’s the best way to train those muscles and change your habits. Keep your learning going now with this video and be sure to subscribe, with notifications on, to my channel here on YouTube. I love being your English teacher.  That’s it, and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English. 

Video: