Hello and welcome to another edition of How to Get Fluent in English Faster! I’m Drew.
Today, we’re going to talk about the basics of English grammar and the basics of English pronunciation.
First, basic English grammar…
Most students, when they begin studying English, they memorize lists of lots of difficult words, and they don’t really pronounce them very well. And what’s worse is that they probably won’t use many of these difficult words in sentences anyway. These difficult words are good for passing tests, but if you really want to have interesting conversations, and you really want to speak confidently, then don’t worry about learning all of these big words, like antidisestablishmentarianism, that you probably won’t use in a regular English conversation anyway.
To begin getting fluent in English faster, you have to master the basics of English grammar. And this is the verb “to be” and singular and plural nouns. So, how do you know what’s singular and what’s plural? Is hair, “are” hair, “is” hair? Or “glasses…” “Is” glasses, “are” glasses? Or your pants… My pants “is” big, or my pants “are” big? These are all things that you have to practice. So, this IS my hair. This IS my hair. These ARE my glasses. These ARE my pants. And, also understanding the verb “to be.” I am happy! You AM happy! Eh! You Am happy?
These are little things that other native speakers will hear when they are listening to you and think, eh, “He knows, or she knows, many difficult words, but why doesn’t he or she know basic English grammar?” And it’s these little mistakes that people worry about the most, because other people are listening to your little mistakes and they will wonder why you are not learning the basics of grammar. And, because you make these little mistakes, your confidence goes down and you don’t want to speak as much, and you start getting in fluent much more slowly.
Basic things, if you can master them, they really give you a sense of accomplishment and you can feel fantastic about understanding all of the basics. And this is what gives you the real confidence for learning to get fluent in English faster. It’s NOT learning a whole bunch of difficult words; it’s learning how to speak normal English, conversational English, with correct pronunciation, and correct grammar.
So, right now we’ll also worry about… or also think about how to speak in correct pronunciation. A really good example of this is, “Yes, it is.” So, we’re going to practice that right now. This is one simple example to change from speaking in robot English, as I call it, or textbook English, and starting to speak in REAL English. This is a very common example we give with our students, so we’ll review it again now because it’s really very helpful if you practice it!
So, let’s look at the sentence right here, “Yes, it is.” Now, a native English speaker would read it differently. A native English speaker says, “Yes, it is.” Listen carefully! “Yes, it is.” “Yes, it is.” A non-native speaker says, “Yes, it is.” There are three different words here. “Yes, it is.” But if you want to get fluent in English faster, you have to learn to connect the sounds of the letters that overlap. So, they are this word, and this word here, but they come together and they make different words.
So, here it is, “Yes, it is.” And for native speakers, I’m going to change the way it looks now. Here… the same words, “Yes, it is.” Watch carefully!
“Ye si dis.” “Ye si dis.”
The secret to pronouncing English properly for basic English is NOT worrying about individual sounds. It’s about how the sound of the whole sentence connects.
But, remember this idea: Don’t worry about the individual sounds of words. You want to figure out how sounds of words connect together. And you do this by listening to English speakers and developing the same sense, over time, that regular English speakers also have.
So, remember, if you want to get fluent in English faster, don’t worry about the difficult things up here. Get fluent with the basics down here, the basics of grammar and the basics of smooth pronunciation. And your English will begin to improve much more rapidly. And you will build confidence and you will want to speak more… And THIS is how you get fluent in English faster!
Well, I hope it’s been an excellent tip for you! We’ll see you next time with another tip. If you have any questions, or if there’s anything specifically you’d like to know, we love to answer comments. So, feel free… comment down below, let us know what you think and we’ll be back next time with another tip about how to get fluent in English faster! Bye bye!