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Do you want to improve your listening skills of fast English so you can understand native English speakers in any context?
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Well, that's what you'll do today.
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Welcome back to J-Force English.
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My name is Jennifer and today you're going to test your listening skills.
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This is a fun lesson.
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Now let's get started.
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Here are your instructions for the entire lesson.
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I'm going to say a sentence and I'm going to say it at a fast pace, the way I would speak to my friends or colleagues.
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I'm going to use phrasal verbs, idioms and expressions, and I'm going to use natural pronunciation and you're going to test your listening skills.
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I will say each sentence three times, write down exactly what you hear in the comment section.
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And then after I'll explain exactly what I said, the expression I use and the natural pronunciation changes.
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Okay.
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Our first listening test.
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Did you break it to him?
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Did you break it to him?
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Did you break it to him?
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Did you get that one?
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I said, did you break it to him?
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First let's talk about the pronunciation changes.
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Did you, we pronounce this as did ya, did ya, did ya.
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So I combine those sounds together and I take you and I change it to ya.
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Did ya, did ya, did you break it to him?
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Notice the last two words really sounded like one word.
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Tim, Tim, it almost sounded like Tim, the name Tim.
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And that's because we frequently get rid of the H on him and her at a natural pace and we connected to the word before.
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So it really sounds like M M and then you hear the T from to Tim, Tim, did you break it to him?
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Now what does this mean?
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To break something to someone is an expression and we use this when you share news or information with someone, but it's always negative.
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So maybe you applied for a promotion, but you're not going to get the promotion.
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So that's the negative news.
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Did you break it to him that he's not getting the promotion?
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So did you share this negative news with him?
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Did you break it to him?
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Our next listening test, remember to put what you hear in the comments.
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Cut it out, would ya?
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Cut it out, would ya?
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Cut it out, would ya?
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Did you get that one?
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I said, cut it out.
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Would you?
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First, let's talk about pronunciation.
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Did ya?
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The same thing is happening here with would you, you becomes ya.
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And I combine those sounds, would ya, ja, ja, would ya, would ya, would ya?
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Cut it out, would ya?
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Now let's talk about cut it out.
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You'll notice we have T's in between vowels in American English.
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When a T comes between vowels, we change that to a D, D, a very soft D, cut it out, cut it out.
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And I pronounce all three as one, cut it out, cut it out, cut it out, cut it out, would ya?
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The expression to cut something out means to stop something that is annoying or frustrating or irritating or unwanted.
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So let's say you're in a meeting for work and in the background, your kids are going crazy.
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They're screaming, they're yelling, they're fighting.
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This is behavior that is unwanted, frustrating, irritating, annoying, and you want them to stop.
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So you can say to your kids, cut it out, would ya?
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Our next listening exercise, write what you hear in the comments.
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You gotta kick it up a notch.
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You gotta kick it up a notch.
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You gotta kick it up a notch.
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Did you get that one?
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I said you gotta kick it up a notch.
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First notice how I used gotta.
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This is a reduction.
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It's a combination of the words got to and it's pronounced as one, gotta, you gotta.
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You can also say you've gotta, you have got to, but in American English, it's very common to just say you gotta, you gotta.
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You got to is the same as you have to.
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Now let's talk about the expression to kick something up a notch.
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When you kick something up a notch is just encouraging you to perform better, work faster, work harder.
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So let's say you were tasked with assembling 100 boxes and two hours have passed and your boss sees that you've only assembled 20 boxes and your boss wants to tell you that you need to work harder.
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You need to work faster.
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You need to perform better.
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She can say you gotta kick it up a notch.
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You got to work faster.
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You got to work harder.
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Our next listening exercise, write what you hear in the comments.
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I'll say it three times.
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Don't let him get to you.
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Don't let him get to you.
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Don't let him get to you.
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How'd you do with that one?
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I said don't let him get to you.
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First, let's talk about pronunciation.
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Don't let him, let him notice.
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Again, I take that age off of him.
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I drop the sound and then I'm left with him, but I combine it with the word before.
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Let him, let him, let him, don't let him, don't let him get to you.
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Now I said you at the end.
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Many native speakers will drop this to ya.
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Don't let him get to ya, get to ya.
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Just like we saw with did ya, would ya, but I said you don't let him get to you.
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Now what does this mean?
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When someone gets to you, it means that you become angry, annoyed, irritated or frustrated because of that person's behavior.
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But we can also use this in situations.
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If you get really angry when you're stuck in traffic, I can say don't let the traffic get to you.
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So don't let the situation make you angry because what does being angry do?
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It doesn't benefit the situation in any way.
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Don't let the traffic get to ya.
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Don't let your bosses criticism get to you.
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Don't let it anger you, frustrate you or annoy you.
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Our next listing exercise, I'll say it three times right what you hear in the comments.
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What are you looking at?
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What are you looking at?
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What are you looking at?
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Did you get that one?
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What are you looking at?
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So here we have a very simple sentence, but it might be difficult for you because of those natural pronunciation changes, how I combine my words at a natural pace.
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What are you?
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Sounds like one word.
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What are ya?
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What are ya?
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So the R just becomes ur, ur, and I attach it to what?
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What are, what are, what are, what are you?
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Now I think I said you, but you can also again shorten that to ya.
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And native speakers commonly do that, so get comfortable with it.
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What are you?
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What are ya?
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What are you?
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What are ya?
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But remember, it sounds like one word.
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What are you?
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What are you looking at?
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Here it's very common to take a word that ends in I-N-G and drop the G sound, that G sound, and just end it on N, looking, looking, looking that, looking that.
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But notice I combine it with the word that comes next because it's a vowel, looking that.
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So instead of looking at, it sounds like not, not, and then I combine them, looking that, not, looking that, looking that.
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What are you looking at?
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So how did you do with those listening exercises?
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Share your score in the comments below, and remember you were being test on your ability to understand the words I say, but also the ability to understand what my meaning is.
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So maybe you understood the words, but you didn't know the expression or the idiom.
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You didn't know what it meant.
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So you need both.
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But don't worry if this was difficult because the more you practice, the more you study native speakers, the more you add these expressions to your vocabulary, the easier it will become.
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So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to say each sentence again, and I want you to imitate me and try to say it as closely to the way I pronounce it.
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And if you're in a private space, I want you to say it out loud.
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If you're in a public space, we'll then try this again when you're at home and you can say it out loud.
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Did you break it to them?
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Cut it out, would ya?
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You gotta kick it up a notch.
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Don't let them get to you.
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What are you looking at?
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Now practice this again and again until you feel very confident that your pronunciation is close to mine.
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And if you enjoy studying native English speakers, I want to tell you about the Finally Fluent Academy.
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This is my premium training program where we study different native English speakers from TV, movies, YouTube, and the news so you can improve your listening skills of fast English and add these common phrasal verbs, idioms, and expressions to your speech using advanced grammatically correct speech.
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So if you'd like to learn more, you can look in the comments below and once you join, you'll have me as your personal coach.
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And if you enjoyed this lesson and you want me to create more lessons where we test your listening skills, then write yes, yes, yes in the comments so I know you enjoyed this lesson, yes, yes, yes, and I'll keep making more lessons just like this one.
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And you can get this free speaking guide where I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently.
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You can download it from my website for free so you can click the link right here or you can look in the description for the link.
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And why don't you get started with your next lesson right now?