Why is it so HARD to understand native English speakers?! QUIZ & answers explained!!

Hey there, it's Hadar. Thank you for joining me. And today I'm going to illustrate why it is so challenging sometimes to understand native English speakers. If you struggle with understanding native speakers, whether it's on tv, in movies, on the street, in the store, on the phone, with customer support, then you are not alone. A lot of non native speakers struggle with understanding native speakers, and there are a few reasons for that. One of the reasons could be because they just speak too fast and your brain is not catching up with information and you're actually listening to every single word and then you are not catching up. So you feel a little overwhelmed and rushed. Okay? And then, and then it, everything starts to get confusing. The second reason might be because the other person has accent that you're not familiar with and your brain just doesn't know how to analyze it. Another reason is because English speakers tend to reduce a lot of words. So they can take a bunch of words and then chunk them up, put them together and reduce the vowel there. And it's not going to sound like something you're used to, especially if you learned English through reading and writing. And then it just sounds like they're mumbling, making it super confusing for you to follow through. And the last reason is because what you hear clashes with how you think the word should sound. English is not a phonetic language. That means that English spelling does not correspond with English pronunciation. So what you hear is not what you read. Now what do I mean by clashes with how you think the word should be pronounced? Most non native speakers started learning English through reading and writing. So your first encounter with a language was through the letters, Right? You started learning the letters, how to write them, how to read. But what happens is that you start associating certain sounds to each of those letters, especially the vowel sounds. So A is usually associated with a and o is usually associated with o. And that's how you remember the words. You usually remember the words phonetically because also English spelling is so inconsistent that you have to kind of like create sounds in your head to remember how to spell a word. Now what happens when the letter o actually has several different sounds? For example, the ah as in office or o as in go. Sometimes it's oo as in lose, and sometimes it's just a as in love or as in computer. So it's super, super confusing. So while you are creating a sound or you, you're creating the pronunciation of a word in your head, when you hear the word pronounced without having any written reference, it clashes and it doesn't find the right placement that you've created in your brain. So you think that it's probably a different word and maybe you're just not familiar or you get overwhelmed and then you freeze or you go blank. Now, this video is exactly about that. I'm going to illustrate how English pronunciation is really different than how you might be pronounced, perceiving the sound or the word in your head and how it is so different than how it is spelled. Last week, I published a quiz where I shared a bunch of phrases written out phonetically that means I wrote them the way they sound. And it was kind of funny because some people got it right, some people got some of the sentence or some of the phrase right, and other parts they didn't really understand. Some were completely thrown off. Now, it's a fun quiz. So it's not scientific. There are no rules of how to write English phonetically. I just wrote it the way I usually write it to my students, and then that helps them understand the word better. But it's easier when you know the word. When you don't know the word, that's when it gets confusing. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to show you all those phrases, and I'm going to give you a few seconds. In case you haven't seen the video before, I'm going to give you a few seconds to guess what the underlying sentence is, and then I'm going to explain how I came up with this phonetic spelling. So are you ready? By the way, if you want to keep on practicing with those phrases, then you can download the phonetic phrases and the actual meaning of the phrase with an audio recording of me saying these phrases and explain explaining them. So it's extremely valuable if you want to continue on practicing, and it's completely free. You just click on the link below or right here. Let's begin with the first phrase. Take a second. What do you think it means? Now here's the thing. You have to say it out loud. It doesn't work if you only look at it written. Now I'm going to say it out loud. Did you do it? Did you do it? Did you do it? Did you do? Sounds a lot clearer when I say it, right? Did you do it? Did you do it? So here's what happens. The first part is did, Did. But then when I add the word, you, then the Y sound connects with the final D of the word did. When a D and a Y connect, they create a new sound, and that sound is J. Did you did you. Could you. Would you? Now, the U is a function word, and function words, when they're not stressed, are reduced to a schwa. So it's not did you? But did you didja? So did you actually sounds like didja? When people speak didja. Then we move on to do. That's the primary stress. This is why it's in bold. Did you do the next word? Is is also a function word. So the vowel there actually reduces to a schwa. But when I connect the oo of the do and the schwa, I get another sound, and that is a W sound. Do what? Do wut. Again, notice I'm not saying do, eat, do what? That's what happens when you connect those two words together. So as you can see, what happens here is that we have two new sounds. Dj where did this D come from? And the W. What? Where did this come from? But when you connect it all together, this did you do it? It makes sense. And if you pronounce it that way, it would sound with more flow and more accurate. And of course it's going to be clearer. Did you do it? Let's look at the next one. So let's break it down. The first part is atta V ya fis. Now the stressed parts are atta ya atta. The office. Out of the office. Out of the office. Out of the office. Out of is reduced because it's less important. So out. This whole diphthong changes to just a. As in cat. The T is a flap T, so it sounds like a D. And then the of reduces to just out of. So of is a funny function word. Not only it reduces to the V part. And notice it's a V, not an F. The V part drops. If the next word is a consonant, that's a consonant. V. Okay, that's the word the. But when the word the appears before a vowel, it sounds like the add a V. The next word is office. We begin with an ah sound. So even though there is an O here, it is pronounced with an open ah. Office. Office. But here as well, when I connect the with ah, I get a new sound and that is a Y sound. Think about it. The office. The office. Out of the office. I'm going to be out of the office today. Out of the office. Here's the next one. Try to guess it and let's read it together. What do ya do? Wing. What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? What are you? What are you? What are the R reduces and connects to the what? But Then the T is a flap t and the R is sort of dropped. And then what you hear is what a. Interestingly enough, what are you? Sounds exactly like what do you. What are you? What are ya? What are you doing? What do you. What are ya? What do you want to drink? What are ya? What are ya? What do ya. And then again we have doing do. And then the ing at the end, when we connect those two vowels, we get the W sound. What are you doing? What are you doing? Here's the next one. I Dow dit. I Dow dit. I doubt it. I doubt it. So the first one is a diphthong, the first word I. Then we have doubt. Of course, there is no b here, so we don't pronounce it dow. The T becomes a flap t because it's between two vowels. Once I connect it to the next word. Doubt it. I doubt it. I doubt it. This is a little more challenging. So let's see if you can figure this one out. Now I'm going to read it slowly. Tsu Non. You. Joo Wool E Midge. Does that make more sense? It's an unusual image. It's an unusual image. It's an unusual image. It's N reduces. It reduces so much till you don't even pronounce the vowel before the S of the itself. And then you connect it to the that is reduced as well. Then we have unusual un. And then the. Now the S represents a sound which is not something that you usually associate the S with. This is why it was confusing, because you might have been looking for words with a jus. With a g or a j sound, tense u. And then when you move into the dark l at the end of the word unusual, it seems like you have an sound. And it also seems like you have a w sound. Yes, again, the w. It's an unusual. It's an unusual. It's an unusual and then image. The E at the beginning is the same as the at the end, even though they're both represented with two different letters, I and a. So again, sometimes when you see this, you're looking for a word with two I's, right? You're automatically looking for how you think this word should be spelled. And this is why you couldn't figure out what the underlying sentence is. It's an unusual image. And let's connect it. It's an unusual image. Try this one. Let's break it down. What's with the yeah. D Tude. What's with the attitude? What's with the attitude? What is with the attitude. Which is a way to say, what's wrong? Why do you have this attitude? What's with the attitude? What's with the attitude? So what is reduces to what's with the? You connect it with the with the. And then when you connect the with attitude, you get another y sound to help connect the vowels. The ya, that's the as in cat. The t is a flap t, and then it's a schwa, the ada. So it's not an I or what you would assume to have in this word because of the spelling. What's with the atta. And then tude. There is a w there because the oo is long and it feels as if you're adding a w. What's with the attitude? What's with the attitude? Okay, this is fun. I'm going to give you a moment to try and figure it out, and then we'll talk about it. So let's break it down. K Nai geta r seat. Can I get a receipt? Can I get a receipt? Can I get a receipt? Again, it clashes with how we perceive the words, because who here was looking for words with the word seat? Maybe s e e or S e A t with the word seat. But because there is a p in the spelling of the word, you probably didn't think that. That I was referring to the word receipt, so you were searching for other words. But if you just say it the way I just did, it makes all the sense in the world because that's how the word is pronounced. So let's look at it from the beginning. So the can is reduced. We connect words together. So the n of can becomes the beginning of the word I. Can I get a? We connect the two words together. The t becomes flat. Get a. Get a. And then the receipt is just a r sound. It's an r and a schwa R. And then see. Can I get a receipt? Can I get a receipt, please? Here's another long one. Try it. And now let's break it down together. Twa zuh pra f D bul cor der. Twas a profitable quarter. Twas a profitable quarter. It was a profitable quarter. It was a profitable quarter. I'll start with the end. The word quarter might have thrown you off as well, because you might be used to thinking of the word quarter as qua because of the spelling q and a U qua. However, the way you actually hear it pronounced is cor, like the core of my being. Cor der quarter. Quarter. So that's the end the beginning it was twas, twas. The it reduces completely twas, twas. Okay? Also, the A in was reduces twas. And then you add the twas, A twas, A. Then profitable. Most of the word is comprised of schwas, so there isn't a vowel there. Pra, although it's spelled with an o. It's the open ah sound. Okay, so you might have been looking for a word with a in your head, but it's actually an o. Pra fur t. Profitable. Profitable. I put an o between the b and the l. Profitable. Because of the dark l. The dark l kind of affects the vowel before, the schwa before, and it turns into. Okay, it was a profitable quarter. Okay, we have two more. Try this, And let's break it down together. Try TRA y, L B, D, V. TRA y L. Do B. The VI starts to make sense. Try a little bit of it. Try a little bit of it. Okay, so the ch, right? That was the confusing part, because you were looking for a word that starts with a th. But when there is a t and an r at the beginning of a word, it creates a new sound, and that is the ch, as in chicken. Try, Try. And then when you connect the I with the U, you get a y sound. Try Y little. The T is flat, so it sounds like a d little bit of another flap. T, bit of it. The V sound of the word of becomes the beginning of the next word, because that's what happens when you connect words together. Try a little bit of it. Try a little bit of it. And the last one is this. Lemme give you wa P Se V. Let me give you a piece of advice. Let me give you a piece of advice. Let me give you a piece of advice. Let me. Connects together and the T drops. So it just sounds like lemme give you. Give you. Stays the same. But then you connect it to give you W. Right? Again, that w. When you have an U sound that connects to a schwa or a front vowel, you get a W sound. Let me give you a piece of. We separate it differently. P, S, V. So the V becomes the beginning of the next word, P, S, V, and then weiss. And that's what happens when you connect words together. It's called resyllabification. You divide the phrase into syllables differently than how you would divide the separate words. Let me give you a piece of advice. And notice that I said a piece of advice and not an advice, because advice is an uncountable noun, so there isn't one Advice to advices but just advice. Or some advice or a piece of advice. Okay, that's it. Thank you so much for watching. Please let me know in the comments below if you like this video. And write a comment in front of phonetic writing. So say something out loud and then try to write it phonetically because that is a lot of fun and it makes you look at things differently. It's a really good practice. Also, as you remember, you can download the PDF with the phrases, the phonetic phrases and the sentences, and an audio recording of me reading those sentences slowly and then in normal speed. Thank you so much for watching. Have a beautiful week and I'll see you next week in the next video. Bye.