E007 Fluently Speaking

Welcome to English with Kimberley.

In this episode, I want to talk to you about what you will hear when walking around town in an English-speaking country like Australia.

Because you’ll hear words spoken not as individual words, but as a continuous sound in a ‘relaxed’ way.

For example, for greetings and goodbyes you might hear:

‘Howarya’ for ‘How are you’, or ‘Seeya’ for ‘See you’.

But first – here’s a quiz.

Which one of these is ‘Where do you have to go?’, said in relaxed way?

Is it…

a) Where do you have to go?

b) Wheretago?

c) Wherdyahafta go?

or d) Where you go?

Let’s repeat them again….

Are you ready? Which one of these is ‘Where do you have to go?’, said in relaxed speech…?

a) Where do you have to go?

b) Wheretago?

c) Wherdyahafta go?

or d) Where you go?

Well it’s ‘c’ – ‘Wherdyahafta go?’

Because: ‘wherdya’ equals ‘where do you’; ‘hafta’ equals ‘have to’; and ‘go’ is ‘go’. So, we get, ‘Wherdyahafta go?’

I bet you can tell a non-native speaker of your own language no matter how fluent they are, or how long they have lived or have been studying your language. This is because it is very difficult to lose your first language accent.

So, here’s some advice:

When you hear English speakers speaking try and listen out for the relaxed forms in their speech.

Remember this can’t really be learnt but only noticed and practised.

While you may never speak like a native you will, over time, sound more natural.

You will also be able to listen better.

So, finally, here’s a quick quiz just for fun.

Here is a relaxed Australian expression – ‘G’day’. What do you think it is?

Let’s listen again, ‘G’day’.

Well, it’s ‘good day’, which is an expression Australians use as a greeting.

You can find more information on Australian expressions and how to say them in a relaxed way by typing ‘e-phrase’ in your search engine and opening the first site that comes up on your screen.

You can also leave your feedback about this podcast on iTunes.

Plus, you’ll find a script of this podcast at www.goaustralia.biz

I hope you have enjoyed this podcast and you’ll join me again.