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Hey everyone, welcome back to Podcast and Chill. I'm Gwen, here to help you get better at English.

And I'm Leo. I'm here to make you feel less alone when Gwen talks about smart stuff. But before she jumps into teacher mode, let me show you this clip from Friends.

Oh, I love Friends. Go ahead.

Okay, look, look, look. Uh, if you're going to be moving in with him, I feel that it is my responsibility to tell you the truth about him, okay? He's a terrible roommate. Terrible. He uh forgets to um he always he always uh Oh, my kidney. He's the best roommate ever.

Oh, Joey, that's so hilarious yet so adorable of him. But why did you show us that?

So, yesterday I was watching Friends with my buddy. He replayed that scene like five times with the subtitles off trying to figure out what Joey was saying.

Did he ever figure it out?

Nope.

Let me guess. He's learning English.

Yep. I told him to just turn on the subtitles, but he was stubborn.

You know what? The problem isn't about the subtitles. It's about how native speakers talk.

What do you mean? There are a few hacks native English speakers do when they talk that English learners, especially the beginners, just don't get.

Like what?

Like connected speech, weak forms, and sound reduction.

Sounds interesting. Why don't we talk about them today?

Sure. Listeners, are you ready to get your mind blown by how easy it is to understand real life English?

And don't worry if you hear some new words. We will explain them later.

That's right. Let's get started.

So, Leo, let me ask you something. When you read English, is it clear?

Yep. As clear as day. The words are just right there on the page.

Right. But, you know, written English is actually pretty different from how we speak it.

Yeah. I mean, one's written down, the other's spoken. Isn't that kind of obvious?

I mean, the way it sounds. When native speakers talk, they usually glide through sounds instead of pronouncing every word clearly.

No way. Really?

Check out these clips.

Let me see what you got there.

Okay. Yeah, I got you. I got you. Oh.

Oh, you mean like when we say let me instead of let me gotcha instead of got you. Exactly. Or when we say going to instead of going to or kind of instead of kind of, that's what we call connected speech.

So, it's like we're linking the sounds between words.

Yep. When we talk fast and naturally, we don't pronounce every single sound. We blend them together or sometimes skip a sound completely.

I never even noticed I was doing that.

That's because native speakers pick it up automatically from a young age. But if you're learning English, you have to study it.

And why does this happen? Is my mouth on a strike or what?

I like to think of it as efficient. It cuts down on the work your mouth and tongue have to do, making speaking way easier and smoother for us.

Now that you mention it, I'm realizing connected speech is everywhere. I hear it all the time in movies like these examples.

What you doing?

What you doing?

What you going to do, Cooper?

See, it's super common. But if non-native speakers don't know about this connected speech thing, they will have a really tough time figuring out what people are actually saying.

So, when my buddy was trying to catch every single word perfectly, he was fighting a losing battle. Half the words aren't even there to catch in the first place.

I should totally text him right now to make him feel better. It's not really his fault that he couldn't understand friends.

Well, why don't you hold off on that text until we talk about how weak forms and the flap T also mess with how native speakers sound?

What's the deal with weak forms? Why are they called weak? Did they skip leg day or something?

Not exactly. In speaking, weak forms are just sounds that kind of disappear when we talk.

Like what?

Like two, you four. These words get so squished in fast speech, you barely hear them.

Hm. But why call them weak? What makes them weak?

Because they don't really carry meaning. They're not the star of the sentence.

Wait, if they don't mean anything, why do we even bother with them? Well, they help glue the sentence together. We call them grammatical words. The important ones, the ones with meaning, are called content words.

Gotcha. But why do we leave those grammatical words out?

Well, when they aren't the focus of meaning or emphasis, they tend to be unstressed and their vowel sounds reduced to a schwa.

It's a very short, neutral, and unstressed vowel sound.

So let's say if we remove to we have want to becomes wanna to like in these movies.

You want to drink whiskey?

Does anybody want a drink?

I want a drink.

You don't want to drink with me.

W to O like going to for going to.

You're getting it. And you we almost never say it clearly. How are you becomes how are you? Or even just how are you? And what you don't chalk gotcha right

Yes, and four is another sneaky one. What's it for becomes what's it for?

Oh, we have do you which is do you or did you as well?

Yeah, like in these examples.

Why do you think I left it here?

Can I ask you some questions? Do you mind?

You do.

I have.

This is wild. So these little words, they're like background music.

That's actually a perfect way to put it. They're soft and quiet, but they hold everything together.

So, if my friend is trying to listen for I want to go to the store, he's going to miss it.

For sure. In real life, we'd say, "I want to go to the store." You can't hear what's barely even there.

What blows my mind is, I've been using this stuff all along and never even noticed.

I know, but once a learner picks up on this rhythm of the background music, they'll never be able to unhear it.

Noted. Now, come on, spill the tea.

What tea?

The tea. You know, the flap tea thing you mentioned earlier.

Oh, please pardon my non-existent humor. I didn't prepare for your pun. So, anyway, the flap tea is an American thing.

I thought tea was more of a British thing. That's kind of ironic, right? But Americans own the flap tea.

So, tell me, what is this flap tea? For example, when someone says water, they're not actually saying water.