5 Hours of English Listening Practice | How To Speak Fast And Understand Natives!

in this English listening Master Class you're going to improve your listening skills of fast English you're going to complete listening test throughout this entire master class and if you can understand me you are definitely fluent in English welcome back to j4s English of course I'm Jennifer now let's get started here's how this master class will work you'll listen to a sentence three times and you need to write down what you hear after you'll learn the pronunciation changes that take place in fast English you'll learn the natural Expressions that natives love using and you'll learn Advanced

grammar to sound fluent are you ready remember I'll say it three times here we go she's Leaps and Bounds more qualified than him she's Leaps and Bounds more qualified than him she's Leaps and Bounds more qualified than him I said she's Leaps and Bounds more qualified than him notice the contraction she's this is she is the verb to be native speakers will always contract this she's she's let's talk about Leaps and Bounds notice how bounds the D is not pronounced bounds n bounce and here when we have and between two words you can reduce that

just to Leaps and Bounds leaps Leaps and Bounds Leaps and Bounds she's Leaps and Bounds more qualified than him notice how you don't hear the H on him then M then him but if we want to combine those sounds together and say it like one word then M then M then M let's talk about what this means she's more qualified than him you understand that when I add Leaps and Bounds Leaps and Bounds this is a modifier it makes more qualified stronger so it sounds like greatly more qualified a lot more qualified and it can

also mean quickly if that's the context but in this context it's a modifier that means greatly so you can say I've improved my English by leaps and bounds by Leaps and Bounds here notice how you have to include the word by I've improved my English and you want to modify that improve to make it sound stronger I've improved my English by Leaps and Bounds so write that in the comments if you feel like my lessons are helping you improve your English by by Leaps and Bounds Jennifer I've improved my English by Leaps and Bounds put

that in the comments it's Leaps and Bounds ahead of mine which you are just progressing by Leaps and Bounds Von has grown by Leaps and Bounds let's try this again I'll say it three times is the agenda set in stone is the agenda set in stone is the agenda set in stone I said is the agenda set in stone first let's talk about the agenda notice how I let have that long e sound the agenda because agenda starts with a vowel this is not a rule that native speakers always follow I could equally say the

agenda the agenda the agenda so if you hear both it's just not something a native speaker always does let's talk about set in stone notice we have a t between two vowels so we can pronounce that t as a soft d s s s so I take that sound and I connect it to the next word in and it sounds like d d d d s s s and stone and I'll say all three of those words together because they're an expression the expression is to be set in stone in our example the verb to

be is is it starts the sentence because the sentence is in question form is the agenda set in stone to be set in stone when something is set in stone in this case the agenda it's in a state date that is very difficult if not impossible to change so the agenda could be set in stone because all the speakers are confirmed you've booked the hotel room you've already paid for the hotel room people have already booked their ticket to come to the event so it's difficult if not impossible to change any as aspects of the

agenda it's set in stone we commonly use this expression in the negative to say our plans aren't set in stone if I say that to you it means that I can change my plans so perhaps I told you what my plans are and then you want to do something different I can say oh don't worry our plans aren't set in stone so it's saying I can change my plans my plan plans are flexible so you can use this both in the positive or the negative because nothing set and stone is that set in stone these

nicknames are they set in stone are you enjoying this lesson if you are then I want to tell you about the finally fluent Academy this is my premium training program where we study native English speakers from TV movies YouTube and the news so you can improve impr your listening skills of fast English expand your vocabulary with natural expressions and learn Advanced grammar easily plus you'll have me as your personal coach you can look in the description for the link to learn more or you can go to my website and click on finally fluent Academy now

let's continue with our lesson let's try this again I'll say it three times I was tossing and turning all night I was tossing and turning all night I was tossing and turning all night did you get this one I said I was tossing and turning all night we have and so remember same thing as before tossing in I can change that to but I have to connect it to the word before tossing and tossing and turning so I will say all three tossing and turning as one word tossing and turning tossing and turning tossing and

turning now commonly a native speaker will drop the G sound on tossing and just say n tossing tossing I personally don't do this but many native speakers do tossing tossing tossing but same thing you have that n Sound tossing and turnning tossing and turning or like I said tossing and turning tossing and turning the pronunciation is quite clear but if you don't know what this means you won't know how to communicate with a native speaker I was tossing and turning all night to toss and turn this is used to say you had a very restless

sleep and you were moving a lot that is the tossing and turning that's the movement you were moving a lot while you were sleeping so you had a Restless sleep if you were tossing and turning all night it means you had a Restless sleep so it means right now you're tired you could say sorry I'm yawning so much I tossed Austin turned all night and that means you had a terrible sleep so now you're tired that's what's got you tossing and turning he's always tossing and turning man then I spend all night tossing and turning

trying to figure out what I should have said are you ready for your next listening exercise I'll say it three times just give it a go and see just give it a go and see just give it a go and see did you get this one I said just give it a go and see let's talk about give it we can combine these together and I'm going to use a v sound give it vit vit give it give it so that's how I can say these two words as one give it and I'll do the

same thing with AO I'll just pronounce it as one word AO give it a go give it a go give it a go just give it a go and see what does this mean to give something a go simply means to try something so if I say just give it a go I'm saying just try it maybe your friend invited you to go dancing but you don't know how to dance I could say just give it a go now here the it is dancing so I could say just give dancing a go just give dancing

a go remember in the original example it was just give it a go and see here the C represents and see what happens see what happens when you try dancing maybe you are really good at it or maybe you're not very good at it but you had so much fun you don't even care that you weren't good at it so if you you send me a message and say Jennifer I'm not sure if I can give a presentation in English I'll say to you just give it a go so I want you to write in

the comments right now Jennifer I'll give it a go I'll give it a go put that in the comments Jennifer I'll give it a go I'll give it a go let's give it a go let's give it a go and see what the future brings let's try this one more time I'll say it three times s we have a lot riding on this pitch we have a lot riding on this pitch we have a lot riding on this pitch I said we have a lot riding on this pitch notice when I said the sentence fast

I did not contract we have I didn't say we've a lot we've a lot riding on this pitch I didn't say that I said we have we have a lot writing on this pitch that's because in American English we do not contract have when have is the main verb we only contract have when it's an auxiliary verb I could change this and say we've got we've got a lot writing on this pitch in this case have is the auxiliary verb got is the main verb so I can form that contraction we have we've we've got

we've got a lot writing on this pitch you're probably wondering what this means when you have a lot writing on something it means that something whatever the something is is extremely important to your success whatever success means to you now in this case the something is this pitch this pitch is extremely important to this person's overall success what does this pitch mean in the business World a pitch is a presentation but the purpose is to convince someone to do something or to buy something so it's extremely important that this pitch this presentation is successful and

it's extremely important for the person's overall success likely their Career Success to use a previous expression that you learned I was tossing and turning all night thinking about this pitch my career is riding on it everything is riding on it this is it folks everything is riding on this pitch so much rides on this now let's Let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice this pronunciation so I'm going to say each sentence again but I want you to say the sentence out loud and then we'll repeat that three times so let's do that now

she's Leaps and Bounds more qualified than him she's Leaps and Bounds more qualified than him she's Leaps and Bounds more qual qualify than him is the agenda set in stone is the agenda set in stone is the agenda set in stone I was tossing and turning all night I was tossing and turning all night I was tossing and turning all night just give it a go and see just give it a go and see just give it a go and see we have a lot riding on this pitch we have a lot riding on this

pitch we have a lot riding on this pitch amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times my mom nitpicks like crazy my mom nitpicks like crazy my mom nitpicks like crazy did you get this one I said my mom nitpicks like crazy the pronunciation is clear but if you don't know what the vocabulary means you're not going to understand what that native speaker said here our verb is to nitpick to nitpick what does this mean this is when you find faults faults are things that you don't like or criticisms when you find faults

in details that are not important I'm sure you know someone in your life who nitpicks or maybe you nitpick yourself let's say you're with someone and you go out for dinner and the food is great the restaurant is beautiful the server is very friendly but your friend finds faults in details that are not important your friend nitpicks you could say the dinner was amazing but of course Lindsay wasn't happy about the color of the plates or the art on the walls Lindsay is a nitpicker so your friend wasn't happy about the color of the plates

that is such a detail that is not important so this is a perfect example of someone who nitpicks but notice in my example I said Lindsay is a nitpicker a nitpicker this is the noun form and a nitpicker is simply someone who nitpicks the original example was my mom nitpicks like crazy here like crazy this simply means a lot or quickly but in this context it means a lot so my mom nitpicks like crazy my mom nitpicks a lot you could also say I worked like crazy all weekend so you worked a lot all weekend

let's try this again I'll say it three times it's okay to be picky sometimes it's okay to be picky sometimes it's okay to be picky sometimes did you get this one I said it's okay to be picky sometimes for pronunciation notice I use the contraction it's it's this is the contraction of it is it's okay it's okay to be but I didn't say it's okay to be picky I said to be to be so an unstressed two it's okay to be to be to be picky it's okay to be picky now don't confuse this expression

to be picky with our last expression to nitpick yes they both use the word pick but they are totally different Expressions this expression to be picky this describes someone who has very strong preferences about what they like and don't like for example most young kids are picky I don't know about you but when I was a young kid 5 years old 10 years old there were many food items that I did not eat my diet was very simple I had a small number of things that I liked to eat and I had a very large

number of things that I did not like to eat so as a child I was picky when it came to food when it came to eating what about you were you a picky eater were you picky about your food when you were a child or maybe you still are right now some adults are picky as well in our original example I said it's okay to be picky sometimes it's okay that means it is acceptable it's acceptable to be picky to have those strong preferences about what you like and don't like sometimes for example it's okay

to be picky when it comes to a job choosing a job you should have very strong preferences about what you want that job to have the qualities of that job and that's okay choosing a job choosing a house you should definitely be picky have very strong preferences and choosing a spouse maybe that's the ultimate one you should be very picky when you choose a spouse because you're with that person for your entire life let's try this again I'll say it three times I'm B let's call it a day I'm B let's call it a day

I'm B let's call it a day did you get this one I said I'm beat let's call it a day let's talk about the contraction at the beginning I'm of course this is I am I'm I'm beat I'm beat I'm beat let's call it but with linking we're going to combine those sounds so it sounds like call it callit so callit but then we have to say it as one word call it call it call it a day call it a day call it a day I'm be let's call it a day to be beat

I'm beat this means to be very tired to be exhausted so instead of saying I'm very tired you can say I'm beat I'm beat where beat the verb to be now let's talk about the expression let's call it a day to call it a day this is an expression used to say that you're going to stop working for the day and you stop working for the day because you've completed enough work you've done what you've needed to do or simply because everyone is exhausted everyone is beat and it isn't productive anymore to keep working so

maybe it's 3:00 and technically the day ends at 5:00 but everyone is so tired everyone is beat that they're just not thinking clearly anymore so you might say let's call it a day let's just stop working for today and we'll get a good night's sleep we'll come back tomorrow and begin again you could combine this with our expression like crazy which means a lot and you could say we've been working like crazy all week let's call it a day so again maybe it's Friday at 2:00 and technically you're supposed to work until 5: but because

you've been working like crazy all week let's just call it a day and stop working now are you ready for another listening exercise I'll say it three times you shouldn't be so nosy you shouldn't be so nosy you shouldn't be so nosy did you get this one I said you shouldn't be so nosy here notice I said shouldn't shouldn't you shouldn't be this is a contraction of should not shouldn't you shouldn't be you shouldn't be you shouldn't be so nosy what does this mean to be nosy to be nosy this is used to say that

your interested in what other people are doing or saying when you have no right to be interested in that you have no right to know what other people are saying or doing because it doesn't involve you a lot of people are nosy when it comes to their significant others cell phone they want to know what their significant other is looking at online who they're talking to who they're texting with but ultimately you have no right to that knowledge because that's your significant others personal privacy so if your significant other leaves their phone and goes to

the bathroom or goes to another room and you pick up the phone and you try to look at it without them knowing you are being nosy and that's when someone can say you shouldn't be so nosy let's try this one more time I'll say it three times being nosy is one of my pet peeves being nosy is one of my pet peeves being nosy is one of my pet peev did you get this one I said being no is one of my pet peeves and now you know what nosy means so I don't have to

explain that being nosy notice how this is a jiren statement a sentence that starts with a jiren verb a verb in ing being nosy jiren statements are used to make General statements so in general being nosy is one of my pet peeves what is a pet peeve a pet peeve is something that especially annoys you so there are many things that annoy you but a pet peeve is when whenever that one thing happens it really annoys you so I googled this and according to Google the top three pet peeves things that especially annoy people the

top three pet peeves are loud chew so if your coworker is or your kids your husband or wife loud chewing is that one of your pet peeves number two according to Google is Bad Manners so if you have Bad Manners it means you're not polite so if someone holds the door open for you in North America it's considered polite to say thank you to that person so if you hold a door open for someone and the other person they go right in and they don't say thank you to you that would be an example of

Bad Manners in North America and the person who held the door open would be annoyed because that's one of their pet peev and number number three according to Google is clutter clutter describes when a room is very disorganized or messy so if there were things all over my office papers everywhere things were not neat and organized that would be clutter what about you what's your pet peep share your pet peeve in the comments below now let's do an imitation exercise where you're going to imitate my pronunciation so you're going to listen to me say the

sentence and then you are going to repeat the sentence out loud so say the sentence out loud and try to match my pronunciation and then you'll repeat that three times for each sentence so let's do that right now my mom nitpicks like crazy my mom picks like crazy my mom nitpicks like crazy it's okay to be picky sometimes it's okay to be picky sometimes it's okay to be picky sometimes I'm beat let's call it a day I'm beat let's call it a day I'm beat let's call it a day you shouldn't be so nosy you

shouldn't be so nosy you shouldn't be so nosy being nosy is one of my pet peeves being nosy is one of my pet peeves being nosy is one of my pet peeves amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times we should have had a backup plan we should have had a backup plan we should have had a backup plan I said we should have had a backup plan let's talk about the pronunciation notice I said we should have we should have had should have native speakers we combine this to sound like Shoulda Shoulda

notice that L is silent should have should have we should have we should have had should have had we should have had a backup plan let's take a look at the linking between back up this is how native speakers combine sounds so two separate words will sound like one word ba cup ba cup so we take the sound from back the last sound and we transfer it to the next sound up back cup but you have to combine those sounds together so it sounds like one word backup Backup backup plan backup plan we should have

had a backup plan now what is a backup plan a backup plan is an alternative plan that you can use news if your original plan fails let's say you're going to present at a conference or a meeting so you bring your computer and your presentation is on the computer that's your original plan that's plan a but it's always smart to have a backup plan this could be your backup plan you can put your presentation on a USB a memory stick so if there's any issues with your computer you have a plan B a backup plan

and then you can say my computer wouldn't connect to their equipment but thankfully I had my presentation on a USB thankfully I had a backup plan let's try this again I'll say it three times her comment really pissed me off her comment really pissed me off her comment really pissed me off I said her comment really pissed me off let's look at the pronunciation of pissed because here this is an ed a past simple verb but the sound of that Ed is a very soft T pissed pissed now when we say this in a sentence

and there are words that come after you almost don't hear that t so you can't really distinguish that it's in the past simple it's the context of the sentence that will make it obvious that it is the past her comment really pissed me off now what does this mean to piss someone off this means to make someone really angry now note that this is an informal expression and it can also be considered impolite it would be considered impolite if your name is Mark and I said Mark you're really pissing me off that would be impolite

but native speakers commonly use this to complain about people so I could be talking to my husband or my best friend and say Mark really pissed me off today in that context it's not impolite but it would be impolite to look directly at someone and say you really piss me off so don't do that now we also use this in the structure to be pissed off the pronunciation is the same pissed off to be pissed off this is simply to be really angry for example I was so pissed off when I came home to a

completely dirty house even though my kids promis to clean up after the party do you want to do another listening exercise I'll say it three times take what she says with a grain of salt take what she says with a grain of salt take what she says with a grain of salt I said take what she said says with a grain of salt here the pronunciation is clear but if you don't know what this idiom means then you won't understand it so the idiom is to take something with a grain of salt we use this

to say that you shouldn't believe everything someone tells you because it might not be true so let's say your friend tells you that oh Gina says she'll help me move this weekend but from your experience Gina likes to make a lot of promises but she doesn't always follow up with those promises she doesn't always fulfill those promises then you might say take what she says with a grain of salt you're letting your friend know that Gina might not actually do what she says and let's focus on the grammar here what do you notice about this

sentence take what she says with a grain of salt what verb tense is this in we're using the imperative take is in the imperative because the sentence begins with a base verb there's no subject here that's how you can identify the imperative and the imperative is used to give instructions orders or suggestions so I'm suggesting that my friend take what she says with a grain of salt your next listening exercise I'll say it three times it's high time we let her go it's high time we let her go it's high time we let her go

I said it's high time we let her go for pronunciation let's talk about Let Her Go Let Her Go here notice how her sounds like er you don't hear the AG but I also attach it to the word before so I link those sounds together letter letter letter let go let go it's high time we let her go let's look at the expression it's high time when you say it's high time that something should happen you're saying that something should happen now and not later and when you use this expression you also suggest that it

should have already happened so we should have we should have already let her go but we didn't so we should do it now because it's high time we let her go coming back to our example it's high time you let her go now to let someone go this is an alternative way of saying to fire someone when you fire someone they permanently stop working for the company so when you let someone go they permanently stop working for the company it's high time we let her go remember you're suggesting you should have let her go a

while ago so now you better do it let's do one last listening exercise I'll say it three times he looked a little frazzled he looked a little frazzled he looked a little frazzled I said he looked a little little frazzled let's talk about pronunciation A little little native speakers we don't pronounce T's between two vowels it will be either a very soft D Little D D Little D or you just won't hear it l little a little a little and notice the a is connected to it a little a little a little he looked a

little frazzled frazzled here it's a past simple Ed verb but the pronunciation is a very soft D and you almost don't hear it frazzled very soft frazzled frazzled to be frazzled or to look frazzled this is when you are or look very tired but you also look very worried or anxious so I might look frazzled if you see me and normally my hair is nice and in a nice position but you see me and my hair is crazy I have makeup a little bit under my eyes maybe my shirt is a little messy as well

and visibly you can see that I might look frazzled and then obviously I'll look very tired and maybe like very worried and anxious so you might see it visibly in my appearance and you can see it on my facial expression as well so if you see a coworker that looks frazzled you might say are you okay you look a little frazzled amazing job improving your listening skills of fast English now let's improve your pronunciation Let's do an imitation exercise I'm going to say each sentence again but I'm going to pause and then I want you

to repeat the sentence out loud and try to follow my pronunciation exactly so try to imitate my pronunciation and I'll say each sentence three times so I want you to repeat it out loud three times we should have had a backup plan we should have had a backup plan we should have had a backup plan her comment really pissed me off her comment really pissed me off her comment really pissed me off take what she says with the grain of salt take what she says with the grain of salt take what she says with the

grain of salt it's high time we let her go it's high time we let her go it's high time we let her go he looked a little frazzled he looked a little frazzled he looked a little frazzled amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times I can't believe she sprung that on me I can't believe she sprung that on me I can't believe she sprung that on me I said I can't believe she sprung that on me for this listening exercise I don't think the pronunciation is difficult to understand but you have to

know this expression and understand what this expression means so the expression I used is to Spring something on someone I can't believe she sprung sprung is the past simple of the verb spring to Spring sprung she sprung that that is the something on me when you spring something on someone you suddenly ask or tell someone something that they weren't expecting so let's say there is a presentation taking place 1 hour from right now and my coworker was supposed to do this presentation but just now one hour before the presentation my boss says oh by the

way Jennifer I want you to do the presentation in one hour and I'm not prepared for this at all I wasn't expecting it then I can say I can't believe she sprung that on me and that represents that I have to give the presentation in one hour our next listening test I'll say it three times it's supposed to rain on and off today it's supposed to rain on and off today it's supposed to rain on and off today I said it's supposed to rain on and off today first let's talk about pronunciation here we have

a contra action it's it's it's supposed to it's as a contraction represents it is it's it's supposed to now notice here supposed to suppose is spelled with an ed it's an ed verb but you don't hear it at all it's supposed to supposed to supposed to but it's always spelled with an ed verb when the expression is to be supposed to now many students forget the verb to be in this expression don't forget the verb to be it's grammatically incorrect it's it is supposed to I was supposed to she is supposed to we are supposed

to don't forget that verb to be and conjugate your verb to be it's supposed to rain on and off on and off notice here the and you don't hear it at all it sounds just like a n on off ONN off on off and then you combine that together on and off on and off it's supposed to rain on and off off today when something happens on and off it means it only happens some of the time of a total time so in our expression the total time is today but if I say it's supposed

to rain on and off today I know that it is not going to rain the total time but it is going to rain some of the time and I don't know when it's going to rain so it might rain for 1 hour stop for 3 hours rain for 2 hours stop for 1 hour rain for 2 hours and then stop again that would be on and off we commonly use this expression with rain because rain frequently happens on and off it doesn't happen for the total time of a Time in line but we can also

use this expression for other activities as well for example I worked as a waitress on and off when I was a student so I have the total time I was a student four years and I worked as a waitress but if I say on and off it means that I did not work as a waitress the entire time I was a student so four years perhaps I worked for 4 months during the summer and then I didn't work I focused on school and then maybe I worked for two months and then I stopped I worked

again for six months and then I stopped I worked as a waitress on and off our next listening test I'll say it three times I got the gist of it I got the gist of it I got the gist of it I said I got the gist of it here let's talk about how gist of it the sounds are combined the sounds are linked together and this sounds like just St it so I take the last sound on a word and I transfer it to the next sound sound to help me combine the sounds together

gist of it gist of it gist of it I got the gist of it what does this mean well the gist of something is the main idea of something so if you say I got the gist of it here the verb get means under understand I understand or in the past I understood the main idea of it but when you say I get the gist of it or I got the gist of it you're letting the person know that you understand the main idea but you don't necessarily understand all the smaller details or all the

details you just understand the main idea for example her lecture was complicated but I got the gist of it so perhaps you're learning something new and for you it's complicated for me something complicated would be to do with math or science so if I went to a physics lecture or a quantum mechanics lecture maybe I understand the overall idea of the lecture but I don't really understand all the small details I just have an overall understanding of the main idea I got the gist of it are you ready for your next listening exercise I'll say

it three times just a heads up that I'm running late just a heads up that I'm running late just a heads up that I'm running late I said said just a heads up that I'm running late for pronunciation let's talk about heads up how it combines and links together heads up heads up so notice that s on heads when I combine it with my vowel sound in up I use a zz to combine that together and it sounds like one word heads up heads up heads up just a heads up that I'm running late when

you give someone a heads up so the expression just a heads up this is used to give someone advanced warning of something so I'm letting the person know in advance that I'm going to be late and you use the Expression heads up to identify that you're giving a warning and the expression to run late this is what native speakers use when we're late so to be late we're going to be late you can use run late and we commonly use this in the present continuous I'm running late right now I'm running late which means I

am late and therefore I'm going to be late for my next appointment which is likely with you and that's why I'm giving you a heads up a native speaker would commonly send a quick text message to a coworker or their boss and say heads up running late stuck in traffic so I say heads up letting you know it's advanced warning running late this is just the essential information running late and then stuck in traffic that's the reason why I'm running late and now you know I'm not going to be at our scheduled meeting because I'm

running late are you ready for your last listening exercise I'll say it three times here's my quick take on it here's my quick take on it here's my quick take on it I said here's my quick take on it let's talk about how the sounds combine for the three words take on it and it sounds like one word take on it take con it but you have to combine those sounds together take on it take on it it so that's how we transfer sounds we link The Sounds together so three individual words can sound like

one word take on it here's my quick take on it now one's take on something my take on it this is simply one's opinion or idea on something specific this is commonly used to ask someone's opinion when you're discussing something specific for example what's your take on the company's decision to pay for language classes so let's say your company decided to pay for your language classes that's amazing right so that's the it what's your take on it the it is the company's decision to pay for language class classes what's your take on it I'm asking

you what's your opinion on this initiative to answer you can simply State your opinion I think it's an amazing idea so now I want you to practice practice practice pronunciation so you can really get comfortable with moving your mouth and producing these sounds at a faster pace so let's do an imitation exercise I am going to say each sentence again three times and I want you to repeat it out loud and try to get your pronunciation as close to mine as possible I can't believe she sprung that on me I can't believe she sprung that

on me I can't believe she sprung that on me it's supposed to rain on and off today it's supposed to rain on and off today it's supposed to rain on and off today I got the gist a it I got the gist a it I got the gist a it just a heads up that I'm running late just a heads up that I'm running late just a heads up that I'm running late here's my quick take on it here's my quick take on it here's my quick take on it amazing job let's keep going I'll

say it three times that's out of our budget that's out of our budget that's out of our budget did you get this one I said that's out of our budget let's talk about the pronunciation changes notice that this is a contraction of that is that's now we have out of we can combine these two sounds together and it will sound like outa outa that's outa our budget r are notice the word is our because it's a possessive our budget the budget belongs to us but I pronounce it just as a very unstressed r r our

budget our budget but based on the context it's obvious that it's not the verb to be R and it is in fact our the possessive that's out of our budget do you know what this means the expression to be the verb to be that is to be out of one's budget so we need a possessive here one's budget that's another way of simply saying that something is too expensive the cost exceeds what you're either willing to pay or what you're able to pay now of course you have a budget for your household and you can

often use the Expression oh sorry that's of our budget to say that you're not willing or able to pay for that item but there's a budget in the workplace for example as well so let's say you wanted a standing desk so a standing desk is a desk that you're able to raise so you can work at it standing up because it's more comfortable and it's better for you so you ask your boss can you buy me a standing desk but your boss says no and he might say oh sorry that's out of our budget so

this doesn't necessarily mean the company doesn't have the money to buy you a standing desk but they're un willing to buy you a standing desk they don't want to spend the money so remember it can be unable because you don't have the money or unwilling you have the money but you don't want to spend it on that specific item sorry that's out of our budget I found one for sale but it's out of my budget do you see a budget I don't see a budget let's try this again with another listening exercise I'll say it

three times money is No Object money is No Object money's No Object this one was easy right I said money is No Object notice at the beginning here monies money is this is a contraction monies money's No Object now it's important that you hear these contractions because they're necessary for grammar because the expression is to be no object money is no object if you don't hear that contraction then the sentence won't make sense grammatically this is an expression that means the opposite of what we just just learn if you say money is No Object it

means that the cost of something is not a concern or a limitation so basically you're saying I'm willing to pay any price for this specific item it's common to use this in specific situations maybe it's your husband or your wife your best friend your mother's birthday and it's a very special birthday so on this specific occasion for planning that special someone's birthday money's No Object so you might say can you recommend somewhere special for my husband's birthday now when someone recommends something of course they're going to think about the price so you can tell the

person and money is No Object so they know that they can recommend the most EXP expensive restaurant and you're comfortable with that in this specific situation or maybe in our last example you asked your boss to buy you a standing desk and he said okay sure we'll buy you a standing desk so you can go into the store and you can say my boss is paying for this desk so money's No Object money's No Object as you probably know sure money's no object okay I told you money's No Object let's try this again with another

listening exercise I'll say it three times I'm beyond livid I'm beyond livid I'm beyond livid I said I'm beyond livid for pronunciation just notice that contraction I am I'm I'm beyond livid what does livid mean well it's an ad itive that means extremely angry I'm livid now when we add Beyond this is an intensifier so extremely angry livid is already very intense but if you add Beyond livid it makes it 10 times stronger I'm extremely extremely angry I'm beyond liid just remember to conjugate that verb to be so if you're speaking about a past emotion

you could say I was beyond livid when my boss denied my desk reimbursement so here a desk reimbursement is when you pay for something and if you're reimbursed it means someone gives you that money after usually your company but in this case your boss denied your desk reimbursement even though in the last example you bought the most expensive desk because remember Money Was No Object but now you have to pay for that very expensive desk so that's why you were Beyond livid you can use Beyond to intensify any emotion any adjective she was beyond happy

when she passed her eye outs I'm beyond awful I'm beyond scared that is beyond exciting let's try this one more time I'll say it three times her comments been gnawing at me her comment's been gnawing at me her comments been gnawing at me I said her comment has been gnawing at me in spoken English it's very common to take that auxiliary verb has and form a contraction with the subject this is more informal but it happens most of the time by native speakers in spoken English her comments been her comments been gnawing at me so

you have to hear that auxiliary verb in the contraction but the sentence structure tells you that the contraction is there because grammatically it's required now in written English it would be more common and proper to say her comment has been gnawing at me but even if I were to see that in written form if I were to read it out loud I would just automatically form that contraction in spoken English notice that pronunciation for gwing that g is silent na na her comments been gwing at me what does this mean the expression is to naw

at someone when something gnaws at someone it means that something really irritates or bothers that person that something really preoccupies your thoughts which means you keep thinking about it you can't get it out of your head so maybe you were telling your coworker how you bought the most expensive desk because Money Was No Object or so you thought but then your boss denied your desk reimbursement and you were Beyond livid you were telling this whole story to your Co coworker and instead of sympathy your cooworker said I told you not to buy the most expensive

desk and that comment what your co-worker said has been gnawing at you which means you keep thinking about it it keeps bothering you and irritating you you can't get it out of your mind even though it happened hours ago days ago or weeks ago it's been gnawing at you something was still gnawing at me it's secretly gnawing away at you like no no why why didn't he now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice your pronunciation and imitate how a native speaker would say each sentence I'll say each sentence again three times and

I want you to repeat that sentence out allow to practice your pronunciation that's out of our budget that's out of our budget that's out of our budget money's No Object money's No Object money is No Object I'm beyond livid I'm beyond livid I'm beyond livid her comments been gnawing at me her comments been gnawing at me her comments been gnawing at me amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times looks like we're back to square one looks like we're back to square one looks like we're back to square one I said looks like

we're back 2 square one did you get that one let's talk about the pronunciation changes notice the contraction were were this is we are as a contraction were now notice how unstressed my pronunciation is it sounds like were not we're were this is how native speakers say it at a natural pace we're back we're back we're back we're back to this sounds like T in real English T we're back to we're back to square one we're back to square one now what does this mean to be back to square one well square one on a

board game is is the beginning of a board game so when you're back to square one it means you're back to the beginning and you're back to the beginning the start because you tried something and it didn't work so you had a failed attempt and you have to try again looks like we're back to square one it looks like we have to start again from the beginning because our first attempt failed our next listening exercise I'll say it three times I don't know if we can trust her she's pretty wishy-washy I don't know if we

can trust her she's pretty wishy-washy I don't know if we can trust her she's pretty wishy-washy I said I don't know if we can trust her she's pretty wishy washy first let's talk about don't know at a natural pace this sounds like don't know I don't know I don't know don't know I don't know I don't know if we can notice here we can trust when can is the auxiliary verb so it's not the main verb we reduce this to Kin Kin and it's very unstressed sound I don't know if we can if we can

trust if we can trust and notice you hear trust more because it's the main verb and can which sounds like kin is very short can can trust can trust I don't know if we can trust her now here we can get rid of that H sound and it just sounds like er trust her but then you combine it to the word before truster truster trust her I don't know if we can trust her she's this is a contraction for she is she's pretty wishy-washy what does wishy-washy mean to be wishy-washy this is when you have

no clear or consistent ideas or decisions we generally use this as an adjective to describe someone who changes their mind changes the decision that they make frequently so that's why you don't know if you can trust her because she says she's going to come to your party or help you move but because she's wishy-washy tomorrow she might change her mind and say oh actually I'm not coming to the party or I'm not going to help you move but then maybe the next day she changes her mind again and she does come to your party she's

wishy-washy I don't know if I can trust her she's pretty wishy-washy our next listening exercise I'll say it three times you got to give him props he's a real trooper you got to give him props he's a real trooper you got to give him props he's a real trooper I said you got to give him props he's a real trooper you got to got to sounds like got to you got to you got to give him same thing we saw with her get rid of the H and it will sound like M but you can

combine it to the word before give them give them give them you got to give them props he's this is a contraction he is he's a real trooper now what does this mean to give someone prompts this is when you give someone respect credit or recognition so let's say a coworker of yours gets a really big client well if you want to give your coworker credit or recognition you could say oh we got to give him props and then you can celebrate his big achievement let's talk about he's a real trooper when you describe someone

as a trooper to be a trooper this is someone who perseveres through hardship or difficulty so they persevere they keep going they don't give up they don't quit they persevere and this is why you got to give him props because he didn't quit even though it was difficult because because he's a real trooper our next listening exercise I'll say it three times our successes and failures were RIT large our successes and failures were writ large our successes and failures were writ large I said our successes and failures were writ large notice hour I did not

pronounce this as hour I said r r a very reduced sound R our successes our successes are successes and failures here and when and comes between two nouns or even two verbs we reduce it to n our successes n successes and failures coffee and tea successes and failures our successes and failures were writ did you spell this starting with a r or with a W the W is silent just like in the word write the W is silent but in spelling it's there in pronunciation it isn't writ large what does writ large mean this is

an adjective that simply means to be very obvious so our successes and failures were were very obvious why is that perhaps we work for a public company and when we fail the general public knows we failed but also when we succeed the general public knows we succeeded because our successes and failures are right large they're very obvious are you ready for your last listening exercise I'll say it three times with with a few twins it'll be good to go with a few twins it'll be good to go with a few tweaks it'll be good to

go I said with a few tweaks it'll be good to go did you hear that contraction it it will sounds like it itle it's a very soft sound it's easy to miss that will it'll it'll it'll be it'll be but without it the sentence wouldn't be grammatically correct if I said it be that isn't correct it will be it'll be it'll it'll it'll be good to go just like we saw before to is a reduced sound an unstress sound T good to go to to go to go good to go good to go what does

this mean with a few twinks twinks are changes small changes so let's say you're writing a report and your boss or coworker wants you to remove this section and add this information that would be a tweak a tweak you need to make a small change a tweak with a few tweaks with a few changes it'll be good to go when something is good to go good to go it means it's ready and we use this in two contexts ready to leave or ready to start doing something so let's say you and your friend are going

to the movies your friend could text you and say good to go are you ready to leave and in this case it could be are you ready to leave your house to meet me at the movies good to go good to go we use this a lot as native speakers in this context it'll it'll be good to go something can also be good to go in the context of it's ready to start doing something for example the new website will be good to go on Monday which means means the new website will be ready ready

to start doing something ready to start receiving visitors ready to be available to the public the new website will be good to go on Monday now the new website as a subject is it so if you already know you're talking about the website you can say it'll it'll be good to go now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice these natural pronunciation changes and practice these new Expressions I'll say each sentence again three times in a row and I want you to imitate my pronunciation try to say it just like me get all

those pronunciation changes and I want you to say this out loud so you can do this as many times as you like to practice looks like we're back to square one looks like we're back to square one looks like we're back to square one I don't know if we can trust her she's pretty wishy-washy I don't know if we can trust her she's pretty wishy-washy I don't know if we can trust her she's pretty wishy-washy you got to give him prompts he's a real trooper you got to give him prompts he's a real trooper you

got to give him prompts he's a real trooper our successes and failures were RIT large our successes and failures were RIT large our successes and fail failur were RIT large with a few tweaks it'll be good to go with a few twins it'll be good to go with a few twins it'll be good to go amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times they've been bickering all day they've been bickering all day they've been bickering all day did you get this one I said they've been bickering all day let's talk about the pronunciation

changes notice I have they' this is a contraction they have they' theyve they' native speakers use contractions in spoken English Almost 100% of the time so you need to be very very comfortable hearing the contraction because it affects the grammar of the sentence you need to have they have been bickering because that shows the grammar and the grammar is the present perfect continuous so if you didn't have that it would be grammatically incorrect they've been bickering all day now notice I said bin bin a very unstressed bin this is how we pronounce the past participle

of the verb be bin in American English I don't speak British English but I believe believe in British English they pronounce it more stressed being but in American English we don't do that we just say B been they've been they've been bickering all day now to understand fast English outside of the classroom you need to hear the individual words but you also have to understand the meaning of the words so let's talk about the verb to bicker this is when you argue about things that are not important the concept of bickering is extremely common and

everyone does it and we usually do it with people we spend the most time with our family our spouses husbands and wives boyfriends girlfriends our close friends our co-workers that we spend a lot of time with anytime you spend a lot of time with someone it's common that you'll bicker but it's different from fighting because when you're fighting with someone usually there's a strong emotion involved but when you bicker you don't really have that emotion it's less serious because the things you're arguing about fighting about are not actually important like I said this can be

very common in the workplace when you spend a lot of time with your co-workers so maybe you're in a meeting and you've been discussing an issue for hours with your co-workers but people start bickering they start arguing about things that aren't important you could say we didn't get anything done today because we bickered all meeting we are we bicker yeah we bicker either yeah well we were bickering because they were bickering Mark your kids are bickering let's try this again with another listening exercise I'll say it three times that Street's pretty sketchy that streets pretty

sketchy that streets pretty sketchy how' you do with this one I said that streets pretty sketchy did you hear that streets the S well that is the verb to be in a contraction form the street is the streets the streets pretty sketchy again it's extremely important that you hear these contractions for grammar because we need the verb to be grammatically the sentence would sound very awkward if you didn't have it because it would be grammatically incorrect that streets pretty sketchy skety skety sketchy sketchy let's talk about to be sketchy that street is our verb to

be to be sketchy this is used to say that something is not completely safe so by saying that Street's pretty sketchy I'm seeing that street doesn't look completely safe I don't think that street is safe so I'm saying we shouldn't go down that street we should avoid that street now why would I say this street is sketchy this is an adjective that native speakers use a lot if I say streets sketchy it's most likely because it's dark or lacks lighting there aren't a lot of people around there's broken glass or broken windows or there are

a lot of abandoned buildings on that street it could be all of those reasons or it could be just one of those reasons reasons for me to say that street doesn't look safe that Street's pretty sketchy I could say let's take another Street this one looks sketchy so I can also use the verb look look sketchy but I have to conjugate it this street looks sketchy or let's say your friend or your husband or your wife came to you and said hey I heard this amazing business proposal today all we need to do is invest

$1,000 and we're guaranteed $100,000 and you could say that sounds sketchy so notice here the verb is to sound sketchy and you're saying the idea the plan the business proposal doesn't sound completely safe we also use this to describe people he's a sketchy guy or he's sketchy she's sketchy in this case you're saying the person isn't safe which means you can't trust the person so with people it's a way of saying I don't think I can trust him she's sketchy he's sketchy seems a little sketchy you're kind of sketchy laundry to some sketchy laundromat let's

try another listening exercise I'll say it three times you must have seen it you must must have seen it you must have seen it did you get this one you must have seen it but notice I didn't actually say have I reduced that entirely to just uh you must uh you must uh I could also reduce it to more of an of sound which is very commonly done by native speakers you you must have you must have you must have seen it notice for seen it I use that n that n Sound to connect the

two words together seen it seen it seen it so you hear a n in front of it it sounds like knit but if you say those two words together it Blends together seen it seen it you must have seen it now let's talk about the grammar of this must is a modal verb and grammatically you need must plus base verb which is the verb without two so grammatically you need must have in written English you must use must have seen it cuz that's grammatically correct but in spoken English it will sound like must a or

must of but in written English if you wrote you must a or of it would be incorrect grammatically so just remember what I'm explaining is for spoken English you must have seen it 200 times you must have seen it too close you must have seen them here let's try this one more time I'll say it three times what's the ETA what's the ETA what's the ETA I said what's the ETA of course we have what that's a contraction of what is what's what's the now because ETA it begins with a vowel sound E I could

say either the or the cuz we do a more stressed the when the next word starts in a vowel but this isn't a rule that native speakers follow all the time but if I did a more stressed e in the it would really blend together with EA the TA and it would almost sound like it's just one word the TA because I wouldn't really repeat the E on E TAA the TA I believe in my example when I did the listening test I think the first time time I did it more of the ETA and

the second time I did it more of the ETA and the sounds Blended together let's listen to that again and see what I did what's the ETA what's the ETA what's the ETA now ultimately either way that you pronounce it the ETA or the ETA is fine now you're probably wondering well was ETA this stands for estimated time of arrival so your ETA the ETA or someone something's ETA is the estimated time of arrival for that someone or something when it's expected to arrive so let's say we're talking about a project and your boss wants

to know when this project will arrive in his inbox or on his desk he could say what's the ETA and he could just say the if it's obvious you're talking about the project he could say what's your ETA because you're the one submitting the project or he could say what's the Project's ETA so the ETA belongs to the project so you need that possessive what's the Project's ETA and they all have the same meaning we commonly use this with friends or co-workers family members to let them know when we're going to arrive so let's say

you were supposed to be at your family's house at 7:00 for dinner but you're running late you could send them a text message and say running late Google says my ETA is 642 or 50 15 minutes now Google says because when you put something in a GPS Google will tell you or whatever you use Google will tell you when you're expected to arrive that's your ETA what's their ETA at okay ETA ETA 11 minutes now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice your pronunciation as well so I'm going to say each sentence again

and then I want you to repeat the sentence out loud and try to imitate my pronunciation as closely as possible and I'll say each sentence three times let's do that right now they've been bickering all day they've been bickering all day they've been bickering all day that's stre pretty sketchy that Street's pretty sketchy that Street's pretty sketchy you must have seen it you must have seen it you must have seen it what's the ETA what's the ETA what's the ETA amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times we need to nip this in

the bud we need to nip this in the bud we need to nip this in the bud did you get this one I said we need to nip this in the bud now let's talk about need notice that I didn't pronounce the d need because if I do that it forces me to take a pause which slows me down so if you don't pronounce that D at the end you'll be able to speak faster we need t t notice how to becomes more of an unstress T we need to nip to nip to nip this

sin so notice here we have this in and again I can connect those together and I can take that s sound and I can add it to the beginning of in because it begins in a vowel this sin and it sounds like one word this sin this sin the bud you need to nip this in the bud now what does this mean when you nip something in the bud it means you stop something before it becomes serious or permanent and that something that you want to stop is a negative behavior or a problem or some

sort of issue I use this expression with my little kitty Sasha when she was just a kitten she used to scratch at the furniture now obviously this is a negative behavior that I want to stop and if I let her keep scratching then it will become a permanent habit a permanent Behavior so I needed to nip her scratching in the butt I needed to nip it in the bud so maybe there's an issue or a problem that you want to nip in the bud for my students I would say you need to nip your fear

of public speaking in the butt which means you need to stop it when it's just a small fear because if you let it grow and grow and grow and grow is going to be a lot more difficult to overcome so you need to nip your fear of public speaking in the bud so if you're with me put that in the comments nip fear in the bud nip fear in the bud put that in the comments and I certainly hope that my channel and these lessons help you do that we just want to nip any problems

in the bud got to nip this thing in the bud going to nip this thing in the bud you need to nip this in the bud let's try this again with another listening exercise I'll say it three times don't blow as comment out of proportion don't blow his comment out of proportion don't blow his comment out of proportion did you hear what I said I said don't blow his comment out of proportion don't is a contraction of do not don't it'll help you speak faster and again drop that t so you don't take a pause

don't blow blow is blo is so notice on his I drop that H and I combine those two together don't blow is comment out of you can reduce those into one sound outa don't blow his comment out of proportion you're blowing this way out of proportion now let's talk about the meaning here when you blow something out of proportion you make an event or a problem seem more serious than it is in reality so let's say you have a job interview and is going to be in English but remember you nipped fear in the bud

so you're not afraid to speak in public right but imagine that you didn't nip fear in the bud and you're stressing and you're anxious and you're nervous but the event is going to a job interview in English and you make it seem like this big terrible scary event so you could say don't blow it out of proportion or if you're telling a friend how nervous you are about this job interview your friend could say to you you're blowing this way out of proportion now notice here I added way out of proportion it's very common to

add way to make it sound stronger so to emphasize it you're blowing this way out of proportion blow it way out of proportion you're blowing this way out of proportion let's try this again I'll say it three times my client really chewed me out my client really chewed me out my client really chewed me out how' you do it this one I said my client really chewed me out now let's talk about chewed notice this is an ed verb a past simple verb but the pronunciation is a soft D chud now again we can drop

that sound when we're connecting it to other words so you don't really hear it my client really chewed me out and notice how I take me out and I combine them together now I use a soft Y sound to combine two vowels me y so I add a y in front of out y but I combine it with me so it sounds like one word me out me out so you don't hear it when you're speaking at a fast pace but if if you slowed it down you would hear the very slight Y in front

of out my client really chewed me out your boss just chew me out the expression is to chew someone out and this is when you tell someone angrily that they've done something wrong so this is not a positive thing now notice the difference between these sentences I chewed my assistant out the client chewed me out so notice is the difference in the first one I chewed my assistant out I'm giving the angry comments the second one my client chewed me out I'm receiving the angry comments now sometimes my students maybe even you sometimes my students

chew me out in the comment section they tell me angrily that I've done something wrong in the video so please don't chew me out put that in the comments I won't chew you out I won't chew you out please don't chew me out it's not very pleasant to read negative comments so don't do it chew me out about something more like chewed out I've been chewed out before wanted me to chew you out let's try this one more time I'll say it three times we're not laying anyone off we're not laying anyone off we're not

laying anyone off did you did you get this one I said we're not laying anyone off now notice where this is a contraction we are and notice how unstressed it is we we where we're not we're not now as a contraction you could also say we aren't so both of those contractions are common I just chose to use where we're not we're not laying anyone off now notice how I can combine anyone off off starts with a vowel and anyone it ends on a n sound so I can take that n and just add it

in front of the vowel any one no no anyone off and it sounds more like one sound to lay someone off this is when a company stops employing someone because the company doesn't have the money or the work to employ that person any so your manager or your boss could say to you sorry our sales are down so we have to lay you off which means that they don't have the money to keep paying you so they can't employ you anymore talking about laying people off I had to lay them off I had to lay

off 27 robots to lay someone off is the active form it's the subject du doing the action but it's also very common to use the sentence structure to get laid off or to be laid off and this is when you are receiving the action so this is when you lose your job because your company doesn't have the money or the work and remember we use get for the transition from not laid off so employed to laid off so the trans transition from employed to unemployed that's to get laid off now to be laid off that's

simply talking about your current state so now you are unemployed I wasn't fired from my job I was laid off I got laid off wait we're going to get laid off now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice these pronunciation changes and you can practice speaking fast just like a native speaker so so I'll say each sentence again three times and I want you to repeat the sentence out loud and imitate my pronunciation here we go we need to nip this in the bud we need to nip this in the bud we need

to nip this in the bud don't blow us comment out of proportion don't blow as common out of proportion don't blow as common out out of proportion my client really chewed me out my client really chewed me out my client really chewed me out we're not laying anyone off we're not laying anyone off we're not laying anyone off amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times I'm a little rusty I'm a little rusty I'm a little rusty did you get this one I said I'm a little rusty now notice here I'm using a

contraction I'm this is I am I'm now let's talk about a little notice I didn't pronounce those t's I pronounce them as soft D's a little little theth little and I connected them together a little a little now sometimes native speakers will completely drop those t's and they won't pronounce it at all and it will sound like Lil Lil and then again you connect it with the a a a little a little rusty a little rusty a little rusty now what does it mean to be a little rusty rusty is an adjective so for sentence

structure you need to use use the verb to be to be rusty I'm a little rusty she's a little rusty this is when a skill or an ability isn't as good as it used to be why because of lack of practice so pay attention English Learners because you don't want to say I'm a little rusty with my English you don't want to say that you definitely don't want to say I haven't watched a J force English lesson in months so my English is a little rusty that doesn't describe you right so put in the comments

I'm not Rusty I'm not Rusty because you're watching this lesson right now you're practicing your English which means you're not Rusty I'm not Rusty put it in the comments you can use this with any skill or ability it's commonly used with sports let's say you play tennis but it's winter right now so you can't play tennis because it's winter you might say I haven't played tennis in 6 months so I'm very Rusty so notice in the sentence I said I'm very Rusty you could also talk about this specific skill or ability you could say my

serve my tennis serve my serve is very Rusty oh my latin's a little rusty like pretty Rusty I'm very Rusty let's try this again I'll say it three times we tweak the plan we tweak the plan we tweaked the plan did you get this one I said we tweaked the plan now notice the pronunciation of tweak this is in the past simple so it's an ed verb but because the verb ends on a c we need a soft T so it's not tweaked that's incorrect is tweaked tweaked but when you use this in a sentence

and there are words after you're going to drop that t sound entirely so notice how tweaked The Sounds in this sentence we tweak the plan it just sounds like the present simple tweak it's the context that will make it obvious that I'm talking about a past action not the pronunciation when does it mean to tweak something when you tweak something you change it slightly so just a little and you do that to make it more correct or more effective Uncle Jim's tweaking the five face plan so let's say your friend or coworker wants you to

review a speech they wrote and you really like it but you don't like the conclusion you might say your speech is great but I'd tweak the conclusion if I were you so you're suggesting that they make a slight change a small change to the conclusion to make it better more effective I do have one small tweak sorry you have a tweak now we also use this to make the changes that we've made sound less significant so to sound small so someone gets upset because you changed their speech or presentation or plan you can say oh

no no I didn't change it I just tweaked it which means you did change it but you only did it slightly a very small amount I just tweaked it and um we tweak it let's try this again I'll say it three times keep an eye out for him keep an eye out for him keep an eye out for him did you hear what I said I said keep an eye out for him now let's talk about n i out because native speakers will combine all these sounds together so it sounds like one and I out

and I out and notice that I didn't say for him I dropped that H sound on him and it sounded like M for him for him and then then it also sounds like one word keep an eye out for them let's take a look at the grammar because notice keep this is the base verb so that means it's the imperative verb tense and I'm using this because I'm giving an order or a command keep an eye out for him I'm not asking I'm telling just keep an eye out this is an expression and it means

that you watch carefully for someone or something so let's say you're driving along and you have car troubles maybe you get a flat tire so you have to pull to the side of the road now while you're trying to fix the car maybe you tell your friend keep an eye out for other cars so watch carefully for other cars so you can say help help we need help or you might say keep an eye out for snakes because maybe you're in the desert don't keep an eye out we use this a lot in the workplace

let's say you're expecting a delivery but you have to leave to go to a meeting you might say to your coworker I'm going to a meeting can you keep an eye out for the delivery so you're asking your coworker to watch for the delivery but watch carefully you know keep an eye out let's try this one more time I'll say it three times can you show her the ropes can you show her the ropes can you show her the ropes do you know what I said I said can you show her the ropes now notice

can because this is an auxiliary verb it's not the main verb it's pronounced as kin kin it's an unstressed sound kin can you show because show is the main verb can you show her now here her seem thing we can drop that H and it will sound like er can you show her I'm happy to show her the ropes when you show someone the ropes and notice ropes is always plural when you show someone the ropes this is an expression and we use it when you show someone how to do a job or an activity

or a task so if there's a new employee or a new member on your team your boss might ask you can you show her the ropes and you can say I'm happy to show her the ropes and if you're the new employee receiving the training after you can say thanks so much for showing me the ropes like no one showed me the ropes don't worry we showed her the ropes then Dr Yang is showing him the ropes now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice your pronunciation I'm going to say each sentence three

times and I want you to repeat each sentence out loud I'm a little rusty I'm a little resty I'm a little rusty we tweaked the plan we tweak the plan we tweak the plan keep an eye out for him keep an eye out for him keep an eye out for him can you show her the robes can you show her the robes can you show her the robes amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times maybe I'm just in a rut maybe I'm just in a rut maybe I'm just in a rut did

you get this one I said maybe I'm just in a rut of course I'm is a contraction I am I'm and notice how in a sounds like one word in a in a I'm in a rut in a rut the expression here is to be in a rut now you can also say to be stuck in a rut stuck is optional when you're in a rut it means you've been doing an activity like your job or a hobby or a task you've been doing it tooo long and you feel like you need to change why

are you in a rut same thing every day knowing exactly what to expect that's her R so let's say every day you work all day you eat dinner but then at night every night you watch Netflix that could be your rut we watch Netflix every night we're stuck in a rut we're in a rut a rut so to help you get out of that rut you just need to do something different so you might say let's go to the park tonight so instead of watching Netflix you go to the park you enjoy the beautiful day

to help you get out of your rut you're a rider ruts are normal let's try this again I'll say it three times my boss is stuck in his ways my boss is stuck in his ways my boss is stuck in his ways how' you do with this one I said my boss is stuck in his ways notice how boss is we say it as one word bosses bosses it's the exact same pronunciation as the plural form of the noun bosses I have two bosses but here with the verb to be my boss is stuck in

his ways it's the exact same pronunciation the expression to be stuck in one's ways notice ways is plural and it's one possessive my boss is stuck in his ways this is when someone is unwilling to change how they do things or how they think about things kind of stuck in his ways for example my boss won't let me work remotely he's stuck in his ways cuz he's too stuck in his ways Gloria this is good for him so he has a specific way of thinking about how work should be done and he's unwilling to change

his thinking now the same expression can also use the verb set to be stuck or to be set in one's ways and it has the exact same meaning you're young me I'm setting my ways let's try this again I'll say it three times need a hand need a hand need a hand this one was easy right I said need a hand and notice need a sounded like one word Nita need a hand need a hand grammatically this is missing the auxiliary verb and the subject do you need a hand but native speakers commonly drop that

not and just say need a hand and this is the same as saying need any help do you need any help exactly the same meaning now to answer and to accept that help you could say sure I could use a hand and this is the same as sure I could use some help hey Tomar I could really use a hand in here and if you want to request the assistance using this expression you can say can you give me a hand can you give me a hand and this is the same as can you help

me can you help me hey ra can you give me a hand with this box and you can give me a hand right now by liking this video subscribing to my channel and sharing this video with your friends that would really give me a hand let's try this again I'll say it three times how can I get my foot in the door how can I get my foot in the door how can I get my foot in the door did you get this one I said how can I get my foot in the door do

you know this expression to get ones or a foot in the door this is used when you join an organization a company you take a specific job that's at a low level but you're doing that because you hope hope that low level will turn into a higher position that's getting your foot in the door you've already got a foot in the door for example I'm a journalist but I took a job as a receptionist to get my foot in the door I was just trying to get one foot in the door but you have to

be careful with this strategy because you don't want to say I took this job 5 years ago to get my foot in the door but now I'm stuck in a rut that would mean that you're still a receptionist 5 years later so you haven't moved up so your strategy of taking a lower position to get your foot in the door hasn't been very successful now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice your pronunciation I'll say each sentence again and I want you to repeat the sentence out loud let's do that now maybe I'm

just in a rut maybe I'm just in a rut maybe I'm just in a rut my boss is stuck in his ways my boss is stuck in his ways my boss is stuck in his ways need a hand need a hand need a hand how can I get my foot in the door how can I get my foot in the door how can I get my foot in the door amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times she has her presentation down pat she has her presentation down pat she has her presentation down

pat did you get this one I said she has her presentation down pat maybe you notice that has her sounded like haer has so we often drop the H on her has her has her she has her she has her presentation down pat now what does down pat mean to have something down pat is when you have information or a routine memorized perfectly for example I have my YouTube video creation process down pth so you can think of the process as a routine first I do this then I do this then I do this and

I have these steps memorized I don't even need to think about what should I do to create a video I have the process down pat now if you have an upcoming speech presentation interview you want to practice practice practice so you can memorize what you want to say and then once you memorize it perfectly you can say I'm not nervous I have my speech down pat I have my speech perfectly memorized have this whole chuey thing down pat I got my routine down pat generic we've got every move down pat let's try this again I'll

say it three times we didn't have a lot of prep time we didn't have a lot of prep time we didn't have a lot of PR prep time could you dictate this one I said we didn't have a lot of prep time of course didn't is a contraction of did not we didn't have a lot of native speakers will combine these sounds together and it will sound like a lot a lot we didn't have a lot prep time prep is short for Preparation native speakers will take this word preparation and shorten it to Prep Prep

time simply means time to prepare that is prep time for example the recipe looks delicious but there's too much prep time if there's too much prep time it means it takes too long to prepare this recipe so you don't want to do it you could also say I have to prep for my interview in this case prep is short for the verb prepare I have to prepare for my interview I have to prep for my interview you know what we got to Prep Prep time let's go go prep the patient including prep time just do

it let's try this again I'll say it three times thanks for rejigging your schedule thanks for rejigging your schedule thanks for rejigging your schedule I said thanks for rejigging your schedule notice how four sounded like an unstressed F thanks for thanks for rejigging your sounds unstressed your your thanks for rejigging your schedule thanks for rejigging your schedule let's talk about the verb to rejig you probably don't know this when you rejig something you change and improve the arrangement of something the arrangement is the order of something so in our example thanks for jigging your schedule

maybe you moved a meeting from the morning to the afternoon so we could meet for coffee and I appreciate that thanks for rejigging your schedule or maybe in a meeting you let your boss know we reig the presentation now the video comes before the grass so you change the order the arrangement of the presentation the video was here and now it's here and you're doing this because you want to improve the presentation we rejigged the presentation let's try this one more time I'll say it three times she spoils those kids rotten she spoils those kids

rotten she spoils those kids rotten did you get this one I said she spoils those kids rotten when you spoil someone rotten in this case rotten is optional you could just say spoil someone spoil someone rotten it means you do whatever they want you to do you give them whatever they want so when I say she spoils those kids rotten generally this isn't considered a good thing because when kids are spoiled rotten they often develop bad behaviors Bad Manners as a result so this sounds like a negative thing however I frequently say my kitties are

spoiled rotten and that is very true now notice here the grammar to be spoiled again rotten is optional you can use it or not use it it doesn't change the meaning in this case to be spoiled it means the same thing to receive whatever you want but it can also mean to be treated very well just remember when we use this with children is generally seen as a negative but if you say my husband SPO spoils me rotten my company spoils me rotten I'm spoiled by my company those sound more positive because it sounds like

you're treated very well but we won't spoil we won't spoil them this is so easy to please I really hope we're not spoiling them you sure are spoiling me lately now it's time for you to practice your pronunciation we're going to do an imitation exercise I'm going to say each sentence again and I want you to repeat the sentence out loud and I'll say each sentence three times here we go she has her presentation down pad she has her presentation down pad she has her presentation down pad we didn't have a lot of prep time

we didn't have a lot of prep time we didn't have a lot of prep time thanks for rejigging your schedule thanks for rejigging your schedule thanks for rejigging your schedule she spoils those kids rotten she spoils those kids rotten she spoils those kids rotten amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times don't snap at me don't snap at me don't snap at me did you get this one I said don't snap at me let's talk about snap at one of the ways that native speakers can speak quickly is because we combine our sounds

together so I don't say snap at I say snap at Pat so what I do is I take that P from snap and I also add it to at so it sounds like Snap Pat and then I combine them together snap at snap at native speakers will also drop sounds that Force us to take a pause in the middle of a sentence if I pronounce the T on don't T I have to take a pause to pronounce that t so I just won't say it and this is the same thing for at I won't say

it don't snap at me so I make those t's silent I drop the t's now a lot of times students don't understand native speakers because we use a lot of phrasal verbs idioms and expressions like in this example to snap at someone what does that mean this is literally snapping right now I'm snapping now notice it happens very quickly so when you snap at someone you speak to someone in a irritable or abrupt way so your words come out quickly like a snap and they're often negative this happens quite frequently if we are feeling a

negative emotion like stress anxiety worry let's say I'm working on a project that has a very important deadline and I have a lot of work left so I feel quite anxious about this and then my husband or friend coworker asks me a question and then without even thinking I snap at them and I say I'm busy what do you want I can't help you and I see something very abruptly and my words have a lot of irritation in them annoyance frustration that is snapping at someone we do this all the time and unfortunately people who

work in customer service are on the receiving end of this so a person in customer service might say customers snap at me every day I don't take it personally you just snap at me because I think he just snapped at me been Garling well don't snap at me you're snapping at me again let's try this again with another listening exercise I'll say it three times it was a knee-jerk reaction it was a knee-jerk reaction it was a knee-jerk reaction did you hear what I said I said it was a kneejerk reaction let's talk about KN

notice the K is silent you don't hear it at all KN KN this happens most of the time when words start with k n the K is silent there are many common words that start with KN n such as knife KN not knit no and now KN all of these words the K is silent so the word starts with a N what is a kneejerk reaction a knee-jerk reaction is a reaction that happens automatically unconsciously you don't think about it it just happens just like when you're at a doctor's office and they test your reflexes

and if this is your knee they hit your knee and then your your leg goes like this have you ever had that done they test your reflexes but when your leg does that you don't control it it happens automatically so that's where the expression comes from a kneejerk reaction and I'm sharing this expression because generally when you snap at someone it is a knee-jerk reaction when you're busy working on a report and your husband asks you if you want a cup of tea and you shout I'm busy leave me alone that is a knee-jerk reaction

because you didn't sit there and think about responding in that way it happened automatically so yes you snapped at your husband but it was a kneejerk reaction so you could apologize to your husband and say sorry for snapping at you it was a kneejerk reaction or is this just another knee-jerk reaction for you it was a knee-jerk reaction you got that half right you're not saying no is a knee-jerk reaction let's try this again I'll say it three times she rubs me the wrong way she rubs me the wrong way she rubs me the wrong

way did you get this one I said she rubs me the wrong way I think the pronunciation is clear but this is another case where if you don't understand what it means even if you hear the words you wouldn't be able to reply so let's talk about the expression to rub someone the wrong way this is when you annoy someone without intending to so it isn't your intention you don't try to annoy anyone but for just some reason you are annoying someone else this often happens when people's personalities just Clash they Clash which means their

person personalities are different in a way that they're not compatible so I might do something that annoys you simply because my personality is different from your personality but someone else would not be annoyed by the thing I do this could happen in a workplace situation where there's an employee and they're really great at their job they're very skilled but for some reason that person just rubs you the wrong way and it's very unfortunate for that person because it's nothing they're actually doing wrong but if there's a conference or an event and you have to bring

one employee you might say let's bring Marcos Tim rubs me the wrong way so Tim is annoying to you but it's not Tim's fault maybe he is a very outgoing person and he's always laughing and telling jokes and you're more of a shy reserved person and your personalities just clash and for that reason Tim rubs you the wrong way poor Tim just rubs me the wrong way not Jay guy rubs me the wrong way something about always rub me the wrong way let's try this one more time I'll say it three times I always pick

up the slack I always pick up the slack I always pick up the slack how' you do with this one I said I always pick up the slack for pronunciation let's talk about pick up because this is another great opportunity to combine these sounds together so what a native speaker will do is they'll take the last sound on pick and they'll put that on up so it will sound like cup pick up cup pick up pick up and then you can say those two words as one because you combine them together pick up pick up

the slack now what does this mean to pick up the slack this is when you do work that is someone else's responsibility but you do it because that person maybe isn't doing it it and it needs to get done so you pick up the slack this can happen in the home and of course it can happen at work but at home everyone has their own responsibilities things that they're responsible for maybe you're responsible for cooking dinner and your partner is responsible for cleaning up after dinner for example but let's say there's a situation where someone

at home is busy with something else so you have to pick up the slack for example I've been picking up the slack at home while my wife's taking care of her sick mother now in this case you're probably happy with picking up the slack or you understand why you need to pick up the slack because your wife is dealing with a sick parent which is a stressful situation for her so you're happy to do that but there's other situations where maybe your coworker just isn't doing the work they need to do and you end up

picking up the slack and you're not happy about it for example I'm sick of picking up everyone's slack and we're here picking up the slack but no worries I'll pick up the slack I just want to thank you for picking up the slack now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice these pronunciation changes and these new expressions so I'm going to say the sentence again and then I want you to say the sentence out loud and I'll say each sentence three times let's do that now don't snap at me don't snap at me

don't snap at me it was a knee-jerk reaction it was a knee-jerk reaction it was a knee-jerk reaction she rubs me the wrong way she rubs me the wrong way she rubs me the wrong way I always pick up the slck I always pick up the slack I always pick up the slack amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times parking downtown is such a pain parking downtown is such a pain parking downtown is such a pain I said parking downtown is such a pain first let's talk about the pronunciation changes let's talk

about is such a native speakers we often combine our words together which makes it sound like we're speaking really fast so I have is such a and I can combine those together is sucha is such a is such a is such a is such a pain is such a pain is such a pain what does it mean to describe something as a pain we have a great in expression in English to be all pain in the neck in the neck and this simply means that something is very annoying in this expression most native speakers will

leave out in the neck and just describe something as a pain and then you can emphasize that by saying such a pain which makes it sound stronger so in this sentence I I'm saying that parking downtown is very annoying now we also use this to be a pain we use this frequently to describe people to say that someone is very annoying maybe a coworker maybe a relative maybe a friend a classmate a roommate so let's listen to these clips and notice how all of these Clips are with someone is a pain stepmom is such a

pain men are such a pain she's such a pain she's so selfish now you might be thinking that studying English is such a pain but hopefully my videos help you take the annoyance the frustration out of it and make it more enjoyable if you think that then put painfree in the comments put painfree if you think that learning English with me is not a pain painfree put that in the comments let's try this again I'll say it three times we had a blast last night we had a blast last night we had a blast last

night did you get this one I said we had a blast last night no notice how had a sounds like one word had had we had a we had a and noticed how blast and last you don't hear the T in them BL last night but you hear the T in night because at the end of a sentence I'm going to take a pause naturally so I can pronounce the because it forces me to take a pause but I'm already taking a pause because there's a period but in the sentence if a word ends on

T we often don't pronounce it to avoid having to take that pause so instead of blast last night I can say blast last night and either pronounce it very softly or just not at all what does this mean well a blast that means you had an enjoyable exciting time so it's another way of saying you had a great time we had a blast at the party we had a great time at the party if someone asks you how was the party or any event you can say it was a blast to be a blast and

you're describing the party as a blast it was a blast or you you can say we had a blast so you can use this as to be a blast or to have a blast oh yeah had a blast could have had a blast on the Riviera so you really had a good time huh yeah we had a blast let's try another listening exercise I'll say it three times thanks for the invite thanks for the invite thanks for the invite I'm I said thanks for the invite for pronunciation notice that for is an unstress f f

thanks for thanks for thanks for the invite thanks for the invite and notice how invite the stress is on in that's the stress syllable daada invite invite thanks for the invite and that's because in this case invite is a noun and that's why the stress is on the first syllable invite is short form for invitation of course you know the noun invitation native speakers we commonly reduce this to invite but of course the verb form to invite already exists but notice for the verb the stress syllable is the second syllable da da invite invite that's

the verb invite invite that's the noun this isn't an official noun it's simply the short form of the word invitation but native speakers love using it let's compare these two sentences one with the verb and one with the noun thanks for inviting me thanks for the invite both are commonly used by native speakers oh thanks for inviting me but thank you for the invite thanks for the invite by the way let's try one more listening test I'll say it three times you got all worked up for nothing you got all worked up for nothing you

got all worked up for nothing did you get this one I said you got all worked up for nothing notice how got all the t is between two vowels so I'll pronounce this as a very soft D but I have to combine them together so you're going to hear the D on both sounds God all God all God all God all worked up the past simple pronunciation is worked notice that T worked but when I combine it with work up work up I'm going to link these together and you're going to hear that t in

front of up worked up work up for nothing we already talked about for fur an unstressed fur fur and notice how I dropped that g sound at the end of nothing and I said nothing for nothing for nothing this isn't a requirement I could say for nothing and I commonly do I use both equally for nothing for nothing now let's talk about what this means to get or be worked up this is when you're either very upset or very excited about something so it could be for a negative emotion or a positive emotion but it's

important that it's a strong negative or positive emotion and for nothing this means for no reason so you became very upset or you became very excited for no reason for nothing let's talk about the more negative emotion let's say you heard a rumor at your company that they were going to f fire everyone because the company was going bankrupt and you get all worked up you get really angry and upset and you have this strong emotion but I tell you that you shouldn't listen to a rumor that it's probably nothing and then you find out

that in fact the company is not in financial trouble so then I could say see I told you you got all worked up for nothing now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice these pronunciation changes and you can practice speaking at a faster Pace I'm going to say each sentence again three times and I want you to repeat each sentence out loud and imitate my pronunciation as closely as possible let's start this now here's the first sentence parking downtown is such a pain parking downtown is such a pain parking downtown is such a

pain we had a blast last night we had a blast last night we had a blast last night thanks for the invite thanks for the invite thanks for the invite you got all worked out for nothing you got all worked out for nothing you got all worked out for nothing amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times our chances are slim to none our chances are slim to none our chances are slim to none so how did you do I said our chances are slim to none first let's talk about the pronun changes

notice that our our sounded like r r our chances our chances at a natural pace we don't pronounce it our chances we just do a very soft unstressed are our chances our chances our chances are notice that because chances ends on an S and R it starts with the vowel I can combine those together chances SAR so it sounds like SAR but I have to say those two words together chances SAR chances are so when you hear it at a fast pace you just hear the SS from chances and you hear it both on chances

and R our chances are slim to none t t notice that To None again is just a very soft unstressed T slim to none slim t t Slim lonon what does this mean first let's talk about chances one's chances this is how possible something is for example the team has a great chance of winning so here their chance of winning it's how possible it is that the team will win the team has a great so their chances of winning are quite high but in this example I said our chances are slim to none what does

that mean slim to none this means very small or extremely unlikely our chances are slim to none now I didn't specify chances of what in the original example so I could say our chances of getting a promotion this year are slim to none so this means it's very unlikely that you're getting a promotion there's a chance yeah slim to none slim to none oh those are my chances my chances of ever flying again are slim to none let's try another listening exercise I'll say it three times it was slim picking at the career fair it

was slim Pickin at the career fair it was slim pickings at the career fair I said it was slim pickings at the career fair for pronunciation notice how pickings sounded quite unstressed Pickin ins so I dropped that in I dropped that g sound from the ing picking piin but it's plural so I add that s piin Pickin native speakers often drop the G sound or make it very soft with in Pickin Pickin listen to this clip and notice how Joey from Friends also drops the G and says it very unstressed Pickins it is Slim Pickins

you know it is Slim Pickins you know now let's talk about what this means first of all a career fair do you know what this is this is is an event where people looking for a job can meet potential employers a career affir is very common for University graduates college graduates or high school graduates to go to to try to find a job and I said it was slim Pickins so what does that mean to be slim pickings this is when there are very few good options to choose CH from so maybe there were people

at the career fair but the employers that were there or the people looking for jobs that were there weren't the best quality so you could say it was slim Pickins we commonly use these two words slim Pickins if someone asks you how a search for something is going so maybe you're looking for a new house a new car or of course a job so someone could say how's the job search going and then you can reply back and simply say slim Pickin slim Pickin it's slim Pickin out there it is Slim Pickins pick are slim

for an educated independent woman let's try this again with another listening exercise I'll say it three times stop hogging the iPad stop hogging the iPad stop hogging the iPad how' you do with this one I said stop hogging the iPad now here for hogging notice we have ining so I did pronounce it more like Hogan Hogan hogging Hogan so stressed hogging unstress Hogan I tend to use both of them and don't really realize which one I'm using using I don't specifically choose before I'm about to speak which one I'm going to use it's just whatever

comes out and I will easily switch between the two the stressed or the unstressed stop hogging stop hogging the iPad notice how it sounded more like a stressed the with that long e we stress the and make it the when the noun that comes next starts with a vowel iPad I of course a vowel native speakers don't always follow this rule I don't always follow this rule I would commonly say the iPad the iPad the iPad so if you use one or the other or if you hear native speakers using one or the other just

know that both are acceptable and it's probably slightly more likely to use the stress version the with a vowel simply because it makes it easier to pronounce those sounds so here's an iPad what does it mean to hog the iPad the iPad the iPad what does that mean when you hog something it means you take or use more than your fair share so this is actually something I said to my husband Kevin the other day I said stop hogging the iPad because we only have one iPad and he was using it and I felt like

he was using it more than his fair share so I said stop hogging the iPad because I wanted to use it and I said this more in a joking way but let's say that you have a roommate or you could think about someone you live with a different family member or even a work colleague and that person might use more of something or take more than their fair share so maybe it takes your roommate a really long time to get ready put on makeup in the morning and you only have one bathroom you might say

my roommate always Hogs the bathroom in the morning and it means your roommate uses more than her fair share of the bath notice in my original example stop hogging the pad stop hogging our verb to hog is in the jiren form that's because stop is a Jaren verb so you need Stop Plus verb ing stop hogging the iPad that's why hog is in the jiren form with ing stop hogging my best friend stop stop hogging the blank stop hogging the blanket it's cold Jean how about we stop hogging the magazine huh let's try one more

listening exercise I'll say it three times don't be stingy with the cheese don't be stingy with the cheese don't be stingy with the cheese did you get this one I said don't be stingy with the cheese I think the pronunciation is clear here but do you understand what this means and remember I said that I said to my husband stop hogging the iPad well actually this is something that he said to me he said don't be stingy with the cheese so what does it mean to be stingy this is when something is small in amount

less than expected so I was putting cheese on something I don't remember what I'll say pizza I was putting cheese on our pizza and my husband thought I was being stingy I was using a small amount less than expected but that was just his opinion because he likes a lot of cheese whereas I don't like a lot of cheese so in my opinion I was not being stingy at all but he thought I was being stingy we have another meaning for stingy which is very common when you describe someone as stingy it means they're unwilling

to spend money so they have the money they just don't want to spend it in that case you would call someone stingy for example we had to take the bus because my friend was too stingy to take a taxi this means that my friend had the money to take a taxi so it wasn't financially difficult for her to take a taxi but taking a taxi is more expensive than taking the bus and she's stingy so she doesn't like spending money so she took the bus so she could save her money because she's stingy although saving

money and trying to save money can certainly be a positive thing when we use this adjective it's always in a negative critical way so we think that person should have been willing to spend the money if we describe them as stingy I'm going to say to you don't be stingy with your comments and don't be stingy with your likes now in this case it's the first example I explained when my husband said to me don't be stingy with the cheese he thought I wasn't using enough cheese so don't be stingy with your comments if you're

stingy with your comments and your likes it means you don't share them you keep them to yourself so it's another way of saying make sure you comment so put I'm not stingy in the comments put I'm not stingy and that means that you freely comment on my videos or you freely like my videos so don't be stingy put that in the comments don't be stingy I see don't be stingy he's even stingy with play money now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice your pronunciation you can practice all the pronunciation changes that I

explained in this video and you can imitate my pronunciation so you sound more natural so I'm going to say each sentence three times and I want you to repeat the sentence out loud after each time so let's do that now our chances are slim to none our chances are slim to none our chances are slim to none it was slim Pickin at the career fair it was slim picking at the career fair it was slim pickings at the career fair stop hogging the iPad stop hogging the iPad stop hogging the iPad don't be stingy with

the cheese don't be stingy with the cheese don't be stingy with the cheese amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times you all set for the meeting tomorrow you all set for the meeting tomorrow you all set for the meeting tomorrow how'd you do with that I said you all set for the meeting tomorrow let's talk about the pron nunciation changes notice you all you all you all I said it quickly but I did say the individual words you all you all set you all set I will point out that in the south

in southern us the southern states it's very common to combine you all into one word do you know what that is y'all y'all I'm sure you've heard this mainly in movies or TV y'all y'all ready I personally don't say y'all because I'm not from the southern us but it is extremely common in the southern us for me I simply say you all you all I say them quickly but I do say both words you all set you all set for the meeting tomorrow notice here how for the meeting tomorrow for when it's unstressed more of

a reduce sound a quick sound it sounds like f f for the meeting you all set f for the meeting for the meeting for the meeting tomorrow now before we talk about what this sentence means you might be wondering about the grammar does this sentence perhaps look grammatically incorrect to you is there a word missing the auxiliary verb are is missing are you all set for the meeting tomorrow we need are as an auxiliary verb because this is a question grammatically you need it but in spoken English native speakers commonly drop auxiliary verbs when they're

only required grammatically but they're not required to understand what the sentence means so a native speaker does not need to hear an auxiliary verb to understand what a sentence means and that's why in spok spoken English we commonly get rid of them so grammatically are you all set for the meeting tomorrow a native speaker would commonly say you all set you all set for the meeting tomorrow and then to show it's a question we can use a rising intonation at the end to show it's a question now let's talk about what this means this has

a very simple meaning to be all set is simply to be ready or to be prepared so it's asking the person if they're ready for the meeting tomorrow if they're prepared for the meeting tomorrow native speakers commonly use this to ask if someone's ready or prep prepared to leave for example to leave a house leave a restaurant leave a hotel room it doesn't matter where and we'll just use two words with a rising intonation to show it's a question all set all set I'm asking you are you ready all set and then you can simply

reply and say yep and then we'll leave how about you class you're all set all set all set woman all set all set let's try another listening exercise I'll say it three times this reports all over the map this reports all over the map this reports all over the map I said this reports all over the map for pronunciation notice here this reports report is as as a contraction reports this reports all over all over so notice how I can link those sounds together by extending that l sound to the next word because it's a

vowel all over all over L all over this reports all over the map the expression to be all over the the map this means that something is in a disorganized or confused state so the report is disorganized the report is confusing as another example I could say the consultant's recommendations were all over the map to be all over the map which means his his recommendations were disorganized or confusing maybe they talked about a lot of different topics and it was difficult to follow they were all over the map yeah this firm's all over the map

cu the internet is all over the map on that you know Charming but all over the map and let's try this again I'll say it three times keep your eyes peeled for the turn keep your eyes peeled for the turn keep your eyes peeled for the turn I said keep your eyes peeled for the turn notice the reduced sound for your your eyes your your your eyes keep your eyes keep your eyes peeled fur we talked about this before for becomes a unstressed reduced sound fur keep your eyes peeled for the turn for the turn

for the turn for the turn notice here the sentence starts with a verb and it starts with a base verb which means it's the imperative verb tense and we use the imperative verb tense to give orders or suggestions keep your eyes peeled I'm giving you this as an order or a suggestion and what does that mean to keep your eyes peeled this means to watch carefully or to be on alert so if you're driving and you're following the directions the GPS you need to watch carefully for the specific streets so you know when to turn

that's the turn if you're driving keep your eye is peeled for the turn watch carefully be on alert for the turn so you don't miss it and you're not late for your important meeting this is an expression you can use in many different situations let's say you're editing an important document your resume or something you're submitting for an assignment or to a client you might might say keep your eyes peeled for any spelling or grammar mistakes which means as you're reviewing it pay close attention watch carefully be on alert for any spelling or grammar mistakes

which is very good advice for everyone keep your eyes fed keep your eyes peeled keep your eyes peeled are you ready to try this again I'll say it three times can you just ballpark the cost for me can you just ballpark the cost for me can you just ballpark the cost for me I said can you just ballpark the cost for me can in this sentence is an auxiliary verb so we pronounce it unstressed and it sounds like kin kin can you can you and you you can make that unstressed too and reduce it to

Y Kenya Kenya Kenya just I think I did say can you but you it's very common to hear native speakers say yeah Kenya can you just ballpark the cost for me we already talked about for it sounds like for for me for me let's talk about this odd word here ballpark did you notice that grammatically it's a verb it's the main verb of the sentence to Ballpark something when you ballpark something it means you provide a rough estimate of something and yes a ballpark is where people play baseball but we're not talking about baseball or

Sports at all to Ballpark something is to provide a rough estimate of something in our sentence it's a verb to ballpark but we commonly use this as an adjective a figure a ballpark figure so the figure is the number the cost or a statistic and if it's a ballpark figure it means it's a rough estimate it's not exact it's not precise it's an estimate which means it's more of a range a lower and upper range for example maybe a consultant is providing you a quote an estimate on using a certain Software System and you want

to know well how much is this going to cost my company but the consultant can't give you an exact number at this point because he doesn't have enough information so the consultant could say if I had to Ballpark it I'd say $3 to5 million but that's just a ballpark figure so you know it's just an estimate look just give me a number ballpark pick a guess ballpark figure AB fine a ballpark figure let's do this one more time I'll say it three times let's revisit this down the line let's revisit this down the line let's

revisit this down the line I said let's revisit this down the line notice let is a contraction for let us let's let's revisit when you put re in front of a base verb it means to do that verb again visit this again but for pronunciation that re is a strong sound e you hear that e revisit revisit let's revisit this down the line and notice how let is the imperative let us lets the imperative verb tense again for a order or a suggestion let's revisit this down the line let's talk about down the line this

this means in the future but at an unspecified date so it's not clear at all you don't know when we'll revisit this visit this again but you know it will happen in the future but it could be a week from now it could be a month from now so this is a way that a native speaker can postpone something if they don't actually want to do it ah I'll do it down the line because it's not specific on when you'll do it it's just some point in the future here's another example that could apply to

you if you don't improve your English now it could hurt your career down the line now notice when I say down the line I'm not being specific on when your lack of English skills could hurt your career but at some point in the future it could be tomorrow it could be a week from now it could be a year from now and that's why it's so important that you're here with me improving your English amazing job improving your listening skills now let's do an imitation exercise so you can improve your pronunciation and practice these pronunciation

changes so I'll say the sentence and then I want you to say the sentence out loud and try to imitate my pronunciation and I'll repeat each sentence three times so let's do that now you all set for the meeting tomorrow you all set for the meeting tomorrow you all set for the meeting tomorrow this reports all over the map this reports all over the map this reports all over the map keep your eyes peeled for the turn keep your eyes peeled for the turn keep your eyes peeled for the turn can you just ballpark the

cost for me can you just ballpark the cost for me can you just ballpark the cost for me let's revisit this down the line let's revisit this down the line let's revisit this down the line amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times did you break it to them did you break it to them did you break it to him did you get that one I said did you break it to him first let's talk about the pronunciation changes did you we pronounce this as dig Did did so I combine those sounds together

and I take U and I change it to Y did did you did you break it Tim notice the last two words really sounded like one word Tim Tim it almost sounded like Tim the name Tim and that's because we frequently get rid of the AG on him and her at a natural pace and we connect it to the word before so it really sounds like m m and then you hear the T from to Tim Tim did you break it to him now what does this mean 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 so maybe you applied for a promotion but you're not going to get the promotion so that's the negative news did you break it to him that he's not getting the promotion so did you share this negative news with him did you break it to him our next listening test remember to put what you hear in the comments cut it out would you cut it out would you cut it out would you did you get that one I said cut it

out would you first let's talk about pronunciation did you the same thing is happening here with would you youu becomes Y and I combine those sounds W J would you would you would you cut it out would you now let's talk about about cut it out you'll notice we have T's in between vowels in American English when a t comes between vowels we change that to a d d a very soft D cut it out cut it out and I pronounce all three as one cut it out cut it out cut it out cut it

out would you the expression to cut something out means to stom something that is annoying or frustrating or irritating or unwanted so let's say you're in a meeting for work and in the background your kids are going crazy they're screaming they're yelling they're fighting this is behavior that is unwanted frustrating irritating annoying and you want them to stop so you can say to your kids cut it out would you our next listening exercise guys write what you hear in the comments you got to kick it up a notch you got to kick it up a

notch you got to kick it up a notch did you get that one I said you got to kick it up a notch first notice how I used Gada this is a reduction It's a combination of the words got to and it's pronounced as one gotta you got to you can also say you've gotta you have got to but in American English it's very common to just say you got to you got to you got to is the same as you have to now let's talk about the expression to kick something up a notch when

you kick something up a notch is just encouraging you to perform better better work faster work harder 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 you need to work faster you need to perform better she can say you got to kick it up a notch you got to work faster you got to work carer our next listening exercise write what you hear in the comments I'll say

it three times don't let them get to you don't let him get to you don't let him get to you how' you do with that one I said don't let him get to you first let's talk about pronunciation don't let him let him notice again I take that H off of him I drop the the sound and then I'm left with M but I combine it with the word before let them let them let them don't let them don't let them get to you now I said you at the end many native speakers will drop

this to Y don't let him get to you get to you just like we saw with did you would you but I said you don't let him get to you now what does this mean when someone gets to you it means that you become angry annoyed irritated or frustrated because of that person's Behavior but we can also use this in situations if you get really angry when you're stuck in traffic I can say don't let the traffic get to you so don't let the situation make you angry because what does being Ang angry do it

doesn't benefit the situation in any way don't let the traffic get to you don't let your bosses criticism get to you don't let it anger you frustrate you or annoy you our next listing exercise I'll say it three times write what you hear in the comments what are you looking at what are you looking at what are you looking at did you get that one what are you looking at 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 what are you sounds like one word what are you what are you so the r just becomes and I attach it to what what what what what are you now I think I said you but you can also again shorten that to Y and native speakers commonly do that so get comfortable with it what are you what are you what are you what are you but remember it sounds like one word what are you what are you looking at 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 at looking at but notice I combine it with the word that comes next because it's a vowel looking that so instead of looking at it sounds like not not and then I combine them looking at not looking at looking at what are you looking at so how did you do with those listening exercises share your score in the the comments below and remember you were being tested on your ability to understand the words I say but also the ability

to understand what my meaning is so maybe you understood the words but you didn't know the expression or the idiom you didn't know what it meant so you need both 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 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 and if

you're in a private space I want you to say it out loud if you're in a public space well then try this again when you're at home and you can say it out loud did you break it to them did you break it to him did you break it to him cut it out would you cut it out would you cut it out would you you got to kick it up a notch you got to kick it up a notch you got to kick it up a notch don't let him get to you don't let

him get to you don't let him get to you what are you looking at what are you looking at what are you looking at amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times what do you mean she can't make it did you hear what I just said what do you mean she can't make it I said what do you mean she can't make it but of course I didn't say it like that I said what do you mean she can't make it notice how I said what do you what do you what do you

what do you mean what do you mean this is called connected speech and Native speakers love connecting their speech but of course this makes it difficult for you to understand us so let me share the most common connected phrases that you need to know the first one of course what Whata what do you mean what are you doing what do you want how do you know she can't make it did you catch this one how do you how do you how do you how do you know what you do in this weekend did you get

this one what are you becomes Whata Whata Whata what you doing this weekend so make it your goal to learn these connected phrases but for now focus on the top three you need to know what you how you and Whata how about this one how are you going to get to the mall how are you that's a connected phrase how how are you how are you how are you g now this is a reduction we take two words going to and we reduce it into one Guna these are informal they're very casual but they're frequently

used in spoken English I got to go I'm sure you know this one got to sounds like gotta I got to go give me a break give me give me give me a break give me sounds like gimme I don't know I don't know don't know as a reduction I don't know I want to go to the movies want to becomes wna start with these and pay attention and keep adding more reductions to your speech we'll be there at 5 we'll be there at five we will be there at five we'll be there will will

this is a contraction we take two separate words and we form one word the thing you need to know about contractions is that they are grammatically correct you can use them in your spoken English and your writing and although they do sound more casual they are grammatically correct I would never say it is a hot day I would say it's a hot day it's it's it's a hot day I would not say she is my friend I would say she's my friend she's my friend now because of this students might not get the verb because

it's in a contraction you must learn contractions if you want to understand native speakers let's start with the most common it is it's there is theirs I have I've you are your should not shouldn't will not won't start with these and keep adding contractions to your speech it will help you understand native speakers let's try that listening exercise from the beginning again what do you mean you can't make it what do you mean you can't make it I'm sure you already understand this a lot more because you now understand the connected speech but did you

also know I said make it make it now if you looked at each individual sound it sounds like May kit so you might be thinking May the month of May April May and kit like a Kit Kat bar I don't understand this is linking linking is when we take a sound from one word and we put that sound on the next word we do this in English to help us connect our speech and smooth our pronunciation so we can speak without pauses make it notice there's that c on make but it forces me to take

a pause make it so to get rid of that pause I take that and I put it on the next word makeit make kit let's try another listening exercise you shouldn't walk alone at night now I used a contraction should not becomes shouldn't you shouldn't and then I said Walk Alone but again there's that c sound so I take that k sound and I put it on the next word and it becomes W colone but cologne sounds a lot like men's perfume which we call cologne for women is perfume but for men it's cologne so

this can cause confusion because you might think I just said cologne meaning men's perfume but this is part of Walk Alone Walk Alone walk alone with linking the best way to get comfortable with linking is to study native speakers so instead of listening to an entire 30 minute episode just listen to one sentence on YouTube or on TV and pause and listen to that sentence many many times and really get comfortable with how those sounds are pronounced together and really get comfortable with how those sounds are pronounced at a natural pace let's try a listening

exercise I got a lot of merch I got a lot of merch I got a lot of merch here I used a reduction a lot of is pronounced a lot a lot now what is merch maybe you understood the sound you understood I said merch but you have no idea what that means that's because native speakers we shorten words all the time for no reason this is very casual and informal but it's done in both a professional and social context so merch is short for merchandise if you work in a company that's buys and sells

products most likely your co-workers will say merch and you might might not understand what they mean that's a Fab dress Fab is short for fabulous I have to take my cat to the vet vet is short for veterinarian are we meeting at HQ HQ is an acronym for headquarters which is the head office the main office of a company but pretty much everyone calls it HQ so when you're studying native speakers list listen for these shorten words and just make a list of them and keep adding the most common ones to your speech Let's try

another listening exercise you got to cut it out you got to cut it out I used a reduction got to gotta you got to cut it out cut it out cut it cut it out now maybe you heard the what and you're thinking hm what does Jennifer have to cut out does she have to cut something out but no because this is an idiom so to understand native speakers you have to learn phrasal verbs idioms and expressions because we use them all the time take a look at this article from Forbes Magazine now everything I

have underlined is either a phrasal verb an idiom or an expression and they don't have literal meanings so maybe you understood the word cut but that doesn't help you understand my message because it doesn't have a literal meaning now there are hundreds and hundreds of phrasal verbs idioms and expressions but don't worry because I have many video tutorials on my channel already so make it your goal to add one one a day one phrasal verb idiom or expression a day and that will be 365 in one year and by expanding your vocabulary with these phrasal

verbs idioms and expressions it will really help you understand native speakers amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times get out of here get out of here get out of here did you get this one I said get out of here let's talk about a common reduction outa out of side by side you can pronounce as outa outa get out of here get out of here and if you don't feel comfortable using that in your speech that's fine but you should understand it because native speakers use it the majority of the time in

spoken English outa get out of here get out of here and maybe you understood the words but did you understand the expression this might be a trick question because there are actually two totally different meanings for this expression there's the more literal meaning where I want you to leave the room that I'm currently in being here get out means leave leave of here of the room I'm currently in so I'm recording this video and my annoying little sister barges in and starts talking get out of here that's what I would say now most likely you're

going to say it with a little bit of anger or annoyance get out of here and it's not a very polite expression so if you politely want to ask someone to leave don't say get out of here you should say would you mind leaving could you please leave because I need to film a video get out of here is also used as an expression to show shock or surprise at what someone said so let's say my friend just told me she's going to move from Chicago to Australia around the world and she has lived in

Chicago her entire life to show my surprise or even shock I could say get out of here get out of here it's almost like saying really wow I can't believe it get out of here get out of here now with this expression it will be lighter there won't be that anger or annoyance in it get out of here there'll be more surprise in it get out of here so the meaning will depend on the overall context of the situation and also look for the tone of voice because that can be very helpful to decide our

next listening exercise I'll say it three times give me a break give me a break give me a break did you get this one give me a break pretty easy right did you hear that reduction give me give me give me give me again you might not feel comfortable using reductions in your speech but you should understand them because native speakers use them most of the time give me give me a break what does this mean this is another expression we use this to express disbelief in what someone says let's say I am watching TV

late at night and I see an advertisement for a pill that is supposed to help me lose 20 lbs overnight that's what the ad says if I want to show my distrust or disbelief with this ad I can say give me a break give me a break there's no way that's true give me a break so that's a fun expression you can use and remember that tone you'll want to add some sarcasm into this oh give me a break are you ready for another listening exercise I'll say it three times my sister will know my

sister will know my sister will know I said my sister will know did you hear the verb will my sister will know probably didn't hear it but maybe based on the grammar you understood that it has to be there because my sister no doesn't make any sense something's missing my sister will know you probably know that we form a subject will contractions I will go I'll go you'll go he'll go she'll go it'll go will go they'll go those are subject pronoun contractions and they are grammatically correct learning contractions is another must when you want

to understand native speakers in this case a noun phrase my sister isn't contracted grammatically but in spoken English we combine them together anyway even though grammatically this isn't done simply to be able to speak faster and confuse students but remember grammatically we only contract subject pronouns with Will so in your writing make sure you don't write my sister will as a contraction but in spoken English you'll hear it another listening exercise I'll say it three times you ought to call her you ought to call her you ought to call her did you get this one

you ought to call her so here ought to a very common reduction a a ought to is a modal verb used to express necessity more commonly you should call her but you can also use a to you ought to call her in spoken English native speakers will say a the majority of the time now did you hear call her maybe to you it sounded like one word caller caller like a dog caller that's because we drop the H sound on her and it sounds like but we also combine it with the previous word caller and

then we combine them caller CER again based on context you'll understand that I'm not saying callar like a dog caller and I'm in fact saying call her you ought to call her how about one more listening exercise I'll say it three times I had an inkling sheet bail I had an inkling sheet bail I had an inkling sheet bail oh did you get this one I had an inkling Sheed Bale Sheed Bale she would as a contraction this is a grammatically correct contraction Sheed Bale I had had can also be in a contraction with a

subject pronoun when it's the auxiliary verb so if I turn this into the past perfect I had gone I can say i' gone because then had is the auxiliary verb I'd gone I'd gone but here because it's the main verb we don't turn it into a contraction I had an inkling she' bail what does it mean she' bail bail well when someone bails this is an expression that's used when someone doesn't do what they said they were going to do and we specifically use this with plans and arrangements so let's say I made a plan

with my friend to watch a movie on Saturday at 7:00 then Saturday 7:00 no friend she bailed she bailed on me I can't believe she bailed on me again she didn't do what she said she was going to do and again we use this frequently with plans and Arrangements now what an inkling an inkling I had an inkling sheet Bale an inkling is a slight indication a slight hint a slight suggestion so something my friend said made me think she was going to bail maybe she didn't sound that excited about seeing the movie maybe she's

been talking about how tired she is so that's an inkling an inkling that's fun to say an inkling I had an inkling she'd bail amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times cut her some slack she's a newbie cut her some slack she's a newbie cut her some slack she's a newbie I I said cut her some slack she's a newbie did you get that do you know what this means first let's talk about the pronunciation changes her him and them we often shorten these so her I get rid of the H sound

and it sounds like but then I combine it to the word before cutter cutter cutter cutter some slap she's this is a contraction native speakers use contractions all the time in spoken English she's represents she is she is a newbie she's she's a newbie now do you know what this means to cut someone some slack this is an expression and it's when you punish someone less severely than you normally would and a newbie this is a new employee a new employee or even a new member to a group you can refer to that person as

a newbie a newbie so it makes sense that you might cut a newbie some slack you might be less severe with that person because they're new they're still learning they're still training cut her some slack she's a newbie our second listening exercise I'll say it three times give me 20 to whip up some appies for the party give me 20 to whip up some appies for the party give me 20 to whip up some appies for the party I said give me 20 to whip up some appies for the party give me we reduce these

to sound like gimme give me give me give me 20 20 here means 20 minutes commonly we drop the minutes when it's obvious call me in five instead of call me in five minutes give me 20 give me 20 minutes give me 20 to whip up whip up is is a phrasal verb for the pronunciation notice is whip up whip up whip up because of linking whip up whip up means to prepare something quickly we specifically use this in a cooking context whip up some appies what are appies well I just said that we use

the phrasal verb whip up in a cooking culinary context what does appy sound like anything you can think of appetizers appetizers native speakers we love shortening words so we take the word appetizer and we shorten it to appy appy because it's plural in my example appies appies another common shorten word is simply apps so you could say give me 20 to whip up some apps or whip up some appies both are commonly used are you ready for your next listening exercise she's got some nerves sauntering in 30 minutes late she's got some neres sauntering in

30 minutes late she's got some nerve sauntering in 30 minutes late I said she's got some nerve saering in 30 minutes late for pronunciation notice she's got here the contraction is she has she has got I know this because grammatically it isn't correct to say she is got is she has gone she's gone she's got some nerve what does that mean to have some nerve is an expression to say how dare she she has some audacity so you're criticizing her behavior to say that she has no right to do something she's got some nerve now

what does she have no right to do well is sauntering in through 30 minutes late to understand this you need to know what saunter in means when you saunter it means you walk in a very relaxed casual unhurried way to saunter in here means into the office into the room into the meeting she sauntered in 30 minutes late so basically she came to to the meeting 30 minutes late and when she came she was so relaxed and she didn't show any sense of urgency even though she was 30 minutes late she's got some nerve doing

that our next listening exercise I got to hand it to you I didn't think you'd pull it off I got to hand it to you I didn't think you'd pull it off I got to hand it to you I didn't think you'd pull it off I said I got to hand it to you I didn't think you'd pull it off did you get this one got to is pronounced got I got hand it notice the linking here handed did I gotta hand it now I said to you but native speakers will frequently reduce both of

these and say t t t ya or y t to you got to hand it to you to but I believe I said to you I got to hand it to you I got to hand it to you UD is a contraction the d stands for w you would you you it's difficult to hear that D because it's very soft but gramatically it's important that it's there you'd pull it off notice the linking pull it lit pull it pull it off when you hand it to someone it means that you recognize that someone deserves praise

or respect so by saying I got to hand it to you means I have to acknowledge that your actions deserve praise or respect and why am I doing this because the person pulled something off when you pull something off it means you achieve something difficult you succeed at doing something difficult so that's why this person deserves praise I got to hand it to you I didn't think you'd pull it off but you did our last listening exercise I've got to have a little me time I've got to have a little meantime I've got to have

a little meantime I said I've got to have a little me time here notice we have the same G reduction got to got this time I said I've I have as a contraction I've I've gotta I've got to I've gotta I've got to have a little will sound like little little a little little a little me time now what is me time me time is simply personal time it's time when you can do whatever you want to do it's your personal time so of course I've got to have a little me time I must have

some time for me to do whatever I want to do personal time me time now let's do some imitation practice to make sure that you practice practice practice this natural pronunciation I am going to say each sentence three times and I want you to repeat it out loud and you can do this exercise as frequently as you'd like cut her some slack she's a newbie cut her some slack she's a newbie cut her some slack she's a newbie give me 20 to whip up some abies for the party give me 20 to whip up some

abies for the party give me 20 to whip up some abies for the party she's got some nurse Hing in 30 minutes late she's got some nurse oning in 30 minutes late she's got some nurse Hing in 30 minutes late I got to hand it to you I didn't think you pull it off I got to hand it to you I didn't think you pull it off I got to hand it to you I didn't think you pull it off I've got to have a little me time I've got to have a little me time

I've got to have a little me time amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times I got a lot on my plate I got a lot on my plate I got a lot on my plate did you get this one I said I got a lot on my plate now got a native speakers pronounce this as got got I got a I got a lot on my plate the expression is to have a lot on one's plate have you heard this it's very common when you have a lot on your plate it means

you're very busy you have many different has to complete now notice in my spoken expression I used got I got a lot on my plate I got a lot on my plate because native speakers commonly replace have with got in spoken English in a casual informal way but in written English or more formal professional English it's best to use have so let's see some examples I could say give the project to Isabelle Amar already has a lot on his plate now of course our verb is have so you need to conjugate it with the subject

in time reference in this case Omar third person singular Omar has in the present simple and notice Amar has a lot on his plate because the expression requires a possessive his plate we also use this expression to talk about a time we were busy in the past so you have to conjugate that verb we had a lot on our plate because the subject is we so now I need our plate and then you can use a past simple time Reference last week with the conference I got a lot on my plate right now I just

got a lot on my plate hey I got a lot on my plate let's try this again I'll say it three times I'm thinking of taking up sewing I'm thinking of taking up sewing I'm thinking of taking up sewing how' you do I said I'm thinking of taking up sewing take up is our phrasal verb and notice I pronounced it as one taking up taking up because the preposition belongs to the verb native speakers may drop that taking that g sound and it sounds more like taken taken but then you have to connect the preposition

taken up taken up I'm thinking of taken up sewing you may hear that and did you get sewing because of course the pronunciation is the same as so there's no sewing though adding an ing SO sewing is the activity but the pronunciation ation is the same as the word so let's talk about this phrasal verb when you take up an activity or a hobby it simply means start and this is one of the reasons that students you don't understand native speakers because our vocabularies are filled with phrasal verbs idioms and expressions like this one so

remember our last expression I have a lot on my plate let's combine these together I'd love to take up sewing but I already have so much on my plate at work of course take is a verb so you need to conjugate it I could say Max took up guitar last year and he's already amazing what about you are you thinking of taking up notice you need that Jaren thinking of taking up are you thinking of taking up a new activity or hobby share that in the comments below we'll take up yoga or U jogging or

you know we'll be organized taking up dress making yeah I am well Mrs B and I did take up synchronized swimming let's try a more advanced test I'll say it three times have you nailed down the dates yet have you nailed down the dates yet have you nailed down the dates yet I said have you nailed down the dates yet and the reason why this is more advanced is because I'm using an expression you may not be familiar with for pronunciation I said have you but a lot of native speakers reduce you to just a

y y have you have you have you nailed so you might hear that now nailed notice in the past simple that Ed is a very soft D nailed nailed but we have nailed down so because I have a D sound on down and these two go together I'll pronounce it as one and you'll only hear one D sound nail down nail down so it's pronounced exactly the same as nail down but if you say it together that D is used for both same with dates yet no notice how that s Blends into the Y for

yet dates yet and it sounds like one word dates yet dates yet the phrasal verb here is to nail something down and that's when you firmly establish or confirm something so just think of it as 100% confirmed I could say I'm not signing the contract until we nail down the terms one once the terms are nailed down they're 100% confirmed so you can think of them as official so then I'm comfortable signing the contract in a more everyday context you might say let's nail down our vacation plans by the end of the week and once

your plans are nailed down they're 100% confirmed so you can get excited about your vacation now notice my question have you you nailed down the dates yet what verb tense is not it's the present perfect and I'm using the present perfect because this is an unfinished timeline if the person says no it's still possible for them to nail down the dates to confirm the dates because it's unfinished to reply you can say no not yet because we use yet with the present perfect no I haven't nailed down the dates yet or you could say yes

I nail down the dates pass simple to show a completed P action or you could say yes I have nailed down the dates this is the present perfect it's a completed past action with a result in the present once we nail down our mission I'm just nailing down the specifics I'll nail it down the week let's do one more even more advanced I'll say it three times you can't Dodge us calls forever you can't Dodge as calls forever you can't Dodge as calls forever did you get this one I said you can't Dodge his calls

forever now notice can't in spoken English I'm not going to pronounce that hard can't with the T you can can can't Dodge notice here the D is silent the middle D dodge dodge dodge his calls forever now what does Dodge mean to dodge this is when you purposely avoid or ignore so he's calling but I'm not answering I'm purposely ignoring it I'm dodging his call so to you I might say you can't Dodge speaking in public forever you can't purposely avoid it or ignore the activity at some point you just have to do it now

notice I use Dodge speaking because you can dodge something his call or you can Dodge doing something so the verb in ing Dodge speaking we sometimes use this in a more positive way I might say great job dodging that question so maybe you were asked an inappropriate question in an interview or a meeting but then you strategically avoided answering that question so I might say great job dodging that question she's dodging calls why have you been dodging my calls she's dodging my phone calls now let's do an imitation exercise I'm going to say each sentence

again three times but I'm going to leave enough time for you to repeat the sentence out loud and imitate my pronunciation let's do that now I got a lot on my plate I got a lot on my plate I got a lot on my plate I'm thinking of taking up sewing I'm thinking of taking up sewing I'm thinking of taking up sewing have you nailed down the dates yet have you nailed down the dates yet have you nailed down the dates yet you can't Dodge his calls forever you can't Dodge his calls forever you can't

Dodges calls forever amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times are you all set are you all set are you all set I said are you all set notice that the U becomes more of an unstressed y or yah so it's a very subtle difference uh a y y netive speakers will use both are you are you are you all set and notice I don't push out that t so set all set now what does this mean to be all set this simply means to be ready so you can use this all the

time in your daily speech so I could ask you are you ready for your presentation tomorrow and you can reply back with those two words all set all set the full form would be I am all set and then you can just reduce that to all set which means I'm ready I'm ready for my presentation tomorrow we commonly use this to confirm that someone is ready to leave leave a house leave a restaurant leave any location are you ready to go and you can reply back with those two words all set which means I'm ready

to go all set all set all set let's try this again a little more challenging I'll say it three times my week's off to a rocky start my week's off to a rocky start my week's off to a rocky start did you get this one I said my weeks off to a rocky start notice that contraction week weeks that is week is my week is my weeks my weeks off and instead of saying two a I can combine those together with a W to so I use a w to Glide to to my weeks off

TOA Rocky start the reason why this is more difficult is because you may not know the expression the expression is to be off to a and then adjective start and in this example my adjective is Rocky my week's off to a rocky start Rocky means difficult or uncertain he and I got off to a rocky start all right sure tonight got off to a weird Rocky start we often use this adjective Rocky to describe relationships it could be a romantic relationship a relationship with family or friends or a relationship with your boss or coworker your

friend might come to you upset and say our relationship is a little rocky right now and she wants your advice but remember you can use any adjective with this expression so hopefully you'll use a positive one my week's off to an amazing start and notice because my adjective starts with with a vowel My article becomes an an amazing start off to a great start so we're off to a good start and you can use this expression as a reply to how's your week going so why don't you practice this right now how's your week going

and I want you to put in the comments my weeks off to a adjective start and you choose the adjective put that in the comments and hopefully it's a positive adjective let's try this again I'll say it three times what do you have on the go today what do you have on the go today what do you have on the go today did you get this one I said what do you have on the go today have you heard that native speakers pronounce what do you as Whata we combine all those sounds together Whata an

alternative is Whata Whata and I use both of them equally so it's important that you know both of them as well and this question is how a native speaker will commonly ask what are you doing today so the expression is have on the go what do you have on the go today what are you doing today now instead of have on the go native speakers will also say what do you have going on so on the go is one option going on is another option what do you have going on today hey girl what do

you got going on today so to answer maybe you could say today I'm studying J for his English lessons is that what you have going on today let's try this one more time I'll say it three times did you not not off in the presentation two did you KN off in the presentation two did you KN off in the presentation two did you get this one I said did you not off in the presentation too native speakers will combine did you and say did you did you so you hear a j sound did you or

we can reduce that to did or did you so that uh or a so all three options are common no off is a phrasal verb so we'll pronounce it as one word n off so notice I'll take that D sound and I'll connect it on the off but I have to combine it together nod off nod off nod off to nod off this means that you fall asleep accidentally when you're not supposed to like during a presentation so hopefully you're not nodding off during this lesson right now or maybe you knoted off on the bus

I knoted off on the bus and missed my stop has that ever happened to you or maybe you see one of your co-workers nodding off I think Sarah nod it off someone should wake her up before her boss sees her did you just just KN off I knotted it off so I knotted off a little knotted off Ross you were soring now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice your pronunciation I'm going to say each sentence again and I want you to repeat the sentence aloud and imitate my pronunciation are you all set

are you all set are you all set my week's off to a rocky start my week's off to a rocky start my week's off to a rocky start what do you have on the go today what do you have on the go today what do you have on the go today did you not off in the presentation too did you not off in the Pres presentation too did you not off in the presentation too amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times is Tuesday doable is Tuesday doable is Tuesday doable did you get

this one I said is Tuesday doable only three words but maybe you didn't hear that last word or maybe you heard it but you don't understand what this means so let's talk about it first for pronunciation some native speakers pronounce Tuesday as CH Tuesday with a CH sound Tuesday this is not standard pronunciation in American English in American English Standard pronunciation is Tuesday Tuesday but you may hear Tuesday so don't be confused but I recommend you use Tuesday let's talk about to be doable if something is doable it means it's achievable so you are able

to do it it's doable this expression is commonly used in the negative for example finishing the project with three people wasn't doable so we hired two more it's not doable in this example notice wasn't this is the verb to be to be doable is conjugated in the past simple with the subject and it's in the negative of course you can also use this expression in the positive you could say becoming a confident English speaker is doable it's achievable right you agree with that so put that's doable that's doable that's doable put it in the comments

and I certainly hope these lessons help you do just that so of course make sure you subscribe and share these lessons with your friends well that sounds doable doable let's try this again I'll say it three times dinner's ready let's dig in dinner's ready let's dig in dinner's ready let's dig in did you get this one I said dinner's ready you probably heard that one let's dig in again maybe you heard the words but you're not really sure what this means so let's talk about that first notice Dinners Ready dinner is and then as a

contraction dinners dinner's ready let's this is a contraction let us let's dig in dig in is a phrasal verb so native speakers will link those sounds together we'll take that g sound and we'll transfer it to the next word digin Gin Gin so you hear that g in front of in but you have to say them as one word dig in dig in let's dig in dig in has a simple meaning it means to begin eating a meal someone might say the food Foods getting cold please dig in please start eating or someone might say

before we dig in let's take a moment to appreciate this beautiful meal keep in mind this phrasal verb let's dig in it's only used with meals but is very commonly used and you eat at maybe three times a day so you can get a lot of use out of this one expression dig in let's dig in dig in let's try this again I'll say it three times mark my words I'll get it done mark my words I'll get it done mark my words I'll get it done how' you do with this one I said mark

my words I'll get it done so again pronunciation perhaps easy to understand the words but what does this mean first for pronunciation notice all all that's our contraction I will all I'll get it get it because we have a t and it's between two vowels so we'll pronounce that t as a soft D but you have to connect the sounds together get it get it get it done native speakers do something a little weird sometimes we change the word it to her but we pronounce it as ER so it will sound like getter get her

done get her done I'll get her done can you get her done so we do that even though there is no gender in English so that it doesn't represent a female noun but when we do change a noun to a gender we always use her but we pronounce it as ER get done you can hear that in this clip I think I can get her done in under 5 hours now to get it done to get something done native speakers will commonly say get her done this simply means that you complete a task but we're

using it because the task is obvious it's already been identified so you can change it to it so if you're in a meeting and you're discussing a report then it's obvious so someone might ask you can you get it done by 5:00 you can reply back and say mark my words I'll get her done now what does mark my words mean this is a way of saying I promise or I'm certain this is true in this case it's a promise I will get it done and that's why we're using the future simple because we use

the F future simple with promises and commitments you can use this expression in more of a dramatic way to say I'm certain this is true for example you shouldn't work with that company mark my words so you're emphasizing your certainty about the fact that the person shouldn't work with that company maybe because they have a bad reputation mark my words so you can use this as a standalone expression before or after to sound quite dramatic quite forceful mark my words Seinfeld you mark my words mark my words pal let's try this one more time I'll

say it three times we need to up the ATI we need to up the ATI we need to up the ATI did you get this one I said we need to up the ante to is commonly reduced to just a t we need to we need to we need to up the anti notice that pronunciation an anti and you can pronounce the as the with a long e because anti starts with a vowel native speakers don't always follow this rule to up the ante this is when you increase your demands in a situation or your

risk involved in a situation and you do this to achieve a better result this is commonly used in negotiations so imagine there's a union and they're negotiating with the company and the union increased their demands they opt the anti for example the union opt the anti by demanding a 5% Rays now notice here the word up is used as the verb to up the ante and that's why is conjugated in the past simple up and notice that pronunciation it's a soft T the E is pronounced as a soft t t up up the anti now

you negotiate any time you're entering into a partnership an agreement even when you accept a job with a company so you can use this expression maybe a business is trying to get a new contract and someone says I thought we had until the end of the week to accept the contract and someone else replies we did but they opt the anti so they increase their demands we have until 5:00 p.m. tonight great emotion talk about upping the antie well the dress up the anti we've got to up the anti now let's do an imitation exercise

so you can practice your pronunciation I'll say each sentence again three times but after each sentence I want you to repeat it out loud here we go is Tuesday doable is Tuesday do doable is Tuesday doable dinner's ready let's dig in dinner's ready let's dig in dinner's ready let's dig in mark my words I'll get it done mark my words I'll get it done mark my words I'll get it done we need to up the ante we need to up the anti we need to up the ante amazing job let's keep going I'll say it

three times thanks for your help you rock thanks for your help you rock thanks for your help you rock did you get this one I said thanks for your help you rock very easy right at a natural pace native speakers we reduce sound so for becomes first thanks for your becomes your thanks for your thanks for your help your help thanks for your help now let's review a common mistake that I hear beginner students make and sometimes even Advanced students you can say thank you or thanks you cannot say thanks you or thank and notice

in our example we have thanks for your help thanks for your help what is your help this is a noun so we have thanks for plus noun you can also use thanks for plus jiren because for is a preposition so what would thanks for your help be in the jiren form do you know thanks for helping me thanks for your help thanks for helping me and you Ro this is a very natural way to say you're great you're awesome I use this in the comment section to reply to your lovely comments all the time but

don't say you are rock it is not to be rock it is to rock you rock you rock you're awesome you're really great you rock put that in the comments you rock you rock thanks for your help thanks for helping me thanks Billy you rock you rock let's try this again a little more difficult I'll say it three times she's starting to rub off on you she's starting to rub off on you she's starting to rub off on you did you get this one I said she's starting to rub off on you she's is our

contraction she is she's she's starting to so instead of to you can use an unstress T she's starting to rub off because rub off is a phrasal verb they go together I can take that b sound and connect it to the next word but I have to combine them together I have to say them as one word rof bof rub off rub off I can also take that on and add it together so I'm saying those three words as one r so here I'm taking the F from off and I'm adding it to On th

ra on rub off on rub off on you what does this mean to rub off on someone is when someone's Behavior or personality affects someone else let's take Janice and let's say Janice loves helping other people now let's say Fernando spends a week working with Janice and now Fernando starts helping other people you could say Janice rubbed off on Fernando here we have it in the past simple rubbed rubbed rubbed off on Janice rubbed off on Fernando now you could also take the specific personality trait or characteristic in this case Janice is helpfulness which is

a noun Janice's helpfulness because the helpfulness belongs to Janice so it's possessive Janice's helpfulness robbed off on Fernando so that specific character trait of Janice transferred to Fernando because they spent time together Marcus is really rubbing off on you finally I'm rubbing off on you my deviousness is finally rubbed off on you let's try this again I'll say it three times he rubs me the wrong way he rubs me the wrong way he rubs me the wrong way did you get this one I said he rubs me the wrong way notice this expression uses the

verb to rub and our last expression used the verb to rub but they have completely different meanings and that's why this is a more advanced listening exercise because maybe you understood the words but you don't know what this means to rub someone the wrong way this is to annoy someone but without intending to remember Janice from our last example and she was very helpful but maybe for some reason she just rubs you the wrong way she annoys you but there's nothing that she does to annoy you just maybe your personalities Clash they don't go together

so if your planning a social Gathering you might say is it okay if we don't invite Janice she rubs me the wrong way now an entire person like poor Janice can rub you the wrong way but it also could be something specific that someone said or did and overall you like Janice but just that one thing she said or did rubbed you the wrong way for example your comment just rubbed me the wrong way so maybe she said something in a meeting that really annoyed you but you know she did not intend to annoy you

so here your comment this is a noun your comment rubbed the past simple of the verb to rub and notice that soft D rubbed rubbed me rubbed me the wrong way is it me like do I rub you the wrong way not Jay guy rubs me the wrong way she rubs everyone the wrong way but pop our final listening exercise and the most advanced I'll say it three times I had a hunch quit I had a hunch quit I had a hunch quit did you get this one I said I had a hunt he'd quit

notice for pronunciation I had a I had a hadada so I combine had a together as one word I had a hunt he' quit now did you hear that D he he' quit well that D represents what word would he would quit he'd quit he' quit very difficult for students to hear native speakers understand it based on context and based on grammatical structure it would sound awkward without it so we know it's there even though we can really hear it either when you have a hunch a hunch is the noun and then the verb that

goes with it is have so to have a hunch this is when you think or predict that something is going to happen but it isn't based on facts it's based on your intuition your feeling so you could say I have a hunch she'll accept our invitation now if someone replies back and says why all you would say is because I have a hunch I have a feeling I have a gut feeling and notice the grammar here I have a hunch this is the present simple and then she'll accept she will accept that's the future simple

I have a hunch she'll accept our invitation because you're making a prediction about the future but you could use this in the past like our listening exercise I had a hunch last week in the past so that's the past simple last week I had a hunch that he would quit so would is the past simple of the verb will I had a hunch that he'd quit and using that is optional you don't need it you could simply say I had a hunch he'd quit I had a hunch just a hunch I had a hunch but

I wasn't certain now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice speaking fast just like a native I'll say each sentence again three times and this time I want you to repeat each sentence out loud here we go thanks for your help you rock thanks for your help you rock thanks for your help you you rock she's starting to rub off on you she's starting to rub off on you she's starting to rub off on you he rubs me the wrong way he rubs me the wrong way he rubs me the wrong way I

had a hunch he'd quit I had a hun he' quit I had a hun he'd quit amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times you're on a roll you're on a roll you're on a roll did you get this one I said you're on a roll notice that contraction your this is you are and native speakers we pronounce this very unstressed you're you're you're you're on notice how on a sounds like one word because I use use that n from on I transfer it to a on na na but I have to say

it as one word Onna Onna you're on a roll you're on a roll and you're on a roll what does this mean this is a great expression because when you're on a roll it means you're experience a period of continuous success or Good Fortune so this is a very positive thing in the Sports World if a sports team wins five games in a row which means consecutively one after the other that team would be on a roll or in the workplace let's say Muhammad has a sales job and Muhammad made five sales today he's on

a roll because you need the verb to be he is as a contraction he's he's on a role he's on a roll or how about you if you pass this listening test the next one the next one and the next one in this lesson you can say I pass all four listening test I'm on a roll I'm on a roll or you could say I've studied English every day this month so that continuous success one after the other I've studied English every day this month I'm on a roll and notice that verb tense I've studied

I have studied this is the present perfect and it's being used because it's an unfinished time reference so if I say this month it means the month is still in progress maybe it's the 20th or 23rd so put I'm on a roll I'm on a roll because you're watching this lesson and I'm sure you've watched other English lessons hopefully mine this week so you can say I'm on a roll put that in in the comments are we on a roll or are we on a roll our next listening exercise a little more difficult I'll say

it three times I'm not a fan of sports I'm not a fan of sports I'm not a fan of sports did you get this one I said I'm not a fan of sports notice that contraction I'm I am I'm not a can be linked together so said as one word but notice that t is between two vowels so I'm going to pronounce it as a soft D NADA n n I'm NADA fan of so I can combine fan of together fan of but I need to take that n and transfer it to the next sound

no no fan of I'm not a fan of sports I'm not a fan of sports this has a very simple meaning to be a fan of something or someone means you like it you like that something or you like that someone what about you are you a fan of American football which in North America we just call football but to avoid confusion for you are you a fan of American football the NFL to reply on the negative side you can say I'm not at all all a fan so this means you really dislike sports or

American football I'm not at all a fan a little less negative I'm not a fan I dislike it but not really dislike it I dislike American football I'm a fan I'm a huge fan I'm a giant fan if you love American football so which one describes you put it in the comments for me I would say I'm not at all a fan I would rather watch football soccer than American football which we call football now remember you can use this expression with something or someone for example I'm a fan of Taylor Swift and of course

that means her music what she does I'm a fan of tayor Swift I'm a fan of Elon Musk or Sports something I'm a fan of yoga biking technology is a great something I'm a fan of Google Drive personally I'm a huge fan of Google Drive I love it I'm a fan of Amazon I'm a fan of Android whatever you want so you can get a lot of use out of this expression I just wanted to tell you I'm a huge fan I'm I'm a huge fan not a sports fan huh our next listening exercise I'll

say it three times you really hit the jackpot you really hit the jackpot jaot you really hit the jackpot did you get this one I said you really hit the jackpot now native speakers we often pronounce u as a very unstressed y you're really you're really you're really you're really hit notice I don't say hit and pronounce that t because it forces me to take a pause hit the so you don't really hear the T this is called a flop T hit the jock now when you hit the jackpot it means you win the lottery

which is an awesome thing woohoo I hit the jackpot but outside of the context of the lottery when you hit the jackpot it means you achieve a highly desirable or fortunate outcome and it's by chance just like when you win the lottery when you hit the jackpot it's by chance they just pull number and by chance it's your number you hit the jackpot so when you use this expression outside of the lottery it's also by chance so I could say I love fashion and my boss just assigned me to The Vogue account Vogue is a

fashion brand and I get to go to Fashion Week for free I hit the jackpot but this suggests that it was just by chance that I was given the Vogue account it's not because I spent weeks preparing a presentation to try to get the account it was just randomly assigned to me I hit the jackpot and just remember those conjugations of hit it's hit hit hit so very easy to remember so in the past simple last week I hit the jackpot when my boss signed me to The Vogue account or I could say I've hit

the jackpot the present perfect I have I've hit the jackpot with this new account in this case the present perfect is for an action a completed past action that has a result in the present and here's a true example my students are absolutely amazing all of you are so amazing I truly feel like I've hit the jackpot with such amazing students especially when I read the comments and everyone is so positive and supportive I truly feel like I've hit the jackpot so thank you all our final listening exercise and the most challenging listening exercise I'll

say it three times she really pushes my buttons she really pushes my buttons she really pushes my buttons did you get this one I said she really pushes my buttons and this is the most difficult one because maybe you heard the individual words but do you know what it means if someone said this to you would you be able to reply back would you be able to have a conversation because this is an advanced idiom that native speakers use for pronunciation maybe the word buttons wasn't clear because native speakers we don't pronounce those t's I

don't say buttons buttons that sounds very awkward for me to pronounce I never ever say it like that I always say buttons buttons buttons buttons so those t's become flop T's we don't push out the air now you can absolutely say buttons you can pronounce the T but it's important that you know how native speakers pronounce it so you can understand us and not be confused when we say buttons and you can hear that unstressed buttons in this clip let's listen now button button who's got the button so now that you know how to hear

buttons let's learn about this expression to push On's buttons and notice buttons is always plural this is when you annoy someone on purpose now why would you annoy someone on purpose well you have maybe a sister a brother a best friend a husband a wife a mom and dad and you probably know how to push their buttons you know how to get a reaction out of them and let's be honest sometimes you do it on purpose right so let's say you have a sibling your mom could say to you why do you always push your

sister's button so notice your sister's buttons the buttons belong to your sister so you need the possessive there and your mom is saying why do you always purposely annoy your sister and maybe you push her buttons by talking about her ex-boyfriend and you know just the mention of his name really irritates her but you do it on purpose to get that reaction let's be honest we've all done something like this there are always little rivalries in the workplace as well so someone could say she's just trying to push my buttons but it won't work so

she's saying someone else is trying to annoy her on purpose but she's going to ignore it it won't work and maybe this other coworker is doing this by talking about the Vogue account that she lost lost remember she hit the jackpot with the Vogue account but then she forgot to do something and they fired her from the account so she's not going to Fashion Week and she's not working on the Vogue account so just talking about the Vogue account really creates a reaction in her this happens a lot let's say you have two friends one

of them supports this sports team and the other friend supports this Sports team and their Rivals and simply talking about the other sports team gets that person really upset and annoyed so you could say I know how to push Alexander's buttons just mention how France lost the World Cup he pushes my buttons this kid is pushing my buttons really knows how to push buttons now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice all these natural pronunciation changes I'll say each sentence again three times but this time after I say it I want you to

repeat it out loud here we go you're on a roll you're on a roll you're on a roll I'm not a fan of sports I'm not a fan of sports I'm not a fan of sports you really hit the jackpot you really hit the jackpot you really hit the jackpot she really pushes my buttons she really pushes my buttons she really pushes my buttons amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times it's not a big deal at all it's not a big deal at all it's not a big deal at all did you

get this one I said it's not a big deal at all it is a contraction of it is not a we can combine these together but notice we have a t between two vowels so a native speaker is going to pronounce that as a soft D and say NADA NADA it's NADA it's NADA big deal and then we can do the same with at with that t and then all I can put them together and then I'll pronounce that t as a soft D and it sounds like at all at all at all at all

it's not a big deal at all let's talk about what this means to be a big deal this describes something that's important serious or significant we use this in both positive and negative situations for example when you do something and the consequences are serious in a bad way getting caught plagiarizing is a big deal you could be expelled so here the consequences are serious in a negative way you could be expelled which means permanently removed from your school is that that big of a deal yes it's a big deal but we also use this in

a positive way getting a promotion is a big deal deal you can finally buy a house so here the promotion is important and significant for the impact it will have on your life it's a big deal no big deal it's a huge deal now remember our example was in the negative it's not a big deal at all so we can use this in two ways first to say that something isn't serious significant or important for example missing the party isn't a big deal your friend will understand so the consequence of that action missing the party

isn't very important or significant or serious it's really not a big deal it's not a big deal now we also use this as a reply when someone offers appreciation or their thanks for something we did your friend could say thanks for agreeing to help me move this weekend I really appreciate it and you can reply back and say it's not a big deal at all I'm happy to help now if you want to sound really American and Casual you can reduce that entire sentence to two words no biggie no biggie so no biggie represents it's

not a big deal no biggie a no biggy it's really common with native speakers in a casual informal way so I could show my appreciation to you and say thank you so much for liking this video and subscribing don't forget to do those two things and then you can reply back and say no biggie no biggie it's not a big deal at all I'm happy to so put that in the comments no biggie no biggie no biggie put that in the comments let's try this again I'll say it three times so what are you into

so what are you into so what are you into I said so what are you into what are can combine together and that R can sound very reduced what what what so in what are water water so basically I'm forming a contraction in spoken English although this does not exists as a contraction is what we do in spoken English so what are you can become more of an unstressed y or y y y almost identical in pronunciation what are you in so you can take into and change it to in I didn't do that personally

but many native speakers do so be prepared to hear to as T so what are you into what are you into this is a casual way to ask someone about their interest or preferences so definitely add this to your vocabulary it will help you sound like a Native American speaker what exactly are you into Jesse to reply you can say I'm to be into I am I'm into plus a noun I'm into music art yoga photography hiking biking or whatever other activity that you're into is also very commment to answer what are you into just

with a verb of preference and simply say I like music I love yoga I adore photography or whatever your interest or preference is so what are you into what about you sleeveless what are you into let's try this again I'll say it three times can we play it by year can we play it by year can we can we play it by ear did you get this one I said can we play it by ear can is an auxiliary verb it's there to ask the question when it's an auxiliary verb we pronounce it as kin

kin unstressed because the main verb is what you hear play can you play can you play we can combine play and it together I'll take that Y and I'll use it to connect play it yet play it play it but you say it as one word can we play it by ear do you know what this means when you play something by ear it means that you make decisions as they happen rather than planning in advance if your friend or spouse asks you what should we do this weekend and you don't want to make plans

you just want to decide as it's happening so you wait until dinner to decide what you're going to have for dinner rather than planning it in advance the day before you can say let's just play it by ear let's just play it by ear you're right let's play it by ear or someone asks what are you going to do on vacation because they know you have a vacation planned you can reply back and say we we have a few tours planned and we'll play The Rest by ear the rest being the rest of your vacation

we'll play The Rest by ear we'll decide what we want to do in the moment based on how we feel based on where we are based on the situation rather than deciding in advance what about you when you're planning a vacation do you prefer to have a full itinerary which means every day all the activities you're going to do on that day are decided in advance that's a full itinerary or do you prefer to play it by ear no plans you're just going to decide what to do based on how you feel or perhaps number

three a little bit of both so put in the comments your preference one two or three as for me I would probably choose choose number two just to play it by ear I like being more spontaneous but my husband Kevin he is definitely a full itinerary person which I learned the first time we planned a vacation together so now we do number three we do a little bit of both so we both are satisfied what about you share yours in the comments I don't know play it by you why let's try this one more time

I'll say it three times turns out I bought a knockoff turns out I bought a knockoff turns out I bought a knockoff did you get this one maybe a little more challenging I said turns out I bought a knockoff turns out I can combine those together and it sounds like turns so so I'm using that s to Glide to the next word but I say it as one word turns out turns out I B bot a so bot is pronounced bot so I can combine those together b b just like got native speakers commonly say

G well you can do the same thing with bota b b knock the K is silent and off because they go together knock off it's one word I'm going to use that n cough cough so I'm going to pronounce the final K on knock and I'm going to pronounce it on off knockof knockoff let's talk about what this means turns out to turn out this is an extremely common phrasal verb and is used in many expressions in Daily speech so definitely add it to your vocabulary in this context turns out is used to say that

something is surprising or unexpected so I did not expect this situation turns out it was spam so let's say you were supposed to work late tonight and you knew about this last week you've planned your your entire week to work late today you've made plans and Arrangements but then your boss says oh actually you don't have to work late tonight we finished the project so you can say oh turns up I don't have to work late tonight because it's unexpected it's surprising it's not what you thought turns out grammatically there should be a subject here

it turns out I don't have to work late tonight but this is called a dummy subject in English where the subject it doesn't actually represent anything is just the existence the situation because it's dummy subject in spoken English we often drop it and just say turns out I don't have to work late tonight but in written English a subject is required grammatically let's talk about a knockoff what is this because turns out I bought a knockoff what's a knockoff a knockoff is a copy or an imitation of something usually a product or service knockoffs are

very common with designer Brands so the original is a Louis Vuitton handbag which has a very distinct look to it but there are a lot of knockoffs they're fake they're fake Louis Vuittons and from a distance you probably can't tell at all but when you examine the quality of the material it's very obvious so in this situation maybe it's my friend bought a Louis Vuitton but turns out it was a knockoff are this designer a knockoff can't just buy another knockoff that's actually a cubic cironi knockoff now let's do an imitation exercise so you can

practice all of these pronunciation changes that take place in spoken English I'll say each sentence again three times and after I see the sentence I want you to repeat the sentence out loud and IM itate my pronunciation here we go it's not a big deal at all it's not a big deal at all it's not a big deal at all so what are you into so what are you into so what are you into can we play it by ear can we play it by ear can we play it by ear turns out I bought

a knockoff turns out I bought a knockoff turns out I bought a knockoff amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times it was a cakewalk it was a cakewalk it was a cakewalk did you get this one I said it was a cakewalk let's talk about Wasa you can combine these together and it sounds like was Z so notice I'm linking the sounds and I'm taking that was but it's a z it's a voiced sound so I'm going to transfer that sound to a so you hear Z was was a it was a

cakewalk it was a cakewalk this thing was a cakewalk right what does this mean to be a cakewalk this means that something is simple or effortless you might be familiar with the IDI am to be a piece of cake when you describe something as a piece of cake it means simple or effortless this is the same idiom is just slightly changing it to be a cakewalk piece of cake hopefully you would say learning English becomes a cakewalk when you have a great teacher if you agree then put Cakewalk Cakewalk put Cakewalk in the comments remember

that you have to cont conjugate your verb to be with the subject and the time reference this was a cakewalk in the past simple this is a cakewalk in the present simple this will be a cakewalk in which verb tense the future simple and this has been a cakewalk which verb tense the present perfect and also remember the article it's always a cakewalk this was a cakewalk let's try this again a little more advanced I'll say it three times it's a Band-Aid fix it's a Band-Aid fix it's a Band-Aid fix did you hear this one

I said it's a Band-Aid fix of course it's is our contraction of it is its it's band aid is two words but to pronounce them like one I'll take that D and transfer it to the vowel band D dat Band-Aid Band-Aid Band-Aid fix a Band-Aid fix is a temporary solution to a problem to understand this expression you need to know what a Band-Aid is this is a Band-Aid this is the brand name for bandage but the brand name is band-aid and native speakers just refer to bandages as Band-Aids I put Band-Aids on on it but

remember this means a temporary solution to a problem you could say filling the potholes is a Band-Aid fix this entire Road needs to be repaved but it's just AB Band-Aid fix now there are many temporary solutions to help you improve your English but not all of them are permanent for example relying on chat GPT to write for you is a Band-Aid fix remember the article our noun is a fix and then Band-Aid is an adjective a bandaid fix and although a Band-Aid fix means a temporary solution you can't say a Band-Aid solution you must always

say a Band-Aid fix because that's the word choice in this expression let's try this again a little more difficult I'll say say it three times you can't rest on your laurels you can't rest on your laurels you can't rest on your laurels did you get this one I said you can't rest on your laurels native speakers often pronounce t as a flap T which means we don't push out that puff of air because it forces us to take a pause you can't so I don't say you can't I say you can't you can't rest so

here you hear that t because I'm linking the two words together and I'm transferring the T sound onto the vowel Reston ton Reston Reston your is pronounced in spoken English as an unstressed you're you're you can't rest on your your laurels this could be a hard word to pronounce depending on your native language because we have an R and an L lore lore so divide the sounds until you're comfortable with each sound L and then you can pronounce it as one Laurels Laurels the expression is to rest on your laurels we use this to say

that you shouldn't become too comfortable or stagnant with past achievements past successes you should set new goals you should push yourself further you shouldn't rest on your laurels for example the author wrote an international bestseller but then rested on her Laurels so she had a past accomplishment past success with this International bestseller that she wrote but because she rested on her Laurels it means that she didn't set new goals she didn't push herself further so she didn't write anything after after that International bestseller she just remained successful based on her past success but didn't achieve

any new success let's think about this in a language learning context maybe you have a past success with a high score on an exam it's amazing that you got a bad nine on your IELTS last year but you can't just rest on your laurels so this sounds like after your amazing accomplishment your band nine you stopped trying to improve you stopped trying to improve even more you just rested on your laurels you had that past success and you thought you were done with language learning which of course isn't the case so to help motivate this

friend who's resting on their Laurels you can say subscribe to J Forest English and keep improving keep learning keep GR growing don't rest on your laurels let's try this one more time the most advanced listening exercise I'll say it three times I'm going out for a bit I'm going out for a bit I'm going out for a bit did you get this one I said I'm going out for a bit of course I'm is our contraction of I am I'm I'm I'm going out again we have that flap T cuz I'm not going to say

out out I'm going out I'm going out now many native speakers will combine all three of these together and they'll pronounce for as more of an unstressed fur fur a fur a bit fur a bit and again that flat t on bit because I'm not saying bit for a bit for a bit you can still link them together even if you say for or a native speaker commonly says for for a it for a bit now sometimes native speakers will pronounce the T in this case because it's at the end of a sentence there's a

period so we have to take a pause anyway for a bit for a bit I'm going out for a bit to go out this means to temporarily leave your current location most commonly your home for a bit is a Time reference and it means for a small amount of time sorry guys I have to go out for a bit this is a common way that someone will say they're leaving I'm going out for a bit now where are they going well remember it's more of a they're going out temporarily so perhaps they're going to run

errands go grocery shopping meet a friend or go to the movies any small amount of time we also commonly use this as a suggestion to say let's leave the house and do something more interesting we've been watching Netflix all day let's go out let's go out for a bit let's go out tonight now let's do an imitation exercise so you can practice these pronunciation changes and practice fast English so I'll say each sentence again three times and after each sentence I want you to repeat the sentence out loud here we go it was a cakewalk

it was a cakewalk it was a cakewalk it's a Band-Aid fix it's a bandaid fix it's a Band-Aid fix you can't rest on your laurels you can't rest on your laurels you can't rest on your laurels I'm going out for a bit I'm going out for a bit I'm going out for a bit amazing job let's keep going I'll say it three times our first listening exercise whatever she you need to complete the sentence I'll play it three times whatever she dishes out you can give it right back double whatever she dishes out you can

give it right back double whatever she dishes out you can give it right back double how do you do with this one Whatever She dish dishes out our phrasal verb is to dish out now let's review how to use this phrasal verb to dish out this simply means to criticize so when you criticize someone or something you say something negative about it for example she really dished it out to Tom at the meeting she really criticized Tom at the meeting now notice I said dished it out what's the it the it represents the criticism she

dished out the criticism she dished it out to Tom and we always use this expression with criticism so you don't need to specify that it I'm sharing this phrasal verb with you because we have a very common in expression in English you can dish it out but you can't take it you can dish it out which means you freely give criticism to others but you can't take it which means if somebody tries to criticize you you do not accept that you become very upset or very angry so if someone is being very critical you might

say well you can dish it out but can you take it can you receive the criticism that you're giving it's a way to remind someone that maybe you shouldn't criticize others you can dish it out but you can't take it amazing job now pay close attention because at the end of this lesson I'm going to quiz you to make sure you really know how to use these phrasal verbs let's do this listening exercise again here's your sentence and you need to complete the sentence I'll play it three times we're all just m Ling through ART

we we're all just muddling through ART way we're all just muddling through ART way how' you do it this one we're all just muddling through let's learn how to use to muddle through this is when you do or achieve something accidentally without a specific plan for example I muddled through making the cake so maybe I had no idea how to make this cake I didn't know the procedure I didn't feel prepared I muddled through making the cake but it was actually quite delicious so sometimes when you muddle through something the result isn't very positive because

you don't actually have a plan other times it can be positive in the end amazing job number three here's your sentence you need to complete the sentence I'll play it three times I'm excited nerd out on it I'm excited to nerd out on it I'm excited to nerd out on it he's excited to nerd out on this is a fun phrasal verb let's learn how to use it to nerd out oh I love this one when you nerd out on something it means you discuss it in great detail greater detail than the average person would

normally do for example I can nerd out on sentence structure all day I can discuss sentence structure English sentence structure all day but my friends who are native English speakers have no interest in discussing English sentence structure to them that is boring but to me as an English teacher and most likely to you as an English learner we can nerd out on the English language all day I can also nerd out on Plants talking about plants different types of plants looking at plants I really love plants as well but the average person probably doesn't want

to discuss it in as much detail as I do what about you what's something that you could nerd out on nerd out on this specific topic all day share that in the comments number four complete this sentence I'll play it three times of course I'll sck around of course I'll sck around of course I'll Stick Around of course I'll Stick Around let's learn how to use to stick around this is a very common phrasal verb and it simply means to remain in a place for a period of time let's say you just finished dinner with

a friend at a restaurant and you drove but your friend took the bus so you can just get in your car and leave but your friend has to wait until the bus comes so you could say oh don't worry I'll stick around until the bus comes I'll stay with you at this specific location the restaurant or the bus stop until the bus comes or let's say you're in the mall and it's raining outside you might say well let's just stick around until it stops raining so let's stay at this specific location until it stops raining

you'll absolutely use this in your daily speech and hear native speakers using this one all the time number five I'll play it three times wash up for dinner guys wash up for dinner guys wash up for dinner guys did you get this one wash up for dinner let's review this phrasal verb to wash up this simply means to clean your hands to wash your hands and or to wash your face so before dinner you could say oh I just need to wash up and most likely you're going to wash your hands and I commonly say

this in the evening before I watch a movie I could say to my husband oh just give me five minutes to wash up before we start the movie and for me it's to wash my face because I love taking off my makeup before I watch a movie it's a lot more comfortable so women might use the wash up for our face more frequently so it can be for both hands and face number six here's your sentence let's see if you can complete it I'll play it three times now make sure if you leave you lock

up the house now make sure if you leave you lock up the house now make sure if you leave you lock up the house how' you do with this one now make sure if you leave you lock up the house very good advice let's review this one to lock up this is when you securely close your windows and doors or entrances to your house or building so it's another way of simply saying lock for example make sure you lock up before bed and in that case it's in your home and that's of course good advice

but if you work in a building someone is likely responsible for locking up at the end of the workday so one person might be responsible for making sure that all the entrances to that building are securely closed or locked so for example Sally is responsible for locking up number seven we're going to review one of my favorite TV shows parks and wreck let's see if you can complete this sentence and while he was yammering on about whatever and while he was yammering on about whatever and while he was yammering on about whatever how did you

do it this one and while he was yammering on let's review this to Yammer on this is when you talk continuously in an annoying way for example I ran into Kate at the mall and she yammered on for hours and I missed my bus so I ran into Kate I saw Kate but I wasn't expecting to see her I saw her accidentally I ran into Kate at the mall and she yammered on oh hi Jennifer I'd love to tell you about my vacation and then 10 minutes later she's still talking about her vacation and she

doesn't realize that I'm not that interested in her vacation or I'm just busy and need to leave to Yammer on number eight they've been let's listen three times they've been mouthing off to me they've been mouthing off to me they've been mouthing off to me did you get this one they've been mouthing off off to me oh no let's review this one to mouth off when you mouth off to someone you speak to that person in a disrespectful way or in an angry way so this is something that kids especially teenagers do to their parents

and when I was a teenager if I moused off to my parents I would be grounded when you're grounded this means that certain privileges are taken away from you so if you're grounded maybe you can't go to the movies with your friends you can't use the car you can't use the computer privileges you would normally have in the house you're grounded you're grounded and as adults we also don't want to mouth off to certain people like our boss or an authority figure like a police officer is definitely not a good idea to mouth off number

nine yeah but I let's listen three times yeah but IX St my credit card yeah but IX St my credit card yeah but ixed out my credit card did you get this one yeah but I maxed out my cred credit card uh-oh let's review this to max out when you max something out it means you take that something to a limit for example I maxed out my credit cards on vacation so your credit card has a limit maybe $10,000 if you maxed out that credit card it means that you spent $110,000 the maximum amount the

limit of that credit card likely not the best idea and finally number 10 this is a fun one I'm let's listen three times I'm loading up on carb I'm loading up on carb I'm loading up on carb how' you do I'm loading up on carbs let's learn how to use this to load up on when you load up on something it means you consume a lot of that something or you purchase a lot of that something for a specific purpose so let's say you're an athlete right before a race or a competition you might load

up on carbs carbs are carbohydrates energy for your body so you want to consume a lot of carbs Jim loaded up on carbs before the race or you could say we loaded up on toilet paper because it was on sale so we purchased a large amount of toilet paper because it was on sale so now you have 10 new phrasal verbs plus you've improved your listening skills of real English so are you ready for your quiz here are the questions hit pause take as much time as you need and when you're ready for the answers

hit play how did you do with that quiz let's find out here are the answers hit pause review them and when you're ready hit play congratulations on completing this English listening Master Class comment let's go let's go comment let's go if you want me to keep testing your listening skills and you can keep expanding your vocabulary with this lesson right now