How to Speak Fast in English How to Sound Like a Native Speaker

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hi everybody welcome back to ask Alicia

the weekly series where you ask me

questions and I answer them maybe first

question this week comes from Naggar

junuh hi Nagarjuna Nagarjuna says what

is the difference between being and

having okay let’s start with the word

having we use the word having insect

expressions that use the verb have for

example I’m having a good time or I’m

having trouble with this he’s having a

shower at the moment can he call you

back okay so then being has a lot more

uses than having we use being to talk

about temporary conditions we can use

this before adjectives keep in mind that

when we use being before adjectives

we’re using it to describe something

that’s temporary in cases where we use

the same adjective without being it’s

describing something that is a regular

condition so let’s compare these two

sentences he’s weird he’s being weird

the first sentence he’s weird

is a simple present tense sentence

there’s no being here that shows us that

weird is a regular condition so he’s

usually weird he’s always weird the

second sentence though he’s being weird

uses being in the progressive tense so

that shows us it’s a temporary condition

it means at this moment he’s weird only

this moment so usually he’s not weird

but for right now he is so when you see

being used before adjectives in this way

it’s referring to this temporary state

or this temporary condition so we can

use being before a noun as well but we

use it to talk about an ongoing

condition such as our job we want to

talk about like this state of being

something that’s like always like the

same for us that’s usually our job or

some

that’s unchanging that’s a regular

condition for us so we can make

sentences that have the same meaning

that just use be in different ways for

example is being an artist difficult and

is it difficult to be an artist both of

these sentences use the verb to be the

first one uses being and just refers to

the ongoing condition of an artist so is

it difficult to be an artist and is

being an artist difficult those have the

same meaning they’re just slightly

different grammatical structures we can

also use being before verbs when we do

this we tend to use it in passive voice

and we use verbs in the past participle

form when we do this in present tense

it’s referring to an action that is

ongoing now when we’re talking about

past tense situations it’s referring to

an action that was continuing in the

past so an unfinished action in the past

sometimes there will be an interruption

that we can see in the sentence later in

the sentence but in some cases it’s just

referring to an unfinished action for

example present tense we are being

watched my lunch is being eaten by

someone else

so these show ongoing unfinished actions

that maybe we can see or we know about

but they’re continuing so we can use

being to talk about those so we use have

or having in the progressive form in set

expressions that use have I hope that

this helps you thanks very much for the

question ok let’s move on to your next

question next question comes from Feist

else I’ll say it - Feisal says how can I

talk very quickly in English um don’t

worry so much about speaking quickly or

like as fast as you possibly can like

everybody speaks at a pace that’s

natural and comfortable for them but if

you want to work on improving the

smoothness of your speech something that

you might try is just reading text out

loud so something that you can do to

practice is

like an interesting news article or

maybe a blog or even a short story to

read something that’s got a little bit

of length to it you don’t want to read

just tweets but something that you can

read that you can follow along with

practice reading this out loud so don’t

just read in your mind practice saying

the words and connecting the words to

one another so you can do this first

like slowly that’s fine it’s fine to

read slowly at first but then come back

to the same article practice reading

that again like later in the week or a

couple days later and practice making

the sounds a little bit faster so do

this a couple times until you’re

comfortable with the grammar points

until you’re comfortable with the

vocabulary words and then when you’re

fine you can move on to another article

challenge yourself with another article

that uses different grammar points

different words and so on something that

I find interesting and fun kind of to do

when I practice this way is to try to

take recordings of myself so maybe on

one day I’ll practice for like an hour

or I’ll study for an hour or something

and at the end of my practice session I

will record myself and then I can listen

to or watch the recording later and see

maybe what parts weren’t so good or what

parts I was good at then at my next

practice session I can do the same thing

and compare it to my first practice

session after a few weeks of this then I

can look back at my first practice

session compare it to my last practice

section our session rather and see how

much I’ve improved so this is a really

good way at least I’ve found to kind of

track progress so this is something that

could maybe help you as you try to

improve your rate of speech so again

don’t worry so much about speaking super

fast like it’s going to sound unnatural

if you’re just pushing yourself to speak

super quickly all the time so just try

to find a comfortable pace that allows

you to communicate clearly and smoothly

so I hope that this helps you thanks

very much for the question all right

let’s move on to your next question next

question comes from you soft hi Yousef

Yousaf says how can I politely ask my

teacher if it’s okay to

exit the classroom if you would like to

leave your classroom you can say

something like may I leave the room or

can I leave the room so some people are

really strict about the difference

between May and can

historically Mae has been used to ask

for permission can has been used to talk

about possibility or ability rather so

if you want to be super strict Mae is

better but Mae could sound a little bit

more polite so may I leave the room it’s

okay it’s probably a good idea to

include the reason you would like to

leave the room for example may I go to

the restroom or may I go to the office

or may I go to the health center I don’t

feel well so if you want to include a

reason you can do that may I go to some

place so this is how you would politely

ask your teacher if it’s okay to exit

the classroom I hope that this helps you

thanks very much for the question let’s

move on to your next question next

question is from art Tamiya Mayer to

Miam Arnhem ium says hi Alicia is it

required to put the indefinite article

in front of an adjective that follows an

uncountable noun for example hot milk or

neat writing or good education Thanks

aha

no in most cases actually using the

indefinite article in this way would be

incorrect to refresh everybody the

indefinite article is a or an and we use

indefinite articles before countable

nouns in the singular form but I do want

to talk a bit about these examples that

you’ve introduced the first example that

you introduced was the phrase hot milk

so the only way that I can think of that

we would use an indefinite article

before an expression like this is if hot

milk is a menu item you go to a

restaurant or coffee shop and hot milk

is on the menu and when you order you

say a hot milk please or one hot milk

please in that case it’s okay the reason

for this is because hot milk as a set

phrase is understood as one unit so even

though milk is a none cow

tubule noun yes we understand hot milk

is like one mug or is one cup of

something like that’s one item I can

order in that case using the indefinite

article is okay it’s natural it’s much

better in fact than saying can I have

some hot milk which sounds very weird

there in that case when we’re ordering

something we understand hot milk to be

one units like one cup one glass in that

case fine no problem so another example

of this might be it like a bakery if you

go to the bakery and you’d say I’d like

a sourdough bread please so in that case

sourdough bread is understood to be one

unit one type of bread like a menu item

in that case fine no problem your second

example your second example was about

the expression neat writing so this is

one that I would not use an article

before I would say in some very rare

very uncommon cases especially in like

formal or maybe religious texts some

people would use the word writing to

refer to like a script to refer to a

text using writing in this way to refer

just to written text sounds quite formal

so in today’s English we would probably

just say a neat piece of writing we

would not use the indefinite article in

this case finally then your last example

was the expression good education so the

reason that this one is a little bit

tricky is because we have an idiomatic

expression to get an education to get an

education means to receive education but

in this idiom we use the article we use

the indefinite article and before

education so because this is an

idiomatic expression it’s a set

expression we preserve that indefinite

article and just move it in front of

good so in your example good education

we could say to get a good education

that would be fine in that case because

it’s an idiom and because it uses an

indefinite article originally we keep it

there some examples that use this idiom

she got a good education at her

university it’s important that you get a

good education

okay so in sum if you’re looking at

adjectives uncountable noun phrases that

are understood as a unit

it’s okay to use an indefinite article

and it’s okay to use an indefinite

article when the uncountable noun is

part of an idiom so I hope that this

helps answer your question thanks very

much

ok let’s move on to your next question

next question comes from takuji sacimata

hi takuji takuji says hi Alicia please

teach me how to use you know in

conversation ok depending on the

positioning in the sentence and how we

feel when we say it meaning how our

voice feels when we say it it can have

slightly different meanings when we

position you know at the beginning of a

sentence it feels a little bit like by

the way so for example you know there’s

a three-day weekend coming up or you

know I have a big bonus coming in this

summer so in these sentences it means

like by the way and from the tone of my

voice it’s like there’s something

exciting there’s some exciting new

information I want to share there you

know if we position you know at the end

of a sentence it tends to sound like a

question and we use it to like get

agreement from people around us so we’re

like talking about a difficult situation

and we’re trying to get agreement from

the people around us for example I don’t

want to upset my parents you know or I’m

just not ready to move to a new city you

know so in those cases we use you know

to get listener agreement so we’re

saying you know as like a short version

of don’t you know what I mean or do you

understand what I mean

so you can think of you know used in

that way with that upward intonation to

be looking for like confirmation so

that’s actually a pretty good rule if

you hear you know used with that upward

question intonation it’s probably a good

hint that that’s looking for agreement

the speaker is looking for agreement if

you hear it with that downward

intonation you know it’s probably

sharing some new information that by the

way feel so I hope that this helps you

thanks

much for the question ok so that’s

everything that I have for this week

thank you as always for sending your

questions remember you can send your

questions to me at English class 101.com

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