Name: How To Understand Native English Speakers: Shortened Words
Uploaded: 2025-07-28T18:19:12.000Z
Duration: 12 min 3 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

In today's video, I want to help you understand native English speakers, okay?

And one of the things you need to understand about the way native English speakers speak is that they like to shorten words, okay?

Now, I am sure that if you pay attention to your own language and to speakers of your language, this is something that most people do in their native language, okay?

But when you're trying to learn a new language, sometimes it's very difficult to catch the situation or the context because certain words have been shortened, and you don't know what they mean in terms of their full meaning, okay?

So, we're going to look at a few of these.

Now, the main thing I want to point out is that it's important for you to understand these words, but don't try to use them yet, okay?

Once you get into a more advanced level of English and once you're starting to get a little bit closer to fluency, then you start using these words in natural speech, okay?

Now, the main thing to remember also is that these are the sorts of things you will not hear or you will not learn about in textbooks, in your ESL classes or your English classes at school, because these are street words.

This is the way people speak naturally on the street.

So, it's important to understand what these words mean.

So, caj, the S, this is the phonetic spelling.

If you know the word measure, if you know how to pronounce the word measure, this S is the same sound, caj.

So, like, if you're talking about a party, oh, what should I dress?

And if you're going to, you want to go for a dinner, like you ask a friend, like of the opposite sex, do you want to go for dinner sometime, and she says or he says, oh, you know, I'm not really interested.

Oh, don't worry, just caj, a caj dinner, like nothing implied, no alternative meanings, casual.

Now, again, and this is very, very common, cause, cause, cuz, depends.

And some people say it cause, some people say it cuz, depends how fast they're speaking.

Oh, because I was tired, because I was, because I was.

If you hear because I was, this is what it sounds like, because I was.

And you're sitting there going, because I was, because I was, is that English?

And you have to break it up and understand that cuz is just a shortened form of because.

Now, it's gotten to the point, these words are so commonly used that when somebody says because, they want to emphasize something, they want to point out the reason.

So, I want you to understand, this is the reason, don't ask me again, etc.

Now, some English learners have enough of a hard time with this word, comfortable.

But if you're not too comfortable with the word comfortable, just say comfy.

Now, when you say delish, it basically means delicious.

So, we use it as a, again, it's a little bit of slang, but it's a little bit of emphasize how delicious something was.

It's so delicious that we're playful with it.

Almost like two different words, de-lish, and you throw it away on the lish to give it a little bit more emphasis.

And sometimes I say that to students and they look at me like, what?

But congratulations, that's a very long word.

So, I just want to shorten it to two syllables.

So, when you say something or someone is legit, it means true or trustworthy.

So, did you hear the news about the president?

I'm not sure if I can believe it or trust it.

And if you talk about a person, do you know, have you met Bill?

He's not trying to lie to you or to con you, etc.

And if something now, in a bit more slang way, legit means just very good.

That music is legit or that band is legit.

Means they're the real thing, they're really good.

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How To Understand Native English Speakers: Shortened Words

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