In today’s video we’re looking at a conversation I had with friends,

where we made my husband David taste a watermelon, even though we know he hates watermelon.

You’ll hear words to describe qualities of food, whether you like it or hate it, and so on.

As we go, we’ll stop to talk about these terms, and also useful phrases or interesting pronunciations.

This conversation is fast English.

We are all native speakers speaking casually to each other, we’re all friends, this is just the pace of it.

But it is very fast.

Together, we’ll take a few of the sentences

and break them down to figure out how we’re speaking English fast,

and also to figure out why it’s still easily understood by native speakers.

And what you can do to speak fast English and sound natural speaking English.

Uhm, David hates watermelon, he thinks.

I know, but I want to try it again, you said it was the best one you've ever had.

I didn't say that.

So we start here by debating what I said.

If someone says you said something that you didn’t, you can say

I didn’t say that.

I didn’t say that.

The N’T ending can be pronounced several ways.

I think I’m doing a really quick Stop T, I didn’t say that.

I say this phrase pretty quickly, don’t I?

I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that.

But it wasn’t too fast.

It was the pace of conversational English.

Let’s listen again.

The clearest longer word was ‘say’.

I didn’t say that.

I didn’t say that.

I didn’t say that.

When you listen to it on a loop,

it’s easier to hear all the pieces you need to simplify, isn’t it?

I did not is ‘I didn’t’.

SAY is the peak of that sentence.

--say --say

I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that. I didn’t say that.

You can even completely drop the T in didn’t, if this helps with the simplification.

You’ll hear it again five times.

Then you try it.

Don’t think about the words, but think about what you hear.

I didn’t say that.

I didn’t say that.

I didn’t say that.

I didn’t say that.

I didn’t say that.

Ok, let’s go back and listen to the beginning of the conversation again.

Uhm, David hates watermelon, he thinks.

I know but I want to try it, and you said it was the best one you've ever had.

I didn't say that.

You said 'one of the best'?

I probably said that it's an amazing watermelon and if you're going to try it again, now is the time time to try it.

So we’ve said a few words to describe food and if we like that food.

David hates watermelon.

We can say ‘hates’.

We can also say 'doesn't like' but it's not as strong and David feels very strongly about watermelon.

David hates watermelon.

I called it an amazing watermelon.

Very good.

Don’t you love amazing food?

We had an amazing meal.

The wine was amazing!

I said It's an amazing watermelon and if you're going to try it again, now is the time time to try it.

Are you just going to have a bite of mine?

- Yeah! - Oh!

So I kept waiting for him to cut a piece of watermelon,

but he didn’t do it because he didn’t want a whole piece.

He decided just to have a bite of mine.

Listen to how I said that.

Oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

Again, I feel like I’m speaking quickly, and I am, but also, that’s just conversational English.

It is fast.

Let’s listen to this one on a loop and see if we can figure out which words are the most stressed,

and where you can simplify.

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

I hear more stress on OH, you’re, and ‘bite’ and ‘mine’.

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

Notice how all the words run together smoothly with no breaks.

That’s an important characteristic of American English.

The contraction “you are” to “you’re” is pronounced “yer”.

That’s how it’s almost always pronounced in conversational English, that’s a common reduction.

yer, yer.

Oh yer, oh yer.

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

The words ‘just going to have a’ we have a few reductions there.

The T in JUST is dropped

We do that when the next word begins with a consonant.

The vowel reduces to the schwa.

IT’s not ‘just’, it’s ‘jus’.

GOING TO becomes ‘gonna’.

HAVE A is ‘have a’.

All of these words are lower in pitch, flatter, and said very quickly.

‘just going to have a’

‘just going to have a’‘

just going to have a’

‘just going to have a’

This is what happens in conversational English.

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

‘Bite of mine’ becomes ‘bite a’ mine’.

The word ‘of’ is reduced to the schwa, and the T in BITE is a Flap T linking the two together.

Bite of mine, bite of mine.

Again, these changes are typical of conversational English.

They're a part of what helps us make English fast.

A T is a Flap T when it comes between two vowels or diphthongs,

and that's true even in two different words when the T links the two words.

Bite of mine.

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

oh, you’re just going to have a bite of mine?

Ok, let’s move on. David will try the watermelon.

Will he be convinced that this is an ‘amazing’ watermelon?

What?

No!

It's awful.

No, David was not convinced.

He called it ‘awful’.

I’ve also heard him use the term ‘disgusting’.

What foods do you think are awful or disgusting?

Put them in the comments.

What? I don't get it!

The melon-iness. It's...

Is it the texture? Or the...

No. Just the flavor.

Our friend off camera asked if it was texture or taste.

The texture of the food is how it feels in your mouth, or in your hands.

It can be hard, soft, mushy, crunchy, slippery, smooth, and so on.

Some people might not like a food for its texture more than it’s taste.

David said, in this case, it was not the texture, it was the taste, the flavor.

- Is it the texture? Or the taste? - No. Just the flavor.

It's like uh...

- I don't know. - It's such a good one.

No you guys are crazy.

Like you literally had to spit it out?

Let’s talk for a second about the word ‘literally’ and how it’s used.

In British English it sounds more like three syllables.

Literally. Literally.

In American English it sounds like four, and we flap the T.

Literally.

Literally.

Literally.

Literally.

Now, this word is over used in American English.

The meaning has morphed as a result.

It’s used often for emphasis.

For example, I once heard someone say:

I was so tired, I literally slept all day.

Now, I know that person didn’t sleep all day. She slept a lot of day, certainly she was very tired.

But she did not literally sleep all day.

She did not actually sleep from sun up to sun down.

She slept a lot that day.

So she's using 'literally' here for emphasis.

I can also picture someone saying, “I literally fell out of my chair when I heard the news.”

This would in no way mean that someone did literally fall out of a chair,

it just adds emphasis to say how amazed they were, how caught off guard they were.

I’m going to put a link in the video description to some articles about the word ‘literally’

and how its use has changed and its meaning has changed.

Now, how did I use it?

like, you literally had to spit it out?”

There I am using it to mean ‘actually’.

I’m not just adding emphasis.

I’m asking, you had no other options than to actually, physically spit it out?

He claims he didn’t.

like, you literally had to spit it out?