Hey everyone and welcome back to the Easy English Podcast.
I'm Oliver and today we are going to learn, or look at, 10 tips to speak English more naturally, or 10 ways to speak more naturally in English.
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Okay, let's get started on today's topic.
Today we are going to talk about something that can make a huge difference in your English speaking skills.
And that is how to sound more natural when speaking English.
I often talk about how accent is not so important, and that's true.
And that's why I want to focus more on sounding natural.
And I'm going to share 10 tips that will help you sound like a more confident and fluent speaker.
These aren't just for experts or people with advanced English.
They can be used by probably absolutely anyone, whether you're beginner, intermediate or advanced with your English language.
So without further ado, without waiting anymore, let's get started on these tips.
Each one is quite quick and quite simple, but sometimes I feel like the simplest advice is the most useful.
Let's get started.
Okay, tip number one, focus on grammar.
I know, I know, I often say that grammar is not so important when learning English.
Of course, a level of grammar is important, but in my opinion and I always say it it's not the most important part of English language learning.
But with sounding natural in English, grammar is very important.
So just for understanding and being understood, it isn't the most important thing.
But for sounding more natural, it is essential.
It's very important.
When you use the correct grammar and you speak with correct grammar, you sound more, maybe professional or natural, more fluent.
Your English sounds less strange.
And I know that for many people, grammar is not the most exciting part of language learning, which is why I have put this on point number one um, but you can improve it through other ways.
So not just grammar exercises.
You can improve grammar through all of the parts of english language learning that you maybe enjoy more, so like reading, listening and even like speaking practice and listening to what the other person is saying and the grammar that they use.
And when you notice mistakes with grammar, try to understand what went wrong and how you can correct it or fix it for the next time.
Very simple, but I understand difficult to do.
Okay.
So the next point, number two, is to work on your pronunciation.
So how you say things, not just the grammar and the content and the words, but how you actually say it.
English has some very difficult sounds.
And in one of my recent episode, I did talk a little bit more about this.
So about pronunciation and sounding more like a native speaker.
But my main advice on pronunciation is to record yourself speaking and listen back and see the areas that you want to improve.
And, of course, different parts of the UK, for example, have different accents with different pronunciation.
And that leads me to the point number three, and that is don't stress about accents.
Don't worry about accents.
Yes, maybe you want an accent to sound like a native speaker, but you don't need to have a native accent to sound natural.
I've talked about this a million times before on the podcast, so I'm not going to focus on it too much.
But instead of worrying about accents, you're better to focus on clarity.
So being clear and general fluency, instead of trying to copy or sound like a certain or specific accent.
People will understand you as long as you speak clearly, even if your accent isn't perfect.
Okay, so enough about accents.
On to point four.
Point four practice, or maybe learn, rhythm and stress.
English is what we call a stress timed language, And that means that we stress certain words in a sentence.
For example, with the phrase, I'm going to the store.
The word going is stressed.
There is more focus on this word.
So learning a bit more about this stress timing in the language and practicing it will help you to sound more natural, especially in conversation.
Okay, point five.
Now is building fluency.
So removing pauses and trying to sound more smooth.
A lot of people think of fluency as being an advanced English speaker.
So using lots of complicated words and grammar structures.
But in reality, fluency is all about speaking smoothly without too many pauses.
And a good way to practice this is just by having a think in English and maybe talking to yourself or recording your thoughts for a few minutes every day.
The more that you speak naturally, without pauses, without stress, the more comfortable you'll get.
So you don't worry, you don't need advanced vocabulary or advanced grammar to be fluent.
As long as you can speak without too many pauses and too much stress, then you are fluent and you speak fluently.
OK, of course, I have to mention point six, expand your vocabulary.
Yes, you don't need tons and tons of words, loads and loads of words, to sound natural, but it is useful to learn a variety of words.
For example, instead of always using very before an adjective, you can learn more advanced or maybe more native adjectives.
So instead of very good, you could say fantastic or excellent.
And these tiny little changes with vocabulary can make you sound a little bit more natural.
Okay, point seven, be cautious.
So be careful with idioms.
I think I talked about this in another episode.
Idioms are quite common in English, but also quite difficult to use.
And I think that they aren't used as much nowadays as they used to be used.
And you don't want to sound unnatural by using them too much.
So I would learn them in context, but in general I would kind of avoid using idioms if you're an English language learner.
To me, it doesn't sound the most natural when people overuse these.
And English speakers in general, especially younger generations, don't really use idioms very much.
But with point eight, what you should do is learn phrasal verbs.
Phrasal verbs are you know two or more words that maybe you put together that mean something different.
Like give up, for example, means to stop doing something or to stop trying.
These are so important in English.
I think people don't focus on them as much as they should.
These are way more important than idioms or phrases.
These are really, really important to sound natural in English.
Okay, number nine is to change your sentence starters.
So think of and learn some new phrases to start your sentences.
Instead of saying you know, I think, for example, you could say in my opinion or from my perspective.
So just think of maybe some phrases or words that you overuse and have a look at how you could change those.
Maybe make them a little bit more advanced or just different.
So you're not saying just something else.
You're not saying the same thing all the time.
And finally, point 10 is maybe not what you would expect.
It is don't stress about sounding natural.
You can do all of these tips that I have talked about and it will help you over time to improve and sound more natural.
But when you're speaking, when you're using English, don't stress.
Use the knowledge that you have.
Don't put pressure on yourself.
And with time and with these steps, you will start to sound more natural in English.
So thank you so much for listening to this episode.
Remember to check out the Patreon link in the description of the podcast and the episode description if you would like to get bonus episodes with me and lots of benefits and support this podcast.
Thank you for listening.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
Goodbye.
