This is an IELTS Energy Podcast Episode 1521.
Accents and slang are okay on IELTS, innit?
Welcome to the IELTS Energy Podcast from All Ears English downloaded more than 35 million times with examiner-trained IELTS whiz Aubrey Carter and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer.
If you are stuck with a low score, our insider method will help you get the score you need to unlock your dreams.
Get your estimated band score now with our two minute quiz at allearsenglish.com slash my score.
Can you use accents and slang on IELTS?
Can you mix accents and slang from different regions?
Get all of these answers and more today.
You're in a meeting.
Someone makes a quick comment, everyone laughs, and you're still trying to catch what they said.
It's not that you don't know English, it's that real conversations are fast, messy and full of slang.
So that you can improve quickly.
Take our two. allearsenglish.com slash fluency score one more time go to allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y s-c-o-r-e Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Good, Aubrey.
How's it going on your end?
Excellent.
I am excited to talk about slang and accents today.
Yeah, this is going to be great.
I'm psyched.
Aubrey, what is your favorite British slang phrase?
I think gobsmacked.
I wish we said it more in the States.
I would love.
I'm going to start saying it more to see if it catches on, because I think it's such a fun way to say you're like shocked or surprised.
I was gobsmacked.
It's a really good one.
I do.
I also wish that was in our everyday speech.
So you start the trend, Aubrey.
I mean, language trends happen.
So, you know, I got to convince my kids and their teenage friends to say it.
Then we'll hear it on TikTok all the time coming from Americans.
Exactly, right?
It'll catch fire.
All right.
So today's episode is based on a question from a listener getting into accents and slang on IELTS, right?
Yeah, I'll read the first part of the question, Lindsay, and then you can finish for us.
Yeah.
So this listener is Antonia.
Hello, Antonia.
And she said I'm currently preparing for the IELTS academic test I have in August to have my university degree naturalized in the UK.
And let me just say, I love your podcast.
Oh, that's great.
Yes.
Thank you.
I should stop and say thank you.
I love that.
It's very informative and helpful, especially when you answer forum questions.
I love that we did a whole series answering forum questions we found online.
I'm glad you found that useful, Antonia.
I hope everyone else out there did as well.
All right.
And then she says, I have one question I've been stuck on since I began listening, though.
I'm Hungarian, but I work for a UK based insurance firm here in Hungary.
Most of my colleagues, as well as our clients, are from the UK.
And I talk to and exchange messages with native speakers, mostly British, all day, every day.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, I don't know yet, I picked up some slang and an accent along the way.
All right, Lindsay, want to finish first?
Yes.
Although I'm maintaining my fluency due to my occupation, I'm a bit concerned about the speaking part of the exam, as I talk a lot when I'm nervous and I tend to speak in slang and pronounce some words in a proper British accent.
I was wondering, how would that affect my score?
I'm talking about not pronouncing the letter T in certain words, or the last couple of letters like tomorrow instead of tomorrow, using in it instead of, isn't it which, at this point, comes naturally to me?
I also heard it a lot from my coworkers that they sorry.
I also hear it a lot from my because of my fluency and my accent.
Is it something that I should be working hard on, working on and avoid?
Or is this something that's within the threshold of being okay?
I would love to hear your thoughts on this and your reply or on the podcast.
Kind regards, Antonia.
Nice.
Such a great question.
Yes.
So interesting.
And I know that a lot of you out there have the same question because I've heard it from other listeners.
I've heard it from other students where you are maybe learning English with a British teacher or you are living in Australia or New Zealand and you recognize that you have slang and the accent from that country.
But what if your examiner is from the States?
And isn't familiar with that slang.
Right.
I can totally understand you worrying.
Like, can I can I use this slang and this accent?
It's a great question.
Oh, my gosh.
It's a great it's really good.
So I'm excited to get into this.
So we're going to address this in kind of two different answers.
We'll first start talking about accents.
So let's talk about accent, Aubrey.
What do we need to know here?
Yeah, so the good news is any accent in English is fine on IELTS.
If your accent is Australian, New Zealand, UK, or American, all are perfectly acceptable.
Examiners are very used to hearing all of these accents.
So wherever they are from, you can have an accent in any American dialect.
So, for example, if you're learning in Australia but then move to the UK and you have a mix of those two accents and then you listen to a lot of maybe podcasts or TV shows from the States.
So you're realizing I'm also saying something's an American accent.
That's fine, too.
You can have a mix of all of these accents.
Yes, a mix is good.
And I do know people that do have an interesting mix of accents.
And I love it.
It's so fun.
I love it too.
It's really fun.
And Antonia gave some specifics, right?
So the T is...
Missing like in the middle of words is a really good example.
This is a glottal stop in many accents or regional dialects, but then in other accents it will be pronounced.
So a good example is mountain.
In my regional dialect growing up, I say mountain, mountain.
I don't say the T. That's a glottal stop.
Both are correct on IELTS.
Both, you know, neither is going to affect your score.
Right.
I don't know how they say it in British English, mountain.
Do they pronounce it?
Well, it depends on where you're from.
In London, there are a lot of glottal stops and we're not hearing those T's.
But then in other British accents around the UK, you will hear the T. Interesting.
So it really depends.
And for native speakers, I've heard some native speakers... express some kind of frustration.
They don't like that glottal stop.
They think it's only correct if you say mountain.
This is not the case.
I have heard this.
I remember I posted a TikTok about how I say mountain and there were a lot of comments where people were saying that's wrong.
You should pronounce the T. That's just not the way it is for English pronunciation.
At least if we're being descriptive instead of prescriptive.
We say both.
You'll hear both for the IELTS exam.
Both are correct.
And then also words like certain.
Lindsay, do you say certain with a glottal stop?
Yeah, I do the glottal stop.
Oh, I definitely do the glottal stop.
So I say certain.
I wouldn't I wouldn't say certain.
I do hear certain people say certain.
And sometimes I think, why are you doing that?
Why are you bothering him?
Yeah.
But then bottle is a good example of something that does change between British English.
Bottle.
Yes, exactly, right?
Well, in the States, we say bottle.
It sounds like the D, the D, bottle.
We don't say bottle.
We don't say the T, but it sounds like a D.
It changes to a D, But in a lot of British accents it would sound like bottle.
There's a glottal stop there.
Both are acceptable on IELTS.
Neither is going to affect your pronunciation score.
The examiner will understand you whichever way you say it.
Love that.
So just what's more important, though, than the accent, Aubrey, is...
Enunciation, right?
Clear enunciation.
Being clear is what you want to prioritize.
Exactly, right?
You can also have your accent from your L1.
Wherever you grew up, you know, whatever your mother tongue is, your accent will be different in English likely.
And it might be a combination of a lot of different accents.
And that is also fine on IELTS.
You don't have to eliminate your accent.
In fact, accents are so beautiful.
What is important is that you are clearly enunciating, so that the examiner can understand the amazing vocabulary you're using and give you the pronunciation score you need.
So there may be specific phonemes, sounds that are difficult for you to pronounce in English, that you'll want to be drilling.
To make sure that your words are clear.
I mean, the key word here, drilling, practicing.
That's why it's so important to know the strategies for IELTS, but then practice the strategies over and, over and over again, right?
Exactly.
And for this, it really helps to get feedback.
Because if you're speaking with either another IELTS student, another language learner or a native speaker, if there are words that they don't understand, then that could be the same for the examiner right.
So then you can, if they let you know like okay, I wasn't sure what you said, this part, then you can analyze which were the phonemes, which are these individual sounds that I'm not pronouncing clearly enough, that are making my words difficult to understand.
Yeah, now in many of our courses we don't have this yet in Three Keys Out, but we have it in many of our fluency courses.
We have... an AI pronunciation scoring system, right?
Where you can practice a word and you will get a score, and then you can do it again and again and it breaks down each phoneme.
So you can understand exactly which part of the word you're saying incorrectly.
I know students are doing it 10, 20 times for each word.
That's amazing.
Yes, this is super useful.
This is one thing AI can really help us with is to give us feedback on pronunciation.
So if you don't have a speaking partner and you're able to use AI for feedback on your pronunciation, that's a great tool as well.
Yes, love it.
New fall arrivals are at Nordstrom Rack stores now.
Get ready to save big with up to 60% off Vince, Kurt Geiger London, and more.
How did I not know Rack has Adidas?
Because there's always something new.
Join the Nordy Club at Nordstrom Rack to unlock exclusive discounts on your favorite brands.
Shop new arrivals first and more.
Plus, get an extra 5% off every rack purchase with a Nordstrom credit card.
Great brands, great prices.
That's why you rack.
Okay, Aubrey.
Now, the second thing we have to look at is slang.
Yeah, so slang from any English dialect can be used on IELTS.
Examiners are very used to hearing slang from all over the world, so you don't need to worry about if you're using slang that it is maybe a little bit less common.
They're going to be familiar with it, so don't worry about it.
Slang from the uk or from the states everything is acceptable.
Yeah, the only exception is if there's brand new slang that's super trendy.
Not everybody knows it yet.
There's also a chance the examiner doesn't know it yet either.
So if you use it, it wouldn't hurt to just then explain quickly.
You can just use a couple of words to say, oh, that's this word I heard recently that means this.
Well, not only would it not hurt, but it could increase your vocabulary or pronunciation score, right?
By adding that extra explanation, you have a whole opportunity to slip in some fun advanced words, right.
True.
But there's another reason to not keep yourself from saying these words.
In it is a great example, right?
So British speakers will say this in it.
That means like, isn't it or isn't that true or right?
And it becomes so natural.
It just slips out.
And if you are intentionally trying to keep yourself from saying that, it could sort of stunt your language.
It could throw you off.
So recognize that you absolutely can say that.
Throw it in for your IELTS speaking answers.
And don't keep yourself from saying it as that could make you less fluent and hurt your score.
I've also heard this around the countryside of the U.S., different parts of the U.S.
Does that ring true for you?
I think the key here is don't be someone you're not.
Be yourself.
Definitely, because for me, oh, I just hit my chord.
For me, it's difficult to use in it, right?
I didn't grow up saying it.
I love it.
I love when I hear a British speaker say that, but I kind of feel like I sound silly when I try to add it.
So I wouldn't use it on an IELTS exam because it would be unnatural for me.
And it's also a little bit difficult to use on IELTS because it's so conversational.
You're not having a conversation with the examiner.
So unless you use it in like rhetorical questions, it's not going to come up very easily.
Which British people do, I think maybe more than Americans.
When they make a statement, they tend to do that, to make it a question, right?
I wasn't as familiar with that in it, but asking is a question.
Do you know what I mean?
But you're right.
You're not eliciting a response, right?
You know, when we first started IELTS before I knew anything about IELTS 10 years ago I thought maybe oh, would you engage the examiner in a conversation.
And the answer was no, a hard no or not the examiner.
Okay, and this might be one of the most difficult thing for students if you're not familiar at all with how the speaking exam goes, you might expect to ask them a question, have them answer.
It's very helpful to know ahead of time.
You're just answering their questions.
Don't expect any kind of response or even a smile or expression from them at all.
Yeah, you have to know that going into it.
All right.
Any other examples we want to share about init?
Yeah.
So I was going to share because this is interesting for someone like Antonia or anyone who's learned English in the UK.
This is very common.
You might hear something like, it's hot today, innit?
Maybe it just sounds silly.
Or like, that movie was amazing, innit?
So if you're trying to think of how this might come up on IELTS, like we said, you could use it rhetorically as a filler.
Would be really interesting.
So anyone who's used to using this word, if you get a tough question, you can say like that's a tough question, isn't it?
I think, right?
Because it is very like, you're not expecting a response.
You're just tagging it onto the end of what you're saying.
You're just increasing your vocabulary score, most likely.
Right.
So, for example, you're coming to the party later in it.
Do they do it that way?
Do they use it that way, too?
Interesting.
You're coming to this because it's more like a statement.
And then you're confirming like it's it's like we say, right.
We say right all the time.
You're doing that right.
And they say it that often to a lot of speakers in the UK.
I actually was watching a reality show recently and there were a few people from the UK and they said in it so often, just as often as I say right.
Oh, now I'm going to start paying more attention to that.
That's fascinating.
I love that.
Oh my gosh.
What else do we need to know here, Aubrey?
Yeah, we definitely want to point you guys to a recent All Ears English episode.
This was 2474, classic and common British slang with Anna Tyree.
We, she taught some new trend, trendy British slang that is perfect for IELTS.
So we want to make sure you don't miss that episode.
What were some of the phrases she taught Lindsay?
She taught some really good stuff, like faff, about a bit naff and gobsmacked, which is what we talked about at the top of the show.
So if you really want to hear from a true expert, definitely listen to Anna's episode.
And all of that is perfect slang for IELTS.
Not only should you not keep yourself from using slang you're used to, it will boost your scores.
The examiner is looking for you to use a variety of vocabulary.
That means some slang idioms, phrasal verbs as well, as you know, less common, more polished sounding words, those impressive words.
You need a variety.
Good stuff.
Anything else we need for our takeaway for our listeners today?
I mean, this is it.
I mean, don't be someone you're not, right?
Right.
Exactly.
The same.
We've talked about hand gestures.
If you need hand gestures to speak, absolutely use them during the speaking exam.
If they're slang and just sort of small things that are a part of your speech patterns, habits.
Don't stop yourself, right.
Love it.
Use them on IELTS.
All right.
Great stuff today, Aubrey.
Well, I'll see you back here in the next IELTS Energy episode.
Guys, hit the follow button to make sure you don't miss a single episode of this show.
Yes.
Awesome.
I'll see you next time.
All right.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to IELTS Energy.
Hit subscribe now, and don't forget to find your estimated band score at allearsenglishcom.
Slash my score.
Doug.
Here we have the Lemu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual.
Fascinating.
It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug.
Uh, Lemu, is that guy with the binoculars watching us?
Cut the camera.
They see us.
Only pay for what you need at libertymutual.com.
Liberty, liberty, liberty.
Savings vary.
Underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates excludes Massachusetts.
Your sausage and muffin with egg didn't change.
Your receipt did.
The sausage and muffin with egg.
Extra value meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just 5.
Only at McDonald's for a limited time.
Prices and participation may vary.
