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Below is a short clip of Laura, one of my teachers, telling a story. It isn't scripted and she's not a voice actor. She's just sharing a genuine account of a day in her life. |
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Click the button below to have a listen, then keep reading. |
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Did you listen and answer the question?
Okay, good!
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Now, let me ask: did you catch this vocabulary? |
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- a flurry (a short burst of sudden, busy activity)
There was a flurry of activity in the kitchen ten minutes before the guests arrived.
- to sob (to cry noisily, catching your breath as you go)
He sobbed his way through the last twenty minutes of the film and got through half a box of tissues.
- to gawp at (to stare openly, usually rudely)
Everyone on the platform gawped at the man in the enormous purple hat.
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And did you notice Laura's pronunciation? This is the part I expect nobody caught. |
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Listen again to "chucking stuff in my suitcase" at 00:12. She doesn't say chucking, does she? She says chuckin'.
We call this g-dropping. It happens when the sound at the back of your mouth in -ing /ŋ/ moves forward and becomes a simple /n/.
We typically hear it in relaxed conversation with friends, telling a story, etc. Laura is telling a personal story here, so she does it without thinking.
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Laura does the same thing with another word in the clip. Can you find it? |
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It's booking, which becomes bookin'. |
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If those slipped past you, that's alright. Very few learners catch them because nobody has ever trained your ear to notice them. You were taught to answer the question and move on. |
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And, to be honest, I've barely scratched the surface. There's far more going on in those 37 seconds: more vocabulary, pronunciation features I haven't touched, plus a few things I'm not quite ready to show you yet. All of it comes from something I'll be revealing tomorrow. |
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Think about that for a moment. One short clip, and there's enough hidden inside it to fill an entire lesson. Now picture three minutes of this every day for 30 days, with lessons that reveal everything you missed. |
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Your listening would completely transform.
Tomorrow, I'll show you exactly how we'll make that a reality.
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Best wishes,
Lucy Bella Simkins |
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