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How Native Speakers Use the Present Continuous to Express the Future – Learn English Grammar Jul 08, 2015

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What is going on with the English language? Is it true that I can use the present continuous tense to express a future action? Yes, it is absolutely true and in this English tip, Gabby explains how that is done and what it can look like. If you want to sound like a native English speaker follow this tip and others presented by Go Natural English.

A good example of using the present continuous tense for a future action would be along the lines of, "I am playing with the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra next month." While appearing as the present tense "I am playing", it actually expresses something that you will be doing next month, and not at the current time. It is always a good idea to add a time frame for this action to avoid confusion and misunderstanding.

Communicating like a native English speaker requires much work, but it should also be fun. Challenge yourself to go beyond textbook English and actually express yourself like a native.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns8cI2cdrm0

Episode transcript below:

Hey! What is up, my awesome English learner friend?

I want to share a great tip for English language fluency with you.

A member of the Go Natural English audience, Abdelhalim asked the question, "What about using the present continuous tense to talk about the future"?

Well, that's a great question because native speakers do this all the time but I don't think it's usually mentioned in your English textbooks or in a traditional English classroom.

We usually focus on using "will" for the future tense which is actually probably the least used tense to express the future.

We use "going to" a lot, and then we use the present continuous.

So, for example, I might say, "I'm traveling to Tahiti – I am traveling to Tahiti."

That doesn't mean that I'm traveling right now.

It could – it could mean that right now I'm on the plane and I'm traveling to Tahiti.

That would be amazing.

I would love that but it could also mean that in the near future I have plans to travel to Tahiti.

Now, to avoid confusion, most often we will add a time to specify whether we're talking about right now or the future.

So, if I wanted to talk about the future, I would probably say, "I'm traveling to Tahiti next month" just to clarify.

So, yes, you can absolutely use the present continuous tense to talk about the future but to avoid any confusion I would recommend to add a time to it.

Maybe next month or next week, or this weekend or later today.

So, I hope that this was helpful.

I hope that it helps your confidence in expressing yourself fluently in English.

If you would like to learn more about learning English naturally in a fun and easy way, to speak more in a native-like, easy way without struggling to find the right words – well, that's what I'm here for and that's what Go Natural English is here for too.

Come visit the website and I'll give you a free eBook and you can find out more about the Go Natural English premium course which I made just for you to learn in the best way possible.

So, I hope to see you there and definitely don't forget to subscribe to Go Natural English on YouTube.

Come back for free tips three times a week and you can also come talk to us on Facebook – facebook.com/gonaturalenglish and on Twitter at gonaturaleng.

Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you again real soon.

Bye for now.

Photo Credit:geralt

The post How Native Speakers Use the Present Continuous to Express the Future – Learn English Grammar appeared first on Go Natural English.

Sound More Natural in English like a Native Speaker Jul 06, 2015

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Dangerous Pronunciation Mistake in American English - Sheet, Sit, Seat or Sh*t? Jul 03, 2015

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English Listening: An Enjoyable Technique to Improve Jul 02, 2015

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Why does it so often seem like English makes no sense? The words don't always sound like they look. English has words where the letters sometimes aren't pronounced. Words sometimes don't contain letters that are pronounced. It can be very confusing and hard to figure out.

In this episode, Gabby provides a helpful tip on the best ways to improve your English language skills. She talks about listening to your favorite music while reading the lyrics so you become familiar with the way the lyrics sound. She also explains that news website are extremely useful in learning how words are pronounced and used in context. Another excellent way to improve your English and learn pronunciation is to listen to audio books. This can be a great benefit as you travel and can listen without interruptions.

While Gabby is taking a short break from the podcasts while she works on the new full length eBook, visit Go Natural English on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and at gonaturalenglish.com to continue improving your English language fluency.

Episode transcript below:

Hello, and welcome to the Go Natural English podcast.

I'm your host, your American English teacher, Gabby Wallace.

In this episode I am so happy to be able to share with you an English learning tip that's simple – it's straightforward and I think it's going to be fun for you to try out.

So, my tip for improving your fluency is ... it's one of the tips that I'm going to include in the Go Natural English eBook, the full length one that's coming out later this summer and I'm going to talk to you a little bit more about that but let me just tell you the tip.

So, the thing is ... the problem is that English sounds really different than how you read it, right?

So, some words have letters that we don't say.

Some words have sounds but the letters aren't really there.

So, the way English sounds can be really confusing especially if you're used to reading or writing most of the time in English, or if you learned English from a textbook, or in a class where you just kind of read a lot, or wrote a lot, or talked about English in your native language.

So, if you haven't listened to a lot of English, you really have to start listening.

You have to listen to English every day and that could be the Go Natural English podcast, that could be music, or it could be an audio book.

I personally love listening to audio books and I think that audio books could be a really interesting and fun way to improve your listening skills in English, especially if you can listen to the book and read the book at the same time.

Now, an easy way to start with this kind of learning - listening and reading at the same time – is actually going to a news site like Voice of America or Breaking News English.

Those are a couple of great sites where you can listen to the news and read it at the same time.

And that way you can relate what you're hearing with what you're reading.

And another really fun way to do this is to find music that you love in English, so you're listening to the music and the lyrics in English as you read the lyrics.

So, find a song that you really like and it could be something classic like the Beatles or the Doors, or it could be something newer like Taylor Swift is really popular right now.

You'll have to find music that you like and make sure you're enjoying listening to it, and listen to the lyrics and find the lyrics online.

You can just search for lyrics to find the words of the songs and read along as you listen.

I promise you, this will help your English a lot because this is how I learned Spanish, and Portuguese, and some Japanese, and French just by enjoying music that I really love in those languages and reading the lyrics along with the music as I'm listening.

So,

About How to Use the Word Though in American English Jul 01, 2015

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American English Pronunciation; the Most Common But Secret Vowel Sound Jun 30, 2015

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Are you familiar with the most common vowel sound in the English language? Well, you are about to meet the "schwa" sound. "What is that", you say? Well, the "schwa" sound is that "uh" sound that is found in the unstressed syllables of words.

In this podcast, Gabby explains how the "schwa" sound is a lazy utterance that is used instead of the actual pronounced syllable in some words. Gabby provides three examples to illustrate the "schwa" sound – "pencil", "question", and "famous." You will find that a great many English words have this particular sound. By listening to native English speakers, over time you will be able to not only hear the sound, but you will be able to use it yourself. This will help you sound more like a native English speaker.

To learn more about learning English, visit gonaturalenglish.com, and just by visiting you can get Gabby's free mini eBook. You can also find Gabby on Facebook and Twitter. Expand your opportunities and improve your English language fluency. Subscribe to Go Natural English today.

Episode transcript below:

Hello, and welcome to the Go Natural English podcast.

I'm your host, Gabby Wallace, your American English teacher and Number One fluency coach.

I'm so excited to bring you the tip today that will help you so much with your English fluency through pronunciation.

Now, before I forget I want to remind you that you can get the free Go Natural English mini eBook just by visiting gonaturalenglish.com.

Enter your name and email address and I will send you your free mini eBook to help your English fluency immediately.

So, I hope to see you over there as soon as you're done listening to this quick English tip on the GO Natural English podcast right here.

So, I have a really important tip that I want to share with you really quickly here.

The most important sound in the English language is actually one that you probably didn't learn in your English class, and that makes me mad because it's really important.

It's called the "schwa" sound but the name is not important.

What is important to know is that when you have an English word that has two syllables like, "today" – one, two – "today."

Two syllables, right?

"Today." Two parts – we break the word into syllables and there's two in the word, "today."

Well, you have one syllable that is stressed and another syllable that is not stressed.

So, we have a lot of words that have two or more syllables in the English language.

You're always going to have one stressed syllable and another syllable that's weak could be a "schwa" sound.

So, I'm going to share some examples with you and I want you to listen to see how the weak syllables all sound very much alike.

And that is the "schwa" sound.

It makes a kind of "uh" sound. It's a funny sound, right?

"Uh" but check it out.

How about the word pencil."

Do you notice how the first syllable is strong, "pen", and the second syllable is weak and it sounds like 'Uh?"

"Pencil, pencil."

OK, how about the word "question?"

The strong syllable is the first one "quest – ion."

And the second syllable kind of sounds like "uh" again.

OK, how about the word "famous?"

Well, the first syllable is strong again, "fam" and the second syllable "ous."

So, even though the spelling is different for all these words, right?

"Pencil" – p-e-n-c-i-l.

"Question" – q-u-e-s-t-i-o-n.

And "famous" – f-a-m-o-u-s.

Even though those spellings are so different those weak syllables – the "schwa" sound makes those weak syllable all sound alike.

One more time – "pencil'", "question", "famous."

OK, and those three words are just three examples off the top of my head.

Now, there are a lot more examples that you'd be able to hear the "schwa" ...

Explain about Could Have Been, Would Have Been and Should Have Been in English Grammar Jun 29, 2015

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I would like to know how to use "Perhaps" and "Probably"like a Native English Speaker Jun 26, 2015

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American Pronunciation; Say the Sounds, Not the Letters Jun 26, 2015

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Have you ever thought you had enough of English learning while reading through books? Now, that's a mouthful to pronounce since in English the "ough" sound has many different pronunciations. One reason for the multitude of pronunciations is that many English words are borrowed from other languages. But sometimes, the words just aren't spoken as they are spelled.

English has many words which contain silent letters such as should, would, and could which contain the unpronounced "l." As Gabby mentioned in this English podcast tip, Wednesday just does not sounds like it is spelled. English also contains the words "err", "air", and "heir" which are all spelled completely differently and yet are pronounced the same.

There are no real rules for how English words sound and how they are spelled. You just have to memorize the sounds sometimes. If you would like to learn more about this and other tips for improving your English fluency and gaining confidence in your speaking ability, then make sure you visit gonaturalenglish.com where Gabby will coach and guide you on your English language learning adventure.

Episode transcript below:

Hey! How's it going?

Welcome to the Go Natural English podcast – the best place to improve your fluency in the English language.

In this quick English tip we're going to learn about how to improve your pronunciation in English to sound more like a native English speaker.

If you don't know already, I'm your host, Gabby Wallace, your American English teacher.

And you can visit gonaturalenglish.com to pick up your copy of the short and free Go Natural English eBook that will help you to improve your fluency by improving 15 common mistakes.

So, getting rid of those mistakes will help you with your English fluency and that mini eBook is free.

So, speaking of eBooks, we're also working on completing the full length Go Natural English eBook that will really help you with strategies, practical examples, and advice on how to improve your English fluency naturally.

So, that eBook will be available in August 2015, so I'm very excited for that to come out, for that release.

So, stay tuned and if you join the email list at gonaturalenglish.com – if you get your eBook you will automatically join the email list and you can find out more about the release day of the Go Natural English eBook.

OK.

So, without further ado, let's talk a little bit about pronunciation.

One problem that I've noticed a lot of English learners having is how to pronounce words that seem to have a lot of extra letters in them that we don't say.

For example, think about the word "Wednesday", the day of the week.

We write it, and you'd think that it would be said, "wed-nes-day" but that's not how we say it at all.

We don't say, "wed-nes-day", we say "wensday".

But you wouldn't know it from the way that we spell the word.

Another word for example – take the word "autumn."

You would think that we would say it "ah-oo-tum-nuh" by the way that it's spelled but that's not at all how we say the word "autumn."

So, my advice for words like this and there are a lot of them in the English language is to remember that speaking English is not the same as reading English, or writing English.

When you want to listen, and you want to speak English, or you want to listen to English, you want to understand what native speakers are saying, and when you want to speak and you want to sound like a native speaker, you have to remember the way that words are said.

You have to remember the sound of the word and not the spelling.

So, if you attempt to sound out every word from the English spelling, you will be sorry.

The thing is English writing has a very loose relationship with its sounds.

So, you have to learn the sounds if you want to understand English and ...

Get as a Phrasal Verb - Learn Fluent American English Jun 24, 2015

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