If you're someone who understands what I'm saying but you don't have the confidence to speak English yet, I'm going to let you in on a secret that separates fluent English speakers from beginner English speakers.

It's not vocabulary. It's not grammar. It's something that's often overlooked by English learners.

It's one of the main reasons for miscommunication or misunderstandings. It's the reason text messages and emails often come across different to a reader. It's also the reason why sarcasm does not translate well when it's written, when you're reading it.

And, we're going to dive into what that is and what it means for you.

Welcome back.

I'm Dan and in this video we're going to be looking at one key difference between fluent English speakers and beginner English speakers, or those who are still learning.

There are two areas of focus that we're going to take a look at. In my opinion this is a major difference between fluent speakers and those who aren't quite there yet.

This main difference is not about what you say, It's not about your vocabulary, it's about how you say it. I'm gonna repeat this. It's not about what you say, it's about how you say it.

The key is to emphasize or stress the correct syllable or sound within a word, and also the correct word within a phrase or sentence. So, it's not necessarily the words that you're using. It's the stress or emphasis that you're putting on certain sounds, and certain words.

Take for example, the word emphasis.

Emphasis. Emphasis.

Emphasis. Emphasis.

You can probably tell that there's a big difference between emphasis and emphasis.

Emphasis might be the correct or appropriate word to use in a sentence or a context. However, how you're pronouncing it, the stress that you're putting on certain syllables within that word, really makes you sound more natural or fluent.

Emphasis. Emphasis. Emphasis, while it's the correct word is not going to be understood as easily or as quickly by the listener, to an English fluent listener.

Another example is syllable. So we want to emphasize the correct syllable within the word, syllable.

If you were to say syllable, it's technically the same word, but your emphasis is going to confuse the listener. Syllable, correct. Syllable, that's gonna be confusing to the listener.

So as you're learning English, as you're watching content, as you're listening, as you're trying to comprehend what English speakers are saying, pay close attention to the emphasis or stress that they're placing within words.

Remember that the key to learning English is to be able to communicate. When you're speaking, you want to have the listener or the group of listeners understand what you're saying. Even if you're using the correct word, if you're emphasizing a part of the word that they're not used to hearing emphasized, it's going to be confusing, and it's not gonna be as natural.

So, emphasizing or stressing the correct part of a word is the first part of emphasizing correctly, naturally, fluently. The second is to emphasize the correct word within your sentence.

This is something that I picked up and learned from an author and gifted communicator named Zig Ziglar, and he was giving examples of sentences where if you change the emphasis of a single word, it completely changes the meaning of what you're saying.

This is also backed by research from UCLA professor Albert Mehrabian. This research found that only seven percent of our communication with a listener is the words that we use. Seven percent comes down to the words, the word choice, your vocabulary. Thirty-five percent comes down to the tone or the voice quality. So your intonation, your inflection, your tone of voice, your pitch of voice. So seven percent is the word you're using, thirty-five is the sound of your voice, and fifty-eight is completely nonverbal. So your facial expression, if you're looking down to the floor, if you're making eye contact, your posture. Fifty-eight perscent is nonverbal.

But, what I wanna focus on with sentences is that thirty-five percent. So how you're saying specific words. Let's take a simple sentence example with eight words, and I'm gonna use this to demonstrate the difference that emphasizing or stressing different words changes the meaning of what you're saying.

Our example sentence is:

I did not say he stole her computer. Again, I did not say he stole her computer.

Now as we're repeating this sentence, and feel free to repeat after me, we're going to emphasize different words and talk about how that changes the meaning of what we're saying.

I did not say that he stole her computer.

We could say, I did not say he stole her computer.

Now in that sentence, you're saying that that's not something I said. That's something somebody else said.

I did not say he stole her computer.

Now let's emphasize did not.

I did not say he stole her computer.

In this, when you're emphasizing did not, you're almost saying that's not true. That's not something I said, that's false, that's a lie.

I did not say he stole her computer. So we're emphasizing say. I did not say he stole her computer. You could be saying, yeah I didn't say that. I might have written it in an email or sent it in a text message, but it's not something I said.

Let's emphasize the word he.

I did not say he stole her computer.

So when we emphasize he, it's saying it wasn't him, it was someone else. It wasn't him, it was his neighbour or his friend or his colleague. I did not say he stole her computer.

Let's emphasize the word stole.

I did not say he stole her computer.

So that's questioning whether or not he stole it. He might have borrowed it or he might have lost it. I did not say he stole her computer.

Let's emphasize the word her.

I did not say he stole her computer.

I did not say he stole her computer. So this is throwing into question her computer. He might have stolen someone else's computer. I might have said that he stole his colleagues computer, but not hers.

Finally let's emphasize the word computer.

I did not say he stole her computer.

I did not say he stole her computer. This is saying that he might have stolen her bag, he might have stolen her lunch, he might have stolen her car, but I did not say that he stole her computer.

You can see how emphasizing, even in this one specific example, if we emphasize a different word it changes what we're saying. So this highlights or emphasizes that you should really focus on how English speakers, fluent English speakers are emphasizing words, syllables, sounds.

This is a key part of going from beginner or intermediate English to advanced English. One thing you'll find is that there are regional differences between how different fluent speakers emphasize words.

So you'll find that one area emphasizes or stresses a particular part of a word and another area emphasizes a separate part of the word.

A perfect example of this is the word aluminum, or aluminium.

So, British fluent speakers will pronounce this word aluminium, and North American speakers, so American and Canadian speakers will pronounce this word aluminum. Now this is a big difference, however your goal is to adopt a form of the pronunciation of the word that is used somewhere.

While there are regional differences between some of these pronunciations, typically we will understand somebody who has a different regional accent. The trouble comes in when you're emphasizing a part of a word or a part of a sentence that isn't emphasized among any English dialect or version.

How do you do this? How do you take on the correct emphasis? The solution is rather straightforward. You have to practice. You have to practice listening, you have to practice speaking. You have to get in the repetition of listening to fluent speakers say a wide variety of words.

So you want to focus on people who speak English fluently. You really want to focus on those who can fluently, naturally speak English, and mirror their pronunciation, make it your own. It really comes down to practice.

I want to thank you for joining me today. I hope you found this helpful. If you have please hit the thumbs up, give the video a like. It really helps us out and lets us know that you're enjoying this type of content.

Until next time, keep learning and we'll talk soon.