AE 1381

Why Do Aussies Speak English So Fast?

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In today's episode...

Ever felt like Aussies are speaking at 100 Ks an hour? Wondering why it all just blurs together whenever you have a yarn with someone from Down Under? In this episode of Aussie English, Pete cracks open the real reason Australian English sounds so fast—spoiler: we’re not actually talking quicker than anyone else! It’s all thanks to quirky connected speech, dropped sounds, and sneaky reductions that make our words flow together like a good cup of tea.

Pete walks you through the classic Aussie shortcuts like turning “going to” into gonna, “out of” into outta, and mashing phrases together until it sounds like one big word salad. You’ll get to practice along, pick up top tips for catching these patterns, and learn why sounding more Aussie isn’t about laziness—it’s about speaking with the true-blue efficiency of the locals.

Ready to stop getting lost in conversation and start sounding fair dinkum Aussie yourself? Give this episode a listen—grab a cuppa, kick back, and see why understanding connected speech is the secret to mastering Australian English!

Tired of feeling lost in conversations with Aussies? My new book, “1001 Australian Slang Words,” is your essential guide to understanding and using authentic Aussie slang! Co-created with ESL learners in mind, this comprehensive resource breaks down everyday expressions, making it easier than ever to connect with locals, understand Australian culture, and speak like a true blue Aussie. Don’t just learn English – live it! Grab your copy today and start sounding like a local!

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Transcript of AE 1381 - Why Do Aussies Speak English So Fast?

G'day you mob, and welcome to Aussie English. I am your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Down Under. So whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flippin' hell were on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go.

G'day, you mob! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. I am your host, Pete Smissen, and this is the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English.

Now, for those of you guys on my email list, I recently sent out an email titled Why Do Aussies Sound So Fast? So I thought I would put together this episode today talking about that exact point. You know, why do Aussies sound like they're speaking 100 Ks an hour. Why does it sound so fast? So let's get into it.

So, have you ever been chatting with an Australian? And suddenly it feels like someone's hit the fast forward button. Their words just melt together into one long blur, and you're left nodding along, smiling and thinking, what the hell is this guy on about? What is he talking about? I hope I didn't just agree to babysit their cousin's snake this weekend or something. Does that sound familiar? Maybe everything but the snake part.

So here's the thing that surprises a lot of learners when they get to Australia. Aussies aren't actually speaking faster.

From what I understand, the literature says pretty much all languages speak at about the same rate. So what's happening is something called connected speech when it comes to Australian English, and it may differ from other dialects of English.

If you've ever wondered why you can understand English perfectly on paper when you're reading, but you struggle in real conversation, this is usually a big part of it. In fact, usually this is the all of it. This is the answer.

So today we're going to break down connected speech a little bit into three simple patterns. So you can start hearing it and using it and hopefully sounding more like a fair dinkum Aussie.

All right. Let's talk about dropping sounds. We'll start with that first, okay.

So in casual Australian English we often drop sounds, especially T sounds and D sounds, right. /t/ and /d/, and whole unstressed syllables.

Why do we do this? It just makes speech sound smoother and shorter. It's all about efficiency when it really comes down to it. Any of these changes that take place, compared to writing, you know, when we talk about speaking, usually it's about efficiency.

How do I convey the message that I want to say as quickly as possible, using as few sounds as possible? So let's go through some examples.

"Going to". You'll often hear this as 'gonna'. "Want to" 'wanna'. "Kind of" 'kinda'. "Lot of" 'lotta'. "Did you" 'didya'. "Don't know" 'dunno'. "Out of" 'outta'.

So, now let's do it in some real sentences. So listen and repeat after me.

I don't know what happened, mate.

I dunno what happened, mate.

We've got to get you sorted.

We've gotta get you sorted.

I probably should have called you earlier.

I prob'ly shoulda called you earlier.

So, notice how the words shrink down. This happens even in professional settings, in formal situations, not just when people are, well, being lazy, right? So it's not about laziness, it's about efficiency.

All right, number two. Blending words together. English native speakers don't usually pause between every word like language learners often do, especially when you speak a language like something like Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese, where the word boundaries and syllable boundaries are very strictly separated.

Instead, in Australian English, we link and we merge these sounds together so whole phrases can sound like one long word.

For example, "what are you doing?" becomes /what're you doin?/. "Did you eat?" becomes /d'you eat?/. "Where did you go?" becomes /where d'you go?/. "See you later" becomes /seeyou later/. "Let her in" becomes /let'er in/.

So you'll notice this all the time in Australian English. So let's go through a few more in action. Okay. So again listen and repeat after me.

What do you reckon we'll do this weekend?

Where'd you put the keys?

Yeah, right'o. See you later, mate.

This is one of the biggest reasons learners say things like. I know the words, but I can't hear them. You do know the words. They're just being changed and glued together a little differently from what you're used to.

And finally, reduced forms. Australians use reductions constantly in daily speech. In fact, this is ubiquitous amongst English speakers. These aren't slang, they're just normal spoken English with reduction.

And this is where you take one or more syllables and they're given the schwa vowel sound. Okay, so instead of saying like 'two', clearly with that /oo/ vowel sound, you might hear. So you'll hear those schwas used for different syllables or different words in the sentence that aren't as important. Again, you'll have heard a lot of these. Let's go through them.

"Want to" 'wanna'. Right? The /uh/ /wanna/.

"Do you want to grab a coffee?" /Do you wanna graba coffee?/ Can you hear them? "Do you wanna grab a coffee?" /Do you wanna grab a coffee?/.

"Going to" 'gonna'. "We're goin to head off soon." /We're gonna head off soon/.

"Got to" 'gotta'. "I've got to run, mate." /I've gotta run, mate/.

"Should have". So, 'have' here gets just the schwa sound. /should'a/. "You should have seen it." /You should'a seen it/.

"Might have" 'mighta'. "She might have forgotten." /She might'a forgotten/.

"Sort of" 'sorta'. "I sort of get what you mean." /I sorta get what you mean/.

"Give me" 'gimme'. "Give me a sec". /Gimme a sec/. In this case, you'll sort of hear 'give' just become /gi/. /Gimme a sec/.

"Let me" 'lemme'. "Let me check first". /Lemme check first/. Now you hear 'let' getting reduced to just /le/. /Lemme check first/.

A few more examples. So repeat these entire sentences after me.

Mate, you should have seen the sunset last night.

We're going to head down the coast this weekend.

We're gonna head down the coast this weekend.

I sort of feel like some Thai food.

So again, it's not that you don't know the vocab, it's that the shape of the words has changed.

So why does this matter? Because if you want to follow Aussies when they speak naturally, stop getting lost mid-conversation and sound more fluent and natural yourself when speaking English, then understanding connected speech and hopefully using it when you speak English is essential.

If your ears aren't trained to pick up these patterns, your brain can't keep up in real time when hearing English spoken to you. That's why you might be great at reading or watching slow subtitles, but still feel like you're drowning in a real conversation or chat.

The good news is, once you start noticing these patterns, you'll hear them everywhere. And in fact, this is what happens with a lot of my private students. We work on these exact things, and they'll come back to me a week or two later and they'll be like, Pete, I now hear these all over the place. Like, we spent a lesson working on these issues, and now I just keep hearing them coming up again and again and again.

And that'll happen to you too, with a bit of practice. So, yes, with a bit of practice, you'll start using them and you'll start noticing them all over the place, okay. Without even thinking about it.

So all right, that's it for today, guys. So, a cheeky little plug: if you guys want private lessons so that you can work on your Australian English pronunciation, or just English more generally, and you want to learn these patterns but for international English, we can do it for either Australian English or general English.

Then send me a message on Instagram or Facebook or an email at [email protected] and ask me about private lessons. I'll send you the details and we can get started making you understand Aussies and sounding a lot more Australian and natural when you speak English.

Beyond that, if you're interested in developing your Australian accent and you want to sort of self-study with an online course, definitely go check out my Australian pronunciation course.

Inside you'll learn how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet, those weird symbols in the dictionary, so that you can study on your own. You'll learn all the different vowel and consonant sounds in Australian English.

All of those videos in section two there of the course go through each and every sound in detail, showing you how to do it, and then giving you loads of practice exercises so that you can nail it quickly.

And then in the third section, we go through this sort of stuff a little bit more like reductions, contractions, assimilation. How sounds merge together.

That's the section that'll really boost your ability to make these small changes in how you speak English to sound more natural, and to be able to understand Aussies when they speak with these changes.

So if you want to check that out, check out my Australian pronunciation course at AussieEnglish.com.au/100. When you do that, you'll save 100 bucks, so go check it out. Once again it is AussieEnglish.com.au/100. You'll see the link in the description.

Anyway, thanks for joining me, mate. And in the next episode we're going to talk about one of the biggest pronunciation mistakes that keeps learners sounding not quite Aussie okay, even when their grammar and vocab are solid as well. So keep an eye out for that one. So yeah, thanks for joining me and I'll see you next time. Tooroo!