5 Easy Tips To Speak English Like A Native

If you learn English and are willing to speak like a native, here we listed 5 easy tips that can help you to achieve this goal faster.

Use “get” everywhere

“Get” is one of the most useful and one of the most commonly used words in the English language. Take a look at these examples:

English Learner: What time did you arrive?
Native Speaker: What time did you get there?

“Get” has so many meanings: “take”, “buy”, “arrive”, “receive”, etc.

Sometimes English learners face difficulties using “get” as “become”:

English Learner: I became angry when the train was late.
Native Speaker: I got angry when the train was late.

In fact, we generally use “get” for temporary situations and “become” to emphasize permanent conditions:

Temporary: She got bored with the movie.
Permanent: Ralph became a doctor when he turned 25.
Incorrect: Ralph got a doctor when he turned 25.

Make “used to” a common part of your speech

“Used to” is one of the most useful phrases in English, and it is even easy to pronounce. English learners often get confused when they try to substitute a phrase from their own language:

English Learner: Last time I smoked a lot.
English Learner: I smoked a lot, but now I don’t smoke at all.
Native Speaker: I used to smoke a lot.

NB! There are two forms of “used to” in English and they both have different meanings and grammatical structures:

Example 1: I used to be a policeman (a habit in the past that doesn’t exist now).
Example 2: I am used to eating spicy food (got familiar with / earned a habit to do something).

Substitute “can” with “manage to”

Here is another phrase that can’t be translated easily into other languages. As a result, it is difficult for some learners to start using it. “To manage to do something” means “to succeed in doing it” / “to be able to achieve an expected result”. However, if you use the phrase “succeed” instead, the result may sound clumsy:

English Learner: Did you succeed to find the keys that you lost?
Native Speaker: Did you manage to find the keys that you lost? / Were you able to find the keys that you lost?

Use “about to” to talk about the future

“About to” is a little phrase that is surprisingly useful. We use this phrase to show that something will happen soon. Here is how native speakers use it:

English Learner: I think it is going to rain.
Native Speaker: It looks like it’s about to rain.
English Learner: I can’t have another coffee. I am going soon.
Native Speaker: I don’t have time for another coffee. I’m about to go.

Avoid using “very”

Using “very” actually prevents you from applying more descriptive vocabulary. For example, instead of saying “very large” you may use “huge”. Instead of saying “the food is very good” say “it’s delicious” Just to get you started, here are some more adjectives that you can use instead of saying “very”:

very good — terrific, fabulous, excellent
very bad — awful, terrible, dreadful
very small — tiny, microscopic
very old — ancient
very new — brand-new
very beautiful — gorgeous
very clean — spotless

Follow this link to find out which English words have opposite meanings.

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