CCSP English Minute 19

CCSP English Minute

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Aula desta segunda-feira, 19 de maio

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Fast-talking Americans

American writer John Amacker, who has lived here in São Paulo for close to 30 years, wrote an insightful article called “How to Talk American” for Speak Up magazine. In his article, John points out that fast-talking Americans tend to shorten and blend words – making it difficult for Brazilians to understand a simple, informal conversation.

For example, an American will say “wanna” instead of “want to” and “gotta” instead of “got to”.

John gives more examples of informal American speech, such as:

Shouldja (should you) as in “Shouldja be doing that?”

Whyncha (why don’t you) as in “Whyncha go tomorrow?”

Whadaya (what are you) as in “Whadaya talkin’ about?”

Jew know (do you know), whatchoo (what you) and oughta (ought to) as in “Jew know whatchoo oughta do?”

And my favorite:

Jeet jet? (Did you eat yet?)

Now, before criticizing Americans for making the English language so hard to understand, you need to remember that Brazilians do the same thing with Portuguese.

Consider these examples:

Cê-tá bem?

Tô-indo papraia.

Notô sabendo de nada.

Peraí que já toindo.

For Americans, these expressions look and sound more like Tupi-Guarani than Portuguese! It has taken me years of practice to understand the linguistic short cuts that Brazilians take when speaking informally.

In conclusion, if you ever have a hard time understanding what an American is saying, do what I did when I first arrived in Brazil. Say “Speak slowly please” and keep saying it until “wanna” becomes “want to”, “gotta” becomes “got to”, and you hear the words as clearly as you see them written on the page.



Confira aula anterior aqui.

Conheça o site de Jason Bermingham: www.vozemingles.com