AEE: Why Slow Down in English? Part 2: Give Space for Emphasis

Summary

All Ears English Podcast: "Why Slow Down in English? Part 2: Give Space for Emphasis"

Release Date: July 19, 2025
Hosts: Lindsay McMahon and Michelle Kaplan

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In the engaging episode titled "Why Slow Down in English? Part 2: Give Space for Emphasis," hosts Lindsay McMahon and Aubrey Carter delve deeper into the pivotal role that pacing and emphasis play in mastering American English. Building upon the foundational concepts introduced in Part 1, this episode focuses on practical strategies to enhance clarity, connection, and expressiveness in conversation.

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1. The Power of Delivery in Communication

The episode opens with an insightful discussion on how delivery significantly impacts both storytelling and everyday conversations in English. Lindsay emphasizes that effective communication isn't just about what you say but how you say it.

Lindsey McMahon [03:03]: "It's a lot about delivery. And it's really interesting how the skills that make you a good storyteller also transfer to what makes you a good conversationalist."

Aubrey adds that mastering delivery can transform a speaker from being merely understood to being truly engaging.

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2. The Pitfalls of Speaking Too Quickly

A key challenge identified is the common tendency among English learners to speak rapidly to mask mistakes or nervousness. This habit, however, often leads to the opposite of the intended effect—misunderstandings and diminished clarity.

Lindsey McMahon [05:08]: "We make ourselves small. We say to ourselves, I'm maybe not worth taking up this space here... we play it safe, but we never win in life when we play it safe."

Aubrey echoes this sentiment, highlighting that speaking too quickly can devalue the message and make it seem as though the speaker's contributions are unimportant.

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3. Strategy One: Pausing for Emphasis

The first strategy discussed involves incorporating deliberate pauses to emphasize key points and enhance understanding. This technique not only clarifies the message but also adds a dramatic effect that keeps listeners engaged.

Example: Correcting a Misunderstanding

Without Pausing:

"I told you I did try, but no one was listening."

With Pausing and Emphasis:

"I told you I did try, but no one was listening."

Aubrey Carter [07:43]: "Notice how there are pauses there. There have to be pauses in order to give these words space in order to emphasize them."

By strategically placing pauses and stressing certain words, speakers can convey emotions like frustration or determination more effectively.

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4. Strategy Two: Varying Intonation

The second strategy focuses on varying intonation to add depth and emotion to conversations. This involves changing the pitch and tone of the voice to highlight important words and phrases.

Example: Adding Emphasis to Key Words

Without Emphasis:

"She looked me in the eye and said this was never going to work."

With Emphasis:

"She looked me in the eye and said this was never going to work."

Aubrey Carter [10:37]: "Punching 'never' adds that emotion, adds that emphasis."

By emphasizing words like "never," speakers can underscore the finality or seriousness of their statements, making the conversation more impactful.

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5. Strategy Three: Clear Enunciation

The third strategy underscores the importance of clear enunciation to prevent misunderstandings. Proper pronunciation and articulation ensure that each word is distinct, reducing the likelihood of confusion.

Example: Eliminating Ambiguity

Without Clear Enunciation:

"I saw her duck."
(Could mean observing a duck or someone lowering their head)

With Clear Enunciation:

As a noun (animal): "I saw her duck." (Emphasizing 'duck' as the animal) As a verb (action): "I saw her duck." (Emphasizing 'duck' as the action of lowering)

Aubrey Carter [16:12]: "Words like this that have multiple meanings can easily lead to misunderstandings if there's no intonation in the sentence."

Adding context further clarifies the intended meaning:

"I saw her duck right before the ball hit her."

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6. Enhancing Communication Through Gestures

In addition to vocal techniques, the hosts advocate for using physical gestures to complement speech. Gestures can naturally create pauses and emphasize points, reinforcing the spoken message.

Lindsey McMahon [20:11]: "When I gesture, I feel like I sometimes space out my words with my gestures."

Aubrey concurs, sharing that hand movements can add "extra punch" to conversations, making them more dynamic and engaging.

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7. Encouraging Confidence and Space in Communication

The episode concludes with a compelling reminder that effective communication in English is less about avoiding mistakes and more about building connections. By slowing down, taking deliberate pauses, varying intonation, and using gestures, speakers can express themselves more confidently and authentically.

Aubrey Carter [19:33]: "And people want to connect with other people. And if you make yourself small is what happens when we speak fast to mask our errors. That's not opening us up to connection."

This holistic approach not only improves language proficiency but also fosters meaningful interactions, aligning perfectly with the podcast's motto: "Connection NOT Perfection!"

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Final Thoughts

Lindsay and Aubrey's insightful discussion provides English learners with actionable strategies to enhance their speaking skills. By embracing a slower pace, intentional emphasis, and expressive gestures, speakers can achieve greater clarity and connection in their conversations. This episode serves as an essential guide for those aiming to speak American English with confidence and authenticity.

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Recommended for Next:
Listeners passionate about mastering intonation and handling delicate conversations should tune into the episode "English for Touchy Testy Situations," which offers further strategies to navigate complex dialogues with finesse.

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Thank you for tuning into All Ears English Podcast. To continue improving your English with Lindsay and Aubrey, subscribe and join a community focused on meaningful connection through language.

Transcript

[Lindsey McMahon]

This is an All Ears English episode. Why Slow down in English Part 2 give space for emphasis welcome to the All Ears English podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection with your American host, Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz and Lindsey McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, usa. To get real time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list, try the Allears English app for iOS and Android. Start your 7 day free trial at allearsenglish.com app.

[Aubrey Carter]

Today we continue our series about slowing down, taking up space and leaving yourself open to connection in English with two more strategies. Find out what they are Today.

[Lindsey McMahon]

I'd like to offer a huge welcome to our new students who have recently joined the B1 English fluency course. Massimo, Mohammed, I, Tiago, you and Pedro. They made the smart choice to join us because progress happens when you commit, even in small steps. Just 15 minutes a day with a clear plan. No guesswork, no overwhelm. Our special offer on the B1 English fluency course, including live weekly, open conversation club and speaking practice, expires July 20th at midnight. Don't miss your chance to join our community of students. Go to allearsenglish.com b1 that's all earsenglish.com letter B number one. Hey there Aubry. What's shaking?

[Aubrey Carter]

Not much. How are you, Lindsay?

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, doing well. Aubry, do you know anyone who's a really good storyteller? Like they start to tell a story and everyone just kind of huddles up next to them?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes, I have a neighbor friend. He actually did stand up comedy and improv. He did improv shows when he was younger. He's a banker now, which is funny. He is very funny and he has such good. I think a lot of it comes from the comic timing of that stand up comedy. But he is really good at building up a story. So you're just can't wait to find out what happened. Right. He's adding this interesting dramatic effect and building suspense. Even if it's a story that's sort of just about like what happened yesterday. Not a very big deal. Right.

[Lindsey McMahon]

It's incredible and it's very empowering to know these are skills we can use. It's not like he was born with that talent. Maybe, maybe there's a little talent there. Maybe he's high EQ potentially. Right?

[Aubrey Carter]

Right.

[Lindsey McMahon]

But these are skills we can learn at the same time. About Delivery. It's delivery, right?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes, absolutely. It's a lot about delivery. And it's really interesting how the skills that make you a good storyteller, teller also transfer to what make you a good conversationalist, to what makes it easy to understand everything you're saying in English. Right?

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah. A good conversationalist, a good presenter, someone that people listen to at work. Right. A career, a success career. There's a lot here, Aubrey.

[Aubrey Carter]

Exactly right. Speed. Yeah. We want to talk about the speed that we use and also the intonation, the pauses. Right. This really affects not only a story that we're telling, but the message, the import that's given to our message. So this is part two of a series, Right. If you missed part one, scroll up, you can check it out. And today is part two.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yes. And this series is inspired by our amazing student, Cena, who I got to meet in Open Conversation Club. And he explained to me his challenge that he tends to speak fast, in a way to cover up mistakes out of a fear that maybe what he's saying is wrong. And so we're digging into this and we're explaining what can we do, not only why we should slow down, but how to strategically slow down and where and when.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right, exactly right.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Slowing down. Yeah.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes. We have all been there. We often, especially in a second language, but even in our first language, if we get nervous, we speed up, thinking that it will cover up any mistakes or. Or hide our nervousness, maybe. And in a second language, if we're worried about grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation errors, we feel like if we speak really quickly and fluidly, that they won't be as noticeable. And in. In part, that is true, but unfortunately, it also can make what we're saying to understand if we're not clear with our phonemes, those individual letter sounds, and if we're not pausing to give different words, the. The variety of tone they need, the emphasis they need.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Exactly. And what ends up happening is we make ourselves small. We make ourselves small, Aubry. Right. We say to ourselves, I'm maybe not worth taking up this space here that I would take off if I paused, if I change my intonation. So I'm going to speak quickly, I'm going to be smaller, and they won't notice my mistakes. We play it safe, but we never win in life when we play it safe.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right. And we devalue our message, whether we're presenting or just having a conversation with a friend, we are devaluing ourselves and. And giving the impression that what we're saying isn't important. And it's. They don't really need to pay attention.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Even if the content is awesome. Yeah, often that is the case. Usually this happens in life. Right. When the content is great, but someone doesn't feel that they can deliver it well, versus people that talk all the time, but talk much and they're not actually saying anything. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Absolutely. Yeah. So in part one, we talked about the. The need to pause for punctuation in a sentence. You. If you are listening to this podcast, you are using compound, complex sentences that have multiple clauses, introductory phrases, relative clauses, and you have to pause when there would be punctuation in order to build dramatic effect in order to make your meaning clear.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah. Don't lose the complexity of what you're saying. Don't let that get lost in that monotone. Right. A lot of our listeners, you guys tell us you want to show your true personality, the complexity of your thinking in English, but if we're saying in a monotone, not pausing, we're not conveying the complexity of our thoughts.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right, Exactly. Right. So we're diving into our second tip here today. Whether there's punctuation or not, you have to give space for emphasis and to. To vary your intonation. So we talked about this Often, students, listeners, all of us will slip into a monotone if we're thinking about other things. We're trying to think of the correct grammar, the vocabulary, and often what goes on the back burner is interesting intonation delivery.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Exactly. So what are some scenarios where we. We would do this? Aubry. Give space for emphasis and variety of intonation. Tell us more what that means.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah. So, for example, if you're correcting a misunderstanding, let's say someone you know misunderstood something you said, or maybe you're defending yourself. Okay, let's say. Let's use this without interesting intonation. If I said, I told you I did try, but no one. No one was listening.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Kind of a little muted, a little monotone, boring.

[Aubrey Carter]

You might not even understand that I'm actually trying to correct a misunderstanding. How should this sound? Lindsay?

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, I told you I did try, but no one. No one was listening.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right. So you have. Notice how there are pauses there. There have to be pauses in order to give these words space in order to emphasize them. So let's talk about what exactly you did. First of all, you stressed the word did to correct a misunderstanding, to defend yourself in the intonation. The context is shown.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Right. And the presumption here is that what I said to you before, that was. Seems like you didn't try. Right, right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Exactly. If this were part of a conversation, someone has told you that you didn't try. I did. I did try.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Right. But no one. No one was listening. Okay. So that's the first thing we did. I told you I did. Well, we did a few things. We have this, this slash here, this hyphen where we. We pause there too. Right. I told you I did try, right?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes. Right. And then we also repeat no one. And we're going to emphasize it stronger whenever we have repetition of a phrase. It is the first way. I said that is very strange to just say it with a monotone. You're saying it again in order to emphasize, so you want to hit it harder. So you say no. 1 with that little bit of a pause and you punch it harder to add sort of emotional weight and frustration. You are showing emotion through your expressiveness.

[Lindsey McMahon]

This is a nice little trick. Our listeners can have just a self contained trick in their back pocket that they can use even if this is the only thing you take away from this episode. Guys, this is great. Choose what you want to repeat occasionally. Occasionally in a passionate sentence and really punch that hard the second time you say it. It can have a big effect for sure.

[Aubrey Carter]

Absolutely. Absolutely. And if you're speaking too quickly and running this all together, you won't be able to emphasize those words. They need space. They need those tiny pauses in order to be able to punch those words harder.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yes. What would be the second example, Aubrey, of giving space for.

[Aubrey Carter]

All right, let me first show it, you know, as a monotone. I'll run together. If you said she looked me in the eye and said this was never going to.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, just not. Not engaging to me. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Exactly. There's very little emotion expressiveness. My listeners might just be kind of shutting off their brain thinking about what happened earlier.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, it happens very quickly, even as adults. I think what do they say is like the attention span of a goldfish or so? Like we have like a 3 second attention span and we're gone. I lost you already once you were in the third word in the. In the phrase.

[Aubrey Carter]

And unfortunately, attention spans are getting even shorter.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

With screen time and movies and, you know, filmmakers editing or to do quicker edits because they lose the audience's attention too fast. The same happens with us in conversations.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yes. So how could it sound with emphasis and variety of information?

[Aubrey Carter]

So you could say she looked me in the eye and said this was never going to work.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yes. And we really emphasize never. Why did we choose never?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah. So punching never adds that emotion, adds that emphasis. Right? You really, if you're saying something was never going to happen, pretty much anytime you have never in a sentence sentence, you should punch it harder because it's such an absolute. You're saying something will never happen. You can't say this will never happen.

[Lindsey McMahon]

And you, and you also paused. There was a comma after said. And before the quote, we saw that. So you paused before that quote to build tension, right? To break it up, right?

[Aubrey Carter]

If you're saying she looked me in the eye and said, and then there's this pause like what, What? What did she say? Right? So you're building tension, intentionally pausing before what you share that was said. But this goes back to part one as well. You know, there should be a pause there because there would be punctuation, there would be quotation marks, there would be a comma here. So you're also pausing for punctuation.

[Lindsey McMahon]

I love it. So strategic, Aubry, isn't it?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes, absolutely.

[Lindsey McMahon]

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[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah, so often when you slow down, it's intentionally to be able to use clear enunciation because if you aren't enunciating clearly, you can. It can lead to misunderstandings, confusion. So Cena mentioned that speaking quickly can mask minor grammar and pronunciation mistakes, which can be true. But it can also cause the entire message to be lost if the individual words and sounds aren't clear.

[Lindsey McMahon]

All right, so this is the time when you do need to slow down. Right. Before we said that, you know, a lot of this doesn't necessarily involve slowing down, but in this case, that is the recommendation for this third tip. Right?

[Aubrey Carter]

Exactly right. Without proper intonation, pacing, word stress, the listener might not know which meaning is intended. There's a lot of ambiguity in English, and through our intonation, we often can make it clear. So let's give a couple examples. I'm going to say a sentence fast first.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Okay.

[Aubrey Carter]

And when it's said fast, you might not understand exactly what I'm saying. Okay. Ready?

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yes.

[Aubrey Carter]

I told my friend John would be late because he missed the bus.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Oh, yeah, I misunderstood a couple things right in the middle there.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes. Right. So this is tricky. If you say it fast, it could sound like, I told my friend John we'd be late because I missed the bus. A lot of pronouns can sound the same when you're speaking quickly and running things together. What I intended to say was, I told my friend John, or I told my friend John would be late because he missed the bus. I honestly didn't know what you were.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Saying until just now.

[Aubrey Carter]

I told my friend John would be late because he missed the bus. But if you say it quickly, sounds like, I told my friend John we'd be late.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Okay, well, that's a perfect example of what happens.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right.

[Lindsey McMahon]

We lose it. We lose the point, and therefore we lose the connection. Right?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah. So often because there is, you know, there are so many sounds in English and so many tricky things about word stress that a lot of things that you say, a lot of things that anyone says could be misunderstood if we're speaking very quickly in order to avoid these grammar and pronunciation errors being clear. But the bigger risk is causing a misunderstanding confusion. It's not the end of the word world to have to say, wait, who was late? Who missed the bus?

[Lindsey McMahon]

Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

But it's, you know, not. It's not necessary in the first place if you're able to use correct intonation. Slow down so that you can enunciate clearly.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah. You don't want to have to waste your time on those questions when you can get to more interesting content in your conversation with someone. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes. And then there's also all of the ambiguity of words in English that have the same or lots of meanings for the same word. So, for example, Lindsay, what if I say, I saw her duck? What does that Mean.

[Lindsey McMahon]

It could mean two things. Right. Are you saying I have a duck like a duck that goes quack, quack, and you saw my duck over there waddling across the yard? Or are you saying you saw me or her Someone duck down physical lower.

[Aubrey Carter]

To avoid something above them? Right. We have the noun a duck, like you were saying that quacks. And also the verb which means to lower yourself to duck. And so words like this that have multiple meanings can easily lead to misunderstandings if there's no intonation in the sentence. So let's say it is a duck waddling across the yard. You'd want to say, I saw her duck. Because if you're talking about someone ducking, it's not exciting. Right. You want this intonation to punch duck harder.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Ah, interesting. Right. And a little. Adding a little ex information. I saw her duck. It was waddling across the yard.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right, Right. Especially when we know, oh, this word exists as a noun and a verb. We're probably going to add more context. I saw her duck. It was waddling across the yard. Yes. Wait. Yeah, she ducked. Why was she ducking?

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, you're never gonna. Yeah, exactly. Or in the context of physically ducking. Right. I saw her duck right before the ball hit her. Okay.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right. And the intonation would be different. Right. I saw her duck. That goes down there. Because we don't have this, like, excitement. It's rare, you know? And then also adding more context. Oh, I saw her duck right before the ball hit her. We know we're not talking about the animal. A duck.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah. It seems like we're placing the most emphasis there on the verb hit Right before. Because that's kind of the surprising thing that happened. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

It's really. If someone's ducking, we care more about why they had to duck.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Right. Good point. Wow, there's a lot here. Aubry. This has been a very solid series. I'm so excited that, you know, we got this question from Cena. Such a good question and a. A concept that we don't think about. Right. We think about maybe people speaking too slowly, but we don't think often about speaking too fast.

[Aubrey Carter]

Right. Absolutely. Right. And it's interesting we talk about this quite a bit over on the IELTS Energy podcast. If you're studying for ielts, you've likely heard this. You have to slow down to enunciate words to make sure that, you know, word stress is correct, phonemes are correct, and your intonation is interesting. But often in just daily life, we don't realize that it's vital then as well to make conversations and stories interesting?

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yes. What's another episode our listeners could check out if they're excited about this series and they want to keep going with all ears English?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yes. I loved the episode you and Michelle did. 24:39 English for touchy testy situations. And an episode like this really lends toward interesting intonation. Right. If you're talking about touchy, testy situations, you're definitely going to be using very interesting intonation there.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Fantastic. So as we wrap up this episode in this series, Aubry, where should we leave our listeners? What. What is the most important thing to keep in mind here?

[Aubrey Carter]

Yeah, I think this can be sort of a misunderstanding, that speaking quickly will improve your English, will make it so that no one. No one notices your errors and your message is clearer. That's actually the opposite of the of. Of what actually happens sometimes. It makes it so that your message is misunderstood or even lost at times.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Exactly. As you're talking. Always keep in mind connection is the goal. Right. And to. And people want to connect with other people. And if you make yourself small is what happens when we speak fast to mask our errors. That's not opening us up to connection, Aubrey. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

Absolutely right. Such a good point. You want there to be value on what you say, whether it's a presentation at work that has high stakes or a story you're telling. You want the people that you are talking to to know why they should be listening. And a lot of this is done through your intonation, through the pauses that you're making intentionally and slowing down so that you have the space to give words that.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yeah, wait. Exactly. And I think the final tip that just came to mind is this is about taking up space. Right. This is about being willing to take time, take space. And maybe one thing that could help is using gestures more. Because when I gesture, I feel like I sometimes space out my words with my gestures. I'm doing it right now on our YouTube channel. Right.

[Aubrey Carter]

I do that, too. I talk with my hands a lot and it sort of adds that extra punch.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Exactly. And also, I'm not sure if this research has been disproven or what, but I kind of think it makes sense. Do you remember there was some research in the aughts that was out about when we physically put our arms in the air? It increases our confidence and it kind of. We expand our space. Right. I think it works. It works for me. When I stand up, I expand my space. So what if. If you're having trouble implementing these tips what if you actually try to take up more space and at the same time slow down? That's just something to think about as a strategy, as a time.

[Aubrey Carter]

I love that. Right. Take up more space and also the time it takes in order to make sure your message is clear. Often you won't actually be saving time if someone has to ask you to repeat or clarify. Right. So if you think about that on the front end, say it clearly the first time. Enunciate clearly. Give words the space and time they need.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Yes. So I'm excited to see this shift in our listeners and our students in our student only open conversation club. Super excited to see some results here. Good stuff. All right, Aubrey, you have a good rest of your day. I'll see you soon.

[Aubrey Carter]

You too. Awesome. Thanks, Lindsay. Take care.

[Lindsey McMahon]

Bye. Thanks for listening to all ears. English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz. Always go to allearsenglish.com forward/fluencyscore. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time.

[Aubrey Carter]

There's a time and a place for filet of fish. But breakfast is for sausage biscuits. It McDonald's breakfast comes first.