How to Sound More Natural when Speaking English When you begin learning English, you probably just want to be able to order a coffee and find the bathroom. But the longer you study, you'll probably want to really sound like a native speaker. So how can you make your speech sound more natural? First of all, make sure you know your grammar, says Emile Dodds from the Leonardo English website. "Bad grammar will hold you back," he says. However, that doesn't mean you have to speak like the King of England. In fact, sometimes you should do the opposite! When native speakers talk naturally, they use things like contractions and filler words. And contractions aren't just things like "can't" and "won't." Native speakers also shorten "going to" to "gonna" or "got to" to "gotta." You wouldn't use these in writing, but they sound natural when speaking. Filler words — words that fill space — are great because they sound natural, but also give you time to think. These are little words like "so," "um" and "you know." For example, you might say: "So, I was thinking, um, are you doing anything later?" According to the website Dan's Real English: "It's really important to use fillers — but not too often!" And while you might have learned in school to answer questions in full sentences, it's not something you need to do in casual conversation. Of course, learning to speak naturally takes time. You can learn by listening to native speakers on the internet or in movies to hear how they speak, and you might even hear some useful phrases and idioms!