Calling Tech Support
Brian's internet is down and Nina from TechLine talks him through it — at real phone speed, where half the grammar words are ghosts. · FAST · Real American Listening
Step 1 — Listen (no transcript yet)
Listen once or twice without reading. Just follow the story: who is speaking, where, and what changes?
Real voices for this lesson. Slow plays the same voices at 75% speed.
…or listen with your device voice:
Step 2 — Comprehension questions
Answer from memory first. Each question trains a named skill.
Step 3 — Reveal the transcript
In the transcript: Reduction
📄 Show Transcript
Nina: Thanks for callin' TechLine, this is Nina. How can I help ya?
Brian: Hi — my internet's been down since lunch. I've restarted the router like, five times.
Nina: I'm sorry about that. Didja check the cable in the back? Sometimes it just wiggles loose.
Brian: Yeah, twice. The lights are on, but nothin' loads.
Nina: Okay, we're gonna run a quick test from my side. You're gonna hafta hold for just a sec.
Brian: Sure. How long's it gonna take?
Nina: Shouldn't be more than a couple minutes. …Okay, I can see your line — there's an outage on your street. A crew's already on it.
Brian: So it's not just me?
Nina: Nope, 'bout forty houses. They shoulda had it fixed by six, but the storm slowed 'em down. I'd say give it till seven.
Brian: All right. Thanks, Nina — you made that painless.
Step 4 — Difficult expressions
Sometimes it just wiggles loose.
There's an outage on your street. A crew's already on it.
I'd say give it till seven.
Step 5 — Pronunciation & reductions
American English shrinks unstressed words. This is what the speakers really did with their mouths:
You read:
Thanks for callin' TechLine
You hear:
Thanks fer CALL-in' TechLine
Even the greeting shrinks: for → fer, calling → callin'. Phone speech is the fastest register of all.
You read:
How can I help ya?
You hear:
How c'n I HELP ya?
'Can' → 'c'n', 'you' → 'ya'. The only full-size word in the question is HELP — the point of the call.
You read:
a couple minutes
You hear:
A COU-pla minutes
At full speed, 'of' doesn't just shrink — it disappears: 'a couple minutes' for 'a couple of minutes.' You'll hear this constantly.
You read:
'bout forty houses
You hear:
'BOUT FOR-ty houses
'About' loses its first syllable entirely: 'bout. The number still gets its stress — facts survive, glue words don't.
You read:
They shoulda had it fixed by six
You hear:
They SHOUL-da had it fixed by SIX
'Should have' → 'shoulda' even before another verb ('had'). The time — six — carries the regret.
You read:
the storm slowed 'em down
You hear:
The storm slowed-'em down
'Them' → ''em' — one of the oldest reductions in English. After a verb it almost vanishes.
🗣️ Practice this pronunciation →
Step 6 — Shadow
Play the audio and speak with the voices — same words, same rhythm, half a second behind them. Use Slow if you need to. Two or three passes, out loud.
Step 7 — Speak
Make the support call yourself: greet with 'How can I help ya?', ask 'Didja check…?' once, explain 'You're gonna hafta hold for just a sec,' and finish with 'give it till seven.' Record Nina's lines at phone speed.
Record yourself, play it back, and compare with the model. Recordings stay in your browser — nothing is uploaded.
Step 8 — Final comprehension check
One last pass: dictation and quick questions. No transcript peeking this time.
Keep training this skill
🗣️ Pronunciation Lab — sounds, stress, reductions & shadowing (A1–C1)🎙️ Speaking Studio — dialogues, role-plays and interviews🌱 Vocabulary Builder — grow the words you heard🔗 Phrasal Verbs Lab — the verbs native speakers actually use💬 Idioms — one idiom in every Step by Step lesson🇺🇸 Real-Life English — Say It Right, the mistakes clinic🎧 Listening Lab — all levels A1–C1Keep going
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