Quick Connected Speech Lesson with BANKS

By Ethan | December 9, 2016

Hey badass English learner!

Do you love learning English with music? Music is wonderful for learning languages because of the natural use of native expressions and slang, as well as the ability to improve your pronunciation by singing along.

I am excited to bring you a lesson with one of my favorite singers, BANKS. I have been listening to her new album and I noticed the song “Weaker Girl” has a ton of American connected speech, so I wanted to make a fast lesson highlighting some examples of dynamic pronunciation in this song.

NOTE: If you are easily offended, you will probably not like the language in this song.

Before you listen

In your English learning you have probably already encountered some common connected speech like gonna, wanna, gotta (if not, watch this first), and you will notice these a lot in this song.

However, BANKS shows us that the connected speech gonna is often reduced even more in cutting-edge (the very latest) American English.

I’m gonna is the reduced form of I am going to, but it can be reduced even further to just Ima.

Something else you will notice in this song that is more and more common in American English is that we cut syllables off of words. Some examples:

About –> ’bout
Them –> ’em
Because –> ’cause
Kind of –> kinda

Last, there is an important slang expression that you must learn to understand this song.

As you may know, the word fuck is a versatile curse word in English that can have many different meanings (learn more about “fuck” here). In “Weaker Girl,” you will hear the slang expression bad motherfucker repeated A LOT.

Motherfucker, if not used appropriately, is probably one of the most vulgar terms in English. But how BANKS collocates it with bad is similar to how I used badass at the beginning of this text, meaning someone cool, strong, or powerful (learn more).

All right, that is all you need to know! Below you will find a video with lyrics. I’ll also paste the lyrics below the video highlighting the connected speech.

Remember to sing and practice what you have learned and improve your English pronunciation 🙂

Song and Lyrics

“Weaker Girl”

Tell me what you want from me
I think you need a weaker girl
Kind of like the girl I used to be
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I’ma let you do what you wanna do
I’ma let you say what you wanna say
‘Cause I’ma need a bad motherfucker like me

I let you go
You can tell ’em something ’bout the way you moved on
I let you go
Tell ’em you were mad ’bout the way I grew strong
Oh, nah, nah
I think you need a weaker girl, yeah
‘Cause I’ma need a bad motherfucker like

I’ma need a bad, I’ma need a bad
I’ma need a bad, I’ma need a bad
Motherfucker like me, hey, hey
Motherfucker like me, hey, hey
I’ma need a bad, I’ma need a bad
I’ma need a bad, I’ma need a bad
Motherfucker like me, hey, hey
Motherfucker like me, hey, hey

Tell me where you wanted to go
I bet you wanted me to follow
Kinda like the girl I used to be
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
I’ma let you know what you don’t wanna know
We just gonna see what we gonna see
‘Cause I’ma need a bad motherfucker like me

I let you go
You can tell ’em something ’bout the way you moved on
I let you go
Tell ’em you were mad about the way I grew strong
Oh, nah, nah
I think you need a weaker girl, yeah
‘Cause I’ma need a bad motherfucker like me
Hey, me
I think you need a weaker girl, yeah
‘Cause I’ma need a bad motherfucker like

Posted in Music, Uncategorized