You Understand English But Can’t Speak? Here’s Why

Many people who learn English feel like they understand almost everything when they read or listen especially when watching videos or reading texts online but when it’s time to speak they feel stuck and the words don’t come out and I know this feeling very well because I had the same problem for a long time and I used to ask myself how can I understand English but not speak it and the truth is there’s a reason for that and it’s not your fault and in this article I will explain what’s really going on and how you can fix it.


Passive Input vs Active Output
The reason why you can understand English but not speak it is because of something simple that many people don’t realise which is the difference between passive input and active output and what that means is that when you read or listen to English you are only receiving the language and not using it and your brain gets good at recognising words but not producing them and speaking needs a different kind of practice and many learners don’t give it enough time.

Why This Happens to Most Learners
Most English learners spend years watching series reading articles listening to music and even taking grammar lessons but almost never speak the language out loud and this creates a big gap where your brain knows the meaning of the words but your mouth is not used to saying them and if you don’t train your speaking muscles then the words stay locked inside your head and that’s why you freeze or forget words when trying to talk.

How to Break the Speaking Block
The only way to fix this is by doing active speaking practice every day even if it’s just 5 or 10 minutes and you don’t need a teacher or a native speaker at first you can start by talking to yourself reading aloud describing what you’re doing in English or recording short voice messages to practice and the more you use your mouth the more natural it will feel and slowly the gap between understanding and speaking will start to disappear.

Don’t Wait Until You’re “Ready”
One of the biggest mistakes is waiting until your grammar or vocabulary is perfect before you start speaking because the truth is you will never feel 100 percent ready and speaking is not something you do after you learn it’s something you do while you learn so even if you make mistakes that’s okay and the earlier you start speaking the faster you improve and most people who are fluent now started by making lots of small mistakes and learning from them.

Before you go!
If you understand English but find it hard to speak then don’t worry because this is a normal problem and you can solve it by changing your practice and doing more speaking every day and just remember that speaking is a skill like riding a bike or playing a sport and you get better by doing it not just by watching and if this helped you feel free to share it with a friend and start speaking today even if it’s just to yourself.