Can you understand this little phrase? You’ll hear it three times.
In isolation, it’s almost impossible to understand, even for native speakers! If we hear the entire sentence, though, we have a better chance of decoding the words. After listening to the phrase in context, click on “transcript” to see what was said.
Transcript
“Excellent!” “Yeah, Lee-”
“Go ahead.”
“No, go – you go ahead.”
“I was gonna say, Leeanne, that’s awesome that you…” [zǝgǝseɪliæn̪ætsɑsǝmðǝʔju…]
“Go ahead.”
“No, go – you go ahead.”
“I was gonna say, Leeanne, that’s awesome that you…” [zǝgǝseɪliæn̪ætsɑsǝmðǝʔju…]
So if you hear this after an awkward pause, there’s no need to try and find “zegasay” in the dictionary: it’s just a very compressed example of this common way to signal that you’re about to take your turn to talk.