student asking question

Did Ellen stutter at the front of the sentence? Should I think the sentence starts from "Was this a role ~?"

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Yes, Ellen stumbles on her words a bit at the beginning of this sentence. It should have started with "Was this a role" like you suggested. It seems as though she was trying to form a question and then changed the way she worded it, making it sound like she stuttered. This tends to happen often with talk show hosts. If you watch a lot of shows like Ellen, Jimmy Fallon, Conan, etc. you will likely hear this happening to them as well.

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