Linking

 CONNECTED SPEECH

boy near white wooden shelf

Listening exercises make me go crazy! I don't understand! They speak fast! There are words I don't get!
I know the struggle😁: Been there, felt that way! Yes, English speakers' accent vary. Yes, they do speak fast. Yes, if your vocabulary is short, you will have a hard time trying to understand. But there is a set of pronunciation rules you should manage to feel less stressed when listening to any kind of input.

In this post we will go over CONNECTED SPEECH and its main features. There are about six of them but we will cover just the basic ones.

When we speak, we do not say the words I N D I V I D U A L L Y or S E P A R A T E L Y; we say them continuously. There is a difference between the way we pronounce the words in isolation and the way we pronounce them in full sentences. In connected speech words are clipped and words are stressed differently than they would be in writing.

Linking:
  • When a word finishes in consonant sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound, we clip them together and make a single sound:
I read an interesting book. 
I always have a cup of coffee for breakfast.
She's a lawyer and works for a well-known firm.

Geminates:
  • When a word finishes with an identical sound as the first one in the next word, we delete the last sound and make a single sound.
I have a black car.
I had the best time in my life!
I have no social life because of my work!
I want to go to the beach.

Elision:
  • If the first word finishes in a consonant sound and the next word starts with a consonant sound, the first sound disappears. This often happens with a /t/, /h/ or /d/ sound.

The teacher next door is my friend.
Anna must be pregnant. She is throwing away everything she eats!

Let's watch a video to study this topic in a more visual way:)

By applying connected speech rules, your English speaking will become more fluent and your listening comprehension will improve.
If you want to practice listening comprehension, I suggest you to do some listening exercises with Lyrics Training (https://lyricstraining.com/)
To practice speaking, do some reading out loud exercises using the following site https://www.eslfast.com/eslread/. You can listen to the audio first and try on your own after.


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