How to Link K to a Voiced Consonant American English Pronunciation

I’d like to answer a question I recently

received when I’m linking words I tend

to voice unvoiced consonants if they are

followed by a voiced consonant for

example I like that I say like my

question is is this right or not the

answer is no it is not correct to voice

the unvoiced consonant

however the consonant sound is one of

three consonant sounds the and all

unvoiced that does something different

when it’s linked to a voiced consonant

what these three sounds do when they are

followed by voiced consonants in a

linking situation is they act more as

stops then as consonants themselves the

sound is not fully pronounced voiced or

unvoiced so for example the question

that you posed I like that I like

everything in the mouth and tongue moves

into position for the K sound without

releasing air to make that case sound I

like that rather than releasing the air

the mouth simply forms the position then

for the th sound and goes into the next

word I like that the reason for that is

if there was a strong sound there would

be no way for it to link to the

following consonant sound I like that

and of course we know in American

English linking is very important I like

that

I’ve already done some blog entries on

this particular case with T but I will

just throw one more example out there

doesn’t this look nice

doesn’t the tongue moves into the T

position doesn’t this look nice doesn’t

this look nice without doesn’t making

that sharp T sound

the third unvoiced consonant for which

this is true is the P consonant sound so

when this sound is followed by and

linked to a voiced consonant flip the

mouth moves into the position without

releasing the air to complete the sound

flip that card flip that card this is an

excellent question and certainly

something to keep in mind as you

practice linking words