How to RELAX your ACCENT Part 2 Consonant Linking

Well hey there! I’m Emma from mmmEnglish.

In today’s lesson, we’re going to keep talking about

connected speech

and that is linking sounds together

when you speak English,

to help you sound more relaxed and natural.

Connected speech is spoken language, that is

continuous.

The English spoken by native speakers in

normal conversations.

We speak quickly without pausing between words.

And there is often a huge difference between

the way that words are pronounced in isolation,

on their own,

and the way that words are pronounced naturally

in a sentence using connected speech.

When words come together in a sentence,

they often affect each other.

Words push together, some sounds disappear

or they change completely.

So listen again without connected speech.

It’s really choppy,

not like a native speaker would say it at all.

That’s much better.

Using connected speech, you’ll sound more natural

and relaxed.

And by learning and understanding how to use

connected speech,

you’ll not only improve your pronunciation but you’ll also

train your brain and your ears to understand

native English speakers more easily when they speak.

You see, connected speech and linking sounds

are exactly what allows native English speakers

to talk so fast.

Spoken English is not always this clear.

Most English speakers just don’t speak as clearly

as I do in these videos.

In fact, I don’t always speak this clearly either.

And I know it’s difficult for you when you’re listening

to a native English speaker,

to hear where one word ends

and another begins, right?

This is part of connected speech.

The good news is the way that sounds change in

spoken English is not completely random.

There are a few common rules and regular situations

where linking occurs

so it’s possible to study it, to learn it.

Have you already checked out this lesson yet?

Last week I talked about consonant to vowel linking

in spoken English:

how words that end in a consonant sound

link to the following word if it starts with a vowel sound.

The trick to remember with linking is that we are

talking about sounds, not letters.

So don’t let your eyes trick you,

we’re talking about sounds linking together.

Speaking naturally in English is really only

a skill that you can develop through practise yourself

by listening to native English speakers regularly,

imitating them and by trying it yourself.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to do today!

So get ready to practise out loud with me

at home, okay?

Like I said, last week we focused on

consonant to vowel linking.

That’s consonant to vowel linking.

Today, we are going to concentrate on

consonant to consonant linking.

So here we have

a word that ends in the consonant sound /l/

And the word following also starts

in the same consonant sound.

So it makes sense to pull together these sounds, right?

So that they become one.

It’s much easier.

There’s no pause there at all. No break in the sound,

it’s just one continuous sound.

And as much as possible, we want your spoken English

to flow like this, for more sounds to be connected

rather than adding awkward

pauses through your sentence.

Now this all seems pretty straightforward, right?

Consonant followed by the same consonant.

You can push them together and make the sound

flow quickly without pausing between those two sounds

Now there are some consonants that can link

to different consonants which is a little unusual

but when that happens, the sound changes.

It creates a different consonant sound.

So let’s look at an example.

Now let’s speed that up a bit to regular pace.

So can you hear that /ʤ/ sound in there?

Now if we just say ‘would’ by itself there’s no sound.

There’s also no /ʤ/ in ‘you’ either, right?

So the D at the end of the word ‘would’

can link to the /j/

at the start of ‘you’.

But when we do this, it creates a new sound.

The /ʤ/ sound.

So actually,

in any situation where one word ends in a dip

and it’s followed by a word that starts with a /j/

often it can combine to create the /ʤ/ sound.

‘would’ and ‘you’

So as the auxiliary verb ‘do’ reduces down to just

the /d/ sound here, we can also link it

just like the other examples to say:

And check out how that ‘to’

reduces down to the schwa sound.

Instead of ‘to’ it’s /t/

The schwa is another important feature of fast

connected speech in English, in spoken English.

So if you need to check out what the schwa is,

maybe have a reminder,

this whole lesson here focuses on the schwa sound.

It’s a good one to watch next.

Now there is another exception that we

need to talk about here.

Those times when a word ends in a /t/ sound

and it’s also followed by the /j/ sound.

So there is a change in these sounds

when we link them together.

The sounds /t/ and /j/

together can create /ʧ/

See? There are so many really common

word combinations there,

ones that you can definitely start practising right now,

today even in simple conversations.

And there you have it, they are the simple principles of

consonant to consonant linking in spoken English.

But now I think we should practise a little.

Do you want to practise a little with me now?

We’re going to combine what you learned in this lesson

with consonant to vowel linking from last week’s lesson.

Okay so this is going to be a little bit of revision too

from that lesson.

I’m going to add a sentence up on screen right here

and all you need to do is

write the sentence with the links included

so that you can practise saying it quickly

and link the sounds together wherever you can.

Okay? Do that visually on the screen.

We’re going to do the first one together but

for the rest of them, I want you to write

your answers in the comments

and I’ll come back and check if you’ve got them all right

later on, all right? Ready?

So here in this sentence the /s/ at the end of ‘hates’

pulls together with the /s/ from sandwiches.

And the /th/ sound can link to the following

vowel sound.

All right, now it’s your turn.

Listen to me say each sentence, listen carefully

for the linking sounds.

And it’s your turn so write them into the comments.

Write the words into the comments

and make sure that you’re practising each one

out loud as we say it together, all right?

Where can we link here?

You’re right!

We can link there.

We can link

Where can we link?

Definitely.

So there’s a cheeky little vowel to vowel

link in there too, by the way.

If you know about those.

But that’s next week’s lesson.

Make sure that you subscribe to the mmmEnglish

channel and you click the bell

so that I can tell you when that lesson is ready for you.

We will focus on vowel to vowel linking

next time.

All right, last one.

Where can we link?

Where can we connect two consonants

or even connect a consonant to a vowel?

Yes, we can definitely reduce ‘do you’ to

To be honest, that T as well, will almost disappear.

So we can definitely hear that stop T.

My tongue is in the position of a T.

But we don’t release the air after it.

That also makes it quicker, makes it faster to say words

when we don’t release the air after them.

We can link ‘one’ and ‘of’ together.

The consonant sound to the vowel.

And native speakers may not even pronounce that

/v/ sound.

You could reduce all the way down to a schwa.

Nice job!

Lessons like this one always require practise

so please make sure you come back

and review it regularly to remind yourself

about how linking occurs in spoken English.

And actually use it while you practise.

And if you want to practise right now,

then go and check out

that imitation lesson right there because it will help you

to work on your pronunciation

and practise connected speech.

Or try something completely different.

I’ll see you in there!