This is such a fun topic. It’s one of my favorites. I love talking about linking

I love talking about reductions, connected speech, placement, rhythm, intonation, okay. Let’s face it.

I love talking about all of this stuff.

In the Academy, you’ve already been working on linking

because way back in the Basics course, in the Foundations course,

you started working on connected speech and how that fits into the ch aracter of American English.

In this course, you’re going to learn some important things:

when to link and how to link well, and when NOT to link.

The first thing I want to say about linking is this:

we’re going to break down linking into different kinds, vowel to vowel, consonant to vowel, and so on.

But in any given thought group, every sound, every word should be linked together.

Actually, let’s use that sentence I just said as an example. Let’s go back and listen to it again.

But in any given thought group, every sound, every word should be linked together.

But in any given thought group, and then there was a pause. But in any given thought group—

So this is one thought group. And within that, one thought group.

Everything was linked together. But in any given thought group—

But in— but in— These two words linked together with a Flap T. Why?

Because the T comes between two vowels. But in any—

The N consonant linked in to the beginning vowel EH of ‘any’. But in any— but in any given—

The EE vowel right into the G consonant with no break.

But in any given thought group—

But in any given thought group—

The N right into the TH with no break and sound: thought group—

Now here, there is a very quick stop for the Stop T

but the energy of the voice keeps going

thought group—

but in any given thought group—

Right into the next word:

But in any given thought group, every sound, every word should be linked together.

A little lift here, every sound—, but these two words linked right together, no break, every sound—

every sound— every word— every word— every word—

EE vowel from ‘every’ going right into the W consonant for ‘word’: every word—

Tiny little lift here separating the thought group,

Every sound, every word should be linked together.

Should be— should be— don't really hear the LD.

These two words linked right together with ‘should’ reduced,

be linked— be linked— no break in sound, be linked together—

should be linked together— should be linked together—

So I have a true T here for the -ed ending.

I do make a quick little release before the next True T: linked together—

All smooth, no breaks.

But in any given thought group, every sound, every word should be linked together.

So in a way, you don’t need to break down the different kind of links and study them,

you just need to know, link everything in one thought group together.

But in order to practice methodically, we’ll talk about different kinds of links in this course,

and practice them individually.

Sometimes you’ll see me use this symbol. I use it in some of my YouTube videos too.

It can be confusing — I use it when I think a link is especially strong or clear.

But as I said, everything should connect in a thought.

So if you don't see this symbol between two words, it doesn't mean to make break between them.

So many of my students start out with very choppy speech.

The words are not connected at all.

It sounds very choppy.

That does not sound like natural American English.

When these students start working on linking and connecting their speech,

their smoothness improves, their intonation improves,

their rhythm improves, and they begin to speak more natural English.

Within a thought group, we want all words to be part of one smooth line.

Now we have to get to the important idea of, what is a thought group?

It’s a term that you’ll see lots of teachers use when they talk about linking, myself included.

There are two reasons why this is important: first, as you know, you want to link all words in a thought group.

But also, to be more easily understood, to be clearer, you want to put little pauses between thought groups.

Both are important for sounding American and for being understood.

So what is a thought group?

It’s a short string of words with one main idea, that forms a logical unit.

There can be several in one sentence.

In writing, we may separate thought groups with punctuation.

And it’s important to know, native speakers don’t think about this at all when they’re speaking,

and, there’s no one right way to break up speech into thought groups.

Let’s look at a sentence I just said.

And it's important to know, native speakers don't think about this at all when they're speaking.

And it's important to know— I did a break here making a separate thought group.

And it's important to know native speakers don't think about this at all when they're speaking.

And then I did a little lift here, a little pause.

Native speakers don't think about this at all when they're speaking.

Making another thought group.

And it's important to know native speakers don't think about this at all when they're speaking.

Let’s take another example sentence. I could say this several ways:

first, with no breaks.

I need to get my husband to help me to shoot a video on car vocabulary.

That’s not as clear as it could be.

Definitely, there’s a set of native speakers that use less pauses than others.

Their speech sounds extra fast and they can be harder to understand.

Especially as a non-native speaker,

I would encourage you away from imitating speakers that put in very few pauses.

Another way to say it:

I need to get my husband to help me to shoot a video on car vocabulary.

There, I put a little break before the last three words.

On car vocabulary —

this phrase has one meaning, it’s describing the topic of the video.

I need to get my husband to help me to shoot a video on car vocabulary.

The first part of that sentence is pretty long. I could definitely break it up further.

I need to get my husband to help me to shoot a video on car vocabulary.

So here I’ve broken out a middle chunk of information:

what’s happening? I’m shooting a video.

I could keep the first separation, and get rid of the second:

I need to get my husband to help me to shoot a video on car vocabulary.

There I linked ‘video on’, videoo-on.

A native speaker may do any of these, or even something different.

Chances are, you’re already doing a good job separating thought groups

and your main challenge will be linking and connected speech within a thought group.

If thinking about thought groups, linking smoothly, and knowing when to pause sounds intimidating, don’t worry.

In this course, you’re going to learn how to link sooooo smoothly.

And in order to understand thought groups, you’re going to study native speakers, both in conversations and giving speeches and presentations,

to see how they link words and how they group words with phrases.

And best of all, you’ll be given audio soundboards and imitation files to help you sound just like them.

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这是一个非常有趣的话题。 这是我的最爱之一。 我喜欢谈论链接

我喜欢谈论减少，连接的语音，位置，节奏，语调，好吧。 面对现实吧。

我喜欢谈论所有这些东西。

在学院里，你已经在研究连接，

因为早在基础课程中，在基础课程中，

你就开始研究连接语音以及它如何适应美式英语的特征。

在本课程中，您将学习一些重要的事情：

何时链接以及如何良好链接，以及何时不链接。

关于链接，我要说的第一件事是：

我们将把链接分解为不同的类型，元音到元音，辅音到元音，等等。

但是在任何给定的思想组中，每个声音，每个单词都应该联系在一起。

其实，就拿我刚才说的那句话来说吧。 让我们回去再听一遍。

但是在任何给定的思想组中，每个声音，每个单词都应该联系在一起。

但是在任何给定的思想组中，都会出现停顿。 但是在任何给定的思想组中——

所以这是一个思想组。 在其中，一个思想组。

一切都联系在一起。 但是在任何给定的思想组中——

但是在——但是在——这两个词用一个 Flap T 连接在一起。为什么？

因为 T 出现在两个元音之间。 But in

any——N 辅音连接到“any”的开头元音 EH。 但在任何——但在任何给定的情况下

——EE元音直接进入G辅音，没有中断。

但是在任何给定的思想组中——

但是在任何给定的思想组中

——N 进入 TH 没有中断和声音：思想组——

现在在这里，Stop T 有一个非常快速的停止，

但声音的能量继续前进

思想组——

但在任何给定的思想组中——

进入下一个词：

但在任何给定的思想组中，每一个声音，每一个词都应该联系在一起。

这里稍微提升一下，每一个音——但这两个词直接连接在一起，没有中断，每

一个

音——每一个音——每一个词——每一个词——每一个词——EE元音从“每个”进入“单词”的W辅音 '：每一个词——

这里的小电梯分隔思想组，

每一个声音，每一个词都应该联系在一起。

应该——应该——真的听不到 LD。

这两个词直接与“应该”减少

连接在一起，被连接——被连接——没有中断声音，被连接在一起——

应该被连接在一起——应该被连接在一起——

所以我在这里有一个真正的T作为-ed结尾。

在下一个真正的 T 之前，我确实做了一个快速的小释放：链接在一起——

一切顺利，没有中断。

但是在任何给定的思想组中，每个声音，每个单词都应该联系在一起。

所以在某种程度上，你不需要分解不同类型的链接并研究它们，

你只需要知道，将一个思想组中的所有内容链接在一起。

但是为了有条不紊地练习，我们将在本课程中讨论不同类型的链接，

并单独练习它们。

有时你会看到我使用这个符号。 我也在一些 YouTube 视频中使用它。

它可能会让人困惑——当我认为一个链接特别强大或清晰时，我会使用它。

但正如我所说，一切都应该在一个想法中联系起来。

因此，如果您在两个词之间没有看到这个符号，这并不意味着在它们之间进行中断。

我的很多学生一开始的演讲就很断断续续。

词根本没有联系。

听起来很波涛汹涌。

这听起来不像是自然的美式英语。

当这些学生开始练习连接和连接他们的演讲时，

他们的流畅度提高了，他们的语调提高了，

他们的节奏提高了，他们开始说更自然的英语。

在一个思想组中，我们希望所有单词都成为一条平滑线的一部分。

现在我们必须了解一个重要的概念，什么是思想组？

这是一个你会看到很多老师在谈论链接时使用的术语，包括我自己。

这很重要有两个原因：首先，如您所知，您想将思想组中的所有单词联系起来。

但是，为了更容易理解、更清晰，你希望在思想组之间稍作停顿。

两者对于听起来美国和被理解都很重要。

那么什么是思想组呢？

它是一串具有一个主要思想的短词，形成一个逻辑单元。

一句话里可以有好几个。

在写作中，我们可以用标点符号分隔思想组。

重要的是要知道，以母语为母语的人在说话时根本不会考虑这一点，

而且，没有一种正确的方法可以将演讲分成思想组。

让我们看一下我刚才说的一句话。

重要的是要知道，以母语为母语的人在说话时根本不会考虑这一点。

重要的是要知道——我在这里休息了一下，建立了一个独立的思想小组。

重要的是要知道以母语为母语的人在说话时根本不会考虑这一点。

然后我在这里做了一点提升，稍作停顿。

说母语的人在说话时根本不会考虑这一点。

建立另一个思想组。

重要的是要知道以母语为母语的人在说话时根本不会考虑这一点。

让我们再举一个例句。 我可以说这几种方式：

首先，没有休息。

我需要让我丈夫帮我拍一段关于汽车词汇的视频。

这还不是很清楚。

当然，有一组母语人士比其他人使用更少的停顿。

他们的讲话听起来特别快，而且他们可能更难理解。

特别是作为非母语人士，

我会鼓励你不要模仿那些很少停顿的演讲者。

另一种说法是：

我需要让我丈夫帮我拍一段关于汽车词汇的视频。

在那里，我在最后三个词之前放了一点休息。

关于汽车词汇——

这句话有一个意思，它描述了视频的主题。

我需要让我丈夫帮我拍一段关于汽车词汇的视频。

这句话的第一部分很长。 我绝对可以进一步分解它。

我需要让我丈夫帮我拍一段关于汽车词汇的视频。

所以在这里我打破了中间的信息块：

发生了什么？ 我正在拍摄视频。

我可以保持第一个分离，摆脱第二个：

我需要让我的丈夫帮我拍一段关于汽车词汇的视频。

在那里我链接了“video on”，videoo-on。

母语人士可能会做任何这些，甚至是不同的事情。

很有可能，你已经很好地分离了思想组

，你的主要挑战将是在一个思想组内链接和连接演讲。

如果考虑思想组、顺畅地连接以及知道何时暂停听起来令人生畏，请不要担心。

在本课程中，您将学习如何流畅地链接。

为了理解思想群体，你将研究以母语为母语的人，无论是在对话中还是在演讲和演讲中

，看看他们如何将单词联系起来，以及他们如何将单词与短语组合在一起。

最重要的是，您将获得音频音板和模仿文件，以帮助您听起来像他们一样。