سریع تر صحبت کنید

Speak faster and more naturally with connected speech

What’s connected speech? Well, it’s the difference between sounding like a robot or sounding like a native speaker. Why should you learn it? Connected speech is very important if you want to understand spoken English better. Especially if you’re going to do an English exam like Ielts, Toefl, Toeic, the Cambridge Exams, yeah, whatever. Connected speech will really help you with the listening in the speaking sections.

In our first series, we showed you that English is a non-rhotic accent. What does it mean? So a word like art, we don’t pronounce the “r”, it’s quite soft, “art”. In American English, it’s rhotic. American English, art or car, car. And you also learned what a schwa was. At the end of a word for example, if it ends with an er, ar, or, like teacher. We don’t say teacher, we say teacher, doctor, lawyer. So knowing that, you know that the r sound, we don’t pronounce it much or do we?

So let’s take a word which finishes with an r sound. British accent, non-rhotic, here. American Accent, rhotic, here. They pronounce the R. So in a British accent, yeah, we don’t pronounce that r but, if that next word begins with a vowel sound, for example in a sentence, here and there; and begins with an a, that’s a vowel sound. We then have to pronounce that r to make it sound natural. So, here and there, that sounds like a robot. But, if we pronounce that r and link it to the next vowel sound, we get, here and there, here and there, here and there. Say it with me, here and there. Do you want more examples or do you want more examples? What would you prefer to be a doctor or a lawyer? Your eyes are in my heart. We are never ever getting back together. Ben Affleck, a better actor is Matt Damon. This is where it gets strange. Not only if the last sound is a r sound, it can be if it finishes in an a or a schwa sound. For example Pasta, Pasta finishes in a schwa sound but there’s no r when you spell it. It’s just a schwa sound, pasta. But in a sentence, pasta and chicken; we’ve got a vowel sound with a and pasta finishes with a schwa. When we go from a schwa, so an a, we do the same; we connect it with an R. What are you cooking? I’m cooking Pasta and Chicken, Pasta and chicken.

This process is called R linking so if you’ve ever heard the phrase R linking, that’s what it is. An a sound isn’t the only sound which invades two words together. Go away, say it together, go away. You see there’s a w sound that goes in the middle of the words, go away. So when you go from o to a, you join it with a w, go away. Another example could be in this sentence: No, I won’t. O, I, linked them together. Again, put that w. No I won’t, no I won’t, no I won’t, no I won’t.

Another example, in this sentence, we’ve got she, finishes with an e sound. Isn’t, that starts with an i, e i. How would we join that? We’d have to put a /j/ sound. She isn’t happy, she isn’t happy, she isn’t happy. Weird, right? How about this one? e, a, from e to a? Again, /j/, finishes with that e, we go to a vowel sound, tea and crumpets, tea and crumpets, tea and crumpets.

So that’s if a vowel sound ends a word and the next word begins with a vowel sound. We link them with another sound. But if a word finishes with a consonant sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound, that consonant sound joins the next word. Let me give you an example. Not at all. If I say, not at all, that doesn’t sound right. The T is a consonant, the a is a vowel, the same here. So the T joins that next word, in both cases. So, not at all becomes, not at all. That’s how it sounds, not at all. Say it with me, not at all, not at all. Thank you, not at all. How about this one? Pick it up. Again, that’s a consonant sound, i, that’s a vowel sound, the same rule applies. Pick it up, pick it up, pick it up, pick it up. Try this sentence, can I speak to Mr. Bunga Bunga? Mr. Bunga Bunga, he’s in Italy. He’s in Italy. He’s in Italy. He’s in Italy. A donut? Put it on a plate. For all you nerdy types, this process called catenation.

How about if one word finishes in one consonant sound, which is the same consonant sound as the next word starts with? Hmm, for example this sentence, should I say, I want to go? That would sound very emphasized and a bit strange. In natural speech if this word finishes in the same consonant sound as this one starts with, we join them together, and it doesn’t sound like a double consonant. I want to, want to. I want to go. That’s how words get contracted, want to, wanna. You can see how it gets contracted. The same way of this one. Do I look cool? Do I look cool? So keep those points in mind. Keep practicing and I’ll see you in the next class.