Connected Sounds and How They Affect Listening

Linking one word to another

Photo by Janne Simoes on Unsplash

One thing that beginning English learners (and even some at higher levels) struggle with is identifying where individual words begin and end when listening to spoken English. This means that with the right rhythm and intonation, even nonsense can sound like English.

This is great for entertainment, but not so great when you actually want to understand what you’re hearing.

There are a lot of connections in English, but you can learn the common rules for connections in spoken English, and this will help you identify them when you hear them.

Consonant - Vowel

When a word ends with a consonant sound and the next word starts with an unstressed vowel sound, the consonant becomes part of the second word.

• an apple becomes a-napple

• a fried egg becomes a fry-deg (See where problems start!)

This can make it difficult to identify important grammatical features, like past tense endings. Note the similarities in the pronunciation of these two sentences.

1. It was recommended to me.

2. They recommend it to me. (recommen - dit)

When the pronouns at the beginning of the sentences are not clearly pronounced either, the whole idea can get lost.

This video showing the -ed connections in songs from Luiz Otávio Barros gives some really good examples!

This also shows up in the pronunciation of phrasal verbs, which are already difficult for many English learners. Think about:

• We got off at the wrong stop. (gah toff)

• I put on a sweater before I went out. (Note both connections here - puh ton and wen tout)

Maybe it’s not that you don’t know the phrasal verb vocabulary, it’s really that you can’t identify them when you’re listening.

Consonant - Consonant

When a word ends with a consonant sound and the next word starts with the same consonant sound, only one sound is pronounced and the words are connected.

When you hear the sentence, “I don’t know what time she starts singing,” you hear 3 of these connections:

• don’t know ( which usually sounds like dunno)

• what time (whatime)

• starts singing (startssinging)

This doesn’t only happen with the same sound, however. It also happens with the voiced/unvoiced pairs because your mouth position is the same.

More information can be found at https://literacylearn.com/voiced-voiceless-consonant-sounds/

So, you have the same connections happening in sentences like this:

• I’ve finished! (v-f)

• We used to take the bus to work (d-t, which gives us usta)

• He’s in the back garden (k-g)

• I left it with the receptionist (th-th)

Vowel - Vowel

When a word ends in a vowel sound and the next word also starts with a vowel sound, we add a sound to make the pronunciation smoother.

There are two types.

1. y addition: When the first word ends in an a, e, or i sound, we add a y. This gives us sentences like this:

   • They are going to be late (theyar)

   • It’s almost the end (thee-yend)

   • He wants to buy a new car (bei-ya)

2. w addition: When the first word ends in an o or u sound, we add a wa sound. This gives us sentences like this:

   • Please, go on (go won)

   • We met through an app (thru wan)

I’d like to finish up with a little challenge for you. I’ve written some song lyrics in connected speech. Can you figure out the original words?

Dozen maddur whud die say

‘lon gizeye sing with inn fleck shun

Thit makes you feel eye’ll convey

Sum min ner troo thor vass rah fleck shun

But tive said nothing so far

An neye kin keep idup fur as long acid takes

An nid don maddur who u are

If eye’m doo win my job then its sure reesolve thit breaks

---

B cuz thuh hook bring shoe back

I ain’t tell lin yoo no lie

Thuh hook bring shoe back

On the chew kin relie

Good luck! 🍀I’ll post the answer in the comments.