Listening problem #3 - connected speech
Tying it all together
In previous articles, we looked at how vocabulary and rhythm can affect your ability to understand what you’re hearing when listening to English content. If you read or listened to those articles, you saw that, in reality, those two problems are connected. The same is true with our third problem, connected speech.
What is connected speech?
We use the term connected speech to explain how words in English are connected, reduced, or changed instead of being pronounced clearly and individually.
There are linguistic terms for these changes, but since it is a new topic for many English learners, I find that it’s easier to talk about them in simple terms.
We’ll talk more about each of these types of connected speech in the future, but for now, here are a few examples:
Connected sounds
consonant - vowel: an apple becomes a napple
consonant - consonant: next time becomes nextime
vowel - vowel: I agree becomes ei yagree
Reduced sounds
Unstressed syllables: chocolate becomes choc late
d between 2 consonant sounds: fish and chips becomes fishnchips
h/th in object & possessive pronouns: tell her becomes teller
g at the end of -ing words: going becomes goin’ (this is more common in American English)
Changed sounds
t between two vowel sounds: what I becomes waddei
D + Y = J(dʒ): Could you…? becomes Cudja..?
T + Y = Ch(tʃ): Don’t you…? becomes Don’cha…?
I’m sure you’re starting to see how these features of English will affect your ability to understand what you’re hearing. There’s a big difference when you think you’re going to hear this sentence with each word clearly pronounced, but instead hear it with connected speech.
Don’t you think fish and chips are a better snack than an apple covered in chocolate?
I agree, and I’m going to get some now.
Could you tell her that next time?
In my next article, I’ll talk about what you can do to get better at understanding connected speech.