Tip 4 on Sound Linking

Teacher: Welcome to daily tips on learning English. Today's tip is on sound linking.

Teacher: When two identical or similar consonants are in a row, both sounds are not pronounced. For example, stop Peter, Stop ends in the sound p and peter begins in the same sound. Together the words are linked as stopeter, stopeter. The words aren't pronounced Stop Peter, Stop Peter.

Teacher: To pronounce two identical sounds one after another, would sound like someone's stuttering. English words are always linked smoothly.

Teacher: Similar but not identical sounds such as voiced and voiceless pairs of consonants are also linked in this way. For example, it's a big cake. Big begins in the sound g. Cake begins with the sound k. K, and g, differ only in that k is voiceless and g is voiced. Then they are next to each other in a phrase, they are linked smoothly by not aspirating or pronouncing fully the first of the two sounds.

Teacher: Listen carefully as I read the example again, it's a big cake. It's a big cake, big cake. Notice how the first sound g is not released.

Teacher: If the pair of sounds is reversed, like in, I like goats, it's the k sound which is not pronounced. Listen closely, I like goats. I like goats. I like goats.

Teacher: There are eight pairs of consonants that differ only in the presence or lack of vocal cord vibration. Listen as I give one example of sound linking for each pair.

V, F. I love France. I love France.

DH, TH. Let's bathe three times. Let's bathe three times.

Z, S. She is Susan. She is Susan.

Zh, Sh. The garage should be cleaned, The garage should be cleaned.

J, Ch. He has a huge chin. He has a huge chin.

B, P. Put the cap back on. Put the cap back on.

D, T. Dad told me, dad told me.

K, G. I like Gaven. I like Gaven.

Teacher: It's important to include this type of sound linking in your speech if you want to achieve fluency. It's also important to be aware of how this linking affects how spoken English sounds. Otherwise, you may not understand native speaker's speech.

Teacher: This's been today's tip on learning English. Tune in tomorrow for another tip.