Connected Speech
Connected speech is a feature of English pronunciation wherein words join together when talking and don’t always sound the same as they do when they’re pronounced individually.
Assimilation
When a word changes the sound of the word that comes before or after.
You should come (sounds something like: You shougcome)
You should go (sounds something like: You shoulgo)
One king (sounds something like: wungking)
Last Year (sounds something like: lascheer)
Elision
When a phoneme (sound) is lost. Often happens with /t/ and /d/
Left back (sounds something like: Leffback)
Next day (sounds something like: Nexday)
Catenation
When the last consonant of the first word is connected to the vowel sound at the start of the second word. It sounds like words are connected when they’re not.
Pick it up (sounds something like: Pikitup / pi-ki-tup)
He’s holding an egg (sounds something like: anegg / a-negg)
He’s in the garden (sounds something like: he-zin)
Other Fun Examples
‘And’ can sound like ‘n‘
Fish and chips -> Fish n chips
‘Of‘ can sound like an ‘uv‘ or ‘a‘
Pint of beer -> Pint uv beer / Pint’a beer
‘Have‘ can sound like an ‘huv‘
Have you finished? -> Huv you finished?
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