Linking is a very common way to Connect your Speech in English!
It's more difficult than Assimilating or Gliding because now we're going from a consonant to a vowel!
Even though some people confuse the term Linking with Connected Speech, Linking is a TYPE of Connected Speech that we'll review here. We define and review the differences between Connected Speech and Linking, specifically.
I break down and practice 3 examples of basic linking and go back to our sample sentence about breakfast to example it for instances of linking in this episode.
In the next episode, we'll discuss 4 Common Mistakes made in Linking.
Transcripts
E006 Linking in English
Bianca: [:
We can say there's four kinds of connected speech, if you remember. There's assimilation where it's the same sound. There's gliding, when I'm going from a vowel to a vowel. Now we're talking about linking. And the last one will be blending.
Bianca: So some people always say, oh, I'm, I need to get better at linking my words. I get the idea. They're thinking about like a chain has links and they wanna link those words, which is a good way to say it. But please remember, linking is very specifically when the first word ends in a consonant, and the next word begins with a vowel.
ons, but some more difficult [:
And also we're gonna talk about four specific sounds that you should really pay attention to, because chances are, they're your most difficult sounds. So, let's have a few examples of linking, basic examples, and then we're gonna go back to our sentence that we were talking about for breakfast that contains all the different kinds of connected speech.
If we said that linking is one word that ends in a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel.If I say the sentence I have a pen. I have /v/ /v/. I wanna watch out because there's a silent E when I write it But actually it does end with a consonant sound.
hwa if I'm reducing, I have, [:
big apple big apple. Also, the word apple ends in a silent E. So really we can say the last sound is a /l/ /l/ /l/ /l/ /l/, or /ɫ/ /ɫ/, really it's a dark L. I'm gonna open up to my /ɒ/ /lɒn/ /lɒn/./bɪgæpɫɒn/ /bɪgæpɫɒn/ /bɪgæpɫɒn/. It's starting to sound like one word. Even the N in on is connecting to our semi vowel. We include semi vowels in this.
/w/ /w/ /w/ [:
S weather again. Silent E there. If we mark those silent E, it's a little bit easier to see. Nice weather. Weather, nice weather we're having, right? That's my sentence. Nice weather we're having, right? But I don't wanna say it like that. I've got one more in there. I've got the R in weather. And the W in /wiər/ or /wər/. Nice weather we're weatherw /rw/.
The inside of my [:
Nice weather we're having, right? Those are three examples of where we can see linking. And now let's go back to our original sentence that we were working on about breakfast. I'm gonna read it again. And you can see that some of the words have a link. Some of them have other forms of connected speech, but today we're just talking about linking.
ll. Usually, I have some tea [:
Usually I have some tea or coffee in addition. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, I think six linking opportunities there. The first one is I eat toast with /tw/ /tw/ /tw/ /tw/ /tw/
, [:
Toast with an egg and. All of them are gonna be linked together. Toast with an egg and, toast with an egg and, toast with an egg and. I eat toast with an egg and some vegetables like broccoli as /w/ /zw/ /asweɫ/ /z/.
That's a Z sound, even though it's written as an S. As well as well as well as well. Usually I have some coffee or tea /ɪ/ /n/ /nə/
/nə/ addition /nə/ addition. In addition. In addition, see if you can hear all of those. I eat toast with an egg and some vegetables, like broccoli as well. Usually, I have some tea or coffee in addition. That's how we're gonna link our words together. And in the next episode, I wanna talk a bit more about some very specific mistakes you should listen for.
