How To Understand Fast English

 Understanding Fast English 

(by Jane Lawson at DailyStep.com)
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When you listen to English, what do you hear? Do you hear each word clearly and have time to understand it? Or do you hear one long sound and find it hard to distinguish one word from the next? The fact is that when English or any other language is spoken, the words are joined together. 
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Listen to these phrases. I will say each phrase twice. The first time, I will separate the words (just how you prefer to hear them!), and the second time I will connect them, as we do in natural speech. Then take a look at how we pronounce the words.

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So what did you notice about how these phrases are pronounced? In the Pronunciation column, you can see that, in some phrases, the last sound of the first word is actually joined more strongly to the second word, for example in the phrases ‘one egg’ (wuneg) and ‘five eggs’ (fivegz). So, an English learner might wonder what the words ‘neg’ or ‘vegz’ mean, when in fact these words do not even exist!

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The red letters represent sounds that are not even there if we say the words separately. We put these extra sounds into English when we are speaking so that the words can be spoken more quickly and easily. These extra sounds are made naturally when we are moving our mouths from one position to another.

If you speak quickly and try saying ‘two eggs’ without the extra W sound, ‘three eggs’ without the extra Y sound, or ‘four eggs’ without the extra R sound, you’ll find that it is hard to say that way.

This whole topic, in the study of English pronunciation, is called Word Linking. I will teach you more details about the rules of word linking over the next couple of months. Try to use word linking yourself when you are speaking English, and you will suddenly find that you can not only speak more natural sounding English but also understand other people’s English a whole lot better! 

Well, that is it for today! I’ll be in touch again soon. Thank you for your many requests about subjects you would like me to cover in my blogs. I will cover as many of them as I can!