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Linked Sound

The document discusses the concept of linking in English pronunciation when words are said together in a sentence. There are two main types of linking - consonant to vowel linking and vowel to vowel linking. For vowel to vowel linking, an extra Y sound is added when the first word ends in an A, E, or I vowel, while an extra W sound is added when the first word ends in an O or U vowel. For consonant to vowel linking, the final consonant sound of the first word is carried over to the beginning of the next word if it starts with a vowel. Mastering these linking techniques helps improve understanding and being understood when speaking English.

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Frailianny Díaz Sánchez
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323 views4 pages

Linked Sound

The document discusses the concept of linking in English pronunciation when words are said together in a sentence. There are two main types of linking - consonant to vowel linking and vowel to vowel linking. For vowel to vowel linking, an extra Y sound is added when the first word ends in an A, E, or I vowel, while an extra W sound is added when the first word ends in an O or U vowel. For consonant to vowel linking, the final consonant sound of the first word is carried over to the beginning of the next word if it starts with a vowel. Mastering these linking techniques helps improve understanding and being understood when speaking English.

Uploaded by

Frailianny Díaz Sánchez
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Linking

When we say a sentence in English, we join or "link" words to each other.


Because of this linking, the words in a sentence do not always sound the
same as when we say them individually. Linking is very important in
English. If you recognize and use linking, two things will happen:

1. you will understand other people more easily


2. other people will understand you more easily

There are basically two main types of linking:

 consonant ⇔ vowel
We link words ending with a consonant sound to words beginning
with a vowel sound
 vowel ⇔ vowel
We link words ending with a vowel sound to words beginning with a
vowel sound

Linking Vowel to Vowel


When one word ends with a vowel sound and the next word begins with a
vowel sound, we link the words with a sort of Y or W sound. It depends on
the shape of our mouth at the end of the first word.

Lips wide

oo
|
—

When the first word ends in an a, e, i vowel sound [ eɪ / i: / aɪ ], our lips


are wide. Then we insert a Y sound at the beginning of the next word:

we write first we say


word
ends
with
pay all /eɪ/ payyall

the end /i:/ theyend

lie on /aɪ/ lieyon

write They all buy at the arcade.

say theyyall buyyat theyarcade

Here are some more examples of word pairs that are linked with Y.

 lay out, may I, say it


 he ate, she is, we are
 high up, my arm, why ever
Lips round

oo
|
o

When the first word ends in an o, u vowel sound [ əʊ / u: ], our lips are
round. Then we insert a W sound at the beginning of the next word:

we write first we say


word
ends
with
go out /əʊ/ gowout

too often /u:/ toowoften

write You all go out too often.

say youwall gowout toowoften

Here are some more examples of word pairs that are linked with W.

 no other, show off, grow up


 you are, too often, throw it

Linking Consonant to Vowel


When a word ends in a consonant sound, we often move the consonant
sound to the beginning of the next word if it starts with a vowel sound.

For example, in the phrase turn off...

we write it like this: turn off

we say it like this: tur-noff

Remember that it's the sound that matters.

In the next example sentence, have ends with...

 the letter e (which is a vowel)


 but the sound v (which is a consonant)
So we link the ending consonant sound of have to the beginning vowel
sound of the next word a.

And in fact we have four consonant to vowel links in this sentence:

We write it like this: Can I have a bit of egg?

We say it like this: ca-ni-ha-va-bi-to-vegg?

https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/linking-3.htm

https://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/linking-2.htm

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