Liaison… Wow, this seems like an extremely difficult word, right? Well, Liaison refers to the linking of the final consonant of one word with the beginning vowel (a, e, i, o, u) or vowel sound (generally, h and y) of the following word.
It basically means the linking of sounds or words, and that simply means that when we speak, we link, or merge, words into each other. We do that in our mother tongue because we are so comfortable with it, and that’s why doing it in your second language will sound as if you are a native speaker.
Linking sounds or connected speech is the answer to that infamous question: “Why do I read so well, but can’t freakin’ understand what natives say?” I just stare at them wondering where my knowledge of the English language went, without understanding a single word!
Well, this happens because, when we speak, we don’t do it in the same speed as we write or read. We don’t pause to think, we don’t take our time to assimilate information, we do it intuitively and that avoids a simple conversation or telephone call to take hours. Can you imagine the patience needed to endure someone speaking as if they were writing?
And the reason it takes us so long to understand natives or even speak to them is that connected speech is the last ability we learn as English students. And this is something that is not even taught in schools, it is simply acquired by those demanding students who really want (or need) to sound like natives and go after the linking of sounds and connecting words.
Connected speech then becomes extremely important to understand natives and be able to make sense of new accents, as well as have that fluidity that will make you sound more natural and not like a robot out of the programming room.
But HOW can we learn to connect words and sound more natural? First we learn about the different ways sounds can be linked together:
Assimilation: sounds that change
E.g.: don’t you => dontcha
did you => didja
Elision: Is when we lose a sound between words
E.g.: left back => lefback
must go => musgo
Delayed plosion: the pause that can make a difference.
E.g.: redeye / red dye
When we say “red eye”, we connect the consonant of the first word to the first vowel of the second.
But to say red dye, we need to pause (plosion) between the two D’s to make it clear. This is called delayed plosion.
Catenation: sounds that overlap
E.g.: pick it up => pi ki t/rup
Intrusion: Is when an extra sound ‘intrudes’ to improve communication
E.g.: go away => gow ay
(Intrusive /r/ is the most common)
E.g.: good idea => gu ri dea
Of course, there is a whole science behind these examples, but what’s important to know is that we need to pay attention to the letters between words, whether they are consonants or vowels, and how we can make the connection between them. And we’re sorry to say, but there is no magic trick to learn it. Practice is the key to master any skill. But there is a simple way to practice connected speech, and here is the challenge: If you can read in English and you are already used to how the language sounds, get a medium text and, as you read it aloud, highlight all the words you think can be linked/ connected. After that, make sure you feel comfortable enough with the words that you can feel your speed improving as you read. If necessary, grab a dictionary to check not only meaning, but also the correct pronunciation and sound of new words. Try reading that same text a few times a day during a whole week. Yes, a week, because “Rome wasn’t made in a day” and that’s how you get results, with practice and effort, and that’s how you actually find out that the linking of sounds, or connected speech, can happen almost naturally.
And the funniest part of understanding linking sounds is watching a YouTube video with those closed captions (automatically generated subtitles) and realizing all the mistakes the machine makes because of connected speech.
We will leave you with a few examples of messages from natives, recorded by voice recognition, to see if you can understand the real meaning behind them:
They when to an ark gallery.
We solder rakar.
He welcome them mall to the meeting.
We manage to finder.
She pay dim a lot of money.
And that’s it, we hope you enjoyed this article and the tips may help you sound more natural in English, if you have any questions or want more tips ask your Brisk teacher 😊
See ya XOXO
Answers: They went to an art gallery. We sold her a car. He welcomed them all to the meeting. We managed to find her. She paid him a lot of money.
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