![]() Do you know the difference between consonants and vowels? You’ll learn about these ways to link words, and more, in this lesson.īefore we start, we need to check one thing. ![]() Here we can see two different types of link. Linking is how you connect words when you speak, so that two words are pronounced together. There are many pronunciation points you need to study, but today we’re going to look at just one very important point: linking. If you want to speak English more fluently and sound more natural, you should try to do this too. They pronounce whole phrases and even sentences as one continuous sound. When native speakers talk, they don’t pause between words. Do you remember that time when Anna and Amy fell in the swimming pool?Ĭan you pronounce the sentence in one sound, without any pauses?.It is, he will say, a struggle of our generation (John Humphrys, BBC4). The new p owers to be given to the authorities to crack down on extremist islamists. And this is what could happen (Michael Caine, BBC4). It’s associated with the t ower of Babel (Melvyn Bragg, BBC4).īut also the cultural and economic p owerhouses of the first cities as well (Eleanor Robson, BBC4). We talked in bed for a quarter of an h our (Julian Barnes, reading from a story by Frank O’Connor, The New Yorker).Īnd the view he has from F irefly is one of the most extraordinary views (Rupert Everett, BBC4). The kingdom of Macedon became a major pl ayer in Greek politics (Paul Cartlidge, BBC4). The F ire enters the city’s kind of, if you like, mythos about itself (Jonathan Sawday, BBC4). Now, let’s listen to a few more examples taken from real life: In some cases, those vowels are heard in a very faint, debilitated form, to the extent that it might be difficult to say if they are pronounced at all or not. Nevertheless, it does happen sometimes (and we have a good example by none other than Ben Kingsley below), so we’ll treat it here as well.īecause I had at least ten years, thank goodness, with the R oyal Shakespeare Company (Ben Kingsley, BBC4).Ī useful thing to remember is that smoothing doesn’t necessarily erase the or in the middle of the triphthong completely. So, we can safely assume that it happens less often. The smoothing of the triphthong is more controversial, and some authors don’t include it in the catalogue of triphthongs subject to this process. “What’s that awful racket?””It’s my new lawn m ower”.Ģ. This is only natural if you think that, by taking out the in the middle, you get two schwas together, which is the same as / ɜː/ (for the relation between / ə/ and / ɜː/, see here). The distinguishing fact about the smoothed version of is that it is realized as a monophthong, the sound / ɜː/. Two special cases. The triphthongs and need some further explanation, so I’ll treat them separately.ġ. There was a great f ire that burned down the building. Here are some sentences which include the three cases studied above: Admittedly, in this case the British version is much more difficult to understand than the American for non native speakers. Both and might be produced as , so the words tower and tyre are pronounced , which can be confusing if you’re not aware of this process.Īnother good example of smoothing is the word mayor, which is always pronounced /m eə/ in British English ( in American English). It is also interesting to note that the smoothing of triphtongs bring about some new homophones. Producing the full triphthong in the word our sounds a bit unnatural in different varieties of English. ![]() For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use… (Melvyn Bragg, BBC4).Īctually, this is the way our is currently said in British English (and very often in American English too, although in AE the final r is pronounced). Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time. Somewhere where our lives matter (Malorie Blackman, on BBC4). Notice how clearly this happens in the following examples:Ī seal’s flippers resemble our hands (A.S. The triphthong is often pronounced just as / ɑː/, especially in some words like the possessive our. The smoothing phenomenon particularly affects the diphthongs / aʊ/, / aɪ/ and / eɪ/, which become, and. This process is called smoothing and it is very typical of British RP (it occurs less frequently in General American). ![]() However, they are not always fully pronounced since very often the second element (that is, the or in the middle) is considerably weakened or left out altogether. Let’s see some examples:Īs you can see, triphthongs have three vowel sounds in a row. Being aware of it will help you not only to sound more natural and fluent but also to understand what native speakers say better.Įnglish has five triphthongs, which are formed by the diphtongs ending in / ɪ/ and / ʊ/ + the sound / ə/. We now turn to a very interesting phenomenon which is somewhat disconcerting for Spanish speakers: the pronunciation of English triphthongs.
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