Connected Speech: Linking consonants to vowels
In natural spoken English, words often connect to each other smoothly. One common way this happens is through consonant-to-vowel linking. This means that when a word ends in a consonant sound, and the next word starts with a vowel, the consonant links to the vowel, making speech flow more naturally.
Here are some examples:
take it give up run out miss it
In these examples, there is no pause between the two words, making them sound like one word.
When a word ends with two consonants and the next word starts with a vowel sound, the last consonant in the first word sounds like it is attached to the beginning of the next word. There is no pause between the two words, and the two words are connected. Here are some examples:
left out sounds like lef tout
closed off sounds like close doff
hold on sounds like hol don
moved out sounds like move dout
Here are some longer sentences for you to practice consonant to vowel linking. The bolded letters indicate where connected speech occurs.
- Can she get in and out of the room?
- He lived in a small apartment.
- She made it a habit to check in on him.
- She pulled out a note and gave it to the teacher.
- She painted a picture of an orange sunset.
- They waited for an urgent message.
- I picked up an apple from the basket.
- He set up an appointment with the doctor.
- I’d suggest putting it along the back wall.
- What I’m concerned about is you’re having difficulty sleeping.
Learning to recognize and use connected speech will help you:
- Understand native English speakers
- Sound more fluent and natural when you speak
- Improve your listening skills
For more accent modification tips, check out some of our previous blog posts.
