Pronunciation and listening: Word linking
Intermediate and higher level (B1-C2)

In normal conversation it is common for many words to be linked together. This can make listening to English a little difficult at the beginning. You can learn how to link words together. Practising linking English words will improve your listening and speaking.  

Let’s look at some simple examples of what can happen (listen to word linking to check the pronunciation):

1. fish and chips = fi shan chips
2. salt and pepper = sal tan pepper
3. a day in the life of = a da yin the li fof

In examples 1. and 2. you can see consonants sounds joining vowel sounds.

In example 3. the word ‘day’ ends in a vowel sound (even though it has a ‘y’ letter) so we add an extra consonant sound /j/. /j/ is the sound at the start of the word ‘yes’. Now you can link 2 vowel sounds together: day + /j/ + in

Another example of adding a consonant is:

Put your toe in the sock. After ‘toe’ we add an extra ‘w’ sound toe + w + in so it sounds like ‘toe win’

Listen to this Mini story and look out for this kind of word linking:

The Mini was first built in 1959 and its small size made it economical to drive. One of the Mini factories was in south east Oxford in an area called Cowley. The Mini Cooper became a successful rally car and today the Mini is a symbol of the sixties. Minis are still built in Cowley but are designed by BMW.

Watch a short video of the Mini at the Monte Carlo Rally.