Pronunciation: Assimilation of /s/

Hi. I'm Tim and this is my Pronunciation workshop.

Here I'm going to show you how English is really spoken. Come on, let's go inside.

You know how they say that British people are obsessed with the weather? Well I'm feeling

under it today. Under the weather - that's an expression which means 'I'm not feeling

very well'. Excuse me! What do you say in your language when someone sneezes? Do you

know what we say in British English? Let's ask the people of London.

Bless you. Bless you.

Thank you! Bless you! Now the word 'bless' ends

in /s/ and 'you' begins with /j/. But what happens to the /s/ sound when we put

the two words together? Watch and listen again.

In fluent speech, when a /s/ sound is followed by a /j then the /j/ changes to a /ʃ/ sound,

and this change also happens when the next word begins with the /ʃ/ sound itself. So 'bless

you' becomes 'bleshyou' and 'this shirt' becomes 'thishirt'. This is an example of assimilation.

And don't forget this can also happen if the /s/ is followed by a /t/, because as you

might remember from a previous video, the /t/ sound disappears between two consonants.

Here are some more examples.

Don't worry, that's usual. He always makes you feel good.

Tim Right, so you've heard the examples, and

now it's your turn. Listen and repeat.

Well done. Now remember, if you want to learn

more about pronunciation, then please visit our website, bbclearningenglish.com. And that

is about it from the pronunciation workshop for this week. I'll see you soon. Bye bye! Now,

my mum always said that this stuff is great when you're feeling under the weather. What

is it? It's just yoghurt. Ewww. Umm better not. Toasty.