The 4 Secrets to Speaking Quickly & Fluently - CONNECTED SPEECH

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- Hello everyone, and welcome back to English with Lucy.

I've missed you guys. (laughs)

I've just come back from a lovely holiday, well...

Lovely in the sense that it was nice to get away,

but I did go to Cornwall with my family

and it was very rainy, it was very cloudy,

it was very English. (laughs)

I'm back now with another really exciting

advanced pronunciation video.

This video is gonna show you how you can speak more quickly,

and it's also gonna help you sound

more like a native speaker,

so it's a really really important one.

Before we get started, I'd just like to thank

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This video's gonna help you

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Right, let's get started with today's video.

So today, we're going to be talking about connected speech.

Connected speech.

There are four topics which we are going to cover,

catenation, intrusion, elision and assimilation.

Now, that probably sounds really complicated.

I don't like making English too theoretical,

but I think it's important that you recognise these terms.

I'm going to do a brief summary of each topic

and then some examples for you to practise with,

and then you can apply them to your daily speaking practise.

Let's go.

The first one, catenation, also referred to as linking.

This is when a consonant sound at the end of one word

is carried over to connect with the vowel sound

at the beginning of the next word.

In simple words, an apple, 'anapple'.

Catenation is really really important

if you don't want to sound like a robot.

Quite a lot of my students sound like this,

when they should be sounding like this.

And this is because they're not using catenation correctly.

Which sounds better, an apple or 'anapple'?

So as I said before, the consonant at the end

of the first word is carried over

to connect with the vowel sound

at the beginning of the next word.

'Anapple'.

The N is carried over,

and the two words are squashed together.

Some other examples, it isn't.

I don't say it isn't nice, I say 'itisn't' nice.

Now it might seem like this takes a lot

of effort to do at first,

but once your brain gets used to it,

it will come to you naturally.

Now, the next topic I want to talk about is intrusion.

Intrusion.

Now, intrusion is when an extra sound intrudes

to make it easier to flow between two vowel sounds.

Now, the three most common sounds

that tend to intrude between vowel sounds

are 'yuh', 'wuh' and 'er'.

Let's talk about 'yuh' first.

Look at this sentence.

We all play out.

'Weyall' play out.

'Ee' and 'ay' vowel sounds

are often followed by the 'yuh' sound.

So, words that end in 'ee' or 'ay'

that are then followed by another word

beginning with a vowel sound have the 'yuh' intrusion.

'Weyall' play out.

Words that end in 'oh' or 'oo' have the W.

So you can think about it like this.

If your mouth is wide, 'ee', 'ay', it's a 'yuh' sound.

If your mouth is round, 'oo', 'oh', then it's a 'wuh' sound.

I go out to open the window.

Go, 'o', 'gowout'.

'U', two, 'twowobstacles'.

Then we have the last common intrusion

which is the 'er' sound.

Look at these words.

There is.

'Thereris'.

Better, alone.

'Betterralone'.

So British English is non-rhotic,

which means that we don't pronounce the 'R's

at the end of words.

I do have a video all about the 'shwa' sound

at the end of words which you can see

by clicking up here.

Media, expert.

'Mediarexpert'.

So intrusion is a really really important thing

to think about if you want to speak more quickly

and in a more connected way.

I'd like to invite you to write in the comments

any sentences that have intrusion in them.

Okay, topic number three, elision.

Elision is the loss of a phoneme, a sound.

Normally it's the 'tuh' or 'duh' sound that is lost,

and normally it's the last phoneme of a word.

For example, next door.

I would never say I'm going next door.

I would always say I'm going 'nex' door.

So I've missed out the 'tuh' sound, 'nex' door.

Not next door, nex door.

Or most common, 'mos' common, 'mos' common.

Finally we have number four, which is assimilation.

Assimilation.

This is similar to elision,

but instead of a phoneme being dropped,

two phonemes come together and change

into a new phoneme, a new sound.

So for example, 'tuh' and 'yuh' together make a 'ch' sound.

When I'm speaking quickly in conversation,

I wouldn't say I'll meet you there.

I'd say I'll 'meechu' there.

Meechu, so 'tuh' and 'yuh',

meet you becomes 'meechu', 'meechu'.

It's not just two words coming together either,

it can happen in one word, like picture.

(laughs) We don't say pict-ure unless we're very posh,

we say 'pichure', 'pichure'.

Or instead of Tuesday, 'Chuesday', 'Chuesday'.

Another example is 'duh' and 'yuh'.

'Duh' and 'yuh' together make 'juh', 'juh'.

Instead of saying did you, I say 'dijew'.

Right, that's it for the advanced pronunciation lesson.

If any of these topics have really interested you

and you'd like a more in-depth lesson,

please do comment below on which topic

is the most interesting and I'll try and make

a more in-depth video about it.

But in this video,

I kind of just wanted you to be aware of this,

so you can think about it whilst you speak.

It's highly likely that connected speech

exists in your language as well,

and there are similar pronunciation features.

Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media,

I've got my Facebook, my Instagram and my Twitter.

And I will see you soon for another lesson, mwah.