Assimilation in American English | Pronunciation Training

Have you ever noticed that when a native English speaker says,

it's nice to meet you,

you hear a sound it's nice to meet you,

but there isn't a ch anywhere in the spelling of that

sentence. So why do you hear that sound?

Why do native speakers use a nice to meet you?

As part of my series on how to understand fast English speakers,

we're going to answer this question and explore the world of assimilation in

American pronunciation.

If you don't already know, I am Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

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Now let's get back to assimilation in my previous lessons on how to better

understand fast English speakers.

I've highlighted that we regularly blend AIT

drop, or even delete sounds. When we speak in English,

doing all of this allows us to speak more efficiently,

more smoothly. In fact,

it aids us in our fluency and these changes in our pronunciation

are one of the reasons English speakers sound so fast when they speak.

You're not hearing all the sounds of a word in the way that it's written

in this lesson today, as part of our understand fast English speaker series,

we're focused on assimilation.

This is when one sound influences a neighboring

sound. And as a result,

the two sounds together become similar or even the same.

In other words,

rather than having two distinct sounds as a word or series

of words might be written.

The sounds blend into one another so that it's easier to pronounce them

in this Confident English lesson. Today,

you're going to learn six clear examples of assimilation in American

pronunciation.

And you'll learn the answer to why this sentence sounds like

it's nice to meet you or even it's nice to meet you along the

way.

I'll even have a few pop quizzes and questions for you so that you can practice

with me.

The first example we're going to look at is the blend of a

and why,

when a word ending in a T sound is followed by you.

The combination of those two sounds tends to result in a sound.

And that's exactly why you're likely to hear someone say, it's nice to meet you.

Now here's a quick quiz.

I have a series of other word combinations that end in a T sound

followed by. You. Take a look at those for a moment.

How would you pronounce those following this rule of

assimilation?

The first one is don't you or don't you

don't. You need to call your mom the second one.

Won't you tends to sound like won't you

won't you be late for work. And the third one,

get your typically sounds like, get your,

get your, don't forget to get your bag. Say it again.

Don't forget to get your bag.

The second example of assimilation is very similar.

A D sound combined with a Y when a word ends in a

D sound and is followed by a Y most often, the word you,

the resulting combination is a Jew or J sound.

For example, at work, a colleague might ask you,

did you wanna connect with the it department first? Listen again,

did you wanna connect with the it department first?

You don't hear a clear did you instead we hear

that combination.

J did you wanna connect with the it department first

now, as I mentioned,

that combination can be pronounced as a J or Jew.

This is entirely dependent on someone's dialect and style.

Both are used. So I could also pronounce this as,

did you, did you wanna connect with the it department first?

Did ya, did you,

both of them are quite common now that we have that example in place,

let's look at a few more in addition to did ya, or did you, we have,

would ya, or would you, would you like to meet for lunch?

The same is true with, could you, or should you,

should you really be doing that? Could you hand me that pen?

Let's do another pop quiz.

Take a look at these sentences here based on what you've learned so far,

how would you pronounce the words that are in bold?

Would you mind calling Mr. Kim back?

He wanted you to book an appointment for tomorrow afternoon.

In both examples,

we have a word ending in a D sound combined with a Y in the next word.

In our third example,

we're going to look at words that end in a Z sound

and are blended with a Y sound or a sh

sound. When we have these combinations,

a Z with a Y or a Z with a sh

the result is a sound like in the word,

me or vision. For example,

if I have a sentence with these two words,

cheese shop,

so I have a word that ends with a Z sound cheese,

and the next word begins with an sh shop.

When I put these together, you're going to hear a J sound.

For example, I need to pick something up from the cheese shop, cheese,

shop, cheese shop. Similarly, if I have the words,

where's your daughter.

So where is I'm using the contracted form?

Where's I have a Z sound followed by AYA.

Where's your daughter becomes where's your daughter.

Where's your daughter. Take a moment to practice those again with me.

I need to pick something up from the cheese shop. Where's your daughter. Okay.

Example number four is a blend of a word that ends with a

S sound combined with a sh sound.

When we have that combination,

the resulting sound is sh remember with assimilation,

one sound influences its neighboring sound,

and the result is either a sound that is similar,

or it's the same. In this case,

when an S blends with a sh the resulting sound

is sh that S really disappears.

For example,

the S in the word bus blends with the

in shelter bus shelter,

we almost lose that clear S sound at the end of bus bus

shelter. I want you to practice mirroring with me for a moment.

And what that means is that you listen and then repeat what you hear.

So let's try that again. Dress shop, dress shop.

Do you notice that that final S sound on dress nearly disappears

dress shop the second one space shuttle

space shuttle. Nice shoes, nice shoes.

Okay. We have two more examples of assimilation that we're going to work on.

And then I have some tips for how you can consistently practice this

and get comfortable using these same pronunciation patterns.

In our fifth example, we're going to look at how an ending D sound,

when it combines with another will result in a ju

sound or B sound, a G or a B.

Here's the general rule.

When a word ends with a D sound and it's adjacent,

or next to a word that begins with a G or a K

sound.

The resulting combination is a J that G sound.

For example,

if you have a dog and your dog does something that she's not supposed

to do, you might say bad girl,

do you notice that the D at the end of bad,

nearly disappears instead, it becomes the good, bad girl,

bad girl. Similarly,

when a word ends with a D sound and it's adjacent,

or next to a word beginning with a B or a P sound,

we tend to minimize the duh so that we can more easily

say the B or P sound. For example,

if you hear the words, mud bath in a sentence,

you may notice that the way our mouth moves prevents us from

making that clear D sound at the end of mud. And instead,

we hear a more pronounced B sound in the word bath.

For example, on our vacation, we went to a mud bath, listen again,

on our vacation,

we went to a mud bath that D has nearly disappeared.

Here are few more word combinations where we can practice that once again.

I want you to mirror what you hear,

broad bean broad be.

You don't hear a clear broad bean. Again,

that D sound is nearly gone,

broad bean red bag, red bag,

and finally ground plan, ground plan. And finally,

our sixth example of assimilations in American pronunciation is when

a V sound transforms to an F sound.

When a word ends with a V sound, for example,

the word have,

and it's followed by a voiceless consonant.

For example, the word two,

those two sounds combine and become more of an F

sound.

So a sentence like I have to pick up the children from school

becomes I have to pick up the children from school.

Notice we've transitioned from a V sound to a

sound. I have to pick up the kids from school, or if you're at work,

you might say to someone, I have to get to a meeting.

I have to make a phone call.

Now that you have these six examples of assimilation in American

pronunciation. How can you get more comfortable with these? Well,

first throughout this lesson, I've asked you to mirror me a few times,

and you can always come back to do that.

You can review this lesson and practice that mirroring method. Once again,

that means to listen to what you hear, and then repeat it.

In addition to that,

here are my top three tips for how you can practice assimilation

and begin to use it naturally in your own communication tip. Number one,

immerse yourself in media that has been created for English speakers.

So that might be podcasts, TVs, movies, and so on.

By doing this, you're listening to how English speakers naturally speak.

Nothing is changed specifically for English language learners

and tip number two. When you do that,

when you immerse yourself in media for English speakers also

read transcripts,

this is particularly easy to do with something like a Ted talk.

When you listen to a podcast or watch a Ted talk,

and you have the transcript available,

it's easier to identify the patterns of assimilation.

And just like you've done in this lesson today, you can mirror what you hear.

And my third tip for practicing assimilation is to record yourself speaking.

This is one of the most effective strategies I recommend to not only

get comfortable with pronunciation,

but to build your overall confidence and fluency.

It's a technique that I walk through in my free training called how to say what

you want in English, which you can get at my website. Now,

if you're going to record yourself to practice these pronunciation patterns,

what you can do is again, listen to a podcast or video,

have the transcript available and circle any word combinations where you notice

those patterns of assimilation,

and then practice talking about what you learned or

heard in the video. Summarize it,

record yourself and focus on using those words that you've

circled those areas, where you hear that assimilation,

try to use those same patterns in your speech after you do that,

go back and listen to it.

Evaluate how you did the good news is if you don't like it, you can delete it.

And you can practice again with that.

You have six clear examples of assimilation in American pronunciation.

If you found today's lesson helpful to you,

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Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next time.