手把手教你学口语07

Welcome to daily tips on learning English. Today’s tip is on sound linking.

Although in written English, there’re spaces between every word, in spoken English there’re almost never (1)pauses between words. In order to understand spoken English, it is (2)essential to understand how this linking is done. Today let’s (3)concentrate on the most common sound linking situation. Whenever a word ending in a consonant¹ sound is followed by a word beginning with a vowel² sound, the consonant sound is linked to the vowel sound as if they were part of the same word.

Let’s look at some examples. I’d like another bowl of rice, please. First, note that although there’re six words in the sentence, all the words are linked together without pause. Listen again. I’d like another bowl of rice, please. Now listen to how the words “like” and “another” are linked. “Like another”, “like-another”. “Like” ends in a consonant sound, and “another” begins with a vowel sound. So the “k” from “like” is linked to the “a” from “another” to produce “kanother”. Listen to the example sentence again. I’d like another bowl of rice, please. In the sentence there is another example of a consonant being linked to a vowel. A bowl of, a bowl-of. It sounds like that you’re saying the word “love”. Here’s another example. I’d love a bowl of rice. I’d love a bowl of rice. This sound linking is probably the biggest problem for learners of English when they try to understand native speaker’s talking. We’ll talk more about sound linking in future daily tips, as this is an extremely import feature of spoken English. Today’s tip is to link consonants³ to vowels⁴ which come after them. Till then, tomorrow, for another daily tip.

1 consonant   

n.辅音；adj.[音]符合的

参考例句：

• The quality of this suit isn't quite consonant with its price.这套衣服的质量和价钱不相称。
• These are common consonant clusters at the beginning of words.这些单词的开头有相同辅音组合。

2 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

3 consonants   

n.辅音，子音( consonant的名词复数 )；辅音字母

参考例句：

• Consonants are frequently assimilated to neighboring consonants. 辅音往往被其邻近的辅音同化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册