手把手教你学口语08

Welcome to Daily Tips on Learning English. Today’s tip is on sound linking.

Remember that although written English has spaces between every word, spoken English doesn’t have pauses after every word. As a matter of fact, long strings¹ of words are all linked together. And it is this linking, which often makes it difficult for learners of English to understand native speaker’s talking. Today’s tip is to notice how the “h” sound is often dropped in personal pronouns such as “he”, “him”, “his” and “her”. And when it is dropped, what is left is a vowel² sound, and the vowel sound is always linked to the preceding word.

Let’s look at an example. Give her a book. Giv-er a book. Notice how the “h” is dropped and how “give her” become “giv-er”. Look at another example. Tell him to ask her. Tell-im to ask-er. Did you notice that “tell him” became “tell-im” and “ask her” became “ask-er”? This happens very frequently in spoken English, especially when “he” follows an auxiliary³ verb. For example, “what will he do?” becomes “What will-i do?” “Where will he go?” becomes “Where will-i go?” “When will he come?” becomes “When will-i come?” “Who will he meet?” becomes “Who will-i meet?” “How will he know?” becomes “How will-i know?” “Has he gone?” becomes “Has-i gone?” “Had he done it before?” becomes “Had-i done it before?” “Must he go?” becomes “Must-i go?” “Can he do it?” becomes “Can-i do it?” “Should he leave?” becomes “Should-I leave?” it’s important to accustom⁴ yourself to the dropped “h” sound in sound linking. This has been today’s daily tip. Tune⁵ in tomorrow for another tip on learning English.

1 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

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 auxiliary   

adj.辅助的，备用的

参考例句：

• I work in an auxiliary unit.我在一家附属单位工作。
• The hospital has an auxiliary power system in case of blackout.这家医院装有备用发电系统以防灯火管制。

4 accustom   

vt.使适应，使习惯

参考例句：

• It took him a while to accustom himself to the idea.他过了一段时间才习惯这个想法。
• It'shouldn't take long to accustom your students to working in groups.你的学生应该很快就会习惯分组学习的。

5 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。