senDy H.

Toana
IIIB
listening II
LINKING IN ENGLISH

LINKING IS VERY IMPORTANT IN ENGLISH

• When we say a sentence in English, we join or "link" words to
each other. Because of this linking, the words in a sentence do not
always sound the same as when we say them individually. If you
recognize and use linking, two things will happen:
– you will understand other people more easily
– other people will understand you more easily

There are basically two types of linking:

• consonant > vowel
• We link words ending with a consonant sound to words
beginning with a vowel sound
• vowel > vowel
• We link words ending with a vowel sound to words beginning
with a vowel sound

UNDERSTANDING VOWELS & CONSONANTS FOR LINKING

• To understand linking, it is important to know the difference
between vowel sounds and consonant sounds. Here is a table of
English vowels and consonants:
– Vowels - aeIou
– Consonants - bcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyz

Often the letter and the sound are the same, but not always.
For example, the word "pay" ends with:
– the consonant letter "y"
– the vowel sound "a"
Here are some more examples:
• Though- ends with the letter h- sounds O
• Know- ends with the w – sounds O
• Uniform- begins with the letter u – sounds YU
• Honest- begins with the letter h- sounds uh

senDy H. Toana 1 LisTening II

Linking Consonant to Vowel
• When a word ends in a consonant sound, we often move the
consonant sound to the beginning of the next word if it starts
with a vowel sound.
– For example, in the phrase "turn off":
• We write it like this: TURN-OFF
• We say it like this: TUR-NOFF
Remember that it's the sound that matters.

In the next example, "have"

ends with: Sentence
the letter "e" (vowel) • We link "have" to the next word
the sound "v" (consonant) "a" which begins with a vowel sound:
– We write it like this:
• Can I have a bit of
egg?
– We say it like this
• Ca-nI-ha-va-bi-to-
fegg?
Linking Vowel to Vowel
• When one word ends
with a vowel sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound,
we link the words with a sort of W or Y sound.

senDy H. Toana 2 LisTening II

senDy H. Toana 3 LisTening II
 Minimal Pairs Pronunciation Practice

1 5 9
i: i e ae ou au/a:
eat It bet Bat so Saw
neat Knit met Mat low Law
beat Bit set Sat hole Hall
seat Sit Ben Ban bowl Ball
eel Ill Ken Can coal Call
heel hill den Dan wrote Rot
green Grin bed Bad note Not
teen Tin head Had boat Bought
reach Rich said Sad coat Caught
sheep ship leg lag coast cost

2 6 10
l r h f z/d th
light Right hall Fall bays bathe
lice rice hone funny sues soothe
lot rot heat feet breeze breathe
low row hold fold close clothe
long wrong hollow follow Z thee
lead read hear fear den then
led red hit fit dare there
lung rung hill fill Dan than
load road hell fell die thy
lock rock hat fat

3 7 11
i e ae c/a o u
pit Pet cat Cot cob cub
knit net hat hot rob rub rub
mitt met pat pot sob sub
sit set rat rot cop cup
ill L cap cop pop pup
bill bell map mop dock duck
fill fell mass moss lock luck
will well math moth stock stuck
hill hell band bond not nut
did deal lack lock won

Minimal Pairs – Homophones

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Words that sound the same but are spelled differently,and ofcourse
have a different meaning.

It's time to drive some of your sino-tibetan students crazy

Procedure: Distribute the list of words to your class. Read one word
from each pair. Read it three times with a normal intonation. Have the
students circle the word they hear. Check the correct answers with the
class, and then run them through some choral and individual
pronunciation drills.

1. rips --- lips

2. right --- light
3. read --- lead
4. Paris --- palace
5. crime --- climb

I made some sentence sets with the same vocabulary. Follow the same procedure as
above:

1. She has nice lips. --- She has nice rips.

2. That's right. --- That's light!
3. If you read, I'll follow along. --- If you lead, I'll follow along.
4. The Paris police are here. --- The palace police are here.
5. It's a terrible crime. --- It's a terrible climb.

senDy H. Toana 5 LisTening II