Speak Like a Native: The Linking Secret 🇬🇧

Have you ever listened to a native English speaker and thought, wait what did they just say? Here's a little secret or here's a well-known secret. It's not actually because we are talking fast. Well it's not always because we are actually speaking very fast. Often we sound fast because we link our words. Recently I posted a question which is what's the hardest part of sounding fluent for you? And the largest percent of the poll chose speaking speed. So in this lesson I will show you how to sound more fluent and natural, how to sound faster without actually speeding up. Join me and let's unlock your native sounding English. First though, why? Why does English sound so fast? The reason English sounds so fast is because we don't pronounce every word separately like I just did. If you imagine the sentence you're speaking as a train, English learners tend to put a gap between each carriage. For example with this sentence they'll say, did you eat it? Did you eat it? But natives, we join the carriages together into one long fluid train. Did you eat it? Did you eat it? Did you eat it? Did you eat it? Did you eat it? There are the same number of syllables, they're just connected. And listen, I'm going to say it the same speed which sounds faster. Did you eat it? Did you eat it? Think of language speaking like music, the rhythm never stops or the rhythm never stops. And once you learn this natural ebb and flow, your English will instantly sound more natural and more confident. Today we're going to go through the four main linking patterns in English and don't worry because there will be a cheat sheet PDF outlining all of this for you that is free in the link in the description below. So make sure you get your free PDF. Are you ready to go over the linking patterns? Let's start with the most common. The most common type is consonant and vowel. This is when one word ends in a consonant and the other word begins with a vowel. When that happens we push the consonant forward and I'll show you what I mean. For example, turn it off becomes turn it off. Turn it off. Turn it off. Turn it off. Pick it up. Pick it up. Pick it up. Pick it up. Do you hear that glide? There's no pause after turn or pick. Turn it on. Pick it up. And that isn't laziness when we're speaking, it's efficiency. I sometimes don't link when I am teaching in the interest of clarity, in the interest of making myself easier to understand because linking naturally does make it slightly harder to differentiate the words. However, once you master how to do it, you will also master how to pick it up. How to pick it up. How to pick it up when others are doing it too. Now try one with me. First slowly, then native speed. Staccato. I want a cup of tea. I want a cup of tea. I want a cup of tea. Faster. I want a cup of tea. I want a cup of tea. Really fast. I want a cup of tea. I want a cup of tea. When we're speaking informally, we drop even more. I want to, I wanna. Cup of tea, cuppa. And yes, cuppa we do actually use in the United Kingdom. Fancy a cuppa? So if you say cup of tea, you sound perfectly fine. If you say cuppa, you sound like you've lived here for a long time. Remember, I do go over how to understand fast English in this video. So if you are worried about your comprehension when listening to fast English, do have a look at that too. That's the first part. The second connection we'll discuss is the famous linking R. The English accent I use, modern RP, is what we call non-rhotic. So I say R instead of R, but we're talking about the linking R. In my accent then, modern RP, if there is an R at the end of the word, we don't pronounce it unless the next word begins with a that's my accent, car. An American accent or a rhotic accent, car, car, car, car. But when I say there's a car over there, there's a car over there, car over there, can you hear the linking R there? Car over, there's a car over there. So instead of for a minute, we'll say for a minute, for a minute. Can you hear that linking R? For a minute. If for is on its own, as in F-O-R, for, I don't know how long for, no R. For a minute, there's the linking R, for a minute. Some other examples, far away, far away, far away. My car is old. My car is old. My car is old. My car is old. Do you hear it? My car is really old. My car is really old. That is one of the biggest giveaways of British speech when it comes to modern RP, received pronunciation. Whereas Americans pronounce the R here, there and everywhere, or here, there and everywhere. Sorry for my American accent. They'll say car, far, for. We are picky, car, far, for, unless it's followed by a vowel, and then we let the R creep in. For a minute, for a minute. Hold on, because if you skip this next pattern, you'll sound like you are reading BBC English, even if you're whispering. It's a really important one, this one. And that is the linking J and W. The third way we link the J and W, and how it glides. We've discussed the hidden R that connects words together. We're now going to discuss two consonants we add, even though they're not there. When a word ends in a vowel, and the next word begins with a vowel, we naturally insert a tiny J or W sound. Tiny. But we naturally insert to make it flow, to make it all connect together. A J or a W. Go on. We don't say go on. We add a W. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on. Go on, then. Go on. A nice way to see it is the glue that holds English together, this J and W. It's the glue holding the words together. More examples. I agree. I agree. There's no J, a J, but with the vowel, I agree. I agree. I agree. I agree. Go out. Go out. I'm going to go out. We're going to go out. See it. Can you see it? Yeah. See it. See it. Yeah. Can you see it? And now linking R, can you hear it? See it. Hear it. See it. Can you see it? And we don't plan it as native speakers. It just happens because we want that smooth transition between our words when we're speaking. That's all we want, a smooth transition. Try this staccato rhythm. We all want it. Say it with me. We all want it. Now link it together. We all want it. We all want it. Yeah. We all want it. We all want it. So those little sounds make everything flow beautifully. And finally, we've left the final fun, messy bit for last. Sometimes native speakers don't just link sounds. We melt them together. So you've probably heard phrases like this. Next day. Just do it. What's that? It should be next day. Next day. But try and say that fast. Next day. We're going the next day. You see, it doesn't have a flow. We're going the next day. We're going the next day. Just do it. Just do it. Just do it. Just do it. The T gets lost. Just do it. What's that? What's that? What's that? What's that? The T. What's that? What's that? We lose that T. We do this perhaps because we care more about rhythm and stress than we do about clarity. Focus on the beat, not on every letter. Say this rhythmically with me. What do you want to do? What do you want to do? Now link it together. What do you want to do? What do you want to do? Shall we take it one more to the informal fast English? What do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to do? What do you want to do? Your turn. Let's practice three phrases at the three different levels. Phrase one. Clear. Do you want to come over? Do you want to come over? Let's connect it now. Do you want to come over? Do you want to come over? Do you want to come over? Shall we step it up even further into informal native? Do you want to come over? Do you want to come over? Do you want to come over? Do you want to come over? Connected. Do you want to come over? Do you want to come over? Do you want to come over? Do you want to come over? Sentence two. What are you doing? What are you doing? Connected. What are you doing? What are you doing? very informal what you doing what you doing what are you doing what are you doing what you doing last one phrase three give me a hand give me a hand connected give me a hand give me a hand ready for informal give me a hand give me a hand give me a hand connected give me a hand very informal give me a hand Now, linking is just one part of sounding natural, but as the poll indicates, some of you struggle with speed. If you link, you naturally sound faster. So linking is a foundation, but so is rhythm, stress, even the melody, excuse me, even the melody of how we speak. And when you get those, that's when people say, oh wow, you're English. You sound amazing when you speak English. Your English is really good, which I have no doubt yours is. Here's the big picture. If you want to sound natural and not like a textbook or a textbook, linking is your secret weapon. It helps your speaking and your listening. You start hearing English as natives actually use it. So you stop thinking word by word and start thinking in chunks or in one whole. To go back to our train metaphor, you stop seeing the individual carriages and you see the whole train. So now you know, sounding fast isn't always about speed. It's about connecting the sounds like a native. Don't forget to grab your free cheat sheet below. We also have the free PDF with 20 British expressions we use all the time. If you found this useful, I have other videos on how to understand fast English and shadowing. Shadowing is another technique that really, really helps improve your English. So make sure you have a look at my shadowing videos too. That's it from me. Have a wonderful rest of the day or evening, wherever you are and see you next time. Bye.