Sound more FLUENT and NATURAL with LINKING: How to Connect Words in Spoken English

One of the keys to sounding more fluent and natural in your spoken English is allowing the sounds between words to flow together. In this lesson, you will learn everything you need to know about connecting, or linking, words in English. Be sure to grab the FREE Everything You Need to Know About Linking Practice PDF! 

Key Takeaways:

1) Linking is not about talking fast and smushing all your words together. Yes, some native speakers do talk like this- but they are hard to understand! This is not the goal! You can link and connect sounds between your words, creating natural rhythm and flow, while still using a clear, controlled speaking rate.

2) Linking patterns are based on what type of sound one word ends with and the type of sound the next word begins with. There are 3 different linking patterns: 1) consonant to vowel 2) vowel to vowel and 3) consonant to consonant.

3) The stop consonants (/p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /k/ and /g/) are often held by native speakers in connected speech.