Finn:  Hello… and… welcome… to… Question… and… Answer… of… the… Week…   

Which sound appears between 'three' and 'eggs'

 
Li:  Finn, are you ok?
 
Finn:  Yes… I'm… fine… thanks… Li… how… are… you?
 
Li:  But why are you speaking like that?
 
Finn:  Oh… you… mean… like… this?
 
Li:  Can you stop now, please?
 
Finn:  Ok… I… will stop now. What I was doing was demonstrating the importance of connected speech.
 
Li:  Connected speech. 连贯发音或者连读。
 
Finn:  Yes, when people speak English they don't always pronounce every word separately, they often run them together.
 
Li:  Finn 说在日常对话中，英国人经常会把两个单词连起来发音，而不是很清楚地说每一个单词。这样一来对中国学英语的同学们来说，听起来就有一定的难度。听友 Jojo 向我们提出的问题就是她对connected speech 也就是词与词之间的连读感到困难，希望能得到我们的帮助。
 
Finn:  Yes, connected speech, or linked pronunciation as it's sometimes known, can be a tricky subject. To help us understand it we're going to listen to some examples. Before we do that I want to remind everyone about two words in English. Firstly, consonant.
 
Li:  辅音  consonant.
 
Finn:  And vowel.
 
Li:  元音  vowel. 请听下面两个例子，注意单词的发音到底有什么不一样。
 
Insert
 
An egg
 
An egg
 
Finn:  And again.
 
Insert
 
An egg
 
An egg
 
Finn:  Li, what sounded different there?
 
Li:  我觉得在第一个例子里，两个词的发音是分开的，非常清楚  an egg. 不过在第二个例子
里，an 这个单词里的n 和第二个词的开头连起来了。An-n-egg.
 
Finn:  An-n-egg. That's right. An-n-egg. This is one kind of connected speech. You
have two words, 'an' and 'egg'. 'An' ends in a consonant and 'egg' begins with
a vowel.
 
Li:  The consonant sound is 'n'?
 
Finn:  That's right. As you said there is a smooth link between the words. An-n-negg,
an-n-negg. Listen to these examples.
 
Li:  I hope you like eggs!
 
Insert
 
An egg
 
A fried egg
 
A big egg
 
A small egg
 
Li:  刚才我们听到的是连读的第一种形式：辅音到元音的连接 consonant to vowel linking. 
 
Finn:  Ok, enough of the eggs?
 
Li:  Yes.
 
Finn:  Enough of eggs, let's move on. Later we'll examine consonant to consonant linking, but first let's listen to some vowel to vowel linking.
 
Li:  元音和元音的连读或者连接。让我们听听下面的例子。
 
Insert
 
Two oranges
 
Two oranges
 
Finn:  Listen again, try to hear the 'w' sound in the second example.
 
Insert
 
Two oranges
 
Two oranges
 
Li:  大家听出来了吗？在 oo 和  o 的发音之间，英国人会加一个w 的发音. Two-w-oranges.
 
Finn:  Two-w-oranges.
 
Insert
 
Two oranges
 
Two oranges
 
Finn:  So, sometimes we add a 'w' sound. Now there's another kind as well. If the first vowel is an 'ee' sound listen to what happens.
 
Insert
 
Three oranges
 
Three oranges
 
Three oranges
 
Li:  听到了吗？在 ee 和o 的发音之间，我们会加一个很轻的 y. Three-y-oranges.
 
Finn:  Three-y-oranges.
 
Insert
 
Three oranges
 
Finn:  Do you like oranges, Li?
 
Li:  I love them!
 
Finn:  Great, well I have two-w-oranges, one for you and one for me.
 
Li:  Thank you. 好的。我们刚才讲解了一些元音和元音的连接，现在让我们来看看辅音和辅音之间的连接。 
 
Finn:  Consonant to consonant linking. Now everyone, think about this: what was the best meal you ever had? 
 
Insert
 
The best meal
 
The best meal
 
Li:  让我们再来听一遍。第二个例子的速度是我们平时的说话的速度。注意在单词 best 中 t的发音有些什么变化。
 
Insert
 
The best meal
 
The best meal
 
Finn:  Did you hear what happened to the 't' sound?
 
Li:  It disappears! 不见了。 
 
Insert
 
The best meal
 
Li:  也就是说，一个词的结尾是辅音字母  t 或 d，而后面跟的词也是辅音开头，在这种情况下那么  t 或者d 发音就不见了。It disappears.
 
Insert
 
The best meal
 
Finn:  Yes, these t and d sounds at the end of a word sometimes disappear. And sometimes they even change completely. One place this often happens is in phrases like 'would you' or 'did you'. Listen to the change.
 
Insert
 
Would you
 
Would you
 
Would you like a drink?
 
Did you 
 
Did you
 
Did you go there yesterday?
 
Li:  大家听到区别了吗？连接d 和 y的发音成了 j. Would you? 
 
Insert
 
Would you
 
Finn:  Would you? Would you like a drink?
 
Li:  好了，我们今天的解释就到这儿…
 
Finn:  No, sorry Li, would you like a drink?
 
Li:  Oh, ha ha. You're asking me! Of course, Finn. 
 
Finn:  Ok, how about after the programme? 
 
I hope we've helped Jojo understand connected speech a bit more.
 
Li:  我们今天向大家介绍了辅音和元音之间的连贯发音：
 
Finn:  An egg.
 
Li:  元音和元音之间的连贯发音：
 
Finn:  Two oranges, three eggs.
 
Li:  还有辅音和辅音之间的连贯发音：
 
Finn:  The best meal, would you like a drink?
 
Li:  Yes, Finn, you don't need to ask me twice – I've already said yes! 别忘了登陆我们的网站学习更多的英语知识，我们的网址是 www.bbcukchina.com.
 
Finn:  And you can also try another BBC website www.bbclearningenglish.com which has a special pronunciation section.
 
Li:  So… until… next… time… goodbye… and… see… you… soon…
 
Finn:  Li! 
 

This week Finn and Li explain connected speech.

When people speak English at a natural speed they don't always pronounce each word separately. Quite often they run words together. This can mean that the sounds at the ends or beginning of words can change.

The term given for this phenomenon is connected speech.

For example, do you know what happens to the sounds in bold when you ask the following question:

Would you like a drink?

Listen to the programme to find out.

If you have a question for our team, send it to us at questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk and we might answer it on this programme.