6 English Word Linking Tips that get you Speaking Results Fast

When it comes to English speaking, learners can often feel a huge gap between working on pronunciation and speaking with flow and naturalness. You might’ve thought, ‘what can I do to sound more fluent?’, or maybe, ‘how do I improve my English fluency?’ If this is the case, look no further.

In this blog post, we’ll show you how to immediately polish your English speaking clarity and confidence by simply incorporating linking as a strategy. Linking is the secret ingredient that gels the sounds and words together to make your speaking as smooth as butter 🧈. You’ll be impressed by the BIG difference it can make in your personal and professional speaking.

But first, what do you do to master English speaking? Memorise vocabulary? Review grammatical rules? Or read aloud?

One of the BEST ways to boost your speaking confidence and fluency is… linking! When speaking English, the flow of our speech should be ongoing and continuous. This means that our words in connected speech may sound very different to how we pronounce words on their own – a process called co-articulation. Not only that, connected speech also has different stress and intonation patterns. When we pay attention to our linking, it makes it easier for your listeners to tune in to the content of your message (think about your work presentations, social catch ups, etc), and it makes your speaking feel and sound more natural!

This is also one of the reasons why our speaking may still sound ‘different’ even when we have mastered accurate pronunciation of consonants and vowels in words.

That’s why linking goals should be at the top of the list to improve your command of English pronunciation. Let’s talk about 6 simple linking strategies that’ll make a big difference starting NOW!

When we speak, we don’t have spaces between words like we see on paper. Instead, all of our words in sentences are being produced as a string of sounds. Think of your sentences as having only one long word, and try to merge your words together as you speak. Remember to keep your natural intonation and flow!

Sometimes, the easiest way to learn is through imitation. Carefully observe the speech patterns of native speakers and try to copy them. Listen and repeat in connected phrases and sentences instead of individual words. You’ll quickly notice that these speakers habitually link their words together in sentences – often without realising it too! The more you practice it, the easier it is for you to internalise it so that when you’re in the next presentation or team meeting, you’ll know that your message can be smoooooothly and confidently delivered.

The International Phonetic Association (IPA) alphabet is a great tool to help figure out the exact sounds of English that are being used by any speaker. Note down all the sounds you hear in the sentence, then try to link the word boundaries together by joining the sounds together! Put your transcription skills to the test and link away!

Bonus: this strategy also prevents any confusion in spelling.

Think of the pronunciation of the phrase ‘queue up’ (like when you ‘queue up’ at your favourite cafe). If you pronounce the two words separately, this is how it sounds: Queue /kjuː/ + Up /ʌp/. But… when we connect the two words together, the phrase ‘queue up’ actually sounds like this according to the IPA: /kjuːwʌp/ – notice the sneaky /w/ sound that snuck in to help us link this phrase together!

If you had a big ‘HUH’ moment after reading through that previous example, don’t fret! English speakers insert extra sounds between words to help with their linking, and for most of the time they’re not even aware of it. Like the example above, a linking /w/ sound is used to help transition between vowels – ‘I can do it’ tends to be pronounced as ‘Icando(w)it’ /aɪkənduːwət/. You’ll find that this linking sound (among other linking sounds such as the linking /j/ ‘y’ sound in ‘try(y)it’ /tɹaɪjət/) will help you move more easily from one word to the next without interrupting the flow of your speech.

English has a very special sound that you want to get close and personal to.

The Schwa /ə/ is often the missing link that your English linking needs! So if you’ve not learnt how to produce this sound and integrate it- keep reading. See, the Schwa is a uniquely unstressed sound that is the hidden gem of linking. Many words that serve a grammatical function tend to be reduced to a schwa (e.g., a, for). By now, you might’ve noticed some of these Schwas making their appearances in previous examples already (don’t worry if you need to scroll back up – we’ll happily wait 😉)

This allows speakers to pronounce these quickly and easily without paying much attention. Try to say this sentence out loud and compare the way ‘to’ is pronounced when we say the words in isolation versus in connected speech: ‘Go.To.The.Shops’ versus ‘Gotuhtheshops’.

When you use the Schwa you also then have the chance to showcase the stressed words more effectively! Why is this important? Using accurate emphasis takes the burden off your listener- when the right words are pronounced between Schwa and linked sounds, your colleague can pinpoint the key words of your message and with less effort. After all, we speak for our listener- if you get the Schwa going more in your speaking, your colleagues will pick up your key points faster.

Don’t believe us? Let’s try it together – think of Bruno Mars’ Grenade – ‘I’d catch a grenade for ya…’ See how many schwas you can spot from that phrase alone! (and check your answers below 👇 )

Full IPA transcription: /aɪd kætʃ ə ɡrəˈneɪd fə jə/

When the same sounds are doubled up in sentences, we tend to only pronounce the doubled sound once. When you do this, it makes the consonant sound a bit longer. This may happen within words (e.g., ‘unknown’, ‘midday’) or across word boundaries (e.g., ‘feel lucky’, ‘that time’). But, as always, there are always exceptions to these rules – ‘h’, ‘y’, ‘w’, ‘x’, ‘q’, ‘dg’, ‘ch’. The next time you try to join your words together in sentences, keep your eyes out for those sneaky twins!

This is why we love linking words at Speechaus Clinic, and we believe that you will too!

If you need more support and feedback for your speaking? No worries – our team is here to help! At Speechaus, we provide personalised, evidence-based strategies to bolster your command of English pronunciation and linking.

Take the first step today by checking out our Personalised English Pronunciation Audit – we provide tailored and comprehensive audits into every single sound of English, speech intonation factors, and speaking fluency. This will help you identify the main bottlenecks that are impacting your speaking. Knowing the importance of linking, we’ll carefully examine your link and flow of phrases and sentences, the process of merging multiple words into single units, and last but not least, the balance between clarity versus linking. We’ve got you covered!