Unit 38. Pets Enter, Pet Centre.

Joining Words 1
Unit 38; Part A

In speech, words are not separated; they join together. Sometimes itis difficult to know where one word finishes and the next word begins. For example, pets enter sounds the same as pet centre because the consonant /s/could be at the end of the first word or at the start of the secondword. Listen to the examples. The phrases on the left sound the same asthe phrases on the right.
pets enter stopped aching ice-cream known aim called Annie clocks tops missed a nights | pet centre stop talking I scream no name call Danny clock stops Mr Knight | ![]() |

Note: The /h/ is often dropped from the beginning of pronouns, so that thanked him sounds like thank Tim.
Unit 38; Part B

Normally, we know from the context what a word is. For example,these two sentences sound the same, but we know the first one is wrongbecause it has no sense.
It snow good.
It's no good.
Unit 38; Part C

In fluent speech, people join words together. When one word endswith a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel, imagine thatthe consonant is at the beginning of the next word. For example, say the first line of the chant below as if the words were divided like this:
/go t∂ p∂ teit/.
Listen to the chant and repeat. The rhythm of each line is the same. The symbol _ shows where the consonant sound joins to the vowel sound of the next word.
Got_up_at_eight, Got_on_a_bus. Went _into work, Worked_until two, Went_out for lunch. Worked_until six, Back_on the bus, Switched_on the box¹, Slept _in_a chair. (¹box = television) | ![]() |
Exercises
![]() | Unit 37 Unit 38 Unit 39 | ![]() |