In English, like in most languages, words are not pronounced one by one. Very often the end of one word attaches to the beginning of the next word. Knowing how to connect the sounds in English makes your pronunciation more natural and helps you sound more fluent. 

In the Maxell TV commercial, the man made some mistakes when he wrote the lyrics because he 'broke' the connection between the words wrongly. For example, he wrote "monk and beef head" when the singer actually said "mouth can be fed". The /k/ in can and the /f/ in beef  'contaminated' the words that came before (mouth) and after (head). Can you find any other examples?

Try this: click here and type nine oh nine, five oh six eight in the box. This is the telephone number: 909-5068. Choose one of the native English speakers in the box and click on "speak". You probably heard something like this: [nai nou nain, fai vo sick sate]. The last sound of each word 'jumped' to the next word, didn't it?

Which sounds do you think will be connected in the following? Type them in the box and check.

• American idol
• British accent
• The Houses of Parliament
• My name is Anna.
• Half an hour
• Middle Ages

In English, words that end in a consonant sound connect with the next word beginning with a vowel. So here's what you would have:

• American_Idol
• British_accent
• The Houses_of Parliament
• My name_is_Anna.
• Half_an_hour ('hour' begins with the letter H, but we do not pronounce it)
• Middle_Ages (the last sound in 'Middle' is / l /)

The consonant-sound connection in words is just one of the liaisons we make in English. There are other possibilities, but we will work with them on another post!