Lesson · Listening · No gaps

Why Words Run Together

The second lesson said that speech has no spaces. This lesson says what fills them. When a word ends in a consonant and the next begins with a vowel, the consonant is said with the next word. When two vowels meet they run into one another. When the same consonant ends one word and begins the next it is said once. The lab marks all three on a printed passage and counts them.

Open the interactive lesson Practice

740 scored places, only a space between consonant then vowel 124 16.8% vowel then vowel 53 7.2% the same consonant 16 2.2% take it: the k goes with it

Counted on the passage in the lab

Core ideas

What this lesson establishes

Three ideas, and the first changes what a space means.

The space on the page is not in the sound

Between take and it the page has a gap and the voice does not. The k that ends the first word is said as the start of the second, and a listener who waits for a break before it will not find one.

Three kinds of meeting can be marked

A consonant meets a vowel: proud of, in a. A vowel meets a vowel: we are, I am. The same consonant ends one word and begins the next: not to. On the passage in the lab these are 124, 53 and 16 of the 740 places where only a space comes between two words.

The biggest of the three hides small words

Consonant then vowel is 16.8%, the largest of the three, and among the words on its second side are small words from the list in the first lesson: a, of, and, at, are. A small word that is already flat, with its front taken by the word before, is the hardest thing in the passage to hear.

The material

What a speaker does at each kind of meeting

The lab counts where. What follows is what a speaker does at those places, which no page can check.

The second lesson said that speech has no spaces, and that a listener cuts the sound into words with the help of the strong parts. That leaves a question. What is in the place where the space would be?

A space on the page, nothing in the voice

A written space is a rule of print. A voice does not stop for it. In take it the k and the i are said straight after one another, and the k goes with it. In proud of it is the d. The word is whole on the page and not whole in the ear.

Three meetings the lab can mark

The passage in the lab has 756 places where exactly one space comes between two words. The lab scores 740 of them. In 16, one of the two words is not in the pronunciation dictionary, and those are counted and left out. Of the 740:

A consonant meeting a vowel, 124, which is 16.8%. Proud of, in a, take it, and honour. The consonant is said with the next word.
A vowel meeting a vowel, 53, which is 7.2%. We are, I am, the army. The two run into one another.
The same consonant on both sides, 16, which is 2.2%. Not to, ought to, submit to. It is said once.

The other 547 are not marked. They are a consonant meeting a consonant or a vowel meeting a consonant, and what a speaker does at those is not counted on this page.

Why it matters for what you hear

The first lesson found that two words in five are small words said short. This one adds that many of the small words come straight after a consonant: a, of, and, at, are. When the word before has just taken the front of them, there is little left. A learner who knows only the written shape hears proud of as proudov and does not find two words.

The second lesson gives the way out. The strong part of proud is the front of the word. Listen for that, and what comes after it is of, whatever it sounds like.

What the counts do and do not say

They count places in a text from 1813, using sounds from an American dictionary. The 16 pairs of the same consonant include 3 with an r that a speaker from the south of England would not say, and the dictionary's first pronunciation is one of several for some words. The counts are good for showing how often each meeting happens. They cannot show how it sounds.

What to do with this

Stop listening for gaps. Listen for the strong parts, as the last lesson says, and when a word seems to start in the wrong place, ask whether the sound before it was a consonant that has moved. It usually has.

Interactive

Why words run together

Every place in the passage where one word meets the next with only a space between

word boundaries scored—

boundaries of this kind—

share of those scored—

boundaries with a word the dictionary lacks—

Where the sounds come from

Every sound, part count and strong part here is read from the first pronunciation in CMUdict, the Carnegie Mellon University Pronouncing Dictionary, which records American speech. Its licence asks that this notice travel with anything made from it:

Copyright (C) 1993-2015 Carnegie Mellon University. All rights reserved.

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This work was supported in part by funding from the Defense Advanced
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Science Foundation of the United States of America, and by member
companies of the Carnegie Mellon Sphinx Speech Consortium. We acknowledge
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Method

Marking where words run together

Four steps, and the lab does the first three for you on the passage.

Look at the last sound of the first word

Not the last letter. Take ends in k, a consonant. Me ends in a vowel. Have ends in v, and the e is silent.

Look at the first sound of the next word

Again the sound and not the letter. Hour begins with a vowel, and use begins with a consonant, the sound at the start of you.

Name the meeting

A consonant then a vowel: the consonant goes with the next word. A vowel then a vowel: the two run into one another. The same consonant on both sides: it is said once.

Say the pair as one word, then listen for it

Say take it as if it were takit, and not to with one t. That is close to what arrives. You are listening for one run, with no gap in it.

Check yourself

Score 0 / 0

Choose the answer you can justify.

Five meetings from the passage

Each pair is in the table. The right-hand column says what a speaker does there.

proud of the d goes with of take it the k goes with it in a the n goes with a we are the two vowels run on not to one t, said once

In a is the case people hear most clearly in their own language. The n does not stay behind. The listener gets something close to i na, and has to know that the n belongs to in. The same thing turns an hour into something close to a nower in the ear. Neither word has a gap in front of the vowel.

A pair of vowels, we are, has nothing to move, so the two run on into one another, often with a faint w or y between. The same consonant on both sides, not to or big game, which is not from the passage, is said once and held a little longer than one would be.

Look down the lab's table and see how many of the second words are small words from the first lesson. They are the words with the least to hold them in place, and the word before has just taken their front.

Common mistakes

Expecting a gap wherever the page shows a spaceAn apple has a space between the words and no gap in the voice. The listener hears something close to a napple and has to know that the n belongs to an. A learner who waits for the break will always be a word behind.

Reading 16.8% as how often words run togetherThe lab marks three kinds. They add to 193 of the 740 scored places. The other 547 are not marked: a consonant meeting a consonant, or a vowel meeting a consonant. This page does not say what happens at those, and it does not say that nothing does.

Counting every pair of the same letter as certainOf the 16 pairs with the same consonant on both sides, 10 are t and 3 are r: poor Reynolds, your resolution, for writing. The dictionary is American, and an American speaker says the r at the end of for. A speaker from the south of England does not say it before a consonant, so there the pair is not the same sound twice.

Check your understanding

✓

Finish when you can mark, on a printed passage, where words run together, and give the share of each kind.

You should be able to mark the places where a final consonant meets a first vowel, where two vowels meet, and where the same consonant ends one word and begins the next, say how a speaker says each, and read off the share of the places in a passage that belong to each kind.

Note: The counts are of places in 1813 prose with one space between two words, using the first pronunciation in an American dictionary. What a speaker does at each place is the usual account, and it is not measured here: a page has no sound to measure.