Welcome to your fluency framework. I am Teacher Sopheak. At the C2 level, fluency isn't just about speed; it's about effortlessness. Native speakers glide through sentences using connected speech principles.
If you pronounce every single consonant, it actually stops the vocal flow completely. Today, we break down how to link, drop, and merge your sounds naturally.
Principle 1: Intrusion (Linking)
When one word ends in a vowel and the next word begins with a vowel, an invisible consonant sound naturally "intrudes" to link them. We typically insert a soft /w/, /y/, or /r/ sound.
Principle 2: Elision (Dropping Sounds)
Elision is the deliberate dropping of hard consonants (usually /t/ or /d/) when they are wedged between two other consonant sounds. This prevents stuttering and maintains high-speed conversational flow.
Principle 3: Assimilation (Merging)
Assimilation occurs when the boundary sounds of two adjacent words blend together to create an entirely new, easier-to-pronounce phoneme. This frequently happens with 't' + 'y' becoming 'ch', or 'd' + 'y' becoming 'j'.
Perfect grammar does not equal natural fluency.