Believe in the power of connected speech!

Learn Connected Speech with Matt Purland by Matt Purland is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal 

Learn Connected Speech

Welcome to the course!

Course Aims

The aims of this course are to:

• understand what connected speech is and why it is important
• be able to perform the four main actions of connected speech
• learn and practice the little-known techniques of connected speech
• feel more confident in using spoken English to communicate
• better understand native speakers when they speak English

This course is 100% FREE and in the Public Domain, so please feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues. Work through each unit at your own pace,

Learn Connected Speech with Matt Purland

How the Alphabet Made English – Course Summary

Practice Activities

Lesson 1: Introduction

Unit 1.1 Sound connections

Unit 1.2 VC and friendly connections

Unit 1.3 Four actions

Unit 1.4 The sound spine

Unit 1.5 How the four actions help

Learn Connected Speech (Print Version) – Lesson 1: Introduction

Lesson 2: VC Connections

Unit 2.1 What are VC connections?

Unit 2.2 Syllable breaking and contractions

Unit 2.3 Syllable shapes

Unit 2.4 Practice with VC connections

Unit 2.5 Reduplicatives

Learn Connected Speech (Print Version) – Lesson 2: VC Connections

Lesson 3: Friendly Connections

Unit 3.1 What are friendly consonant sounds?

Unit 3.2 Breakdown of friendly consonant sounds

Unit 3.3 Where do we find friendly consonant sounds?

Unit 3.4 Practice with words ending with friendly consonant sounds

Unit 3.5 Practice phrases with VC and friendly connections

Learn Connected Speech (Print Version) – Lesson 3: Friendly Connections

Lesson 4: Moving Forward – Part 1

Unit 4.1 Why move forward?

Unit 4.2 The 8 voiced and unvoiced consonant pairs

Unit 4.3 Frequency of consonant sounds moving forward

Unit 4.4 z  /  s

Unit 4.5 d  /  t

Unit 4.6 g  /  k

Unit 4.7 v  /  f

Learn Connected Speech (Print Version) – Lesson 4: Moving Forward – Part 1

Lesson 5: Moving Forward – Part 2

Unit 5.1 Introduction

Unit 5.2 j  /  ch

Unit 5.3 b  /  p

Unit 5.4 th  /  tt

Unit 5.5 zz  /  sh

Unit 5.6 n

Unit 5.7 m

Unit 5.8 l

Learn Connected Speech (Print Version) – Lesson 5: Moving Forward – Part 2

Lesson 6: Deleting Sounds

Unit 6.1 Introduction

Unit 6.2 Deleting  t

Unit 6.3 Deleting  d

Unit 6.4 Deleting  h

Unit 6.5 Deleting duplicate sounds

Lesson 7: Adding Sounds

Unit 7.1 Introduction

Unit 7.2 VV connections

Unit 7.3 Practice with  r

Unit 7.4 Practice with  y

Unit 7.5 Practice with  w

Lesson 8: Multiple Actions

Unit 8.1 Introduction

Unit 8.2 Why multiple actions?

Unit 8.3 Blends with a friendly consonant sound – without ‘s’

Unit 8.4 Blends with a friendly consonant sound – with ‘s’

Unit 8.5 Blends without a friendly consonant sound – without ‘s’

Unit 8.6 Blends without a friendly consonant sound – with ‘s’

Unit 8.7 Blends caused by regular verbs ending in ‘-ed’

Unit 8.8 Conclusion

Material for Further Study

Books:

• Talk a Lot Foundation Course
• Clear Alphabet Dictionary
• Stress, Reduce, Merge
• Talk a Lot Elementary Handbook

Online:

• Connected Speech
• Lesson 5.7 Connected Speech
• Glossary of Pronunciation Terms
• Hard Words – Course
• The 48 Sounds of English
• Word Stress
• Sentence Stress
• Word Order

Video Classes

Learn Connected Speech – British Lingua, Delhi, India (August-Date 2023):

Original 8-part video course on YouTube (April-June 2023):

Connected Speech Club on YouTube (December 2022-Date):

Photo by Amanda Phung on Unsplash