Pronunciation: The linking /r/

What happens when a word ends with a /r/ sound - and the next word begins with a vowel sound? Tim looks at connected speech with the help of the Learning English team, some Londoners - and a Russian novel! You can learn more here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/course/towards-advanced/unit-2/session-5

Hi, I'm Tim and this is my
Pronunciation Workshop.

Here, I'm gonna show you
how English is really spoken.

It'll help you become a better
listener and a more fluent speaker.

Come on,
let's go inside.

Today, we're gonna be
talking about war.

War...
what is it good for?

Well,
as it turns out,

it can be used to help illustrate
a feature of fluent speech.

As you can see, we write
'war' with three letters:

w, a, and r,

but when we pronounce it
there are only two sounds:

The 'r' in the spelling is not
pronounced in the word itself,

or if the next word begins
with a consonant sound.

But,
have a listen to this.

We went out and asked people
in the streets of London

to name a famous
Russian book.

This is what they said:

Err, the most famous Russian book
I can think of is War and Peace.

Simple, right?
Everybody knows War and Peace.

I've never heard of
the book War and Peace.

Well,
almost everybody.

But have another listen
to the way they say it.

The word after 'war' begins
with a vowel sound.

And in this case,
the 'r' is pronounced.

War and Peace;
War and Peace.

This is called a 'linking r'
and it helps to make the words

flow together more
smoothly in natural speech.

Here are some
more examples:

So, you've heard the examples
- now it's your turn.

Are you ready to give it a try?
Listen and repeat.

How did you get on?
Great.

Remember, if you want to read more
about this topic please visit our website:

And that's everything from the
Pronunciation Workshop this week.

Now, I'm off to do
some DIY. Bye.

Can somebody call for
an ambulance? Please!