Hard-to-recognize word in listening

Question

Hi,The following sentence is a sentence that I've heard in a listening comprehension. I listened severals times, but still couldn't hear the word "what" because the speaker spoke fast. I can feel that there was a very short pause (I could hardly feel it if not listened carefully)between the word "know" and "Tim", seems like the two words "know" and "Tim" are connected together. But in fact, they are not..**Y’know what Tim asked me when I came out of the conference room this morning?I would like to ask, what was the word "what" reduced to in the above sentence of the listening comprehension? Or could you please give me some advise on how to understand and recognize the so called "missing" word or the hard-to-recognize word in listening to a ESL learner.Thank you very much for your help!TY

Dave_anon · Accepted Answer

Hi

My guess is that it's because "know" ends with the "w" sound and "Tim" begins with the "t" sound. So in English speech, with "what" in the middle, the three words are run together..

- Y'know /ah/ Tim asked me..

I'm not sure how that works in other languages but, in English, people do run their consonants together in that way

Regards, Dave

Mister Micawber · Answer

Reduction (sounds reduced in form or omitted) and liaison (the joining together of words) in sentence flow happens almost constantly in natural conversation and it often makes words difficult for learners to distinguish.

In this case, 'what' is reduced to only a brief [hw?] flowing directly from the ending vowel sound of 'know'. The [t] is completely absorbed into the [t] of 'Tim'.

Little_Day · Answer

well i think i can not help u

because my listening skill still not advance, or maybe never lol

but I think just keep on practising listening as much as possible, maybe u cannot hear the whole conversations of native speakers but u know what they mean, that's ok to me. it's just my opinion

Yanx · Answer

Mister MicawberReduction (sounds reduced in form or omitted) and liaison (the joining together of words) in sentence flow happens almost constantly in natural conversation and it often makes words difficult for learners to distinguish. In this case, 'what' is reduced to only a brief [hw?] flowing directly from the ending vowel sound of 'know'. The [t] is completely absorbed into the [t] of 'Tim'.

Thanks man, I listened again and it was exactly the same as what you described above. ^_^

Hard-to-recognize word in listening

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