Listening and Pronunciation - How to hear and pronunce two stop consonants being linked?

Question

Hello. When there's a pair of words that ends with stop consonants (D,T,G...), I can kinda hear the difference, but there are times I can't at all, and I'm afraid I may not understand the sentence

For instance:

She turne*d* *d*own the volume

I'm afraid I might hear this instead

She turn down the volume
(I know this is ungrammatical, but that's how I'd hear)

The most difficult sound for me to hear is when there are the phrases like "I'd die for you" "Big guys" , because I can't hear the linked sound at all. And again, I may hear instead "I die for you" "Big eyes"

How can I train my ear for this? And how to know I'm saying it right?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

We have trouble with such things, too. I do not know linguistics at all, but I would say that there is something you could call a lingual stop in your two examples. The vocalization falls dead for an instant between the two ds or gs, as though the tongue waits to make the second consonant without ever having said the first one.

CalifJim · Answer

It would help if you spoke Italian! That language has tons of doubled consonants that are pronounced differently from the corresponding single consonants.

Basically, there's a stop in the air flow between the two identical consonants. You're not really saying the consonant twice. You're saying it once with a little "hitch" in the middle.

You say only the onset of the sound to represent the first occurrence of the two, cutting it off before the whole consonant sounds. Well, more precisely, you almost don't say the first part at all because you stop it so soon. There's only a hint of a sound as you position your mouth to say it. Here's where the gap in sound occurs — a tiny stoppage of the sound — the "hitch". Then you continue the motion through with the full sound to represent the second occurrence of the consonant. It's the second part that gets hit harder. Do not back up and start the consonant sound a second time! That will mess it up badly and make it sound wrong.

turn[d^vD]own (^v shows where the gap in sound occurs.)
I'[d^vD]ie / bi[g^vG]uys
(I'm using brackets to show this is just one process.)

("big eyes" has no gap in sound and the 'g' just flows by without a hitch.)

You might want to practice this slowly, making the sound gap fairly long. Then repeat again and again, gradually shortening the gap until it's minimal.

What you listen for is the "hitch", the absence of sound for a split second between the onset (stopped) and the continuation (hit full on). You probably won't hear it very easily until you can produce it yourself first.

Also, be aware that native speakers know all the words and expressions of the language and how they're used, so even if they don't hear what is said, they can always fill in the blanks because they know quite well what was intended. As a non-native you're at a disadvantage in that respect. You'll think in some situations that the native speaker hasn't said it right, but another native speaker will have heard it and thought it was just fine.

Good luck!

CJ

Krol · Answer

Listening to native speakers is a good way to improve your pronunciation https://quizword.net/de-en/sentences/

Listening and Pronunciation - How to hear and pronunce two stop consonants being linked?

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