Connected Speech in English – Adding a ‘y’ Sound
(/j/ sound in the phonetic alphabet)
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For example, if you try to say the words ‘we organise’ together, you will find that you naturally want to make a small pause between the words.
In order to avoid stopping, and to keep the speech flowing, we add in sounds between words that end in a vowel sound and the next word which begins with a vowel sound. When a word ends with an ‘ee’ sound, we use a ‘y’ sound to link it to the next word:[/text_block]
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Word ending in an ‘ee’ sound
(there are many spellings for this sound)
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…y…
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[op_liveeditor_element data-style=””][text_block style=”style_1.png” align=”left”]Word beginning with an /a/ /e/ /i/ /o/ or /u/ sound[/text_block][/op_liveeditor_element]
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E.g.
‘see [..y..] it’
‘see [..y..] us’
There are many words in English which end with an ‘ee’ sound. There are many different spellings for this sound, as we will see in the examples below: [/text_block]
To show this in action, here are English words which end in an ‘ee’ sound, where we use the ‘y’ sound to link the words together:
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I
he
she
we
be
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…y…
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a – (e.g. am, are, always)
e – (e.g. enjoy, explained)
i – (is, introduced)
o – (organise, open)
u – (understand)
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“I [..y..] always run a stand-up meeting every Monday morning”
“He [..y..] is the head of the HR department”
“She [..y..] organises company events”
“We [..y..] are going to launch the product at the beninning of the year”
“We need to be [..y..] open to new innovative ideas”
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When the word ‘the’ is followed by a vowel sound, the pronunciation of ‘the’ changes to ‘thee’, and a ‘y’ sound is added to link the words together..
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the
(‘the’ is always pronounced ‘thee’ before a vowel sound in the next word)
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…y…
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a – (e.g. apple, advantage)
e – (e.g. event, employee)
i – (e.g. international)
o – (e.g. organiser, open)
u – (e.g. understanding)
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“The organisers have done a great job” = “Thee [..y..] organisers have done a great job”
“We hope that the event will be a success” = “We hope that thee [..y..] event will be [..y..] a success”
“We discussed the advantages of the project” = “We discussed thee [..y..] advantages of the project”
“The international trade fair takes place every year” = “Thee [..y..] international trade fair takes place every year”
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As you can probably imagine, there are many words ending in an ‘ee’ sound which also end in an ‘ee’ spelling. Here are the most useful ones for business:
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see / oversee
free
agree
coffee
employee / trainee
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…y…
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a – (e.g. and, all, access)
e – (e.g. each, every)
i – (international, into)
o – (on, obtains)
u – (under, understand)
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“I oversee [..y..] international projects”
“We [..y..] are offering 1-week’s free [..y..] access to our member’s section of the site”
“We disagree [..y..] on many topics”
“I went for coffee [..y..] at the new cafe near the office”
“The new employee [..y..] is very talented”
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Words which end with an ‘ly’ spelling end with an ‘ee’ sound. Here are the most common ones for business:
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actually / really / early / only / recently / hardly ever / surely / quickly / easily / costly / simply / slightly / daily / weekly / monthly / yearly / firstly / thoroughly / generally / directly / especially / originally
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…y…
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a – (e.g. at, and, accepts)
e – (e.g. enforces)
i – (is, in, introduced)
o – (on, opened)
u – (undertaken, under)
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“I hardly [..y..] ever have meetings on a Friday”
“I [..y..] actually [..y..] expected that it would be very difficult”
“I have already [..y..] explained it once”
“I think this has the potential to become a monthly [..y..] event”
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Words which end with a ‘-cy’, ‘-dy’, ‘-ty’ and ‘-gy’ spelling, also end with an ‘ee’ sound:
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already / somebody / nobody / anybody / policy / agency / currency / quality / society / loyalty / security / university / city / majority / minority / community / economy / strategy / methodology
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…y…
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a – (e.g. advised, analysed)
e – (e.g. expected, event)
i – (implemented, implied)
o – (opened, organised)
u – (understood)
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“The security [..y..] of the system is a big problem in our company at the moment”
“I have already [..y..] achieved a lot in my career”
“This new strategy [..y..] opens up opportunities for ourselves and our partners”
“The policy [..y..] implemented by the government has not been popular with the general public”
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