pronunciation.linking-sinalefa

Linking (sinalefa): why natives sound fast

Words merge across boundaries: vowels fuse (va a hacer ≈ 'vaser'), final consonants latch onto the next vowel (los amigos ≈ lo-sa-mi-gos). Decoding this is the listening breakthrough.

pronunciationB2Reviewedv0.1.0

Explanation

Vowel meets vowel → one syllable: mi hijo ≈ 'mijo', ¿cómo está usted? flows as one chain. Identical vowels collapse: de este ≈ 'deste'.

Spanish isn't faster than English; it just never pauses between words. Train by reading phrases aloud as single breath-groups: un-a-mi-go-de-Ma-ría.

The listening breakthrough is realizing Spanish isn't faster than English — it just never pauses between words. Vowels fuse across boundaries (mi hijo ≈ 'mijo', de este ≈ 'deste') and final consonants latch onto the next vowel (los amigos ≈ lo-sa-mi-gos). Train by reading phrases aloud as one breath-group: un-a-mi-go-de-Ma-rí-a.

Examples

Voy a ir a la oficina.
I'm going to go to the office.

Region: global

¿Está en casa? — Está aquí.
Is he home? — He's here.

Region: global

¿Cómo está usted? se dice de corrido: 'cómoestáusted'.
'How are you?' is said all in one run, with no gaps between the words.

Region: global

Related rules