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Hello and welcome back to your English Five a Day on the English Like a Native podcast. This is your daily dunk into the English language. By joining me every day of the working week, you can slowly increase your vocabulary, improve your listening skills, and generally start to feel more confident with the English language. My name is Anna, and today we are starting week ten of our story following Gabriel's journey across Britain. Why are we following Gabriel? Because learning through stories is much more fun and effective. So after exploring the wild beauty of the Scottish Highlands, Gabriel is now heading south and returning to something a little more technical, his pronunciation training. Because learning English isn't just about vocabulary, it's also about how we connect sounds naturally in speech. As always, supporting materials for this season are available at www.joineelan.com forward slash plus. But now let's begin, as we always do, with a snapshot of what's to come. On the train to Bristol, Gabriel practices shadowing, repeating phrases to match natural rhythm and intonation. He focuses on linking sounds between words, notices examples of intrusion in connected speech, reviews tricky diphthongs, and practices sentences where elision makes words sound shorter and more natural. All right, let's go into our vocabulary breakdown. First, let's look at the word shadowing. Shadowing. S-H-A-D-O-W-I-N-G. Shadowing. Shadowing is the act of speaking at the same time as a model, following the intonation, the pace, the stress, and the pronunciation. So basically mimicking what you're hearing but speaking at the same time. For example, he improved his accent by shadowing native speakers. Shadowing is a fantastic technique that I highly recommend to all my students who want to sound natural when speaking with a British version of the English language. Next we have the word linking. Linking L-I-N-K-I-N-G. Linking in pronunciation describes connecting words together so there's a continuous flow of sound and mainly to make it sound natural and smooth. Here's an example sentence. In natural speech we use linking to connect words together. Next we have the word elision. Elysium. We spell this E L I S I O N. Elysium is the omission of a sound where you get rid of a sound in fast or connected speech. For example, in chocolate, a syllable is often lost through elision. And this is true. We don't pronounce chocolate chocolate. We pronounce it chocolate. Chocolate. Chocolate. So just two syllables. Next, you heard the word diphthong. We spell this D-I-P-H T H O N G. Dif with an F sound. That's a tricky one. Diphthong. A diphthong is a vowel sound that moves from one position to another within the same vowel sound. For example, the word go contains a diphthong. O. That sound changes position, moves from uh to oo. All right, last but not least, we have intrusion. Intrusion, we spell this in tr u s io n. In pronunciation training, intrusion refers to adding an extra sound between words to make speech smoother. For example, we often hear an intrusive R in phrases like soar it saw it. Now listen out for those items once again as we head into today's story time. The bus has taken Gabriel from Ullapool to Inverness, and now he's sitting on a train headed for Bristol Temple Meads railway station. He puts his headphones on and opens his laptop, ready to continue his English pronunciation course. He's alone at a table seat so he can do his vocal warm-up without feeling self-conscious. He starts humming softly. A calm English female voice flows into his ears. Let's begin with shadowing. Say this phrase with me three times. The phrase is pick it up. Gabriel mimics the app, copying the rhythm, intonation, and pronunciation. Pick it up.

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Pick it up.

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Pick it up.

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Pick it up. Pick it up.

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Notice the way the final consonants detach from the words and attach themselves to the following vowel sound. P top.

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Pick it up.

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This is an example of linking. This is how we connect the words. Now let's refresh the diphthongs O and Ow. No, too easy, Gabriel thinks to himself, and he skips forward. Good. Now try this one. I saw an apple and I ate it.

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I saw an apple and I ate it.

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He repeats this a couple of times. Did you spot any examples of intrusion? In this sentence we have two. The first is an intrusive R between saw and an saw ran. The second is between I and ate I yate Now say the sentence one more time.

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I saw an apple and I ate it.

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Next we will look at elision.

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Elysian.

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Listen carefully. Christmas Chocolate Different Vegetables. Notice that we don't say the word exactly how it is written. We sometimes omit sounds. Listen and repeat. At Christmas I eat chocolate and different vegetables. Gabriel repeats this sentence several times. He is so deeply immersed in the exercises that he hasn't noticed someone trying to get his attention. It's the ticket inspector.

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It's no Christmas yet, Laddie. Where are you headed?

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Gabriel shows the inspector his mobile, and the inspector scans his ticket.

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Ginger Edinburgh for Bristol. They speak funny down there, so watch out. Thank you.

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That's why I am practising because I'm leaving Bonnie Scotland.

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When Gabriel gets off the train at Bristol Temple Meads, he sees Sophie and walks quietly up behind her.

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He says Excuse me, is that the train to London?

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Sophie turns, starting to say, I don't think so. It's just come from She does a double take. Gabriel, it's you your voice.

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Oh, I've been working on my accent. Intrusion, linking, elision. At Christmas I eat chocolate and different vegetables.

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Oh la la, Gabriel! You speak English like a native. All right, let's pause there and bring today's vocabulary back into focus. I will repeat each item twice, allowing you an opportunity to repeat them after me, and then I'll remind you of the definition. First we had shadowing. Shadowing. Shadowing is a technique in pronunciation training where you speak at the same time as your teacher or model, following their intonation, stress, pronunciation, and pace. Shadowing. Next, repeat after me. Linking. Linking. Linking is the act of connecting words together using certain sounds. Next we have elision. Elizion. Very good. This is the emission of a sound in fast or connected speech. Next, the tricky diphthong. Diphthong. Wonderful. This is a vowel sound that moves position throughout the sound. Like oh. And last but not least, we have intrusion. Intrusion. This is the technique of adding an extra sound between words in order to make speech smoother. Okay, so Gabriel has made real progress with his pronunciation. And Sophie has noticed. And if you would like to make progress with your pronunciation, then I can highly recommend my pronunciation course. I will leave a link to check that out in the show notes. Tomorrow, Gabriel and Sophie travel to one of Britain's most famous landmarks, Stonehenge, where they explore ancient history and learn some new words. That's all from me for today. As always, if you're enjoying the podcast, the best thing you can do to support us is to leave a like, a rating, or review, and share this podcast with your English learning friends. Thank you so much. Take care, and I'll see you again tomorrow.