Blending

English has a rather smooth sentence rhythm. Well, when you say blending there is no perceptible break in the flow of tone between words that make up a thought group. The sounds are connected from one word to another within a phrase in the same way that they are connected from one syllable to another in a long word. The words in the sentence "Ben is sick of it." should sound connected together in the same way that the syllables in the word  "mathematical" are connected together.

          In the vernaculars, we tend to pronounce each syllable separately with a more or less even accent. This results in a somewhat staccato rhythm. Compare "I have to go" with "She is an actress." Students very often insert what is known as the glottal attack (very much like the maragsa accent of Tagalog) before words beginning with a vowel. This is considered a voice production fault in English. In order to avoid the glottal attack, we must blend.

          More specifically: within a thought group, words should be connected together, especially words beginning with a vowel. These in particular should be blended to the previous word. In this way, the smooth rhythm of english can be achieved.

Examples:

As a mechanical aid to blending during drill work, the student may consider the last sound of the first word part of the second word. Thus: