From the FluentListener newsletter
Direct Link for members : (La Fleuriste – download recordings and transcript/translation here)
Hello All,
Some people hear a ‘skuh’ sound and write it off as noise, but fluent listeners hear ‘parce que.’
After today, you’ll recognize parce que instead of just hearing noise.
Play this sound 8 times and learn to recognize parce que in a spoken sentence.
I hope you enjoy it!
Advanced listening tips:
Today’s sample illustrates what we mean by the ‘minimum recognizable sound.’ A native speaker speaking to a native listener is not going to burden themselves with pronouncing everything. Instead, they’ll pronounce the minimum amount of sounds necessary to convey the meaning clearly.
And decoding those sounds comes easily: try repeated exposure to 2 or 3 recordings over the course of a month.
This may be hard for you to swallow? D’yawannaglassawader?
If you worry that they are dropping sounds just to annoy you, here is something to re-assure you. Did you notice the P in puisque? It’s quick, but it is there. And the reason is to avoid confusion with a rapidly-spoken parce que. It’s proof that the native speaker goes to the minimum recognizable sound but knows what to maintain in order to avoid confusion.
Best regards,
David Tolman
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