Here it is . . .

I am emailing you to tell you about an interesting experience I had while in Colombia while at a “centro comercial” (shopping mall) overhearing a conversation between a native Spanish speaker and a gringa who spoke Spanish fluently.

I didn’t want the two of them to notice that I was listening to their conversation but I couldn’t help admire how well the American woman pronounced her Spanish words as she clearly pronounced each and every word that she spoke.

But as I paid closer attention, I noticed that the native Spanish speaker did something the American woman did not do.

Let me explain by example.

The American woman said: “La abuela hace esas cosas.” The grandmother makes those things.

And when she said that sentence it actually sounded like she said “La abuela hace esas cosas.

”

But when the native Spanish speaker said “La abuela hace esas cosas,” it sounded more like:

Labuelacesas cosas.

Let me correct that. It didn’t just sound as if the native Spanish speaker had said “labuelacesas cosas” the native Spanish speaker had, in fact, said “labuelacesas cosas.”

I wasn’t hearing things. Or to be more precise, I was NOT NOT hearing things.

The Spanish speaker spoke very quickly and had taken 4 of the 5 words and ran them together to create one separate word — for a total of two words:

Labuelacesas cosas.

But when the American woman spoke, she said five distinct words:

La abuela hace esas cosas.

I have a friend in Barranquilla, Colombia that teaches both Spanish and English at the university. He has a background in linguistics, especially phonetics. And he explained to me that there is actually a name for what I heard the Spanish speaker do.

It is called “word linking.” Word linking occurs when a speaker takes two or more words and connects them or runs them together.

Word linking can occur in several different ways in Spanish. But one of the most frequent occurrences of word linking takes place when the last letter of a word is the same as the first letter of the following word. When this happens, the two words are pronounced as a single word.

So “la abuela” becomes “labuela” and “hace esas” becomes “hacesas.”

And “labuela” and “hacesas” becomes “labuelacesas.”

If you can master Word Linking, you will sound more like a native Spanish speaker. And if you can master word linking, you will also be able to understand native Spanish speakers better. And when they speak naturally, it will not sound like rapid fire from a “metralleta” (machine gun) to you.

This is one of the main reasons why I have always insisted that Learning Spanish Like Crazy only uses native Spanish speakers and native Spanish instructors.

I want to be not only sure that you learn how to speak real Latin American Spanish, I want to be sure that you understand it when you hear it spoken naturally.

From listening to native Spanish speakers, I have picked up a few habits to make my pronunciation mimic theirs.

When I say “Nací en Nueva York” (I was born in New York), I actually say “Nacíenueva York” or “Nacíen-ueva York”

And if I were to say “blusa nueva” (new blouse), I would say “blusanueva” or “blusan-ueva”