(The word liaison is borrowed from
French. It means a link or a connection. In pronunciation, liaisons
are the connection between two words.)
In American English, words are not pronounced one by one. Usually,
the end of one word attaches to the beginning of the next word. This is
also true for initials, numbers, and spelling. Part of the glue that
connects sentences is an underlying hum or drone that only breaks when
you come to a period, and sometimes not even then. You have this
underlying hum in your own language and it helps a great deal toward
making you sound like a native speaker.
Once you have a strong intonation, you need to connect all those
stair steps together so that each sentence sounds like one long word.
The dime.
The dime easier.
They tell me the dime easier.
They tell me the dime easier to understand.
They tell me that I'm easier to understand.
Click to listen
The last two sentences above should be pronounced exactly the
same, no matter how they are written. It is the sound that is
important, not the spelling.
