The best way to acquire a native speaker’s accent singing along with pop songs. When you sing, you go into repetition that serves as a fun drill until such time it’s easy for you to go along with the connected speech. Let’s take a look at how a connected speech works. This is a no-brainer in mimicking native speakers.

Types of blending / Connected Speech
1. Catenation

Pronunciation practice can be fun through pop songs. If you want to sound like a native, why not try ‘blending’ or connected speech? Check out an excerpt of Dua Lipa’s song: “Don’t Start Now”Merge your speech by linking the final consonant sound and the initial vowel sound of the next word, and it’s called catenation.
Time StampConnected WordsIPA/ Pronunciation guide
0:09-0:10Did a full/dɪdəfʊl/
0:10-0:11One Eighty/wʌnˈeɪ.t̬i/
0:15-0:16I was/aɪ wəz/
0:21-0:22look at/lʊkæt/
0:23where I/weraɪ/
0:24ended up/ended ʌp/
0:25I’m all/aɪ əm/
0:26good already/ɡʊd ɑːlˈred.i/
0:27moved on/muːvdɑːn/

Video Source: Unique Vibes (Dua Lipa- Don’t Start Now (lyrics), Music: Dua Lipa – Don’t Start NowUMG, WMG (on behalf of Urban); LatinAutorPerf, Polaris Hub AB, AMRA, LatinAutor, ASCAP, IMPEL, MINT_BMG, PEDL, Warner Chappell, UMPI, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, LatinAutor – UMPG, CMRRA, BMG Rights Management (US), LLC, LatinAutor – PeerMusic, LatinAutor – Warner Chappell, UMPG Publishing, ARESA, Abramus Digital, Kobalt Music Publishing, and 14 Music Rights Societies
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2. Elision

The basic principle of removing excess sounds to keep the connected speech flowing is called Elision.

Time StampConnected WordsIPA/ Pronunciation guide
and oneənwʌn (disappearing sound,d)
and i’ve lostənaɪvlɔst (disappearing sound,d)
what i seeðaɪsi (soft d, also known as soft r sound)
what I gotðaɪ gɑt (soft d, also known as soft r sound)
cause herkɔz’ər (disappearing sound,h)
and im ənæn’ɪm (disappearing sound,d)
what I’veðaɪv (soft d, also known as soft r sound)
Time Stamp Connected WordsIPA/ Pronunciation guide
but that’s bʌ’ðæts
with thatwɪ’ðæt

3. Intrusion

Fluent speakers normally insert a subtle consonant sound between words that have final and initial vowel sounds. *When a word ends with any of these vowel sounds /aɪ/, /iː/, or /ɛ/, and the next word begins with a vowel sound, they often insert a /j or the y sound/ (see example A).

*When a word ends with any of these vowel sounds  /oʊ/ or /uː/, and the next word begins with a vowel sound, they often insert a /w/ (see example B)

Time StampConnected WordsIPA/ Pronunciation guide
I ain’t /aɪjaint /
so amazing /soʊwəˈmeɪzɪŋ/

Video source: SyrebralVibes

Music: thank you next lyrics (Ariana Grande)
Kobalt Music Publishing, CMRRA, MINT_BMG, LatinAutor – PeerMusic, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, ARESA, ASCAP, UMPI, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., LatinAutorPerf, LatinAutor – UMPG, LatinAutor – Warner Chappell, Abramus Digital, UMPG Publishing, Warner Chappell, PEDL, AMRA, BMG Rights Management (US), LLC, LatinAutor, and 12 Music Rights Societies

4. Assimilation

The combination of preceding consonant sounds results in a slight change of the combined words.

t + y = ch
d + y = ‘hard’ j

/s/ + /y/ = /ʃ/

Time StampConnected WordsIPA/ Pronunciation guide
I told you/aɪ toʊldʒu/
I need you/aɪ nidʒu/
as you/æʃu/
I miss your/mɪʃʊər/
‘Cause you neverkəʃənˈɛvər

Video lyrics :7clouds

Song:STAY ArtistThe Kid LAROI, Justin Bieber
Licensed to YouTube by
SME (on behalf of Columbia); AMRA, UMPG Publishing, BMI – Broadcast Music Inc., ASCAP, SOLAR Music Rights Management, CMRRA, Create Music Publishing, Warner Chappell, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, Kobalt Music Publishing, LatinAutor – SonyATV, UMPI, LatinAutor, NirvanaDigitalPublishing, Sony ATV Publishing, PEDL, Pulse Recording (music publishing), LatinAutorPerf, and 11 Music Rights Societies

We hope you have enjoyed practicing pronunciation through the connected speech. Every now and then, find ways on making your English learning fun. Pop songs could increase your language practice.

Source :https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/pop-songs-connected-speech-fluent-english