15 【发音进阶】Assimilation of d to g

Tim
Hi. I'm Tim and this is my Pronunciation workshop. Here I'm going to show you how English is really spoken. Are you ready? Come on, let's go inside. In English, we have an expression – man’s best friend. Do you know what that refers to? No, not beer. Dogs. A dog is man’s best friend. But not always. What would you say to a dog who did this?

Voxpops
Bad girl!
She's a bad girl!
The dog has been a bad girl!

Tim
Now, the word bad ends in /g/ doesn’t it? Or does it? Watch and listen again. Can you hear the /d/?

Voxpops
Bad girl!
She's a bad girl!
The dog has been a bad girl!

Tim
In fluent speech, a /d/ changes to a /g/ when it comes before a /g/ or a /k/. So 'bad girl' becomes 'bagirl'. This is an example of what is called assimilation. Here are some more.

Examples
He’s a really good cook.
Last night we had guests for dinner.
Can you print out the hard copy?
I’d love to walk down the red carpet one day.

Tim
Right, so you’ve heard some examples, now it’s your turn. You know the drill: Listen and repeat.
He’s a really good cook.

Examples
He’s a really good cook.
Last night we had guests for dinner.
Can you print out the hard copy?
I’d love to walk down the red carpet one day.

Tim
Well done. Now remember, if you want to learn more about pronunciation, then please visit our website, bbclearningenglish dot com. And that is about it from the workshop for now. I'll see you soon. Bye! Now, you know what, I’m not really that keen on dogs, I’m more of a cat person. Oh no, no, no that was just a joke - good girl, good girl, aaah! Oh, very funny. You're actually quite cute. Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl? Argh! Bad girl!