Suprasegmental features

English native speakers link words to a high degree; their speech frequently sounds more connected than the speech of speakers of other languages. This phenomenon of linking is especially salient in phrases where one word ends in a consonant en the next word starts with a vowel - the phrase will be reanalysed as if the consonant is part of the second word. Think of phrases like:

an egg  ⇨  a/negg
fall in  ⇨  fa/lin
give up  ⇨  gi/vup
an old dog  ⇨  a/nol/dog
not at all  ⇨  no/ta/tall

The phenomenon of linking is explained in video's from BBC Learning English and American Rachel's English.

This video demonstrates the absence of linking in the English of some non-native speakers. The former Dutch World Cup finalist Ruud Krol is interviewed: he pronounces words rather more separately.