0488 – The ‘Word Merge’

2022.05.03 – 0488 – The ‘Word Merge’As we saw much earlier, stringing words together can be good because talking too precisely leads to a clunky script. Another issue is, and again we touched on this before, the ‘glottal stop’ – where the last letter of one word is the same as the next word starts with:·        You never forget your first time·        It’s often a good idea to keep pet insurance·        It’s silky smooth and soft to touch·        It’s a red danger zone·        She’s the Parks Supervisor I’m sure you can think of several more examples, where saying the words ‘properly’ would cause a mini-pause mid-flow and a clunky read. Did you spot where they were in the sentences above? I’ve underlined them for you:·        You never forget your first time·        It’s often a good idea to keep pet insurance·        It’s silk smooth and soft to touch·        It’s a red danger zone ·        She’s the Parks Supervisor If saying those sentences spontaneously, we’d naturally merge the two words together:·        You never forget your firs-time·        It’s often a good idea to kee-pet insurance·        It’s silk smooth and sof-to touch·        It’s a re-danger zone (although you may separate ‘red’ and ‘danger’ to make it clear that it’s not an ‘amber’ zone for example, as the context suggests the information is important)·        She’s the Park-Supervisor (although you may separate ‘Parks’ and Supervisor’ to make it clear that she is the supervisor of several parks – Parks’ Supervisor - rather than one – Park Supervisor.) Remember, remove some letters to keep a smooth flow, to be ‘conversationally clear’, as long as that style fits with the request, the target audience and the brand. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.