The other difficulty

When you listen to a native Spanish speaker, words often sound as if they're "running together." That is because they are running together. We English speakers tend to separate words in a sentence by using pauses a little more than Spaniards do.

As I understand it; Spaniards "link" words in a sentence based on the following rules:

• If one word in a sentence ends in a vowel and the next word begins with a vowel, linkage occurs in Spanish. For example, there is linkage between the following two words and they are pronounced as if they are one: La alfombra (the two a's blend together to sound like one: "lalfombra").
• If one word in a sentence ends in a consonant and the next word begins with a vowel, linkage occurs in Spanish. For instance, there is linkage between the following two words and they are pronounced as if they are one: Hablas español (the s and the e blend together).
• If one word in a sentence ends in a consonant and the next word begins with the SAME consonant, linkage occurs in Spanish. For example, there is linkage between the following two words: El lago (the two l's blend together to sound like one: "elago").

This form of linkage only occurs between words in a sentence though and never between sentences.

We find it hard to run words together like Spaniards do. More to the point, when we are listening to Spaniards speaking, we find it difficult to separate the words we hear back out. Linked words tend to sound like something we haven't come across - a completely new word which can't be found in the dictionary.