A radical form of adjustments in connected speech is deletion (also known as elision or omission): the process in which sounds disappear or are not clearly articulated in certain contexts.
The following are the most typical environments for deletion:
1. Loss of [t] or [d] when they occur second in a sequence or cluster of three consonants:
[t] res t less, lis t less, exac t ly
[d] kin d ness, win d mill, han d s
2. Deletion of word-final [t] or [d] in clusters of two at a word boundary when the following word begins with a consonant:
Eas t side
blin d man
wil d boar
3. Loss of initial [h] and [ð] in pronominal forms:
ask h er, help h im, tell th em
Intonation.