English speech is characterised by linking, that means that the sounds within a word and words within a phrase are pronounced together with no pause or interval between them. When we have two or more consonants together we call them a consonant cluster. They can be found at the beginning, in the middle, at the end of words and at a word boundary. When two sounds are pronounced together they can influence each other in different ways. The process when one consonant becomes in some way similar to an adjacent /q'GeIsqnt/ consonant is called assimilation/qsImI'leISn/. If the second consonant is changed under the influence of the first (the preceding) one it is progressive /prqV'gresIv/ assimilation. If the first consonant is changed because of the influence on it by the second (the following) one it is regressive/rI'gresIv/ assimilation.