Contents of this weekly column are (mostly) based on the sefer: EIM LAMIKRA HASHALEIM, by R' Nissan Sharoni, Ashdod, a guide to correct pronunciation of Hebrew, specifically in davening and Torah reading.
Let’s rename this column, just for this week: Towards better bracha saying. In some way, brachot are very short prayers. Very special prayers. One might think that because they are so short, that we would say them carefully and well. They aren’t long enough for our minds to wander. Yet, probably because we are so familiar with their words, many of us tend to say them too quickly and mechanically. With a little effort, we can greatly enhance the brachot we say many times, every day.

Let’s work on the opening six words of most brachot. All BIRKOT HANEHENIN and BIRKOT HAMITZVA begin with these six words.

ba-RUCH a-TA - the first two words are both MILRA, accented on their last syllables. Some people - possibly with a Yiddish and/or Chassidic background - say BA-ruch A-ta. The accent is supposed to be on the second syllable whether you say baw-RUCH or ba-RUCH. a-TAW or a-TA.
Easy so far. But there’s another pitfall with these first two words. Listen to yourself - or better, listen to someone else make a bracha. Many, many people run the two words together so they come out sounding ba-RU and cha-TA. All it needs is a brief - very brief - pause between ba-RUCH and a-TA. Try it. Practice it. It’s really worthwhile. You can feel the difference between sloppy and neat. Between careless and careful.

Next come the two names of G-d. a-do-NAI or -NOI, but in either case, the word is also MILRA. The ALEF is voweled with a CHATAF-PATACH, which means it is a very short “a” sound. Not long, and certainly not accented. The ALEF with its CHATAF-PATACH belongs to the DO syllable. In other words, we don’t say A and then DO and then NOI, but rather “ado” and then NOI. e-lo-HEI- nu. This name is pronounced MIL’EIL, accent on the next to the last syllable, HEI. And, again, the ALEF has a CHATAF-SEGOL, that’s a shortened vowel sound with the “e” belonging to the “lo”. elo- HEI-nu.

With these two words, we also must be careful to separate them with a very brief pause, lest the second one come out as yellow-heinu. If that strikes you as funny, listen to someone rush through a bracha. the NOI or NAI of G-d’s name blends with the elo- of the next name and comes out yelo.

These two brief pauses, between ba-RUCH and a-TA and between HaShem and Elokeinu are important for us to be mindful of, so that our brachot get off to a good start.

And, there is a similar situation with the next two words. ME-lech (MIL’EIL, not me-LECH - most people pronounce this one correctly) ha-o-LAM. If you don’t pause (briefly) between the two words, they can sound like ME-le and cha-o-LAM.

After ha-o-LAM there is a natural pause, which means that the MEM sound at the end of ha-o-LAM will not run into the beginning of the next word.
In general, whenever there are two words in a phrase, and the first one ends in a consonant sound and the second word begins with a vowel sound, it is proper to pause between them to prevent the consonant of the first from merging with the vowel of the second. KRI’AT SH’MA has several of these phrases, and Shulchan Aruch makes a point of them, especially when the “new” words have a different - and uncomfortable - meaning. UR-I-TEM OTO, and you shalll see it, often comes out as ...MOTO, his death. Not only wrong, but unpleasant as well. ASHER ANOCHI which sounds like RANOCHI is less offensive, because RANOCHI doesn’t mean anything, but it’s still a sloppy way to recite prayers, especially the SH’MA. <mtc>

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