"Usted empezó a hablar."

January 20, 2014 Yes - but that is actually true of your native language as well. You only really hear some of the words of a sentence, and fill in the rest because you know the language. One of the reasons understanding a new language is so hard is because you don't know all those little words that are part of the grammar and are listening for EVERYTHING. And I missed this again the second time, because I don't have it deep in my head yet.

Normally similar vowel sounds at the beginning and ending of words link together as one sound. An interesting example can be heard at
http://studyspanish.com/pronunciation/linking1.htm
where "Busca a Antonio" gets pronounced BUS-CAN-TO-nio. But if you listen to the Peruvian speaker, he stretches out the a in CAN.

But with a hablar, we have two stressed a's together, and stressed syllables normally get separated. One example
http://www.forvo.com/search/a%20hablar/
has the stressed a being enlongated and stress also being applied to the second syllable of hablar, although that may be simply because it was the last syllable of the "sentence".

I just played the normal speed 5x and still don't think it actually is there. Only on slow speed is it there.

is some expressions, some verbs require a specific preposition. "empezar a" + infinitive, to begin to do, is such an expression. Just gotta have the "a" I some cases you'd think you need the "a" but you don't, as "mirar" which means "to look at"

No not quite because "to say" would be "decir".

The VoiceOver can be a bit glitchy, it's not always a very reliable program to listen to. It pronounces "hablar" as "haUblar", it's weird... The word "empezó" should be pronounced like ehmp-pay-ssO. The there shouldn't be a "t" sound anywhere in that word.