Second, third, hundredth chances...
I feel like when these two sounds "th" and "ch" meet, it is almost impossible for me to get them smooth.
On top of that, I also found when "sh" and "s" sound are together, my tongue gets tangled, just can't make it sound natural as native speakers.
Is it common to have difficulty to pronounce these combinations? What's the linking technique?
Hundredth is usually pronounced [ˈhʌndrət̪θ]; the d has been assimilated to a [t̪] in anticipation of the following voiceless dental fricative [θ]. [t̪] is a dental stop, meaning the airflow is blocked behind the top teeth and the released.
In hundredth chance, we have three consonants in a row, including one of the most difficult consonants, [θ], and the complex segment [t͡ʃ].
Hundredth chance → hundre[t̪θt͡ʃ]ance
In the song, Taylor Swift pronounces it something like [ˈhʌndɹət̪θt͡ʃænsɪz]. She does pronounce the [t̪], but it's almost imperceptible.
The first thing you need to do is to practise this slowly. If you're still having problems, then you can do the following things in order to cope with this:
Native speakers skip consonants in complex clusters all the time. For example, I've never heard anyone pronounce "king XYZ sixth's throne" as [sɪksθsθɾəʊn]—ideal pronunciation (try it! lol). Most native speakers will reduce it to [sɪksθɾəʊn]. (I can pronounce [sɪksθsθɾəʊn], though.)
