Pronunciation
I’m often asked how to learn Spanish fast and easy and how not to sound like a gringo! For me it really helped to learn the vowel and consonant pronunciations. Once I knew how to sound out words I was able to read and could be more clearly understood. This isn’t hard to learn, but I believe it is a critical foundation to your success. For me, practicing the pronunciations out loud was the best way to learn Spanish vowels. I may never not sound like a gringo, but I do try to their pronunciation the best I can.
Vowel Pronunciation
One of the problems I had in pronunciation was putting English rules and sounds into Spanish. A lot of this I attribute to learning Spanish at an older age. For example in English, pronunciation of consonants is usually emphasized over vowels. Most of the time vowels are glided over quickly unless they are in the stressed syllable of a word. Look at the following words where the the “A, E, I, O, U” is unstressed. Dollar, trailer, sailor,crisis, minus. All have a similar sound. Another thing English speakers are accustomed to is that one vowel may have several sounds. Even in one word like “opposition”. This does not happen in Spanish and makes it more logical.
Spanish Vowels Are Much Shorter
In general, all vowels are shorter in Spanish than in English and must always be pronounced clearly, with a pure, undiluted quality. Individual vowels are nearly always pronounced exactly the same, regardless of their position in a word.
[a] is not drawn out, like when a doctor asks you to stick out your tongue: “Aaaaaaaaa.” It is short, like when you tell someone, “Careful, don’t touch that hOt dish. “
[e] is not long, like when you see a good friend after a long time: “Heeeeeeeeey! How are you?” 7/is short, as in, “Dang! I forgot todAy is the test. “
[i] is not lengthened, like in the phrase, “Dude, this car is sweeeeeeet.” It is short, like in the phrase, “Let’s get something to EAt soon!”
[o] is not extended, like the sound actors make they are in slow motion, diving in front of the bullet that is aimed for the president: “Noooooooooooooooo!” It is short, like when someone asks if you have started your homework yet, and you say, “NOpe, not yet!”
[u] is not drawn out, like the sound cows make: “Moooooooo.” // is short, like “Oh no! What are we going to dO about this? “
Spanish Vowel Sounds English Example Spanish Example /a/ = “ah” father, saw papa, agua /e/ = “eh” met, bed esperanza, bebe /i/ = “ee” bee, leaf sí, chica /o/ = “oh” low, know loco, bonito /u/ = “oo” sue, do grupo, futuro Listen to the sounds of the Spanish vowels I found it helpful to say these out- loud after you hear them. You may feel silly, but it helps. Your goal is to sound as much like a native-speaker as you can. Practice, practice, practice. Vowels Letters Examples a hay, antes e este i y, Isabel o hola, oro u uso, humo
The Spanish Alphabet The Spanish and English alphabets are almost identical, with just a few exceptions. The Spanish alphabet includes all of the letters in the English alphabet but it adds ñ(eh-nyeh), and sometimes the double letters ch(cheh),ll(ye), and rr (a trilled r)are treated as one letter. Remember to work on your pronunciation, but don’t worry if you mess up. Your effort will be appreciated and the more you use it the better you will get. The names of the letters in Spanish are pronounced one way, while they have their own sounds within a word (the sounds within a word are generally the same sounds as in English). Here is the Spanish alphabet and how to say the individual letters: Here is a little song that may help you learn the alphabet in Spanish. Music helps me to remember. Youtube has plenty of thesetypes of videos. A Few Helpful Hints B & V – I found when listening to native speakers B & V are pronounced the same (at least to my gringo ear). At the beginning of a word they are pronounced like the “b” in box. Z – The pronunciation of “Z” varies from country to country. In most Latin American places where I am more familiar with, it is pronounced the same as the “s” in English. The ch sound is pronounced just as it is pronounced in English, like Charles. The ll sound is often pronounced like a y, as in yo-yo. (this sound is pronounced differently around the spanish speaking world ) The ñ sound is pronounced like an n followed by a yay. The rr sound is pronounced by trilling the r sound. Think of a purring cat! Once you get the sounds down you will be able to read almost anything in Spanish. . You may notunderstand it yet, but you will be able to look at a word and read it. The understanding will come! Basic Spanish Phrases Once you learn your pronunciation you can practice some of these common Spanish phrases. ENGLISH SPANISH PRONUNCIATION Good morning. Buenos días. booEHN-os DEE-as Good afternoon. Buenas tardes. booEHN-as TAR-dehs Good evening. (greeting) Buenas noches. booEHN-as NO-chehs Hello, my name is John. Hola, me llamo Juan. OH-la meh YA-mo Wahn What is your name? ¿Cómo se llama usted? KOH-moh seh YA-mah oos-TEHD How are you? ¿Cómo está usted? KOH-moh ehs-TA oos-TEHD I am fine. Estoy bien. ehs-TOY bee-EHN Nice to meet you. Mucho gusto. MOO-choh GOOS-toh Goodbye. Adiós. ah-dee-OHS See you later. Hasta luego. AHS-ta looEH-go I am lost. Where is the restroom? Estoy perdido. ¿Dónde está el baño? ehs-TOYpehr-DEE-doh. DOHN-deh ehs-TA el BAH-neeo Excuse me. Con permiso. OR Perdóname kohn pehr-MEE-soh OR pehr-DOH-nah-meh Please. Por favor. pohr fah-VOR Thank you. Gracías. gra-SEE-ahs I’m sorry. Lo siento. low see-EHN-to Bless you. Salud. sah-LOOD You are welcome (it was nothing). De nada. deh NA-da How much does it cost? ¿Cuánto cuesta? kooAN-to KWEHS-ta How many are there? ¿Cuántos hay? kooAN-tohs eye There are many. Hay muchos. eye MOO-chohs Do you want to buy this? ¿Quiere comprarlo usted? kee-EHR-eh kohm-PRAR-loh oos-TEHD What time is it? ¿Qué hora es? keh OR-ah ehs How do you say maybe in Spanish? ¿Cómo se dice maybe en Español? KOH-mo seh DEE-seh maybe ehn ehs-pahn-YOL Yes. Sí. see No. No. no I do not understand. Yo no comprendo. yoh no kom-PREN-doh Would you speak slower, please. Por favor, habla mas despacio. pohr fah-VOR, AH-blah mahs dehs-PAHS-ee-oh Who? ¿Quièn? kee-EHN Why? ¿Por què? pohr keh