‹ Regresar

Pronunciation is one of the challenges Spanish language learners face. Some phonetic sounds may not even exist in other languages, such as "ñ", perhaps the sound does exist but is spelled differently. In this lesson, we are only going to deal with the most difficult sounds. If for you, the pronunciation is not a problem, good for you.

Without further ado, we will enter into the matter.

 

    How to Pronounce Vowels.

• A/a > It is pronounced like in the word "father."
• E/e > like in the English word “met”.
• I/i > It has a sound similar to the English phonetic sound “ee”, like in the word “see”.
• O/o > it is pronounced like in the English word both.
• U/u > it is pronounced like the sound of "oo" in English, like in the English word “book”.

 

Some difficult consonants to pronounce.

C/c + a, o and u It is pronounced like “k”.

E.g. > casa, cosa, cuna.

 

C/c + e and i > It is pronounced like “s” in Latin America and like “z” in Spain.

E.g. > cena, cine.

 

T/t > the sound of the Spanish "t" is produced by sticking the tongue to the upper front teeth, making a little pressure with the lower front teeth.

E.g. > tomate, taza.

 

G/g > This consonant has two sounds.

>1st. with the vowels “a”, “o” and “u” comes from the closed throat, like in the English words; guy, go, good.

E.g. > gato, gota, gusto.

 

For "g" with the vowels "e" and "i" with this sound, you need to put one "u" in the middle (gue / gui). E.g. > guerrero, guitarra. Do not pronounce the "u", unless it has a colon on the "u" (ü) like in the words pingüino, desagüe; in this case pronounce the vowels separately.

 

>2nd. with the vowels “e” and “i”, the sound is like the “h” in English. like in the english words “he” and “hell”.

E.g. > gente, gitano.

 

H/h > It has no sound in Spanish, only the vowel that follows is pronounced.

E.g. > harto, helado, hielo, etc. (Say it without the "h")

 

J/j > It is pronounced exactly like the English "h". 

E.g. > caja, masaje, jirafa, etc. 

 

LL/ll > It is pronounced like "y".

E.g. > llama, llorar, etc.

 

Ch/ch > Pronounced like in the English word "choice".

E.g. > muchacho, chico, etc.

 

Ñ/ñ > It is pronounced like the English sound "ny", like in the English word canyon.

E.g. > niño, baño, mañana, etc.

 

X/x > it sounds like the english sound "gs", like in the English word "example".

E.g. > examen, éxito, extinto, etc.

 

R/r, rr > to pronounce the "r", touch the tongue to the roof of your mouth, just once and very briefly. The sound is similar to "tt" in English; it must sound like in the english word "gutter".  E.g. > mora, mirar, pero, etc.

 

To pronounce the "rr", do the same process as above, but let your tongue  trill a little more.

E.g. > morra, mirra, perro, et,c.

 

**In Spanish, no word begins with "rr", but is pronounced as such.

E.g. > rata, rojo, radio, ruta, etc.