Lesson 1: Pronounciation

The Spanish language uses many of the same letters as the English language. However, some of these letters are pronounced differently. Let's take a look at how the vowels are pronounced.

O is pronounced like the O in Over

yo (I), solo (alone), dos (two), foto (photo)

A is pronounced like the A in All but with your checks stretched back like if you were smiling

cama (bed), vaca (cow), taza (cup), mancha (stain)

E is pronounced like the E in Empty

extremo (extreme), entrar (to enter), elefante (elephant), tres (three)

I is pronounced like the ee in See

insecto (insect), intenso (intense), idéntico (identical), imitar (to imitate)

U is pronounced like the oo in Pool

nube (cloud), azul (blue), uva (grape), uno (one)

Similar to the U in English, the U in Spanish sometimes makes the W sound when it comes before a vowel.

cuestión (question), fuerte (strong), agua (water), fuimos (we went)

Consonents

J makes an H sound

jabón (soap), jugo (juice), jardín (garden), pájaro (Bird)

G SOMETIMES makes an H sound

gente (people), genial (great), genio (genius), girasol (sunflower)

Ironically, H does NOT make an H sound and is almost always silent

hola (hello), hombre (man), hacer (to do), hambre (hunger)

When there are two Ls together, it makes a Y sound

ella (she), amarillo (yellow), llevar (to take), lluvia (rain)

When there are two Rs together, it makes a rolling tongue sound

arroz (rice), carretera (highway), arrancar (to grab), perro (dog)

The letter ñ makes a sound smimilar to the "ny" in "canyon".

español (spanish), niño (child), año (year), mañana (tomorrow)

Let's take a look at words that are spelled the same in both english and spanish but are pronounced differently:

Accents

We’ll be talking about accents, acute accents to be specific. A stressed syllable is a syllable that is pronounced with more strength or time than the other syllables in the word. For example, in “the record”, the stressed syllable in "record" is “re”. While in “to record”, the stressed syllable is “cord”. The stressed syllable is highlighted in orange below.

record (re is the stressed syllable)

record (cord is the stressed syllable)

All Spanish words with two or more syllables have a stressed syllable. For example, "pa" is the stressed syllable in "papa"(potato), while "pá" is the stressed syllable in "papá"(dad).

Sometimes, words in Spanish have a vowel with an acute accent mark above it, which looks like this: á, é, í, ó, ú. These are known as accented vowels. When a word has an accented vowel, the stressed syllable is the syllable that contains the accented vowel.

Here are some more examples:

But many Spanish words don't have a vowel with an accent mark. How do you figure out which syllable is the stressed syllable when there's no accent mark? It's quite simple. If the word ends with the letter n, s, or a vowel, the stressed syllable is the second-to-last syllable.

If the word does NOT end with the letter n, s, or a vowel, the stressed syllable is the last syllable.

Many Spanish words with two or more syllables don't have an accent mark indicating the stressed syllable. This is because the accent mark is usually omitted when the last letter of the word is n, s, or a vowel and the stressed syllable is the second-to-last syllable, OR when the last letter of the word is NOT n, s, or a vowel and the stressed syllable is the last syllable. This makes writing in Spanish easier since it reduces the amount of accent marks that need to be written.

i vs í

If the letter i comes before another vowel and is not accented, it makes a Y sound.

apio (celery), radio (radio), tierra (earth), ciudad (city)

If the i comes before another vowel but is accented, it does not make a Y sound.

día (day), río (river), tía (aunt), frío (cold)

Monosyllabic words with accents

Monosyllabic words sometimes have accents to distinguish them from words that look similar. For example, "tu" means "your", but "tú" means "you". Here are some more examples:

si (if), sí (yes)

el (the), él (he)