Reglas básicas de pronunciación (I)

General rules of pronunciation (I)

R. PoncelaInternational House Newcastle

@spanish_newcast

There are five vowels in the Spanish alphabet, the same as in English: a, e, i, o and u. However, we have only one possible pronunciation each.

A, E, I, O, U

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (I)

To remember their sound, try this:

part, pet, pit, port, put Or also:

bath, bet, bit, bought, boot

Note: in Spanish there is no distinction between short and long vowels as there is in English (e.g., as in “bit”/”beat”).

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (I)

The letter C:

Sounds like the Spanish z /Ɵ/ when it comes before e or i:

Cero / Cien

Sounds like c /k/ when it comes before or after a, o, u

Casa, Copa, Cuento, Calle, Simpático

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (I)

The letter g:

Sounds like the Spanish j /x/ when it comes before e, I

Genio, Ginebra, Generoso,

Sounds like the Spanish g /g/ in “got” when it comes before a, o, u

Gato, gorro, gustar, gafas, bigote

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (I)

For g /g/ to sound like g in “got” before e/i, it must be followed by a silent u, as in

guitarra (guitar) / guerra (war)

If you want to force the pronunciation of the u in gue/gui? Then, you must put a diaeresis (¨) over it, as in:

pingüino (penguin) / lingüista (linguist)

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (I)

The letter z:

The letter z /Ɵ/ may sound like s in “see” (Hispanic American accents) or like th in “thin” (standard Spaniard accent).

Zapato ( shoe) / Rizado (curly)

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (I)

The letter q:

The letter q always sounds like c in “cat”.

Almost always, it is followed by a silent u, and is used with i or e only.

Queso (cheese) / pequeño (small) / Quito

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (I)

The letter j :

The letter j may sound like h in “hot” (Hispanic America) or like ch in the Scottish word “loch” (Spain).

Joven (young) / Jugar ( play)

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (I)

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (II)

General rules of pronunciation (II)

Raúl R. PoncelaKing James I Academy

MFL Department

The letter h:

The letter h is always silent. So, Hola (hello) and ola (wave) have exactly the same pronunciation

Hablar (to speak) / Hijo (son)

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (II)

The letter y:

The letter y sounds like j in “jet” when it is placed at the beginning of a syllable:

Yo (I) / Mayo (May)

And like y in “very” in any other case:

Y (and) / muy (very)

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (II)

The letter r:

The letter r sounds like tt in “matter” (with USA accent) when:

it is not at the beginning of a syllable, e.g., brazo (arm), tren (train), or when

it is placed between two vowels: pero (but), Corea (Korea).

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (II)

The digraph rr:

The digraph rr is used to force a strongly trilled r betwee in two vowels, e.g:

Perro (dog), Correa (leash)

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (II)

The letter ñ

The letter ñ represents a nasal palatal phoneme, which is a sound that does not exist in English:

Años (years) / Niño ( boy)

Reglas básicas de pronunciación (II)