Sounds of Spanish. Unlike French, in Spanish you must pronounce every single letter except ‘h’. Once you have learnt the sounds of Spanish you can pronounce.

Sounds of Spanish

Unlike French, in Spanish you must pronounce every single letter except ‘h’.

Once you have learnt the sounds of Spanish you can pronounce ANY Spanish word!

In mainland Spain the letter ‘v’ is pronounced as a ‘b’, so the word holidays ‘vacaciones’ is said more like [bacaciones].

¿Puedes decir palabras con B y V?

Can you say words with B and V?

bajo - short (height)

bueno – good bien - well

vaca – cow vivo - I live

verde – green televisión -

television

In Spanish, 'll' is pronounced like 'y' in English. Notice that Spanish handwriting is slightly different to ours.

¿Puedes decir palabras con L y LL? Can you say words with L and LL?

¡Hola! - Hello! color – Colour

luna – moon pelo – hair

ala – wing loro – parrot

collar – necklace ella - She

billete – ticket allá - over there

millón – million pollo - chicken

In Spanish the 'r' sound is rolled when doubled 'rr', and if it's at the beginning or end of a word.

¿Puedes decir palabras con R y RR?

Can you say words with R and RR?

rubio – blonde río – river

grande – big pera - pear

rojo – red árbol - tree

arroz – rice perro - dog

torre – tower arriba -above

The curly line or 'tilda' over an 'n' in Spanish means it is pronounced 'ny', like the first 'n' in 'onion'. So 'baño' (which means toilet or bath) is

pronounced [banyo].

¿Puedes decir palabras con N y Ñ? Can you say words with N and Ñ?

mano – hand

uno – one

mañana - morning/tomorrow

uña - nail

¡ ñam ñam! - yum yum!

The 'j' in Spanish is pronounced in the back of the throat like the 'ch' in some

Scottish words like 'loch.'

¿Puedes decir palabras con G y J?

Can you say words with G and J?

garaje – garage gato – cat

reloj - watch goma - rubber

mujer – woman guitarra – guitar

jamón – ham gorro - woolly hat

ojo – eye ángel - angel

Spanish can sound different in different regions.For example, in northern Spain people usually say 'z' like the English 'th' in 'think'. However, in most of Latin America people say 'z' like the English

's'.

¿Puedes decir palabras con C, Q y Z?

Can you say words with C, Q and Z?

casa – house color - colour

cuatro – four catorce - fourteen

taza – cup cinco - five

bloque – block queso - cheese

quince - fifteen

H – this letter is never pronounced in Spanish.

Eg: Hola Helena, ¿Has hablado con Hector?

(Hello Helena, have you spoken to Hector?)

¿Puedes decir palabras con H?

Can you say words with H?

hola – hello

hablo - I speak

hamburgesa – hamburger

huevo – egg

historia - history

I/Y – these letters sound like the ‘ee’ in tree.

Eg: Sí, Madrid es divertido y bonito.

(Yes, Madrid is fun and beautiful.)

¿Puedes decir palabras con I/Y? Can you say words with I/Y?

vino tinto – red wine

sonido – sound

hija – daughter

geografía – Geography

castillo - castle

Qu – this is pronounced like the English letter ‘K’.

Eg: ¿Qué quieres?. Quiero queso por favor.

(What do you want? I want cheese please.)

¿Puedes decir palabras con Q?

Can you say words with Q?

¿Qué tal? - How are you?

¿Quién es? – Who is it?

¿Qué disastre! – What a disaster!

¡Qué asco! – How awful!

¡A practicar!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryspanish/learn_more/sounds/practice.shtml

Accents/Stresses

Spanish uses accents or stressed letters to help with the pronunciation of words.

Unlike French there is only ONE type of accent and it only goes in this direction (/)

Fall your voice where you see the accent.Eg: María = Mary las matemáticas = maths cómodo = comfortable

For words that don’t have visible accents the following rule applies…

Stress the last syllable for words ending in a consonant.Eg: animal = animal

Stress the second last syllable for words ending in a vowel.Eg: libro = book

Fin