Pronunciation Practice Assists You To Learn Spanish Free
As attractive and effortless as Spanish sounds, there is always a certain amount of demanding work involved in learning any new language. The rules might seem difficult at first, but don’t forget that the English language is often cited as one of the most complicated to learn, thanks to each rule’s numerous exceptions. Spanish is fairly straight forward, and therefore great for self-education. Mastering the following guidelines can go a long way toward helping you learn Spanish free.
The Sounds Of Spanish Vowels
Spanish vowels are mostly letters are the same as in English, but the way they are pronounced is different. For instance, the letter “A” is voiced “uh” in Spanish, and “e” becomes an “ay” sound. “I” changes to a long “e” sound, and “u” is pronounced with an “ooh”. There’s only one vowel that keeps the same sound in English, and that’s “o”, as in “oh”.
Spanish Consonants And How They Sound
Consonants in Spanish take a backseat to the vowels, much like they do in English, but even so there are more rules to watch out for here than before, and even a couple extra “letters” come into play. The first, “ch”, is pronounced just as they would be in English.
The letter “c” on its own becomes an “s” sound when it shows up before an “e” or an “i”, like in the word “cero”, which is how you say “zero” in Spanish. A “g” letter in front of an “e” or an “i” causes that “ch” sound, but anywhere else will mean that same letter will sound like a hard “g”, like in the English word “go.”
There are additional hiccups as well. The letter “z” will make a “th” sound. The letter “h” is always silent. There’s a second new letter as well, the “ll”, which is pretty common in Spanish and makes a hard “y” sound like in “you”. That sound is used in the word “llamar” and gives the word the following pronunciation: “ya-MAR”.
Then there’s the little tilde that appears in many Spanish words, such as “el nio”. This produces a similar sound to the “ll”, and as a result “el nio” is spoken “Ehl neen-yo”.
This article won’t tell you everything you need to know to master the Spanish language or even prepare you to visit some Spanish speaking friends, but by going over the sounds here you can give yourself a good base to help you learn Spanish free. More sounds come in handy as you get more advanced, include “qu” which turns into a hard “k” sound, the “r” which is always said with a roll, and the long “eee” sound of the letter “y”.
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