Techniques With Spanish Pronounciation

The best way of developing your Spanish pronunciation is by speaking out loud. This helps with your confidence, and attunes your ear. During the process of learning it is a good idea to speak with people that are better than you. Although this may seem like a daunting or embarrassing prospect, listening to someone whose linguistic skills are higher than yours will improve your accent. In saying this, any practice is beneficial, as practice makes perfect.

Spanish Spellings

Spanish spelling is based on phonetics, which makes it easier to learn if you come from a Latin based language. If you can read Spanish, you will most likely be able to speak it. Because of this, it takes a relatively short amount of time to grasp Spanish spelling compared to learning other languages.

Spanish vowels have less variation than their English counterparts. A is pronounced like the “a” in mate, or “o” in stop. E sounds like the “ay” in okay, and unlike the English, is never silent. I is pronounced “ee” as in asleep. O sounds like “oa” as in the English boat, but is marginally shorter. U is pronounced like “oo” as in tune, but becomes silent when it follows q, or is used in the combinations “gue” or “gui”.

Differences Between Spanish & English

Spanish and English consonants are very similar, with just a few exceptions. C is pronounced as “k” when followed by a, o or u. Otherwise it is pronounced like the English “s” when followed by an e, or i. D is lighter in Spanish than it’s English counterpart. It is less plosive.

The same can be said for the consonant T, which is also treated with a softer touch. H is always silent in Spanish, and never pronounced. J is pronounced like the English “h”. Qu sounds like the English “k”. The letters K and W do not exist in Spanish at all, except for words that are transliterated.

In Spanish the r is trilled. This can be difficult to grasp if the sound is not present in your native tongue, but not to worry. You will probably develop it over time, but even if you don’t it won’t affect people’s understanding of your spoken Spanish, rather it will just sound as though you have an exotic foreign accent.

If you speak English, then Spanish is one of the easiest foreign languages to learn. They are both based in Latin, which helps immensely. The phonetic nature of Spanish also helps with the learning process.