Sounds of Spanish

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Sounds of Spanish
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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!
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In mainland Spain the letter v is
pronounced as a b, so the word holidays
vacaciones is said more like bacaciones.
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Puedes decir palabras con B y V? Can you say
words with B and V?bajo - short (height)bueno
good bien - wellvaca cow vivo - I
liveverde green televisión - television
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In Spanish, 'll' is pronounced like
'y' in English. Notice that Spanish
handwriting is slightly different to ours.
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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
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In Spanish the 'r' sound is rolled
when doubled 'rr', and if it's at the
beginning or end of a word.
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Puedes decir palabras con R y RR? Can you say
words with R and RR?rubio blonde
río river grande big pera - pearrojo
red árbol - treearroz rice perro -
dogtorre tower arriba -above
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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.
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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!
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The 'j' in Spanish is pronounced in the
back of the throat like the 'ch' in some Scottish
words like 'loch.'
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Puedes decir palabras con G y J? Can you
say words with G and J?garaje garage gato
cat reloj - watch goma - rubbermujer
woman guitarra guitarjamón ham gorro -
woolly hat ojo eye ángel - angel
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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'.
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Puedes decir palabras con C, Q y Z? Can you
say words with C, Q and Z?casa house color -
colourcuatro four catorce - fourteentaza
cup cinco - fivebloque block queso -
cheesequince - fifteen
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H this letter is never pronounced in Spanish.
Eg Hola Helena, Has hablado con Hector?
(Hello Helena, have you spoken to Hector?)
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Puedes decir palabras con H? Can you say words
with H?
hola hello hablo - I speak hamburgesa
hamburger huevo egg historia - history
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I/Y these letters sound like the ee in
tree. Eg Sí, Madrid es divertido y bonito. (Yes,
Madrid is fun and beautiful.)
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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

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Qu this is pronounced like the English letter
K. Eg Qué quieres?. Quiero queso por
favor. (What do you want? I want cheese please.)
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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!

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A practicar!

http//www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryspanish/learn_
more/sounds/practice.shtml
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Accents/Stresses
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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
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For words that dont have visible accents the
following rule appliesStress the last syllable
for words ending in a consonant.Eg animal
animalStress the second last syllable for words
ending in a vowel.Eg libro book
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Fin