Alphabet and Pronunciation

1. Alphabet and Pronunciation El Alfabeto y la pronunciación

2. The Spanish Alphabet • The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters; 1 more than the English alphabet. • The letter combinations of ch, ll, and rr were once considered separate letters. • For the purpose of this class, we will view them as separate letters. • The vowels in Spanish have one distinct sound and are always pronounced the same.

3. 10 Rules for Pronunciation • Rule 1: “b” and “v” are both pronounced “be” but not as hard as in English. • Rule 2: If “c” comes before “a,” “o,” or “u,” it is pronounced like the English “k.” • Rule 3: If “g” comes before “e” or “i,” it is pronounced like the letter “h.” It is pronounced like the letter “g” before an “a”, “o,” or “u.” • Rule 4: Never pronounce the letter “h.” • Rule 5: The letter “j” is always pronounced like “h” or a spitty “g.”

4. 10 Rules For Pronunciation • Rule 6: The letter “ll” is pronounced like the English “y”. • Rule 7: The “ñ” is pronounced “ny”. • Rule 8: The letter “q” is pronounced “k” but the “u” following the “q” is not pronounced. • Rule 9: The “rr” is trilled. The letter “r” is trilled at the beginning of a word and when it come after “l” or “n”. • Rule 10: The letter “z” is always pronounced like the letter “s”.

5. Practicing Pronunciation • The best way to better your pronunciation is to practice every day. • Find something written in Spanish and read it along or record yourself to see how you improve. • Practice writing some sentences phonetically to help with longer, harder words. • Listen to heritage speakers so you will know how the words are suppose to sound. You can do this by watching your favorite movie in Spanish, the Spanish-speaking channels, or simply listening to the many heritage speakers we have here in school.

6. Stress and Accent • Where a word is stressed influences how it is pronounced. • If a word ends in a vowel, n, or s, the natural stress is on the next to last syllable. • If a word ends in a consonant, other than n or s, the natural stress falls on the last syllable. • If a word does not follow the two above rules, the word has a written accent to denote the stressed syllable. • If the stress falls on the third or fourth to last syllable, there is always a written accent. • Some words have accent marks to denote meaning that is different from its counterpart without an accent (ej. sí: yes; si:if)