Letra y sonido

1. Letra y sonido Español I Señor García

2. Spanish vowels - vocales • The Spanish vowels (a, e, i, o, u) are pronounced clearly and distinctly. • “a” – as in father, but with the tongue closer to the front of the mouth (Ana, amiga, tarea) • “e” – as in they, but without the “y” sound (este, eres, noche, excelente) • “i” – as in machine, but much shorter (isla, día, íntimo) • “o” – as in low, but without the “w” sound (hola, moto, dónde, color) • “u” – as in rule (fruta, uno, fútbol, música)

3. Trabelenguas – tongue twisters • ¡A, e, i, o, u! • Arbolito del Perú • ¿Cómo te llamas tú?

4. Letter “D” • The letter “d” in Spanish represents two possible pronounciations • At the beginning of a phrase or after an “l” or “n” it sounds like the “d” in the English word “did” except with the tip of the tongue closer to the back of the teeth. • Dinero, diez, diccionario, dar, andar, falda

5. “D” part 2 • Anywhere else in the word or phrase (especially between vowels) its pronounciation is softened and is similar to the “th” in the English word “they”. • Modo, cada, estudiar, verdad, calculadora

6. Letter “H, J, G” • “H” is always silent (hora, hijo, hospital) • “J” represents a sound that has no equivalent in English. It’s pronounced like the “h” in the English word “house” but much stronger & with the back of the tongue near the soft palate (jugar, jefe, joven, caja, juego) • “G” before the vowels “e” & “i” has the same sound as the letter “j” as the previous examples (gente, general, corregir)

7. “G” cont’d • Before the vowels “a, o, u” the letter is pronounced like the g in the English word “go.”(tengo, gusto, mango) Between vowels this sound is much softer (haga, agua, mucho gusto) It is pronounced hard like the “g” in the word “get” when it’s followed by “ue” or “ui” (guerra, llegué, guitarra)

8. Letters “B, V” • These letters in Spanish represent the same sound. That single sound has two possible variations. • At the beginning of a phrase or after an “m” or an “n” these letters sound like the “b” in the English word “bean” (biblioteca, bailar, viernes, invierno) • Between vowels & after other consonants their pronounciation is softened with the lower lip slightly forward and not resting against the upper teeth ( lobo, uva, Cuba)

9. Accents • One purpose is to tell you which syllable to stress • Words ending in a vowel, n, or s, are stressed on the next to the last syllable (examen, hablan, discos, toma, quiero) • Words ending in any consonant besides “n” or “s” are stressed on the last syllable (animal, feliz, Madrid, hablar) • Exceptions to rules 1 & 2 get an accent mark over the syllable to be stressed (semáforo, lápices, rápido, lámpara) • Some words have an accent mark to tell them apart from a similar word • mi versus mí (my, me) tu versus tú (your, you) si versus sí (if, yes)

10. Letter “R” • The “r” in Spanish does not sound like the r in English. English does have a sound that is similar, however. It’s the sound made by quickly touching the tip of the tongue to the ridge behind the upper teeth, as in butter, batter, ladder • At the beginning of a word or after an “n” or “l” the single “r” has a trilled or rolled sound. It is also trilled at the end of a word • The double “r” in Spanish always has a trilled or rolled sound

11. Example of “R” http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/# Click on Spanish, vibrantes, video will pop up and you can see and practice along with it

12. Letters “ll” “y” • Usually pronounced alike. Their pronunciation in many Spanish-speaking countries is similar to the “y” in the English word “yes”. (yo, yerno, yema, llamo, llora, maquillaje) • The single “l” in Spanish is pronounced like the “l” in the English word “live”. Keep the tip of the tongue behind the upper teeth when pronouncing “l” (lavarse, levantarse, lo siento)

13. Letter “C” • The letter “c” before the vowels “e” and “i” is pronounced like “s” as in ‘centro’ & ‘cielo’. • Before the vowels “a, o, u” it is pronounced like “k” in the English word ‘kitchen’. (carne, rico, cuchara) • To spell the “k” sound of the word ‘kitchen’ before the vowels “e & i” us the letters “qu” (que, saque, quien, queso) • This pattern is similar to the “g & j” sound alike.

14. Letter “S, Z, C” • The letter “S” in Spanish in pronounced like the ‘s’ in the English word “pass.” (camiseta, flores, gris, seda) • In Latin America, the letter “Z” is also pronounced like the ‘s’ in the English word “pass” (azul, zapatos, zanahoria) However, in Spain, the ‘z’ is pronounced much like the “th” in the English world “think” • In Latin America, the letter ‘c’ before vowels “e & i” is also pronounced like an ‘s’ (dulces, calcetines, cinturón) • In Spain, the letter ‘c’ before the vowels “e & i” is also pronounced like the “th” in English.

15. Letters “P, T” • In English we pronounce p, t, k (as in pin, tin, and kin) with a puff of air. This puff does not happen in Spanish. Practice saying these words without releasing that puff of air. (hotel, papa, caminata) • In addition the letter “t” in Spanish is pronounced with the tongue against the upper teeth, not against the area immediately above the teeth known as the alveolar ridge. (tienda, carta, hasta, tanto)

16. Vowels cont’d • In Spanish the vowels a, e, o are called strong vowels and i, u are weak vowels. • Two strong vowels together are pronounced as separate syllables (peor, oeste, rodeo, correo) • A strong vowel and a weak vowel or two weak vowels combine into one syllable called a diphthong. When the weak vowel comes first in this combination, the “i” is pronounced like the “y” in yet and the “u” is pronounced like the “w” in wet. (familia, pie, ciudad, cuando, bueno, Europa, fui) • An accent mark over a weak vowel keeps it from combining into one syllable with another vowel (tía, día, período)