How to Pronounce Spanish Sounds in One Lesson

Carolina Amoruso is a professional educator who teaches Spanish lessons online, as well as Brazilian Portugese, English, and ESL lessons online. Find out more on her Lessonface profile.

We all know that the pronunciation of any language depends on the region or country it is spoken: British English is not the same as American English. Even in the United States we find a lot of different variations of English. These variations have to do not only with vocabulary, but also with accents, sounds and patterns of intonation. 

The same happens, as you may have guessed, with Spanish. The Spanish spoken in Spain has some differences with the one spoken in Mexico, or even in Argentina. Just imagine that there are more than twenty countries where Spanish is the official language! Of course, this fact doesn’t prevent people from communicating.  

There is an alphabetic system which represents speech sounds, called the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). This system allows people to understand how to produce different sounds, taking into account some features such as the way in which you should shape your mouth or tongue, or even if you need to breathe out when pronouncing a sound.

Because this is a brief introduction, we are not going to deal with IPA, but we will explore Spanish sounds by making a comparison with the English sounds.

Let’s start with vowels. In Spanish, there are five vowel sounds: A, E, I, O, U. These are pronounced in the following way: A (ah), E (eh), I (ee), O (oh*), U (oo). This is different from English, which may have more than one sound per vowel. For example, the vowel A can be pronounced like “ei” as in the word “play”, or as “ah” as in “car”, or “æ” as in “flat”, etc. In the same way, the vowel I can be pronounced as “ee” as in “ship”, or “ai” as in “five”. Here you have a reason to start speaking Spanish: it’s easy!

As for the letter H, when it appears at the beginning of a word, it doesn’t have any sound; it is silent. However, when it comes after a letter C, it is pronounced like “ch” as in the word “chocolate”, just like in English. The letters B and V don’t have any differences in sound between them. They are both pronounced like “b” as in the word “bee”. See how Spanish is easy-peasy? The letter Ñ is pronounced “ni” as in “Daniel”. The digraph QU is followed either by an E or an I, so the possibilities are “que” (pronounced “ke”)  or “qui” (pronounced “ki”). A piece of cake, huh? Let’s continue…

Now let’s focus on three similar sounds: S, C and Z. The letter C is pronounced “k” when it comes before an A (“ka”), an O (“ko”), a U (“ku”), or a consonant L or R (“cl”, “cr”). But be careful! Remember what you’ve learned about the combination “ch”. When a letter E or I comes after the letter C, it is pronounced “s”, such as in the words “ceiling” or “city"** like in English, again! 

If you have two letter C's together, you should pronounce “ks”, as in the word “access”. The letter S doesn’t pose a problem: it’s always pronounced “s”. As for the letter Z, it is pronounced “s".* The letters Y and LL are pronounced similarly to “ee".***

The letter R, when it comes at the beginning of a word, is pronounced by rolling your tongue, producing a vibration. The same happens when there are two R’s together (RR). In contrast, when there is only one R in a word, you should pronounce it softer. 

The letters J and G have their particularities. The letter J is always pronounced similarly to the letter H in English, but stronger. The same happens with the letter G before an E or an I, so you should pronounce something like “heh” and “hee” respectively. But be careful! When you have to pronounce the letters GUE or GUI, you should pronounce “g” as in “game”. If you have two dots above the letter Ü, as in GÜE or GÜI, you need to pronounce them “gweh” and “gwee”. Finally, when it comes before an A, an O or a U, you should pronounce it “g” (again) as in the word “game”.
 
Last but not least, there are some differences in how consonants are pronounced. For example, the sounds T, P, D and K are pronounced softer in Spanish.

Still confused? Don’t worry, it’s completely normal to feel puzzled when you are learning a new language. Here is a video which summarizes the basics of Spanish sounds:
 

Watch Carolina Amoruso Pronounce Spanish Sounds

Now that you’ve learned how to pronounce Spanish sounds, it’s time for you to practice!

Try looking at yourself in the mirror and start speaking Spanish, paying attention to the way in which you articulate the different sounds. When you are watching your favorite movie or show, try turning the audio to Spanish and add English subtitles. This will help you to train your listening skills, and it will make it easier to imitate the sounds you hear.   

Notes:
*Similar to the “o” in “core”, but shorter in duration.
**In some parts of Spain, it is pronounced by placing your tongue between your teeth, as in the word “think”.
***In Argentina and Uruguay, they are pronounced “sh”, as in the word “show”.

ABOUT CAROLINA ¡Hola! My name is Carolina and I am a 31-year-old teacher of English in Buenos Aires, Argentina. As I am a Spanish native speaker, in this workshop, I offer Spanish conversation lessons about different up-to-date topics. If you are interested in learning Spanish grammar structures, of course, we can work on that too. This workshop is only available online so that students from all over the world can take it. Please, feel free to write to me if you have any questions or you want to schedule a free 15-minute trial! :)  > Book a lesson with Carolina

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