¡Pronunciar es sencillo!

Perhaps the most important component in learning a second language is being able to read that language effectively. Follow these steps and you should have no problem reading new Spanish words thereafter. Spanish is a very easy language to decode (you are lucky you already know how to read English, which is a very difficult language to decode).

1.Know what sound each letter makes.

The bold letters in the English words are sounds that can be transferred to the

indicated letters in Spanish. (The words are

not translations!)

English el españold Ready r cerof food f sofág goose g gatok cow k casal late l lentom amount m manon nod n nadaŋ song ŋ mangop soap p sopas assume s sumaa cake e hechoe bean i idoi like ai aireo hope o ochoo top a ajou June u ustedoy toy oy Voyy yes y, ll yo llego

El abecedario español/ The Spanish alphabet

A Antonio es de Argentina. N NicaraguaB Blanca es de Bolivia. Ñ EspañaC Cecilia es de Cáceres. O Olivia es de Oviedo.Ch Chile P Pablo es de Panamá.D Dolores es de Durango. Q Raquel es de Quito.E Elena es de Ecuador. R Clara es de Perú.F Felipe es de Florida. rr MonterreyG Gloria es de Guatemala. S Sara es de San Juan.H Héctor es de Honduras. T Tomás es de Toledo.I Inés es de Ibiza. U Agustín es del Uruguay.J José es de Jalisco. V Víctor es de Venezuela.K Katy es de Kansas. W Oswaldo es de Washington.L Luis es de Lima. X Félix es de Extremadura.Ll Guillermina es de Sevilla. Y Yucatán no está en el Paraguay.M Manuel es de México. Z Zaragoza

The vowels only make one sound each: A, E, I, O, U (Y= I when it is a vowel)H

A haE heI hiO hoU hu

“H” doesn’t make any

sound other than the vowel

that it accompanies.

A E I O U W

A iA uA wa

E iE uE we

I Ai Ei Oi ui wi

O iO uO wo

U Au Eu iu Ou wu

2. Know how to pronounce dipthongs.

1.“a, e, o” are open (strong) and they are given the stress in pronunciation.2.“i, u” are closed (weak) and are less pronounced when accompanied by open vowels.3.dipthong = strong/weak vowel+ weak vowel 4.since “w” is not native to Spanish if it were added to a vowel it would act just like the dipthongs that begin with “u”.

ai Uruguay ia Bolivia, Chiapas que Querétaro qui Quito

ei Monterrey ie Oviedo gue Guerrero gui guitarra

oi io Üe(we)

nicaragüense Üi(wi)

pingüino

ui Coahuila iu Ciudad Juárez /\ Examples of “qu” and “gu” variations that keep the hard /k/ and /g/ sounds.

Examples of place names with dipthongs

au Tamaulipas ua Guanajuato, Chihuahua

eu ue Venezuela, Nuevo León, Puebla

ou uo

CH D F L M N Ñ P R rr T G

For the hard “g” sound the

“u” doesn’t say anything.

A cha da fa la ma na ña pa ra rra ta gaE che de fe le me ne ñe pe re rre te gueI chi di fi li mi ni ñi pi ri rri ti guiO cho do fo lo mo no ño po ro rro to goU chu du fu lu mu nu ñu pu ru rru tu gu

B V Ll YA ba va A lla yaE be ve E lle yeI bi vi I lli yiO bo vo O llo yoU bu vu U llu yu

3. Consonant –vowel/dipthong combinations (or strong vowels alone) =1 syllable.

For the following combinations simply add the consonant sound to the vowel sound:

These consonants are pronounced the same so their combinations sound the same (but in Argentina the “ll” is pronounced like the 2nd “g” in “garage”):

The following are three sets of combinations that are similar in the following ways:

K

=

C Q S

=

Z C J X G These make a sound like “h” but

stronger in the back of the throat.

A ka ca A sa za A ja xaE ke que E se ze ce E je xe geI ki qui I si zi ci I ji xi giO ko co O so zo O jo xoU ku cu U su zu U ju xu

que Querétaro qui Quito

gue Guerrero gui guitarra

Üe(we)

nicaragüense Üi(wi)

pingüino

Examples of “qu” and “gu” variations that are spelled differently in order to indicate the hard /k/ and /g/ sounds:

doctor d/oc/to/r Doc/tor Do/ct/or

enfermera

médico

contagioso

juntos

ansiosamente

atraparías

Choose which form correctly separates the following words from the first column into syllables. The first one is done as an example.

en/fer/me/ra enf/erm/era e/nferm/e/ra

méd/i/co mé/dico mé/di/co

con/ta/gio/so con/tagio/so conta/gioso

ju/n/tos jun/tos ju/nt/os

ans/io/samien/te an/sio/sa/men/te ansio/sa/mente

a/tra/pa/rí/as atra/parí/as atrap/arías

4. Finally, know on which syllable to put the stress.

I. Natural stress in words, without a written accent, ending in a vowel, “n”, or “s” falls on the second-to-last syllable.

hijo fascinante Sevilla Fernando

cenan examen Mercedes abuelos

Sections II and III on next 2 pages… (audio is continuous)

II. Natural stress in words, without a written accent, ending in a consonant (not n or s) falls on the last syllable.

preguntar actividad director universidad

Raquel Miguel español cultural

III. Otherwise, if the accent is written for you, then you automatically know where to put the stress.

sábado inglés matemáticas religión

Suárez Ramón tradición también

…the conjunctions, prepositions, and pronoun that would otherwise be spelled the same.

Interogatives always have a written accent mark over the naturally stressed vowel so to distinguish them from…

NOTE!

There are a variety of short words that (1-2 syllables) that have completely different meaning based on whether they are written with or without a written accent. Here are some examples…

•“está” is the 3rd person singular of the verb “ESTAR” conjugated in the present indicative•“té” is “tea”•“tú” is the informal pronoun meaning “you”•“sólo” means “just” or “only”•“mí” is the personal pronoun for “me”

•“esta” is a feminine demonstrative adjective that means “this”•“te” is the personal pronoun meaning “you”•“tu” is the posessive adjective for “your”•“solo” means “alone”•“mi” is the posessive adjective for “my”

NOTE!

Printable summary of how to pronounce words in Spanish:

1. Know what sound each letter makes.I. Vowels only have one sound each.II. The “c” and “g” vary depending on the the vowel that follows (just like in English)

2. Know how to pronounce dipthongs.I. “a, e, o” are open (strong) vowels.II. “i, u” are closed (weak) vowels.III. A dipthong = strong vowel + a weak vowel (ai, ia, ei, ie, oi, io, au, ua, eu, ue, ou, uo)IV. Or a weak vowel + a weak vowel (iu, ui)V. When “i” and “u” are given a written accent they are separated from any dipthongs

and can stand alone like a strong vowel.3. 1 syllable =

I. Consonant-vowel combination (preferred form)II. Consonant-dipthong combination (also preferable)III. Also may be a consonant+vowel/dipthong+consonantIV. Or a strong vowel alone (usually when a word starts with that vowel or the word ends

with more than one strong vowel)4. Each syllable is pronounced, but you must know where to put the stress.

I. The natural stress for words, without a written accent, ending in a vowel, “n” or “s” falls on the second-to-last syllable.

II. The natural stress for words, without a written accent, ending in a consonant (not “n” or “s”) falls on the last syllable.

III. If the accent is written, then you automatically know where to put the stress.