Created by Tracy Rosas

¡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 español

d ready r cero f food f sofá g goose g gato k cow k casa l late l lento m amount m mano n nod n nada ŋ song ŋ mango p soap p sopa s assume s suma a cake e hecho e bean i ido i like ai aire o hope o ocho o top a ajo u June u usted oy toy oy Voy y yes y, ll yo llego

El abecedario español/ The Spanish alphabet (with place names)

A la Argentina N Nicaragua

B Bolivia Ñ España

C Cáceres O Oviedo

Ch Chile P Panamá

D Durango Q Quito

E el Ecuador R el Perú

F Florida rr Monterrey

G Guatemala S San Juan

H Honduras T Toledo

I Ibiza U el Uruguay

J Jalisco V Venezuela

K Kansas W Washington

L Lima X Extremadura, México, Cotopaxi

Ll Sevilla Y el Paraguay

M México Z Zaragoza

Created by Tracy Rosas

ai Uruguay ia Bolivia, Chiapas que Querétaro qui Quito

ei Monterrey ie Oviedo gue Guerrero gui guitarra

oi io üe nicaragüense üi 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 (see below for more explanation of dipthongs)

au Tamaulipas ua Guanajuato, Chihuahua

eu ue Venezuela, Nuevo León, Puebla

ou uo

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

A ha

E he

I hi

O ho

U hu

2. Know how to pronounce dipthongs.

a. “a, e, o” are open (strong) and they are given the stress in pronunciation.

b. “i, u” are closed (weak) and are less pronounced when accompanied by open vowels.

c. dipthong = strong/weak vowel+ weak vowel d. 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”.

3. Consonant –vowel/dipthong combinations (or strong vowels alone) =1 syllable. For the following combinations simply add the consonant sound to the vowel sound:

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 ga

E che de fe le me ne ñe pe re rre te gue

I chi di fi li mi ni ñi pi ri rri ti gui

O cho do fo lo mo no ño po ro rro to go

U chu du fu lu mu nu ñu pu ru rru tu gu

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”):

B V Ll Y

A ba va A lla ya

E be ve E lle ye

I bi vi I lli yi

O bo vo O llo yo

U bu vu U llu yu

Created by Tracy Rosas

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 xa

E ke que E se ze ce E je xe ge

I ki qui I si zi ci I ji xi gi

O ko co O so zo O jo xo

U ku cu U su zu U ju xu

More practice with syllables:

Read the dialogue between Pita and the doctor. She’s

afraid she has what she thought was an illness.

Write all the bold words from above in the left column below. Separate

the syllables for each word in the middle column. Write how many

syllables there are in the word in the third column.

Created by Tracy Rosas

4. Finally, know on which syllable to put the stress. a. Natural stress in words, without a written accent, ending in a consonant

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

“n”, or “s” falls on the second-to-last syllable. c. Otherwise, if the accent is written for you, then you automatically know

where to put the stress. Practice this concept with the following exercises that each have an incorrectly written word.

Each of the indicated words should have a stress on the last syllable.

These should have a stress on the second to last syllable.

These should have a stress on the third to last syllable.

These are some

examples of

words that have

accents in order

to indicate

different

meaning. All

question words

have accents

when used in a

question.