Pronunciation Tips:

Vowels:

Remember that there are only five vowels in Spanish, and they are always pronounced in the same manner.
For example, o is always long o (as in the English word "vote"). The long o is often the hardest vowel to keep straight. To help keep your vowel sounds clear, listen to the audio tapes as the speakers pronounce words, and imitate their pronunciation carefully. Remember, there are no silent vowels. Cine ("movie theater") is a two-syllable word: CI-ne [SEE-neh].

Have you noticed that English-speakers tend to change vowel sounds to produce an "accent"? For instance, in the South, a "Sprite" becomes a "Sprahte"; in New York a "soda" becomes a "soder", in Western Pennsylvania an "orange" becomes an "arnge". In Spanish, the vowels remain constant and it is the consonants that vary: Castillian Spanish-speakers use the "theta" sound for Ci, Ce and Z - it sounds like the "th" in the word "tooth". So in Madrid, the word zapatos sounds like `thah-PAH-tos'. In Argentina and Uruguay, y and ll sound like the "zh" in rouge and garage, instead of the "y" sound used everywhere else. We will be learning standard Latin American Spanish in this course. Just keep in mind that you may hear some regional differences among Spanish speakers.

Here are the three rules regarding accent marks and basic word stress:

1) Words that end in S, N or a vowel are stressed on the next to last syllable:

e-stu-di-AN-te

PE-rros

pro-fe-SO-ra

re-PI-tan

2) Words that end in all other consonants (not S or N) are stressed on the last syllable:

bo-rra-DOR

re-LOJ

pa-RED

es-pa-ÑOL

3) Words that do not obey the first two rules require an accent mark on the stressed syllable:

vol-vi-Ó

po-li-CÍ-a

lec-CIÓN

LÁ-piz

Vowels

There are two ways to categorize types of vowels:

Grouping 1: How vowels relate to other vowels		Grouping 2: How vowels relate to consonants (click)
Strong vowels	Weak vowels	Strong vowels	Weak vowels
A, E, O	I, U	A, O, U	I, E

=Let's look at Grouping #1 and see how this affects pronunciation when we have two vowels together:

Strong vowels each count as a separate syllable and are voiced equally:

vi-de-o

ta-re-a

al-mo-ha-da*

*remember the "h" is silent!

but a weak and a strong vowel count as one and glide together. This single sound is called a "diphthong".

sue-gra

far-ma-cia

i-dio-ta

oi-ga

Mau-ri-cio

-the stressed (or LOUDER) vowel will be the stronger vowel.

two weak vowels also make a dipthong and the stress rests on the second of the two weak vowels.

guisante

viuda

Any variation in pronunciation from these rules require a written accent:

Stress should be on the second Weak vowel but isn't:

flúido

Stress should be on the Strong vowel but isn't:

leído

baúl

Accents marks also determine meaning. Accent marks change word meanings as much as changing any other letter would:

si [if] vs. sí [yes]	el [the] vs. él [he]	tu [your] vs. tú [you]
Interrogatives (question words) all have accent marks: click here

Words which look like English words are called cognates. Sometimes cognates are spelled exactly the same in both Spanish and English, such as golf . Other cognates may vary by a letter or two, such as oficina (office) and computadora (computer).

Words that look like English words but have different meanings are called false cognates. A good example is embarazada. It doesn't mean "embarrassed"; it means "to be pregnant"! As you can see it is usually better to check a dictionary than assume a word is a cognate.

Listening exercises for letters, dipthongs, stress and intonation

Phonetic site for pronunciation: see how the sounds are formed and listen to pronunciation examples:
compare English and Spanish!

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