Apr
4
Spanish consonants
Podcast: Download
Today’s episode of Spanish Pronunciation 101 is about Spanish consonant sounds that don’t come naturally to most English speakers. Martin Ventola, our Spanish instructor from Buenos Aires, has written a detailed post on his blog about the subject but here is a summary of today’s topic:
There are five Spanish consonant sounds that sometimes throw a wrench into an English-speaker’s Spanish pronunciation. They are:
The b sound in words like voy, vamos, había.
The d sound in words like hada, ciudad.
The g sound in ego, agua, agujero.
The j sound, like in ajo, jota, reloj.
The “aspirated s” sound in mosca, espacio.
A surprise, at least for me, that came out of this lesson was that the aspirated s sound is probably one of the most difficult for English speakers learning Spanish, according to Martín. He writes:
“This sound is tricky. If you’ve just started learning Spanish, you probably think we do not say the “s” in those words, but we do! It is hard. I’d say it’s even harder than the “r”. English speakers have a similar sound, the /h/ of words like behave. But, the /h/ never happens at the end of a word or syllable (I dare you come up with a word finishing with that sound). The “aspirated s” never occurs at the beginning of a word or syllable, it’s just air expelled almost without any tongue movement. Don’t worry about it if you’re going to Spain, over there they only have one /s/, pretty much the same as the English.
If you missed it, go back and check out the previous episode in this series about English consonant sounds that don’t really exist in Spanish. And if you want to be sure to catch all future episodes of the Spanish Pronuniciation 101 series, please subscribe to the RSS feed. (This feed is different from the iTunes feed.)
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April 4th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
I think it might be worth mentioning that the ‘aspirated s’ is a regional variation. This is found in parts of Spain (in the south and in the Canaries) as well as the River Plate region and the Caribbean, for example.
April 4th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
I really enjoy reading through and listening to these lessons because it is an approach to Spanish language-learning that I have not seen. My Spanish teachers never focused on difficult sounds for English-speakers — instead, they focused on creating and maintaining a “formula” for grammar, conjugations, and especially the subjunctive. Fortunately, when I studied in Spain, the classes were so much more fun because we all knew the rules and grammar quite well, but our instructors always focused on oral Spanish skills…the classes were always filled with games and activities, and it made practicing the language a gradual learning process. Now that I have been using these Spanish podcasts, my pronunciation is getting much better, so thank you!
April 4th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I have no real problems with the /s/, basically because I study the Iberian accent.
Lately I’ve been working on my reading (out loud) and pronounciation (especially stress in words) skills with a speaking partner, using Skype.
April 5th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
Muy bien. Fantastic blog.
April 7th, 2008 at 3:12 am
I loved that wrench-throwing metaphor, I´ll use it next time I write I post!
July 21st, 2008 at 5:02 pm
[...] Spanish Consonants [...]
May 1st, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I just discovered this site. Muchisimas gracias! Soy estudiante de la lengua y aprecio todo la ayuda que puedo obtener/encontrar.
May 1st, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Hi Ron,
Thanks very much for your comment. Happy to be of service! Only thing I feel bad about is that Martin Ventola’s web site is no longer operational. However his Spanish pronunciation advice is still sound and valid.
Un saludo,
Eleena
September 24th, 2010 at 12:39 am
Me encanta Espana y Espanol. Estudio el idioma ahora con el Instituto de Cervantes en Dublin, Irlanda. Quiero poder ensenar espanol a los ninos porque mucha gente no entiende que espanol es entre las tres mas importante lenguas en el mundo. Estaba buscando unos sitios a traves del web y este me parece muy util para el estudio de mi idioma preferido. Para mi, la gramatica sobre todo , el subjunctivo, es muy dificil y es mejor ir a Espana para practicar con los espanoles. Ahora tengo ganas de escuchar los ‘podcasts’. Saludos de Irlanda. Eva