Spanish grammar guide for English speakers 1:
Pronunciation:
Vowels:
In written English there are only five vowels, but in spoken English they reach the amount of fifteen (if I remember well). Instead, in Spanish vowels are always the same five, no matter if we are talking about spoken or written Spanish.
So, the sounds are always the same, independently of the word construction, and those sounds are:
A: It sounds as the a in astonish
E: It sounds as e in eclectic.
I: It sounds as i in intelligent.
O: It sounds as o in obsessive
U: It sounds as u in Uganda.
There are no other vowel sounds in Spanish except for the ones above explained.
Consonants:
The Spanish alphabet has almost the same letters as the English one, with some exceptions, but the sound of the letters is not always the same.
B: It sounds as b in borrow
C: With a, o, and u, it sounds as K in kilo. With e and i it sounds as c in ceiling or s in sailor. To obtain the K sound with e and i, we use the letter q followed by u, which is mute in this case, and we will see it under q key again.
CH: This letter has the same sound as the same English construction ch, but as it sounds in chair and chalk, never as it sounds in chore (never as a k)
D: It sounds as d in door.
F: It sounds as f in front or ph in philosophy.
G: With a, o and u it sounds as g in gall or w in war, with e and i it sounds as h in hotel, so the sound is an aspirated one “gesta” is read as “hesta” “gimnasia” is read as “himnasia” with the h sound of heart and hotel. To obtain the gall sound with e and i, we put a mute u after the g and before the vowel, as in “guerra” and “guirnalda” that have to be read with the same g sound as in gall and gomit. When the u precedes e and i and sounds (it is no mute) it has two points above itself, in this way: güira. Remember that if there is no dieresis (dieresis is the Spanish name of the two points over the vowel u) the u is mute.
H: In Spanish the H is mute; it has no sound at all, never. So habitación has to be read as abitación.
J: The J in Spanish is called jota (hotta) and has the same sound as the H in hotel and heart, with all the vowels, so it is not difficult to understand why so many people make mistakes when they write words with j instead of g or vice versa. Remember that ge and gi have the same sound as h in English, that is the same sound as je and ji.
It is an error to write 2girafa” instead of “jirafa” (the last one is correct)
So you will write jefe, but never gefe and general, but never jeneral.
K: The K has the same sound as in English in kilo and Kentucky.
L: Same sound as in Leonard and lake.
LL: This is a tricky letter; it sound is something between the y in you and the L itself. We call it elye, so Llanero has a sound similar to yanero, but with your tongue touching both sides of your superior maxillae.
M: Same sound as in English.
N: Same as English.
Ñ: This one is also tricky, it has an unique sound that it can be related at the sound of niy- followed by a vowel, the middle of your tongue has to touch your palatal ceiling, name is read as niyame, but the niy part must sound as one unique sound.
P: Same sound as English in potato, par, etc.
Q: The q in Spanish is only used to give us the k sound with the vowels e and i, as we already said in letter C, it is always followed by a mute u, so that the sounds are que- (ke) and qui- (ki).
Queso (keso) means cheese, quimioterapia (kimioterapia)
R: It sounds as r in English but with more strength, especially when is doubled as in carril, carro, cerro, etc.
S: It has the same s English sound as in space, souvenir, said, etc
T: Same as English in “time”. There is no explosive sound in Spanish for the t, as happens in “construction”, and there is no smooth sound as the one in “the”; either. T sounds always like the t in time and taste.
