Spanish Pronunciation Tips

Whenever you learn a new language, one of the problems you find is that whatever you say does not sound “like a native speaker”. Many times, you have been told that quite a few vowels or consonants sound basically the same in the two languages….. ¡Perdón! (Sorry!) You have not been told the whole truth. So let’s try to correct those errors of the past and you may find that your Spanish sounds better and that, consequently, you become more confident at expressing yourselves.

This is not the perfect scenario to do this type of practice. A face-to-face situation and the inclusion of sound would make things easier; however, the major role here is yours. If you practice these exercises, your Spanish will improve.

Try to practice in front of a mirror, concentrate on what you are doing and repeat as many times as you can.

Five to ten minutes practice every day will be more beneficial than half an hour once a month.

And to start with, some basic concepts that need to be understood.

Vowels: They are pure sounds. The air within your mouth is modulated using your lips and the inside of your mouth. There are no barriers to the sound. And in Spanish they are always single sounds. In English we find that most of the vowels are pronounced as if they were dipthongs, or double sounds. We also have dipthongs in Spanish; however, we need to represent those sounds by using two distinct vowels and we pronounce each one of them.
Also, Spanish vowels sound a tini bit longer and more open than English vowels, just as if we were putting a mute h at the end of the vowel. For example, the word ala (wing) . The a sound will be identical to the a in the English word “father”; however, it would be as if you were saying ahlah

More to come…..