Improve Your Spanish Pronunciation – Getting the Rhythm

Posted on August 13, 2009 @ 2:17 am
by Martha Benitez

You will hopefully find that your favourite Spanish guide or dictionary has a section on pronunciation. If that section is in any way typical, it will deal largely with the pronunciations of individual sounds of the language. It’s surely a helpful starting point to consider how to pronounce, say, “the Spanish rolled r” or “the Spanish ‘i’ vowel” in isolation, or in certain example words. But your strategy for improving your pronunciation also needs to go beyond this letter-by-letter or sound-by-sound approach.

If you want your speech to sound as natural and intelligible as possible, the rhythm of your speech can be just as important as, say, the quality of individual vowels. As an illustration of the importance of rhythm in speech, think in English about how you’d differentiate a ‘lighthouse keeper’ from a ‘light housekeeper’. In this article, I’ll outline two important elements of rhythm and how they work in Spanish: syllabification and stress. Syllabification is the process of organising the sounds of a word or utterance into syllables, and can differ a little from language to language. Informally, when we clap a word or phrase, we clap once to each syllable.

A (ah), B (bay), C (thay), CH (chay),D (day), E (ay), F (‘eff-ay), G (Hay), H (‘ah-chay), I (ee), J (‘Ho-tah), K (kah), L (‘ell-ay), LL (‘ell-yay), M (‘emm-ay), N (‘enn-ay), (‘enn-yay), O (o), P (pay), Q (koo), R (‘airr-ay), S (‘ess-ay), T (tay), U (oo), V (‘oo-vay), W (‘oo-vay-’do-blay), X (‘ay-kiss), Y (ee-gre-’ay-gah), Z (‘thay-tah). Did you notice three extra letters in the alphabet? The three extra letters are the “CH”, the “”, and the two els side by side “LL”.

There are many websites that can help you to learn such as Latin Chat. The website can help you to master the basics of Spanish while having fun. It may be a challenge but after just a few lessons, you should be able to have meaningful conversations with others. Tutors can be found in almost any city in the US today.

When learning a second language, it is imperative that you know how the word comes out of ones mouth. You can also tell how their tongue accentuates the word. In the Spanish language, Latin speakers talk with their tongue right behind their teeth. This is what helps give their words a much more crisper sound then that of English words. In English, our tongue tends to stay in the back of our throat and that is why it is hard for most North Americans to speak the language spoken in Central and South America.

You are going to be able to speak at a restaurant, at an airport, with new friend, in basically every situation you can think of! So, whether you are interested in learning Spanish for your job, to communicate with neighbors, or if you are planning to travel to a Spanish speaking country, learning a new language online has never been easier!

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