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Mexican
Spanish Pronunciation Guide |
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Spanish
is a nearly perfectly phonetic language, i.e., each letter is always
pronounced exactly the same. This
makes it a very easy language to learn to pronounce properly, if you
learn the rules. Here is a
guide to help you. This guide
to Mexican Spanish pronunciation is based on common western U.S. (west
of Ohio) and western Canadian English pronunciation: e like the ay in bay i as in machine o as in cold u
like the oo in food b
as in boy (see also, v) c before e or i, the same as s, otherwise, like the c in care ch
as in church, although the initial "t" sound is more
emphasized d
as in dog when an initial letter of a word or syllable or after n
or l, f as in fair, never soft, as in effusive g
before e or i, like the h in hair, otherwise like the g in
game h
always silent j
like the h in hair k
like the c in care l like the l in like ll
like the heavily stressed y in YES!, as when your team scores.
Often, in México, it's pronounced m
as in man n
as in name p
as in pan q
always followed by ue or ui, the u is silent r
lightly trilled at the start of a word or syllable; otherwise
like the soft d in medicine in casual rr
strongly trilled, no real English equivalent s
as in sun t
as in top v
the same as b w
as in wander x
as in exit except in words borrowed from the various Mexican
Indian languages, y
before a vowel, see ll, otherwise the same as i
z like the s in sun The following are the common Spanish diphthongs, really pseudo-diphthongs, as both letters are pronounced, one slightly weaker than the other (usually the i or the u). The two letters are pronounced so close together (almost slurred) that it is very hard for an English speaker to hear them as separate. When first learning Spanish words, you should make the effort to pronounce both letters, even though that is not truly correct, otherwise some bad mispronunciations could cause you to be misunderstood. ai like ah-ee au like ah-oo ei like ay-ee ia like ee-ah ie like ee-ay oi
like oh-ee except
for English loan words such as boiler where it is pronounced like the oy
in boy, oa
like oh-ah, sometimes slurred as
wah, ua
like oo-ah, but commonly slurred as
wah ue
or üe like oo-ay
ue
after g or q the u
is silent, not a pseudo-diphthong ui
or üi like oo-ay
ui
after g or q the u
is silent, not a pseudo-diphthong uo
like oo-oh If
the vowel combination has an accent mark over either letter, this
"splits" the combination and they are pronounced totally
separately. Unfortunately,
in México the common suffix -ria that should almost always have the
accent mark, -ría, but rarely has it, so be careful.
It's pronounced RREE
ah, most of the time. Pseudo-diphthong
examples: six
= seis = say-ees
not says Stress:
The stress in most words depends on the last letter of the word: If it's
a vowel (a e i o u) or n or s, the stress is on the next-to-last
syllable, e.g., tácos, señóra (accent marks for this guide only),
otherwise it's on the last syllable, e.g., señór, nacionál, comér (accent
marks for this guide only). Only
words that don't follow these rules are written with an accent mark to
let you know which is the stressed syllable. Note: In México, when a word is written in all capital letters,
the accent marks are NOT used, so it's easy to make pronunciation
errors. Be aware. Note: Some written single syllable words have an accent mark that
has nothing to do with pronunciation, they are only there to
differentiate the word from one with the identical spelling but a
different meaning, e.g., sí = yes, si -=if.
Sometimes the accent mark is used to "split" a vowel
combination (so it's not a pseudo-diphthong) such as ía or úo, which
puts the stress on the syllable ending with the accented letter. Some
last notes for perfectionists:
Some
consonants, particularly p and t, are pronounced in English with a plosive,
i.e., a sort of puff of air that lays a little extra stress on the
letter. Spanish
pronunciation, while nearly identical with the English, never does this. Spoken
Spanish is often not enunciated as separate words, but until you are
very fluent, continue to enunciate the separate words, as you would in
English. This merely sounds
somewhat theatrical to those listening, it won't be misunderstood. One
of the reasons English speakers hear Spanish as "very fast" is
that spoken Spanish gives only approximately 1/2 the time to a vowel
that spoken English does. Spanish
speakers will hear the person learning Spanish pronounce words as if
they are heavily "drawled".
English speakers will hear the native Spanish speaker sound as if
he is "clipping" his vowels.
You will be understood by the native Spanish speaker, but it may
be difficult for you to understand the native Spanish speaker.
Good examples are the words yes and no = sí and no.
You and I, English speakers, will usually say these as the
English words see (sseee) and no (nnooo), the Spanish speaker will say
them as see (se) and no (no), exactly
the same sound, but so "clipped" and so abrupt that it sounds
rude to an English speaker. When
using the transliterated phonetic versions of the Spanish words, you
need to practice saying them until you can say them all run-together,
otherwise your pronunciation will be considered a little
"odd", not necessarily wrong, but definitely odd. *The
soft Spanish d. This is
tough. It's really not
pronounced like the soft d in medicine, as that will be misunderstood by
Spanish speakers as a soft r. It's
actually sort of a cross between a soft English d and a th.
Probably the best example is a deliberately lisped s (in a
comical manner). This is
not the famous Spanish lisp, but an English s, deliberately lisped for
comical reasons as in thithy (sissy).
The word for pig = cerdo, is pronounced SAYR thoh with this sort
of not-quite-th sound. **The
ue and ui after g and q are not pseudo-diphthongs, as the u is totally
silent. In the case of the
g it is used to indicate that a g before e or i is pronounced as a hard
g instead of the normal h. The
üe and the üi after g are normal pseudo-diphthongs.
They just have the dieresis (those two little dots) so you will
know that they are not silent. I
haven't discovered why the u is after the q in the que and qui sounds.
Probably some lost historical reason.
Latin? ***The
soft Spanish r. This is
real tough. The word for
newspaper = periodico, will be heard by most English speakers as
pediodico. But the English
word medicine, when spoken casually (the tip of the tongue lazily
resting against lower teeth) by a central/western U.S. English speaker,
will be heard by most Spanish speakers as mericine, so the best way to
describe the pronunciation is like the soft d in medicine, in my
opinion. Enjoy! David
W. Bodwell |