Vowels

Vowel sounds and spellings

The few Spanish words that are common in English can serve as models for your pronunciation. Pronounce the word “ taco.” The letter a is always pronounced like it is in taco. If you have ever heard a person speaking with a heavy Spanish accent, you may have noticed that they usually say a word like “hat” or “can” sounding more like the English words “hot” or “con.” That is because they are saying the letter a the only way it can be said in their language.

The letter o is also consistently pronounced like it is in taco. You may notice that the o is shorter in Spanish and doesn't end in a wa at the end

Another word we have learned from the popularity of Mexican food is burrito The Spanish vowels u and i are always pronounced like they are in the word burrito.

The only vowel that we have yet to master is the e. It is always pronounced like the e in café. To see how well you're learning, go back and make sure you pronounce the a in café correctly. It should sound like the a in taco.

Notice that the e at the end of the word is not silent like “cake” would be pronounced in English. Remember that there are no silent vowels in Spanish (except for the qu and gu issue), so be careful of cognates that end in e and remember to say “ay” at the end.

The letter y is a vowel only when it stands alone or when it is at the end of the word. It is pronounced like the i in “ burrito” when it is a vowel, example: ley. As a consonant, the Spanish y sounds just like “yellow” in English, example: yo.

The easiest vocabulary words to learn are also the trickiest to pronounce. There are a lot of Spanish words that look similar to English words, and some are even spelled exactly the same. As discussed earlier, under “Cognates” these words are never pronounced exactly like their English equivalent. Also, a Spanish word that does sound like an English word will probably be spelled differently in Spanish to maintain the rules of their language. When you recognize a cognate and immediately determine its meaning, it's natural to just say the English word.

One good way to eliminate the urge to simply pronounce a cognate that you notice in English is to practice by pronouncing all English words as if they were Spanish. At the end of the unit, this example will make more sense, but imagine when you see, the English word “imagine” that you pronounce it “ee-mah-hee-nay” because that's how the letters would be pronounced in Spanish. Later, when you learn the word “imagina” you will be prepared to say “ee-mah-hee-nah” almost perfectly.

Diphthongs

The strong vowels are a, e, and o. When two strong vowels are used together in a word, the result is two separate syllables with both vowels strongly pronounced. If one of the strong vowels is used beside a weak vowel, the resulting single syllable, called a diphthong, is a slur of the two vowels with the stronger vowel the only one that is clearly heard.

The weak vowels are i and u. Remember in the battle of the weak vowels, the last one gets stressed. The u creates the sound of an English w. When the i is used with a stronger vowel, the i sounds like the consonant y in both languages.