The Sounds of Spanish (Part 2)

Los Consonantes (The Consonants)

B and V
B -  el búho (the owl) / los búhos (the owls)
       EL BOO-HOH
La letra BE, pronounced like the English word "Bay."
"Be Larga" is sometimes said to distinguish Be from VE because the names sound so similar.
B is pronounced like the B in english.
Ba - BAH
Be - BAY
Bi - BEE
Bo - BOH
Bu - BOO

V  -  la ventana (the window) / las ventanas (the windows)
        LAH VAYN-TAH-NAH
La letra VE, pronounced like the English word "Bay" but with a softer b.
"Ve Cheque" is sometimes said to distinguish Ve from Be because the names sound so similar.
V sounds very different than the English V. It has a "bv" sound. It sounds like a soft b sound but the lips are not quite closed all the way.
Va - BVAH
Ve - BVAY
Vi - BVEE
Vo - BVOH
Vu - BVOO



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C, Q, K and Z
C  -  el camión (the truck*) / los camiones (the trucks*)
        EL KAH-ME-OHN
La letra CE, pronounced like the English word "Say."
C changes its sound based which vowel follows. It also has a different sound in the "Castelleno" (Castilian) dialect in Spain.
When C is followed by an A, O or U, it has the same sound as the English K.
                    CA - la cantidad (the quantity) / las cantidades (the quantities)
                             LAH KAHN-TEE-DAHDD
                    CO - el coco (the coconut) / los cocos (the coconuts)
                             EL KOH-KOH
                    CU - el cunado (the brother-in-law) / los cunados (the brothers-in-law)
                             EL KOO-NAH-DOH
                 
When C is followed by an E or an I, it has the same sound as an English S. However, in Castilian Spanish in Spain, the sound is a soft TH sound pronounced with a slight exhale.
                    CE - la cena (the dinner) / las cenas (the dinners)
                             LAH SAY-NAH
                             LAH THAY-NAH  in Spain
                     CI - el cinturón (the belt) / los cinturones (the belts)
                             EL SEEN-TOO-ROHN
                             EL THEEN-TOO-ROHN in Spain

When C is followed by H it has the same sound as CH in English. In recent years CH has been officially removed from the official Spanish Alphabet along with LL and RR. All three used to be stand alone letters but are now considered blends of existing letters.
                     CH - el chaqueta (the jacket) / los chaquetas (the jackets)
                              EL CHAH-KAY-TAH

Q  -  el queso (the cheese) / los quesos (the cheeses)
        EL KAY-SOH
La letra QU, pronounced like the English "COO" in "Coon."
Q always has sound just like the English K. It is almost always followed by a silent U.
                    QUE - pronounced like "KAY" in English
                    QUI - pronounced like "KEY" in English

K  -  el kilómetro (the kilometer) / los kilómetros (the kilometers)
        EL KEE-LOH-MEH-TRO
La letra KA, prounced like "KAH" in English.
K always sounds the same as English. K is only used in foreign words or words of foreign origin.
                    KA - pronounced like "KAH" in English
                    KE - pronounced like "KAY" in English
                    KO - pronounced like "KOH" in English
                    KI - pronounced like "KEY" in English
                    KU - pronounced like "COO" in English

Z  -  el zapato (the shoe) / los zapatos (the shoes)
        EL SAH-PAH-TOH or EL THAH-PAH-TOH
La letra ZETA, pronounced SAY-TAH or THAY-TAH.
Z sounds like S in most of the Spanish world, but Castilian Spanish changes the sound to the same soft TH sound as with CE and CI.
                    ZA - pronounced "SAH" or "THAH"
                    ZO - pronounced "SO"or "THO"
                    ZU - pronounced "SUE" or "THOO"
                    ZI - pronounced the same as the CI syllable, but ZI will not be used. This sound is almost always spelled CI.
                    ZE - pronounced the same as the CE syllable, but ZE will not be used. This sound is almost always spelled CE.

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D  -  el diente (the tooth) / los dientes (the teeth)
        EL DEE-EN-TAY
La letra DE, prounced like "DAY" in English.
D has the same sound as English except that the D is always a hard D in Spanish. English has a tendency to soften the sound. If you soften the sound, a native speak may think you are pronouncing an  R instead of a D. Native speakers will sometimes soften the last D in words that end in -DAD, but this is technically incorrect pronunciation. La Navidad is pronounced LAH NA-BVEE-DAHDD and not LAH NAH-BVEE-DAH.
                    DA - pronounced like "DAH" in English
                    DE - pronounced like "DAY" in English
                    DO - pronounced like "DOH" in English
                    DI - pronounced like "DEE" in English
                    DU - pronounced like the English word "DO"

Lesson To Be Continued….

The Sounds of Spanish (Part 1)

Las Vocales (The Vowels)

A  E  I  O  U  and just like english Y is sometimes used as a vowel.

Unlike English, Spanish does not have long and short vowels. The vowel letters simply have one sound, and they just say that sound.

A  -  el águila (the eagle) / las águilas (the eagles)
        EL AH-GEE-LAH
A is pronounced like the A in "haha" or in the phrase "a lot."

E  -  el efectivo (the cash)
        EL A-FEC-TEE-BVO
E is pronounced like the long vowel sound of A in English, like the A in Alien.

Now do you see what we're doing here, by relating the sounds to sounds you already know? It is by building on your existing knowledge base, by relating words to words and learning patterns, that you will be successful at retaining a new language. This entire blog series will be based on this concept. Every lesson will lead into the next and refer to previous posts as well.

Now, moving on …

I  -  la isla (the island or the isle) / las islas (the islands or the isles)
      LAH EE-SLAH
I is pronounced like the long vowel sound of E in English, like the E in east.

O  -  la oveja (the sheep) / las ovejas (the sheep)
        LAH OH-BVAY-HA
O is pronounced like long vowel sound of O in English, like the O in open.

U  -  la uva (the grape) / las uvas (the grapes)
        LAH OO-BVAH
U is pronounced like the special OO vowel sound that occurs in English words like zoo and loop

Y (the vowel) -  hay ("there is" or "there are") (pronounced like the english word eye)
                          AYE
Y (the consonant) -  el yaguar (the jaguar) / los yaguares (the jaguars)
                           EL YAH-GWAR
In Spanish, this letter is called igriega, which tells you exactly where it comes from and its vowel origins. Igreiga can be broken apart to read "I Griega" or "Greek I" in English.

This concept of Y being a semi-vowel is debatable. Many would disagree with me, but there is no denying the evidence in my opinion. Clearly Y started out as a vowel and we later derived the consonant sound from the vowel based on the sounds this letter forms when transitioning from one vowel to another. To understand we must first define exactly what is a vowel and what is a consonant.

A vowel is any sound produced by vibrating the vocal cords. So, yes it is possible for there to be more than the vowels we know. Technically one could argue that English has 10 vowels if you were to consider the long and short vowels to be separate, unrelated sounds. It would have more than that if you were to consider all the special vowel sounds such as the two sounds represented by oo such as in zoo and look.

A consonant is formed when the tongue obstructs the breath in such a way as to form a new sound when combined with a vowel sound to form a syllable.

A letter is simply a written symbol that represents a sound. The reason why the letter Y can represent both a vowel sound and a consonant sound is that when you combine the I vowel sound with another vowel immediately after it, such as ía in la sandía (the watermelon), or io as in la viola (the viola), the consonant sound is naturally formed during the transition.

          Examples
               la sandía is pronounced LAH SAHN-DEE-YAH
               because ía is pronounced EE-AH or EE-YAH

               la viola is pronounced LAH VEE-YOHLAH
               because io is pronounced EE-OH or EE-YOH

Lesson To Be Continued….

What Qualifies This Guy To Teach Me?

Ask yourself 1 question, "How do I learn a language?"

The answer is simple; you use it! The secret to learning a language is making that commitment to set aside 15 to 20 minutes a day to focus on learning something new. The first step is to get rid of that "can't do" attitude that has stopped you from trying before. You can learn Spanish. After all, millions of babies learn it everyday.

More than 400 million people speak Spanish in 21 countries around the world. That's a lot of people with a lot of stories. Wouldn't you like to be able to talk to some of them?

If you live here in the United States, learning Spanish can be an investment, too. Job opportunities open everyday for bilingual translators and interpreters. An interpreter in the state of Texas can earn as much as $49,000 per year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Now, you may be asking yourself, "Okay, all those facts seem to check out, but why should I listen to this guy? What credentials does he have?" Well, that is a good question. Let me tell you a little about myself. I'm Jon, and no, I am not fluent in Spanish. I am certainly not a native speaker. However, I have been told many times by native speakers that I speak Spanish better than their children. I did not start out learning Spanish in a classroom setting. I actually had been interested in Spanish since I was around 6 years old. It always fascinated me that there were people who spoke words that I could not understand, and being the curious soul that I am, I bought my first Spanish dictionary. I would learn a few words here and there, but I never really learned anything that allowed me to understand.

In the 8th grade, my school offered an after school Spanish class. The teacher was Panamanian. I signed up and attended the first 3 classes before it was decided for me that an after school class was just not going to work out. Then, in 2004, I started work at my first job at McDonald's, which is a little ironic because I am writing this blog post from inside a McDonald's. This is where my Spanish made leaps and bounds. I worked with a crew that spoke primarily Spanish. At the same time, I had just started taking Spanish 1 in High School. I worked in the kitchen with Yesenia, Jacqueline, Maria, and Ricardo. Management did not speak any Spanish, either. Yesenia knew a little English, and I knew a little Spanish. Yesenia was Guatamalan, Jacqueline and Ricardo were Mexican, and Maria was Hondurian. So, Yesenia and I started working together and pretty much managed the kitchen because she and I were the only ones who could read the orders on the screen. We would have to call out the orders in Spanish so that Jacqueline or Ricardo could make the correct sandwich. Yesenia and I would talk about how to say things in English or Spanish or what something meant. I believe that this experience working with native speakers while learning the language is what ultimately helped me to retain the language. I graduated in 2005 and moved on to an art college where I graduated with a BGA in Commercial Illustration.

I hardly used any Spanish again until almost 7 years later. In 2011, I applied to Middle Tennessee State University for a Bachelor of Science degree in Foreign Languages with a concentration in Spanish and a focus on Teacher Licensure. My ultimate goal is to teach as a professor in a University. Since I had never taken a course in Spanish at university level, the school allowed me to take a placement exam. I took the test and was given credit for 4 lower division courses pending I passed my first class in the 3000 level, which just happened to be Advanced Spanish Grammar. I caught on quickly, and I have been slowly pursuing my degree ever since. It will take me a while to complete it because I am taking only 1 to 2 classes per semester, and I also have 2 minors, one in secondary education and the other in German. So, I have a lot of classes to take.

I have been volunteering my time since July 2016 at the Nashville Adult Literacy Council. Because of my background with languages, I primarily spend my time with ELL students. I occasionally get a hispanic student, but a large number of my students have been Chinese. That being said, I have been told that I have a knack for explaining things in a easy way to understand. It may sound tedious and boring in the beginning, but I promise you that if you can stay with me through the first 5 or so lessons, you will be much better equipped to learn new Spanish from context than you would had you spent thousands of dollars at a university, especially if you are a fairly quick learner. So, let's make deal, if you will commit to setting aside 15-20 minutes of your time each day to learn a little Spanish, I will commit to updating this blog with a new lesson every 2 to 3 days with homework assignments designed to help you continue your learning even on days I do not post something new for you to learn.

To give you a little preview of what is to come, the first 5 lessons are:
1) Sounds of Spanish
2) The alphabet
3) Rules of Accents
4) Articles and Spanish Plurals
5) Numbers

The Sounds of Spanish lesson will probably be divided up into 3 posts. So, look for the first part of that lesson in the next couple of days. I will also be recommending reading material and study materials side by side with the lessons.

Y'all have a good day now!
Jon Slayton