Spanish Pronunciation: Another 5 Difficult Words – Episode 81

Spanish Pronunciation: Another 5 Difficult Words

Podcast episode 81 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Today you’re going to master saying 5 difficult everyday words.

See also: Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses.

Today’s question comes from Sharon, one of my newsletter subscribers. Sharon emailed me to ask for a pronunciation lesson. She said: “I often find that it’s the short and very common words that are the most difficult ones to say. Can we practice some of them?”

I agree with Sharon that many short and common words are difficult to pronounce. They’re also the most important ones to learn well.

That’s why today I bring you five very common words that you’re probably saying wrong. By the end of this short lesson, you’ll be saying these five words without trouble.

These are the five words you’re going to master. Repeat after me:

• llegar :: to arrive
• precio :: price
• preferir :: to prefer
• tarde :: late
• tren :: train

Let’s say those 5 words again.

So, what’s difficult about those words? Which pronunciation mistakes are you likely to be making? Let’s go through the 5 words:

Llegar, to arrive. Here the most difficult sound is the double ‘l’. ‘ll’. It’s often tempting to say the Spanish double ‘l’ like an ‘i’, but that makes it difficult to understand. Try saying the double ‘l’ like the ‘j’ in the English word ‘jet’. Llegar.

Also, notice how I say the final ‘r’ in ‘llegar’. We saw that the single R does NOT have a trill. Instead, this sound is produced by a single flap against the front of your palate. R. Try making that sound in ‘llegar’.

The second word in this lesson is: precio, price. Here you need to watch out for the vowels: e, i, o. Make sure your ‘e’ sounds like this: e. And that you don’t add a short ‘u’ after the final ‘o’. The Spanish ‘o’ is a pure sound: o.

In the word ‘precio’, practice saying the syllable: p-r-e. Pre. This is a sound you’ll be able to practice with my Spanish online course. For now, make sure you can get close to producing this sound: pre.

The third word in this lesson is: preferir, to prefer. Again, practice saying the syllable: pre. Make sure you flap your tongue against the front of your palate to produce the three ‘r’s’ in this word: preferir.

Also, watch out for the two ‘e’s’. They should both sound like this: e. Preferir.

The fourth word in this lesson is: tarde, late. Here, make sure you’re saying the ‘a’ correctly: a. Tarde. And never drop the last ‘e’: tarde. Dropping that last ‘e’ would make this word impossible to understand: tarde.

To say the ‘r’ in ‘tarde’, make your tongue flap once against the front of your palate: tarde.

The final word in this lesson is: tren, train. Practice saying the syllable: t-r-e, tre. When saying this word, tren, make sure you don’t add any vowel sounds after the final ’n’: tren.

To recap, there are two main points you should focus on when saying these five words:

Number 1 is the vowels. Make sure your vowels in these five words sound like this: a, e, i, o.

And number 2 is the single ‘r’. Remember that the Spanish single ‘r’ is produced by a single flap against the front of your palate. R.

Let’s say those 5 words again. Repeat after me:

• llegar :: to arrive
• precio :: price
• preferir :: to prefer
• tarde :: late
• tren :: train

And once again.

Come back to this lesson every now and then, to make sure you’ve mastered these five everyday words.

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