Spanish accent assessment: case study #2 – Episode 67

Spanish accent assessment: case study #2

Podcast episode 67 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Today I bring you another Spanish pronunciation assessment.

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

You heard my first pronunciation assessment. That was one of the most popular episodes in this series so far.

Last week, I asked my subscribers whether they wanted another episode like that, and the response was extremely positive.

That’s why, today, I’m bringing you another Spanish pronunciation assessment.

This time we’ve got a sentence read out by Jayne, one of my subscribers. She has kindly agreed to have her assessment featured in this audio lesson.

Jayne is an English speaker. You’re likely to be making the same mistakes as her, so this assessment should help you improve your accent.

This is what I’m going to do in this audio lesson:

We’re going to listen to Jayne’s recording a couple of times.

Then I’m going to go through the sounds that she’s having the most trouble with.

Then, I’ll show you how the words in Jayne’s sentence should be run together. The way native speakers do it.

Finally, I’ll go through Jayne’s intonation in her sentence.

At the end of this audio lesson, I’ll tell you how you can have your Spanish pronunciation assessed by me.

Let’s listen to Jayne’s sentence twice:

No, lo siento, está todo ocupado.

In Jayne’s recording, the first three words “No, lo siento” are fairly clear. But the last three words “está todo ocupado” need quite a bit of work.

Jayne has two main problems with this sentence:

The first one is that her consonants D, P and T are too strong.

Let’s start with the D.

Notice how she says it in the word: todo.

When the Spanish D comes between vowels, it should sound very similar to the TH in the English word RATHER.

Jayne’s D in the word OCUPADO is OK, but in the word TODO it sounds more like a Spanish single R.

Listen to how Jayne says the D in todo, and compare it to how I say it.

Está todo ocupado

Another consonant sound that Jayne isn’t getting right is the P.

Her P in the word OCUPADO is too strong.

The Spanish P is softer, less explosive than the English P. In fact, it’s quite close to the P in the English word SPAIN.

Listen to how Jayne says the P in OCUPADO, and compare it to how I say it.

And the third consonant I want to go through is the T.

Just like we saw in Simon’s pronunciation assessment, Jayne’s T is also too strong. The Spanish T is softer than the English T.

To produce the English T, your tongue touches the gum ridge behind your upper front teeth. Remember the English word: ten.

To produce the Spanish T, your tongue touches a different place. It touches the back of your top teeth.

Practise saying the words SIENTO, ESTÁ, TODO with your tongue touching the back of your top teeth. Notice how the Spanish T does not have that puff of air typical of the English T.

SIENTO – ESTÁ – TODO

Before we move on to the vowels, let’s listen to Jayne’s recording once more.

Focus on how she says the consonants D, P, T. Then compare them to mine.

The second main problem Jayne has with this sentence is that her vowels A and E are not clear enough.

Jayne’s A in the words ESTÁ and OCUPADO is not crisp and clear. It sounds more like the A in the English word: METAL.

Your Spanish A should sound very similar to the A in the English word FATHER, but shorter.

The Spanish A sounds like this: a.

Compare it with how Jayne says it. Can you tell the difference?

And this is how I say it:

está todo ocupado

The second vowel that Jayne needs to work on is the E.

Jayne’s E, specially in the word ESTÁ, is too short. It’s almost not there.

Listen to her recording.

The Spanish E should always sound crisp and clear. Like this:

e – está

Notice that it’s quite similar to the E in the English word EGG.

Now I want to focus on the three groups of words in this sentence. And the way Jayne has stressed them.

In this sentence, the three groups are:

Number 1: no

Number 2: lo siento

And number 3: está todo ocupado

In the first group we’ve got the word NO on it’s own.

Jayne has said this word, and then left a brief gap before saying the next word. That’s the right way to say it, because we want to emphasise the word NO.

Notice that, by emphasising the word NO, the vowel O becomes longer than usual.

Let’s listen to how Jayne says the second group of words:

These two words should be said with no gap between them. Jayne has done that right.

The word you need to emphasise in this group is SIENTO. Jayne has done that right too.

And let’s now listen to Jayne’s third group.

Here, Jayne hasn’t emphasised any of the three words. And she has said them without joining them together. So, the group sounds a bit robotic.

You may remember that I used that same word, robotic, to describe how Simon was saying part of his sentence.

To say the third group of words correctly “está todo ocupado”, you need to string those three words together.

And, at the same time, the word TODO has to be emphasised. That’s because TODO is the word you want your listener to pay attention to the most.

Notice how I’ve emphasised the word TODO, and run it together with OCUPADO: está todo ocupado.

If I wasn’t emphasising the word TODO, I would only say one O sound. I’d say: ‘todocupado’.

But, because I need to emphasise the word TODO, I haven’t dropped the second O sound. Notice how I’ve said two O sounds without a gap between them.

Finally, I want to go through the overall intonation of this sentence.

What we’re saying here is a statement. So you start with a low pitch. Then raise it with the word SIENTO. Continue flat until the word TODO. And finally you drop your pitch slightly with the word OCUPADO.

No, lo siento, está todo ocupado

Jayne has done that quite well.

The important thing when saying statements in Spanish is to avoid raising your voice at the end. Otherwise your statements would sound like questions.

What should Jayne do to improve her Spanish pronunciation fast?

My suggestion is that she practises making her D, P and T less explosive.

Her pronunciation will also improve quickly if she works on her vowels, especially A and E.

A good way of getting the Spanish vowels right is to practise saying words that look similar in English and Spanish. There are quite a few of them in my Spanish course.

Jayne would also make fast progress if she practises saying whole sentences.

Listening to Spanish sentences, and focusing on how words are grouped together, will dramatically improve her communication skills.

The interactive lessons in my Spanish course are ideal for this.

To make fast progress, it’s best to focus on one sentence at a time. Spend five or even ten minutes on each sentence.

Focus on the way words are joined together in that sentence.

Identify the groups of words within that sentence. And notice which word in stressed within each group.

To finish, let me remind you of my golden tip:

It may be tempting to practise saying sentences until you get them right. But, to make a real improvement, you have to practise saying them until you cannot say them wrong.

Have a look at
Maria’s step-by-step Spanish courses

Find out more about my Spanish courses.