Spanish pronunciation assessment: case study #1 – Episode 60

Spanish pronunciation assessment: case study #1

Podcast episode 60 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Today I bring you something very special, which I think you’re going to love.

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

Today we’ve got a Spanish pronunciation assessment.

A few days ago I asked Simon, one of my students, to record a few sentences and words from my Spanish course.

I wanted to give him an assessment of his pronunciation, so he can work on the sounds that he’s not getting right.

I asked him if I could make his assessment into one of my podcast episodes, and he kindly agreed.

Simon’s an English speaker, and he’s got many of the problems you’ve got with the Spanish sounds.

His assessment is going to help you improve your accent really fast.

The way I’m going to do it is this:

I’m going to focus on just one of the sentences he recorded.

First, I’m going to play it twice. And then I’m going to go through the sounds that need the most work.

Then, we’ll see how the words in Simon’s sentence should be joined together, so he sounds more like a native.

And, finally, we’ll have a look at his intonation.

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

Let’s listen to Simon’s sentence:

“Buenos días, ¿tiene una mesa para cinco?”

Simon’s sentence can be understood, but some of the sounds need to be clearer.

The main problem with Simon’s pronunciation of this sentence is the vowel A. It doesn’t sound clear enough in these four words:

días

una

mesa

para

The Spanish A sounds like this: a.

Compare how he says the A in his sentence and how I say it:

Buenos días, ¿tiene una mesa para cinco?

Another vowel that Simon needs to work on is the I. Again, his I is not clear enough. Specially in these two words:

días

cinco

The Spanish I sounds like this: i.

Compare how he says the I in his sentence and how I say it.

Another sound Simon needs to work on is the T. His T is too strong. The Spanish T is softer than the English T.

Notice how he says it in the word: tiene

And compare it with how I say it:

Buenos días, ¿tiene una mesa para cinco?

To produce the English T, your tongue touches the gum ridge behind your upper front teeth. Think of the word: Ten.

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

Practise saying the word tiene with your tongue touching the back of your top teeth: tiene.

Notice how the Spanish T does not have that puff of air typical of the English T.

Let’s hear Simon’s sentence again. Notice how he says the T in the word tiene.

And compare it to mine.

¿tiene una mesa para cinco?

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

The three groups are:

Number 1: buenos días

Number 2: tiene una mesa

And number 3: para cinco

Let’s go through the first group: buenos días

In English, when you say good morning, you clearly emphasise the word morning: good morning.

In Spanish, it’s the word buenos that’s emphasised.

Simon has put the stress on the word días, so the phrase sounds a bit odd.

Compare how he says it and how I say it: buenos días

When you listen to the recordings in your Spanish course, pay attention to how each group of words is stressed. And imitate the way native speakers say them.

Let’s listen to how Simon says the second group of words.

Here, he hasn’t stressed any of the three words. So, I’m afraid he sounds a bit robotic.

The word he should have stressed is the verb tiene. Notice how I stress it:

¿tiene una mesa?

And the third group is: para cinco.

The word to stress is cinco, and Simon has got it right:

Finally, I want to touch on the overall intonation of this sentence.

What we’re saying here is a question, so the pitch should go up and reach the top with the last word:

¿tiene una mesa para cinco?

Simon has raised his pitch at the end, with the word cinco, so we can tell he’s asking a question. But, to sound more natural, he should have started raising his pitch slowly from the beginning of the question:

¿tiene una mesa para cinco?

So, what should Simon do to improve his Spanish pronunciation?

I’d suggest that he focuses on the vowels, specially A and I.

He would also make fast progress if he were to practise saying whole sentences.

The best way to do it is to listen to individual sentences, and then say them out loud, along with the recordings.

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

Instead of practising plenty of sentences in one go, I’d suggest that he focuses on two or three sentences at a time, and spends five or ten minutes on each one.

To finish this assessment, I have a tip for you.

If you want to develop a great Spanish accent, try this:

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.