These Spanish pronunciation mistakes are ruining your speaking – Episode 90

These Spanish pronunciation mistakes are ruining your speaking

Podcast episode 90 – SEE ALL EPISODES

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

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Today we’ve got another great Spanish language question.

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

Today’s question is, what are the basic Spanish pronunciation mistakes that English speakers make? This is one of my favourite questions. So by far the biggest pronunciation mistake that most English speakers make is: the vowels.

If you say the five Spanish vowels correctly, every time, your communication skills will improve dramatically, and it actually is a lot easier than you think. The five vowels in Spanish sound: A, E, I, O, U.

That’s how the Spanish vowels should sound every time.

Now the problem is that because of the way the English vowel sound, it is tempting to say the Spanish words just like you would say them in English.

Let’s focus on each of the five files. Let’s start with A. That’s how it should always sound: A.

Think of the way you say English words like: metal, natural, normal.

Now, these three words are spelled exactly the same way in Spanish, but they are said quite differently. Listen to the way I say them. Metal, natural, normal.

See how I’ve always said the words with an A sound: metal, natural, normal.

And that’s how your Spanish A should sound, whether it’s at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word.

Let’s move on to E, the letter E. Here there are two big problems. One is the temptation to drop the E at the end of words. For example: pasaporte, passport; chocolate, chocolate; doble, double.

Dropping the E at the end of words in Spanish makes those words very difficult to understand. Another big problem posed by the vowel E in Spanish is the temptation to say it like in English. Let’s take for example the word “euro” in English, E U R O, the currency. In Spanish it’s said: euro. So the two vowels, E U, have to be said very clearly: euro.

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Let’s look at the letter I.

Here the problem is saying it like in the English word “mind”. We’ve got words like: Carolina, Carolina; Irlanda, Ireland; China, China.

See the difference between the English and the Spanish: Carolina, Irlanda, China.

Now when you say words in Spanish with an I sound that shouldn’t be there, they are very difficult to understand. For example, the airline is called: Iberia. In English it’s said: Iberia. In Spanish, it’s Iberia.

It might not sound like a big difference, but it really is quite difficult to understand if it’s not said with the I sound that the native Spanish ear expects to hear.

Let’s move on to the vowel: O.

Let’s listen to words like: momento, moment; radio, radio; completo, complete.

Notice how I’m pronouncing the letter O in Spanish. I am not adding a short U sound of the end of those words: momento, radio, completo.

Think of the word: no. Do you hear that slight U sound at the end of it? Well, that should never be there in Spanish. The word “no” is”no”. A clear pure sound: O. No.

And the final vowel is U, the letter U.

Here we can think of words like: natural, natural; tubo, tube; unido, united.

Notice the difference between English and Spanish: natural, natural; tubo, tube; unido, united.

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The Spanish U always sounds that way: U. Pure, unique sound: U.

To recap, the Spanish vowels sound: A, E, I, O, U.

And that’s the sound they have whether they are at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word. Now, when a vowel is stressed, it can be slightly longer. And when it’s non stressed, and when it’s inside a diphthong, it often is a little bit shorter, but it’s always there, you should never completely drop any of the Spanish vowels. So the sound again is; A, E, I, O, U.

Next time you go through your Spanish lessons, focus on the vowels. Notice the mistakes you’re making, and try to avoid them. And also notice that the better you pronounce the Spanish vowels, the better other people will understand you. It can really make quite a big difference to your communication skills.

Now, one thing you may have noticed by now, if you’ve got some Spanish courses, is how little emphasis they put on the pronunciation. This is something that has always amazed me. Courses often tell you that Spanish pronunciation is easy, and therefore they just ignore it.

Basically, they don’t concentrate on it, they don’t focus on it, and they don’t tell you the mistakes that you may be making. And therefore the courses just leave you to your own devices.

And you often end up having a terrible pronunciation. I’ve had plenty of students in the past that had a very high level, but their pronunciation was really quite bad, and we had to work very heavily on it.

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

Now getting a good pronunciation at the beginning when you’re starting to learn the language is a lot easier than having to go back and relearn it. But if you’ve already made those mistakes, if you’ve already got a Spanish pronunciation that is not great, I can help you quite a bit. Because I always find that pronunciation is a huge, huge part of the process of learning a language.

Having a good pronunciation will not only help you communicate much more easily with other people; it also means that you will be able to understand other people a lot better too.

The better your pronunciation is, the better you’ll be able to understand other people, because you know what sounds to expect. Also, with a good pronunciation, every word that you know is a word that you can use.

With a bad pronunciation, when you say a word and other people don’t understand it, it’s like you don’t really know that word, because you cannot use it in conversation.

So I really want to help you and get the best pronunciation in Spanish that you can possibly achieve.

Find out more about my Spanish courses.