FIRST LESSONSOUNDS OF SPANISH

EN EL NOMBRE DEL PADRE,DEL HIJO ,DEL ESPIRITU SANTO. AMEN

GLORIA AL PADRE,GLORIA AL HIJO,GLORIA AL ESPIRITU SANTO,COMO ERA EN UN PRINCIPIOAHORA Y SIEMPRE, POR LOS SIGLOS DE LOS SIGLOS. AMEN

The good news about Spanish pronunciation is that it obeys clear phonetic rules, although people do speak with different accents, depending on their region and background.

Vowels Each of the five vowels has its own clear sharp sound:

a as in hat

e as in pet

i as in feet

o as in clock

u as in drew  

1) A (aa) apple=manzana 2) B (be) bed= cama 3) C (ce) cent= centavo 4) CH (che) chess=ajedrez 5) D (de) doctor=doctor 6) E (e) elephant=elefante 7) F (efe) father=papá 8) G (he) glue- pegamento 9) H (ache) hour= hora Hammer=

martillo 10) I (ee) image= imagen

11) J (ho-ta) 12) K (ka) kiss = beso 13) L (el-le) lemon- limon 14) LL (eh’ye) y 15) M (eme)mother= mamá 16) N (ene)number=numero 17) Ñ (en-ye) 18) O (o) open= abierto 19) P (pe) pen=pluma 20) Q (coo) quick=rapido 21) R (ere) radio=radio

22) RR (erre) 23) S (ese) sad= triste 24) T (te) tea = té 25) U (ew) 26) V (ve) violin=

violín 27) W (doble-ew) 28) X (e-kees) 29) Y (ee-gree-eh-ga) 30) Z (seh’ta)

c's and z's The famous Castilian lisp, that sounds like

the English 'th' in thick, is applied to ce, ci and z.

You find it in centro, plaza and in names like Cibeles and Preciados. Latin American and southern Spanish speakers, though, pronounce these sounds as an 's'. When c

is followed by the other vowels it's always a hard 'k' sound, as in calle, Cuenca, Colombia.  

j's and g's J, as in Jardines, is a harder, stronger version of

the English 'h'. G, when followed by e and i, sounds exactly the

same as j. Otherwise, it is pronounced as the English 'g' in

go.   ll's The double ll, as in calle, is another characteristic

Spanish sound. It's like the 'lli' in the English million but you can also hear it pronounced like the 'y' in yes.

By looking at the numbers you can pick up a few more tips on Spanish pronunciation:

 

v's and b's They both have the same sound, like a soft English b, as

you'll hear if you listen closely to the word for 9 - nueve.  

ch's and h's Ocho, 8. You won't have much trouble with ch, because it

is the same as in English. You'll also hear it in words like coche, car. The “h” on its own, however, is completely silent: hola sounds like "ola".

 

c's and q's Cu, as in the number 4 = cuatro is always pronounced

as a cw. The same goes for the question words cuándo?=when? or cuánto? = how much?

Que and qui sound like the English k, so parque sounds like "parke" or aquí sounds like "akee".  

s's The s at the end of words like dos and tres normally

sounds like the English s but in the south of Spain, the Canary Islands, and parts of Latin America, it can sound more like a soft h: "doh", "treh".

Personal pronouns in Spanish are used almost the same way as their English equivalents. However, the main difference is that in Spanish they do not need to be expressed since the verb itself will identify the subject. This happens in English with the third person singular of the present tense (to think-> thinks), where the -s shows us that we're dealing with a he, she or it, although in English the pronoun is never omitted with the exception of the imperative ("Sit down!", not "You, sit down!"), unless we want to emphasize on the person being addressed with the command. In Spanish, a pronoun is only needed when refering to a third person (singular or plural) for proper identification purposes since it can be a "she", a "he" or even a formal second person singular. In the plural, the verb ending could be referring to a "they" (masculine or feminine) or to "ustedes", a form of the second person plural used by everyone in all the Hispanic countries, except in Spain, where "vosotros" is preferred.    

The "Vos" Pronoun   There is also another second person singular ("vos") used in some Latin American countries (especially the ones in the South Cone [Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay], although in some Central American countries it is also used [Costa Rica, for example]).

Singular Plural Yo (I) Nosotros/nosotras

(we: masculine/feminine)

Tú/vos/

usted(you/you/formal 'you' singular)

Vosotros/vosotras/ustedes (you all: masculine/feminine)

El/ella (He/She) Ellos/ellas (they: masculine/feminine)

 

Some examples: Spanish English

Yo quiero estudiar or Quiero estudiar I want to study Tú quieres comer or Quieres comer You want to eat *Ella quiere correr or Quiere correr She wants to run *Ellos quieren hablar or Quieren hablar They want to talk

Notice how in Spanish the verb ending identifies the subject, except when using a third person, in which case we have several possibilities. In those cases you will find that either the subject is identified through the use of the personal pronoun or name, or it has been identified in a previous sentence

The words for 'I', 'you', etc.: yos and túIn Spanish, you often don't need a separate word for I, you, we, etc, as the information is all there in the verb itself:

soy I'm Soy de Canarias. I'm from the Canaries.

eres you are ¿De dónde eres? Where are you from?

vamos we go Vamos al cine. We go to the cinema.

The words I, you, etc, do exist but are used mainly for emphasis or contrast:  

Yo soy de Canarias. Me, I'm from the Canaries.  

adiós - goodbye bien - good, well él - he, him ella - she, her ellas - they (female) ellos - they (male) hola - hello Yo soy.....- I am

gracias - thank you lo siento - I'm sorry nosotros - us, we (plural) señor - sir, mister señora - madame señorita - miss tú - you (informal) usted - you (formal) ustedes - you (plural, formal) yo - I

0 cero 1 uno 2 dos 3 tres 4 cuatro 5 cinco 6 seis 7 siete 8 ocho 9 nueve 10 diez

la casa - house la cocina - kitchen el cuarto - room el baño - bathroom la mesa - table la pared - wall

la puerta - door la silla - chair el teléfono - telephone la televisión - television la ventana - window

antipático(-a) - unpleasant bonito(-a) - pretty bueno(-a) - good/well cómodo(-a) - comfortable contento(-a) - happy/glad enfermo(-a) - sick, ill feo(-a) - ugly

grande - big limpio(-a) - clean malo(-a) - bad nervioso(-a) - nervous simpático(-a) - pleasant, nice sucio(-a) - dirty tranquilo(-a) - calm viejo(-a) - old

blanco(-a) - white amarillo(-a) - yellow anaranjado(-a) - orange rosado(-a) - pink rojo(-a) - red azul - blue verde - green café, marrón - brown gris - grey negro(-a) - black