Guide To The Spanish Language
An introduction to Spanish without the grammar - A new and fresh perspective with some interesting items on
language and the similarities between Spanish and English
Learning Spanish - How Do We Make Real Spanish Sounds
We need to learn how to make the right sound for each letter and also the right sound for each syllable. To understand this very critical element
learning Spanish we need to think about the sounds of speech; a subject known as Phonetics; from the Greek word phone meaning “sound voice”. This
is a big subject in it’s own right and we will not here get too deep into
phonetics, but we do need to be aware of the way we make sounds because language is about making sounds. I want to bring this very important and
critical aspect of language to your attention because you need to focus getting your pronunciation correct, if you want to be understood in Spanish.
This will require you to train your articulators to produce some different sounds to those you are already comfortable with when speaking English.
Your articulators are your tongue, lips, jaw, palate, teeth and vocal tract and how we use these to produce specific speech sounds is known as
“Articulatory Phonetics”.
In speaking English we make many different sounds and some of these sounds are common to other languages. Some languages have unique
sounds but mostly the sounds used in one language can be found in many other languages. The International Phonetic Association (IPA) has recognized
over a hundred different sounds (phones) as distinctive. These sounds are collectively known as the “International Phonetic Alphabet” and used by
linguists to provide a standardized, accurate and unique way of representing the sounds of any spoken language. Once you know the IPA it becomes
easier to learn a new language. I am not suggesting here that we learn the IPA but we do need to know the sounds that are used in the Spanish
language and we need to be aware of the subject. Luckily most of the sounds used in Spanish are also used in the English language so we already know
most of them. We just need to learn the ones that are used in Spanish that are NOT used in English. There are not too many so it should not be too
difficult.
Accent Marks
When we speak a word we maybe put a particular emphasis on one part of the word and maybe almost ignore another part of the word. For example if
we say the word HOT we may not always pronounce the H but make
particular point of sounding the T. This emphasizing one part of a word can be indicated in writing by placing an accent over one of the letters. We do not
do this in English but other languages use this system. This mark over a particular letter is known as a stress or accent. There is not always a mark
over a letter that needs to be stressed because certain rules of pronunciation are well known and understood in a particular language. In Spanish there are
both rules to be understood and in some instances the use of marks or
accents over written letters.
There are three basic rules that cover nearly every word:
1. If a word ends in a vowel or an “n” or “s”, the stress is on the penultimate syllable. For example, toro, computadora, joven and
zapatos all have their accent or stress on the next-to-last syllable. Most words fit this category.
2. Words that end in other letters (not a vowel or “n” or “s”) have the stress on the last syllable. For example, hotel, hablar, madador and
virtud all have the accent on the final syllable.
3. If a word isn't pronounced according to the above two rules, an accent is placed over the vowel of the syllable that gets the stress. For
example, médico and inglés have the stress on the indicated syllable.
Personal names and place names of foreign origin usually are written without accents.
These marks above written letters are also used to help us distinguish between two similar words. For example, el meaning “the” and él meaning
“him” are both pronounced the same way, even though they have quite different meanings. Similarly, some words, such as que and quien, use
accent marks when they appear in questions, but usually not otherwise. Accents that don't affect pronunciation are known as orthographic accents
