Learn the sounds from A to M
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Beatriz: Bienvenidos a Spanishpod101.com. Buenos días, me llamo Beatriz. |
| Joseph: Joseph here. Spanish Phonetic Series, Lesson 2 – “The sounds from A to M.” Muy bienvenidos. My name is Joseph and I am here along with Beatriz. ¿Qué dices Beatriz? |
| Beatriz: El rey de Constantinopla se quiere desconstantinopolizar, el día en que se desconstantinopolice un gran desconstantinopolizador será. |
| Joseph: ¡Asu! What was that? |
| Beatriz: It was “un trabalenguas”. |
| Joseph: “Un trabalenguas”. You must mean “a tongue twister.” |
| Beatriz: Así es, Joseph. Bienvenidos a todos. Welcome to the second lesson of the Spanish Phonetic Series of the Spanishpod101.com. |
| Joseph: Are you worried about speaking Spanish with a thick accent? Then you’re in the right place. |
| Beatriz: Here, we show you exactly how the Spanish language is pronounced which will make it easier to speak and also easier to understand. |
Lesson focus |
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| Joseph: Isn’t that the truth. In this series, we’ll break down the language and show you exactly how pronunciation, intonation, inflexion and spelling work in Spanish. |
| Beatriz: So, join us for this lesson of Spanishpod101. |
| Joseph: Last lesson we went over “el abecedario” – “the Spanish alphabet” and studied the names of “las letras” – “the letters”, so that we could learn how to spell words in Spanish. |
| Beatriz: Today, we will study “los sonidos de las letras”. |
| Joseph: “The sound of the letters.” |
| Beatriz: Starting with the Spanish “A” ongoing until “M”, we’ll save the second half for next lesson. |
| Joseph: We’ll also look at some common mistakes related to pronunciation. |
| Beatriz: Offering you tips on how to accurately pronounce the Spanish language. |
| Joseph: Take your studies to the next level by stopping by the Learning Center at Spanishpod101.com. As we said, today we’ll study the sounds of the letters from the Spanish “A” to the “M” – from the “A” to the “M”. Beatriz, ¿cómo quisieras empezar? How would you like to begin? |
| Beatriz: All right. Let’s start out by going over the sounds of the Spanish letters. |
| Joseph: Sounds like a good idea to me. But before we start, could we introduce a general rule that might help the students? |
| Beatriz: Claro. Sure. Let’s start out by saying that the sounds of the letters in Spanish do not have much variation. |
| Joseph: Not much variation, right. And this is due in great part to the fact that the majority of the letters and sounds used in the Spanish language come from Latin. |
| Beatriz: Whereas in English, very often that word is written one way but pronounced another way. In Spanish, the pronunciation is almost always the same as the written version. |
| Joseph: Tal cual, ¿eh? |
| Beatriz: Tal cual. |
| Joseph: ¿Tal cual? |
| Beatriz: Así es. |
| Joseph: So, why don’t we go ahead and review the sounds of the letters in Spanish from the “A” to the “M”? |
| Beatriz: Me parece excelente. I will start off by giving the name of the Spanish letter. |
| Joseph: Then I’ll give the name of that letter in English. |
| Beatriz: Then I’ll give an example of a word that demonstrates the sound of that letter. |
| Joseph: Ok. Why don’t I repeat first the particular sound then the whole word? And then I’ll give an English translation. |
| Beatriz: Great. Then, after you do that, I’ll spell the Spanish word with the names of the Spanish letters and you can spell it using their English names. |
| Joseph: ¡Pero claro! |
| Beatriz: All right. ¿Ya estás listo? |
| Joseph: Listo. |
| Beatriz: Vamos. First is the vowel “A”. |
| Joseph: “A” |
| Beatriz: “Abrir”. |
| Joseph: “A”, “abrir” – “to open.” |
| Beatriz: A - be grande - ere - i latina - ere |
| Joseph: “A-b-r-i-r”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Be grande”. |
| Joseph: “B” |
| Beatriz: “Buscar”. |
| Joseph: “B”, “buscar” – “to look for.” |
| Beatriz: Be grande - u - ese - ce - a - ere |
| Joseph: “B-u-s-c-a-r”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Ce”, seguida por la “E” o la “I”. |
| Joseph: “C” when followed by the “E” or the “I”. |
| Beatriz: “Cerebro”. |
| Joseph: “C”, “cerebro” – “brain.” |
| Beatriz: Ce - e - ere - e - be grande - ere - o |
| Joseph: “C-e-r-e-b-r-o”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “C”, seguida por la “A”, “O” o “U”. |
| Joseph: “C” when followed by an “A”, “O” or “U”. |
| Beatriz: “Compadre”. |
| Joseph: “C”, “compadre” – “pal.” |
| Beatriz: Ce - o - eme - pe - a - de - ere - e |
| Joseph: “C-o-m-p-a-d-r-e”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “De”. |
| Joseph: “D” |
| Beatriz: “Cadera”. |
| Joseph: “D”, “cadera” – “hip.” |
| Beatriz: Ce - a - de - e - ere - a |
| Joseph: “C-a-d-e-r-a”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the vowel “E”. |
| Joseph: “E” |
| Beatriz: “Enamorar”. |
| Joseph: “E”, “enamorar” – “to fall in love.” |
| Beatriz: E - ene - a - eme - o - ere - a - ere |
| Joseph: “E-n-a-m-o-r-a-r”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Efe”. |
| Joseph: “F” |
| Beatriz: “Francamente”. |
| Joseph: “F”, “francamente” – “frankly.” |
| Beatriz: Efe - ere - a - ene - ce - a - eme - e - ene - te - e |
| Joseph: “F-r-a-n-c-a-m-e-n-t-e”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Ge”, seguida por la “A”, “O” o “U”. |
| Joseph: “G” when followed by the “A”, “O” or “U”. |
| Beatriz: “Gato”. |
| Joseph: “G”, “gato” – “cat.” |
| Beatriz: Ge - a - te - o |
| Joseph: “G-a-t-o”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Ge”, seguida por la “E” o la “I latina”. |
| Joseph: “G” when followed by the “E” or the “I”. |
| Beatriz: “Girar”. |
| Joseph: “G”, “girar” – “to spin.” |
| Beatriz: Ge - i latina - ere - a - ere |
| Joseph: “G-i-r-a-r”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Hache”. |
| Joseph: “H” |
| Beatriz: “Hora”. |
| Joseph: The “H” is silent. “Hora” – “hour.” |
| Beatriz: Hache - o - ere - a |
| Joseph: “H-o-r-a”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the vowel “I latina”. |
| Joseph: “I” |
| Beatriz: “Partir”. |
| Joseph: “I”, “partir” – “to depart.” |
| Beatriz: Pe - a - ere - te - i latina - ere |
| Joseph: “P-a-r-t-i-r”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Jota”. |
| Joseph: “J” |
| Beatriz: “Caja”. |
| Joseph: “J”, “caja” – “box.” |
| Beatriz: Ce - a - jota - a |
| Joseph: “C-a-j-a”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Ka”. |
| Joseph: “K” |
| Beatriz: “Kilogramo”. |
| Joseph: “K”, “kilogramo” – “kilogram.” |
| Beatriz: Ka - i latina - ele - o - ge - ere - a - eme - o |
| Joseph: “K-i-l-o-g-r-a-m-o”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Ele”. |
| Joseph: “L” |
| Beatriz: “Luz”. |
| Joseph: “L”, “luz” – “light.” |
| Beatriz: Ele - u - zeta |
| Joseph: “L-u-z”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Elle”. |
| Joseph: Double “L”. |
| Beatriz: “Llamada”. |
| Joseph: “Ll”, “llamada” – “call.” |
| Beatriz: Elle - a - eme - a - de - a |
| Joseph: “Ll-a-m-a-d-a”. |
| Beatriz: Ok, the last consonant is “Eme”. |
| Joseph: “M” |
| Beatriz: “Milagro”. |
| Joseph: “M”, “milagro” – “miracle.” |
| Beatriz: Eme - i latina - ele - a - ge - ere - o |
| Joseph: “M-i-l-a-g-r-o”. |
| Beatriz: Ok. Now we will look at a common mistake related to the pronunciation of vowels. |
| Joseph: In this lesson, when we went over the first half of the Spanish alphabet… |
| Beatriz: We gave examples of “a”, “e” and “i latina”. Listen closely to how they are pronounced. “A”, de “abierto”. “E”, de “entrar” and “i latina”, de “importante”. |
| Joseph: Right. So, those vowels in English are “A”, “E” and “I”. And again, for these vowels, in Spanish, we say “a”, “e”, “i”. |
| Beatriz: “A”, “e”, “i”. |
| Joseph: “A”, “e”, “i”. |
| Beatriz: Right. Now, Joseph, to achieve this pronunciation from the roof of the mouth as possible. |
| Joseph: That’s an interesting way to think about it. So, by doing this we say “a” as in “father”, but not “ae” as in “hat”. |
| Beatriz: Muy bien, Joseph. |
| Joseph: A ver. Let’s see. Keeping my tongue away from the roof of my mouth it would be “A” as in “cape”. But not “A “as in “cat”. |
| Beatriz: Now can you do it with the “i latina”? |
| Joseph: Bueno, como la “i latina”, it would be the “E” of “feet”, but not the “E” of “fit”. |
| Beatriz: Excelente. So, if we apply these to the pronunciation of some Spanish words, we’d say “padre”, “padre”. |
| Joseph: “Padre”, “padre”. See, you can hear that a sound of the letter “A”, “padre”. And the “A” sound of the letter “E”, “padre”. |
| Beatriz: Yes. And with the “i latina” we can practice with the verb “to go”, which is “ir”, simple spelled “i”, “ere”. |
| Joseph: “Ir”, “ir”, not “ir”, but “ir”. |
| Beatriz: “Ir”. |
| Joseph: “Ir”, es importantísimo el poder pronunciar bien el español. It’s very important to be able to pronounce Spanish, ¿de acuerdo? |
| Beatriz: Claro. It’s really important that you pronounce the Spanish language well. |
| Joseph: Beatriz, when it’s pronounce incorrectly, ¿qué es lo que pasa? what happens? |
| Beatriz: Sometimes it is impossible to understand, but other times you end up saying something that you don’t mean. |
| Joseph: That’s interesting. So, you really need to be careful, no? |
| Beatriz: Yes. |
Outro |
| Joseph: Bueno. This just about wraps up today’s lesson. Be sure to check out our regional audio blogs coming from Madrid y la Ciudad de México. |
| Beatriz: And don’t forget to check out the Newbie Series, where you can learn the fundamentals of Spanish. |
| Joseph: |
| Beatriz: ¡Hasta la próxima! |
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