Learn the sounds from N to Z
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Beatriz: Bienvenidos a Spanishpod101.com. Buenos días, me llamo Beatriz.. |
| Joseph: Joseph here. Spanish Phonetic Series, Lesson 3 – “The sounds from N to Z”. |
| Beatriz: Bienvenidos. |
| Joseph: Welcome. |
| Beatriz: I am Beatriz and I’m joined here by Joseph. ¿Qué dices, Joseph? |
| Joseph: Todo bien, gracias Beatriz. Hi there. Welcome to the third lesson of the Spanish Phonetic Series at Spanishpod101.com. |
| Beatriz: Here, you will learn all the basics of pronunciation, intonation, inflexion and spelling. |
| Joseph: Which will make it a lot easier to speak as well as understand the Spanish language. |
| Beatriz: So, join us for these lessons of the Spanishpod101.com. |
Lesson focus |
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| Joseph: Last lesson we went through the first half of “el abecedario” – “the Spanish alphabet” and gave examples of “los sonidos” – “the sounds” of each letter. |
| Beatriz: Today, we’re going to pick up where we left off on to go through the second half of “el abecedario”. |
| Joseph: Then, we’ll talk about “un error común” – “a common mistake” that people run into when learning how to pronounce the sounds of Spanish. |
| Beatriz: Don’t forget to stop by Spanishpod101.com and check out the regional blogs coming to you desde Madrid y la Ciudad de México. |
| Joseph: In this lesson, we’ll study the sounds of Spanish. This time, going from the letter N to Z. Beatriz, how do you think we should start out today? |
| Beatriz: Empecemos revisando lo que hemos dicho la vez pasada. Let’s start out by going over what we said last time. |
| Joseph: Ok, good idea. Why don’t you go ahead? |
| Beatriz: Muy bien. To begin, remember the sounds of the letters in Spanish do not have much variation. |
| Joseph: Right. In Spanish, the pronunciation is almost always the same as the written word. |
| Beatriz: Claro. Once you learn the way to pronounce the sounds in Spanish, it’s pretty easy to speak and especially to read. |
| Joseph: That’s a good point. It’s always a good idea to remember a word that will remind you of the correct pronunciation of a given sound. For example, I’d like to think of the word “submarino” to remember how the Spanish “u”, that is the “U”, it’s properly pronounced. |
| Beatriz: “Submarino”. |
| Joseph: “Submarino”. Right. Notice that it’s not the “oe” sound of “submarine”, but the “u” of “tube”. “Submarino”. |
| Beatriz: ¡Qué buen consejo, Joseph! That’s a good piece of advice. Another good one to practice is “operar”, to remember the Spanish “o” sound, “operar”. |
| Joseph: “Operar”. |
| Beatriz: Not the “o” sound of “operate”, but the “O” of “open”. “Operar”. |
| Joseph: That’s great. All right. Now, Beatriz, why don’t we move on and go through the second half of the alphabet, giving examples for each sound? |
| Beatriz: Muy buena idea. Just like last time, I’ll stop by giving the Spanish letter. |
| Joseph: Right. And then, I’ll give the name of that letter in English. |
| Beatriz: After that, I’ll give an example of a word that demonstrates the sounds of the letter, like we just did with “submarino” y “operar”. |
| Joseph: Then, I’ll pronounce the specific sound. After that, the whole word, and then I’ll give an English translation. |
| Beatriz: ¡Bacán! And then, after you do that, I’ll spell the Spanish word with the names of the Spanish letters. And you can spell it using the English names. |
| Joseph: ¿Cómo no, Beatriz? |
| Beatriz: ¿Lo hacemos de una vez? |
| Joseph: ¡Vamos! |
| Beatriz: All right. First is the consonant “Ene”. |
| Joseph: “N” |
| Beatriz: “Nadie”. |
| Joseph: “N”, “nadie” – “nobody.” |
| Beatriz: Ene - a - de - i latina - e |
| Joseph: “N-a-d-i-e”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Eñe”. |
| Joseph: “N” with a tilde. |
| Beatriz: “Caña”. |
| Joseph: “Ñ”, “caña” – “cane.” |
| Beatriz: Ce - a - eñe - a |
| Joseph: C-a-n with a tilde- a |
| Beatriz: Next is the vowel “O”. |
| Joseph: “O” |
| Beatriz: “Oso”. |
| Joseph: “O”, “oso” – “bear.” |
| Beatriz: O - ese - o |
| Joseph: “O-s-o”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Pe”. |
| Joseph: “P” |
| Beatriz: “Tapa”. |
| Joseph: “P”, “tapa” – “top.” |
| Beatriz: Te - a - pe - a |
| Joseph: “T-a-p-a”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Cu”. |
| Joseph: “Q” |
| Beatriz: “Queso”. |
| Joseph: “Q”, “queso” – “cheese.” |
| Beatriz: Cu - u - e - ese - o |
| Joseph: “Q-u-e-s-o”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Ere”. |
| Joseph: “R” |
| Beatriz: “Ropa”. |
| Joseph: “R”, “ropa” – “clothes.” |
| Beatriz: Ere - o - pe - a |
| Joseph: “R-o-p-a”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Ese”. |
| Joseph: “S” |
| Beatriz: “Sol”. |
| Joseph: “S”, “sol” – “sun.” |
| Beatriz: Ese - o - ele |
| Joseph: “S-o-l”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Te”. |
| Joseph: “T” |
| Beatriz: “Tono”. |
| Joseph: “T”, “tono” – “tone.” |
| Beatriz: Te - o - ene - o |
| Joseph: “T-o-n-o”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the vowel “U”. |
| Joseph: “U” |
| Beatriz: “Fumar”. |
| Joseph: “U”, “fumar” – “to smoke.” |
| Beatriz: Efe - u - eme - a - ere |
| Joseph: “F-u-m-a-r”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Ve chica”. |
| Joseph: “V” |
| Beatriz: “Volver”. |
| Joseph: “V”, “volver” – “to return.” |
| Beatriz: Ve chica - o - ele - ve chica - e - ere |
| Joseph: “V-o-l-v-e-r”. |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Ve doble”. |
| Joseph: “W” |
| Beatriz: “Wáter”. |
| Joseph: “W”, “wáter” – “toilet.” |
| Beatriz: Ve doble - a tónica - te - e - ere |
| Joseph: “W-stressed A-t-e-r” |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Equis”, cuando va entre vocales. |
| Joseph: “X” when it goes between vowels. |
| Beatriz: “Hexágono”. |
| Joseph: “X”, “hexágono” – “hexagon.” |
| Beatriz: Hache - e - equis - a tónica - ge - o - ene - o |
| Joseph: “H-e-x-stressed A-g-o-n-o” |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “Equis”, cuando va delante de una consonante o al principio de una palabra. |
| Joseph: X when it goes before a consonant or at the beginning of a word. |
| Beatriz: “Xilófono”. |
| Joseph: “X”, “xilófono” – “xylophone.” |
| Beatriz: Equis - i latina - ele - o tónica - efe - o - ene - o |
| Joseph: “X-i-l-stressed O-f-o-n-o” |
| Beatriz: Next is the consonant “I griega”. |
| Joseph: “Y” |
| Beatriz: “Mayo”. |
| Joseph: “Y”, “mayo” – “May.” |
| Beatriz: Eme - a - i griega - o |
| Joseph: “M-a-y-o”. |
| Beatriz: Finally, we have the consonant “zeta”. |
| Joseph: “Z” |
| Beatriz: “Zafiro”. |
| Joseph: “Z”, “zafiro” – “sapphire.” |
| Beatriz: Zeta - a - efe - i latina - ere - o |
| Joseph: “Z-a-f-i-r-o”. |
| Beatriz: Ok. Now we will look at a common mistake related to the pronunciation of “el sonido de la ere”. |
| Joseph: “The sound of the R.” |
| Beatriz: To begin, we will explain that to pronounce the “ere”, the tip of the tongue needs to touch the front part of the roof of the mouth. |
| Joseph: “Ere”. |
| Beatriz: “Ere” de “loro”. |
| Joseph: “Loro”, “ere”. |
| Beatriz: Also, the “ere” is different from the “erre”. |
| Joseph: And that “erre” is the double R. |
| Beatriz: Así es. To pronounce the “erre” or the double R, again, the tip of the tongue needs to touch the front part of the roof of the mouth and then you just push air through, rrrr. It sounds like the fluttering of wings. |
| Joseph: rrrr |
| Beatriz: rrrr. Now, one common mistake among Spanish students is to pronounce aired “ere” like the vibrating R, the “erre”. But this is incorrect and sometimes it even changes the meaning of the word. They over exaggerate the pronunciation, but sometimes, this is “un mal necesario”. |
| Joseph: “Un mal necesario” – “something bad, but necessary”. |
| Beatriz: Right. Because they need to learn how to pronounce the “ere”, which is very characteristic of the Spanish language. |
| Joseph: Que buen punto, Beatriz. Could you give us an example of this? |
| Beatriz: Como no, Joseph. For example, the word “caro”, ce - a - ere - o. Note it that this is the single “ere”, the single R. “Caro”. |
| Joseph: Right. And “caro” means “expensive”. |
| Beatriz: Claro. “Expensive”. Now, if we add the “erre”, now we have” carro”, ce - a - erre - o. |
| Joseph: And now, with this double R it means “car”. “Carro” with the double R. “Carro”. |
| Beatriz: “Carro”. That’s right. The same thing happens with “pero”, pe - e - ere - o, “pero”. |
| Joseph: “Pero”. And “pero” is the adversative conjunction. |
| Beatriz: Right. And when we add another “ere” to it, we get “perro”, pe - e - erre - o, “perro”. |
| Joseph: “Perro”. And now, it means “dog”. So, you can see that the pronunciation of that “ere” and the “erre” are quite a bit different, and are important, not only in terms of getting the sound right, but also in order to refer to the right meaning. |
| Beatriz: Así es. And to practice, we can use the following “trabalenguas”, to remember the different sounds of the ere and the erre. “Erre con erre, cigarro. Erre con erre, barril. Rápido corren los carros cargados de azúcar del ferrocarril”. |
| Joseph: A ver. “Erre con erre, cigarro. Erre con erre, barril. Rápido corren los carros cargados de azúcar del ferrocarril”. |
| Beatriz: Or, another one, “un carrito rojo pasó por la carretera haciendo carrera”. All right. That’s it for today. |
Outro |
| Joseph: Remember to check out the Newbie and Beginner Series at Spanishpod101.com. |
| Beatriz: You’ll be surprised how quickly you’ll start speaking and understanding. |
| Joseph: Also, don’t miss the Learning Center, where you’ll get all the reference materials you’ll need in the learning process. |
| Beatriz: And be sure to leave us a comment! |
| Joseph: Have a good one! |
| Beatriz: ¡Que les vaya bien! |
| Joseph: ¡Chao, chao! |
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