Pronunciation
Vowels are a great place to start with Spanish pronunciation because unlike English, they always have the same sound. ¡Facil!
- A - Sounds like: "ah", as in the vowel sound from "log" or "bra".
- E - Sounds like: "eh" or "ay", as in vowel sound from "lay" or "prey".
- I - Sounds like: "ee", as in the vowel sound from "street" or "read".
- O - Sounds like: "oh", as in the vowel sound from "over" or "story".
- U - Sounds like: "oo" or "ou", as in the vowel sound from "stoop" or "slough".
Now that you've got the vowel sounds down, let's look at some consonants. We'll stick to only the most important ones.
- B and V - These two letters generally sound identical and are somewhere in between the two. Think of a soft B or a slightly harder V.
- C - Before an E or an I, C sounds the same as an S, otherwise, it has a hard sound, like "common".
- G - Before an E or an I, G sounds like and H. Otherwise pronounced as it is in English.
- J - Before an E or an I, G sounds like and H. Otherwise pronounced as it is in English.
- LL - Sounds like the y in "foyer".
- Ñ - Sounds like the ny in "canyon".
- RR - A rolled R sound. This can be difficult for many people, but it's important, so prrrrractice!
- Z - Makes an S sound.
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