Learn Spanish Free Today: Sounds Of Vowels

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As attractive and effortless as Spanish sounds, there is always a certain amount of demanding work involved in learning any new language. The rules might seem difficult at first, but don’t forget that the English language is often cited as one of the most complicated to learn, thanks to each rule’s numerous exceptions.

Spanish is no different, but when you consider how many exceptions to the rule there are in English, the Spanish language and its emphasis on phonetics is actually fairly simple.

Spanish Vowels And How They Sound

All of Spanish’s vowels are associated with strong sounds that will help each word jump off the tongue, like from a diving board. The letter “A” is pronounced like an “uh,” an “e” sounds like “ay,” the letter “i” becomes an “eee” sound and finally a “u” results in an “ooh” noise. The only vowel that retains the same sound from English to Spanish is the “o,” which keeps the “oh” pronunciation.

Let’s take a one Spanish sentence and examine how it is pronounced using these sounds. Our sample will be the easy sentence “I like to eat the cheese.”

Me gusta comer el pollo frito.

The first two words, “Me gusto,” is pronounced “May Goose-toe,” which means “I like” in English. The word “comer” means “to eat” and you say it like “koh-mare.” “El pollo frito” means “the fried chicken” and is pronounced “Eh-l poh-yo free-toe.”

The Sound Of Spanish Consonants

Consonants take a backseat to the vowels in Spanish just as they do in English. There are a few more rules we have to observe here than there were in the vowels, and even an extra “letter” of sorts: “ch.” The letter “ch” is pronounced as you’d pronounce the same letters in the English word “champion.”

The letter “c” on its own becomes an “s” sound when it shows up before an “e” or an “i,” like in the word “cero,” which is how you say “zero” in Spanish. A “g” letter in front of an “e” or an “i” causes that “ch” sound, but anywhere else will mean that same letter will sound like a hard “g,” like in the English word “go.”

More trouble makes itself known with the letter “z,” which brings about a “th” sound like in the word “with.” Any “h” in the Spanish language is always silent. The “ll” is another sound, used very commonly in Spanish, and it sounds very much like the hard “y” sound of “you.” An example of the “ll” letter is “llamar,” which sounds like “ya-MAR.”

Then there’s the little tilde that shows up above many Spanish words, such as in “el nio.” In this case, this word makes the same sounds as the “ll” did. As a result, it is pronounced “el neen-yo.” These are the majority of Spanish sounds, so as long as you practice these often, you’ll be able to say whatever you want.

With enough practice, you’ll be able to say just about any word you’d like — and that’s a great way to learn Spanish free. A bit of patience and perseverance will go a long way in the learning process.

More sounds come in handy as you get more advanced, include “qu” which turns into a hard “k” sound, the “r” which is always said with a roll, and the long “eee” sound of the letter “y.

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