Alphabet and Pronunciation

1
Alphabet and Pronunciation

• El Alfabeto y la pronunciación

2
The Spanish Alphabet

• The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters 1 more than
  the English alphabet.
• The letter combinations of ch, ll, and rr were
  once considered separate letters.
• For the purpose of this class, we will view them
  as separate letters.
• The vowels in Spanish have one distinct sound and
  are always pronounced the same.

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10 Rules for Pronunciation

• Rule 1 b and v are both pronounced be but
  not as hard as in English.
• Rule 2 If c comes before a, o, or u, it
  is pronounced like the English k.
• Rule 3 If g comes before e or i, it is
  pronounced like the letter h. It is pronounced
  like the letter g before an a, o, or u.
• Rule 4 Never pronounce the letter h.
• Rule 5 The letter j is always pronounced like
  h or a spitty g.

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10 Rules For Pronunciation

• Rule 6 The letter ll is pronounced like the
  English y.
• Rule 7 The n is pronounced ny.
• Rule 8 The letter q is pronounced k but the
  u following the q is not pronounced.
• Rule 9 The rr is trilled. The letter r is
  trilled at the beginning of a word and when it
  come after l or n.
• Rule 10 The letter z is always pronounced like
  the letter s.

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Practicing Pronunciation

• The best way to better your pronunciation is to
  practice every day.
• Find something written in Spanish and read it
  along or record yourself to see how you improve.
• Practice writing some sentences phonetically to
  help with longer, harder words.
• Listen to heritage speakers so you will know how
  the words are suppose to sound. You can do this
  by watching your favorite movie in Spanish, the
  Spanish-speaking channels, or simply listening to
  the many heritage speakers we have here in school.

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Phonetics

• Phonetics can be defined as the symbols used to
  represent the speech sounds of a language .
• We will NOT use real phonetics but a resemblance
  to guide us to almost perfect pronunciations.
• The letter symbols will not change. The same
  symbols will always be used to represent the
  corresponding sound.

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Examples

• El gato es rojo
• /ehl-gah-toh-ehs-rroh-hoh/
• Mi mama y mi padre caminan los domingos.
• /mee-mah-mah-ee-mee-pah-dreh-ka-mee-nahn-lohs-doh-
  meen-gohs/
• Juan tiene dieciocho anos.
• /wahn-teeeh-neh-deeeh-see-oh-choh-ahnyos/
• Laura busca el libro que esta debajo de sus
  zapatos.
• /laoorah-boos-kah-ehl-lee-broh-kay-ehs-tah-deh-bah
  -ho-deh-soos-sah-pah-tohs/

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Stress and Accent

• Where a word is stressed influences how it is
  pronounced.
• If a word ends in a vowel, n, or s, the natural
  stress is on the next to last syllable.
• If a word ends in a consonant, other than n or s,
  the natural stress falls on the last syllable.
• If a word does not follow the two above rules,
  the word has a written accent to denote the
  stressed syllable.
• If the stress falls on the third or fourth to
  last syllable, there is always a written accent.
• Some words have accent marks to denote meaning
  that is different from its counterpart without an
  accent (ej. sí yes siif)