HABLAMETODO

3.6 PRONUNCIACIÓN Y ORTOGRAFÍA / PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING – SAMPLE

HABLA A1, A2, B1, B2 – Unidades de muestra / Sample units A1 – SAMPLE UNIT 3 3.6 PRONUNCIACIÓN Y ORTOGRAFÍA / PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING – SAMPLE

LAS VOCALES DEL ESPAÑOL / SPANISH VOWELS

There are five vowels in Spanish:

a
e
i
o
u

triángulo vocálico

  • Spanish vowels are either open (a/o/e) or close (i/u).
  • There are two anterior vowels (pronounced in the front part of the mouth): e/i
  • Two posterior vowels (pronounced in the back of the mouth): o/u
  • And one middle vowel (pronounced in the center of the mouth): a

There are no long or short vowels. Spanish vowels are pronounced clearly and always sound the same (whether at the beginning, middle or end of a word). Compare the pronunciation of the word patatas:

 Non-native student: patatas
Native: patatas

Listen to and repeat the following words, making sure to pronounce all the vowels correctly:

patatas

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chocolate

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restaurante

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bocadillo

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hamburguesa

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ATTENTION: The letter y is pronounced [i] at the end of many verbs: estoy, voy, soy…

Correctly pronounce the vowels at the end of words. Many words end in –o for the masculine form and –a for the feminine:

Listen to and repeat the following words, making sure to pronounce the final vowels correctly.
amigo ~ amiga

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hijo ~ hija

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abuelo ~ abuela

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chico ~ chica

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The final vowel of many verbs changes:

  • yo como ~ él come
  • yo canto ~ ella canta

Repeat the above verbs, correctly pronouncing the final vowels.

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DIPTONGO / DIPTHONGS

A dipthong is the combination of an open (a/e/o) and a close (i/u) vowel within the same syllable:

Hasta luego has-ta-lue-go

Repeat and practice the above words.

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Buenas tardes bue-nas-tar-des

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Adiós a-diós a-diós

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Muchas gracias mu-chas-gra-cias

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Estoy es-toy

Repeat and practice the above words.

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