Too Stressed For Words?

Welcome back for another week. I do hope that all is going well in your lives. This week, I want to focus on word stress or word emphasis. In English, we tend to weigh heavily on the first syllable of a word when we speak. Try saying father, mother, and graduation. Each of these examples, you put some stress on that first syllable such as the fa- in father, the mo- in mother and the gra- in graduation. Many languages have their own ways to stress or emphasize their words. Spanish is no different.

Spanish speakers will always stress the second to the last syllable of any word. Of course there are excepts to that such as if there is an accent mark in another spot or if the word ends with a consonant, but for the most part, always target that second to last syllable. We’ll start off easy and move into some harder words:

madre   emphasize ma- slightly

amigo   emphasize -i- in the middle slightly

busca    emphasize bu- slightly

Now you will see words with an accent mark over the vowel. When you see that, put the emphasis wherever that accent mark appears. Try speaking these words:

único     emphasize the first syllable ú-

están     emphasize the last syllable -án

periódico     emphasize the -ó- in the middle of the word

Then you will find words that do not end with the letter ‘N’ or the letter ‘S’ where the last syllable is stressed. Take a stab at these words:

libertad     emphasize the last syllable -tad

cantar   emphasize the last syllable -tar

catedral     emphasize the last syllable -dral

After a while, you will get the hang of reading and speaking Spanish. You’ll begin to “feel” the nuances of this beautiful language. You’ll take pride in knowing, hearing and feeling it roll off your tongue with ease. Stay well, my friends. ¡Hasta luego!

To Wed For Love or For Politics

Some of you may have heard that late last month Guatemala was in the news. No, it wasn’t because of some natural disaster of any kind. It was because of divorce. Wait a minute! This was no ordinary divorce. Well, I should say the divorce was ordinary, but the circumstance surrounding it was something out of those wonderful telenovelas you find on the Spanish channels.

Ms. Sandra Torres de Colom was the First Lady of Guatemala. The courts granted her a legal divorce from her husband. Why you might ask? Was she in a loveless marriage and wanted out? Was she having an affair that she wanted to pursue? It was none of that. In fact, Torres reports she was leaving a “loving marriage.” She left to run for election to become Guatemala’s next president.

Now there are two things you should take to heart before discounting this story as a “so what, who cares.” Guatemala, like many Latin American countries have deep devout religion – mostly Roman Catholic. Divorce goes against the churches’ teachings and against what God has commanded when two people make that life-long covenant together. The other thing that is very important to this story is Guatemala’s constitution created a barrier for her. Their constitution prohibits any family member of a sitting president to run for election of that same office.

Logically, this would make sense to have a provision in the constitution to dissuade from creating a dictatorship of sorts by keeping all of the power in one family and its family members. But nowadays, is it necessary to have it? Women in the United States and many other places have made great advances. Such laws preclude them for rising up to become the strong women they are meant to be.

On the flip side, Torres has put shame on her family and will be prohibited from receiving Communion as the church looks down on divorce of any kind and for any reason. By publically doing this, it may have stopped many from supporting her. To make the sacred bond between two people so weak and cheap by divorcing just to run for an election is beyond everyday people’s comprehension. Such a move has made a mockery of the institution of marriage and the church.

Torres may say she is the first woman to divorce for her country, but is that still right to do? Or with divorce being common everyday realities, is this perfectly acceptable? What do you think? Click on the “Comments” link below and tells us what you think about this very bold issue. Did Torres make the right move? Did she hurt her chances at being elected? Should Guatemala amend their constitution to allow family members to run for the office of president? Share your thoughts. Until next time, hasta luego!

The Baby Future

We all know that present tense is used a lot, but what about the future tense. I would wager to say that at least 95% of all purposes for using the future tense could be solved by using the present tense – at least to for Spanish. Why, you ask? Well, let me break it down in English for you.

A lot of what we say in English about future events is usually events that are in the near-future like tomorrow, next week, this coming weekend, etc. We say, “I’m going to see the new thrasher movie this weekend.” Or, “We’re leaving for the cabin on Friday.” These are all future events that are coming soon, but we say them using the present tense.

Spanish does the same thing. Enter “The Baby Future.” I heard this called baby because it is using the present tense of the verb ir which means to go. The whole construction is using this verb tied with the word a and the infinitive of another verb. Here’s what that looks like:

Ir + a + infinitive of verb

You conjugate the verb ir to whoever is doing the action: I, you, s/he, we, they, you all. You’ll want to refresh your memory of conjugating ir to be able to do this quickly and well. Let’s recap that here:

I = Voy

You = Vas (for friends and family)

S/he, it or you (formal) = Va

We = Vamos

(Spain) You all or they = Vaís

They or you all = Van

Now let’s take an example. We will say that my friend and I are going to watch a movie at my house tomorrow night. This is what that will look like:

Vamos a mirar una película mañana por la noche.

Remember that the majority of the time you need to express yourself in the future, you can use the Baby Future. You can also just use the present tense itself. Spanish is not as strict when it comes to the future as we are in English placing the word will before a verb. Try it, I’m sure you’ll get use to it in no time. ¡Hasta luego!

Consonants Reloaded

In my last post, I mentioned how consonants in Spanish are softer and not explosive like they are in English. That is correct and you should keep practicing the softness of the consonants.

Today, I want to explore a little more specific consonants and how they sound in Spanish. Ready? So let’s get started! Spanish is what you consider a phonetic language. Basically all that means is what you see is what you say. A vowel will always sound the same way no matter where you see it in any word. Consonants are no different; however, there are some slight differences which you need to be aware of.

The ‘B’ sound, though softer, will sound just like the ‘V’ sound. You will know which consonant it is by the pronunciation of the word.

Like English, the letter ‘C’ has and uses that ‘K’ sound; however, there are dialects such as in Spain which pronounce this letter with a th sound like in the word thighs.

‘D’ in Spanish will be soft, but it will be softer still when it is in between two vowels such as the word medio. The ‘D’ sounds more like the th in the word these. So it would be ‘me-th-io’.

The ‘G’ sounds like the letter ‘H’ when it goes before the letters ‘E’ and ‘I’ such as the words generoso or energía. It will sound like a true, but softer, ‘G’ in all other circumstances.

The ‘J’ sounds like the letter ‘H’. So for laughing, you would say jajajajajaja… (hahahahaha…)

The double ‘L’ use to be a letter in Spanish until they decided to alphabetize it within the letter ‘L’. When you see two L’s together, they are pronounced as the letter ‘Y’. If you’re in Argentina, you would pronounce it more like the ‘J’ sound as in the word jar.

Moving on, we have the ‘Ñ’ letter which sounds like the ‘N-Y’ combination together like the first ‘N’ in the word onion. The squiggly line above the letter is called a tilde.

The letter ‘Q’ has a ‘K’ sound and is only written in front of the letter ‘U’ to help give it that sound.

Everyone knows how Spanish rolls their R’s. Well that rolling action is represented by the letter ‘RR’. When I started out learning the language, I like many other English-speakers, had difficulty with rolling my R’s. I would practice and practice focusing on saying the ‘R’ in the words butter and ladder over and over again really fast. Remember where your tongue touches the roof of your mouth and use that same spot when you pronounce this letter.

Finally, the ‘Z’ does not have the buzzing sound that you would think as it does in English. In fact, it sounds exactly like the letter ‘S’.

That’s about it for consonants. And this should help you get started on pronouncing Spanish words. With these slight variations, it is a very easy language to pick up. Take your time speaking and until next time, hasta luego.

Tone Down the Power

English really explodes when it comes to producing the consonant sounds. Place your hand right at the tip of your nose. Without touching your mouth, make sure your hand is parallel with your face. Now say out loud in a normal voice the following sentence:

Polly places her hand on the table top because she had to catch the falling dollar.

How many bursts of air did you feel on your hand? I bet quite a few. That’s because English has explosive consonants such as ‘P’, ‘T’, ‘B’, ‘D’, ‘F’ and others.

Spanish, on the other hand, does not or you should not be using explosive consonants when speaking them in Spanish. They are softer which help make Spanish one of the most romantic languages out there. 

Place your hand back in front of your mouth and try speaking the following sentence in Spanish:

Nosotros estamos de acuerdo en este punto. (meaning … we are in agreement on this point.)

You should not have felt any bursts of air on your hand at all from any of the consonants in the above Spanish sentence.

Try to muffle the explosion of these consonants so that they do not burst out. No one likes to be spit upon and especially when you’re speaking Spanish. If you can remember to do this, you will be another step closer to speaking Spanish correctly!

That’s all for now, but in my next post, I’ll cover a little bit more on consonants and pronouncing Spanish words. ¡Hasta luego!

May I Buy a Vowel?

One of the first steps to learning Spanish quickly is to master pronouncing the language. At first, you will definitely not sound like a native speaker, but if given the chance, you can sound near-native speaker-like. A valuable tip in getting acquainted with Spanish is to find every opportunity to speak it. With friends, with family, with co-workers, and even by yourself, always choose the option to speak Spanish rather than reading or thinking it silently.

One of the first things I did when learning Spanish is to read aloud in my bedroom. By doing that, it forced me to pay close attention to each and every syllable I made. It did take me longer, but I was able to sound more authentic over time. By listening to how Spanish was spoken in television, in movies, how native Spanish-speakers pronounced sentences, I tried to emulate them when practicing my Spanish. I would highly recommend doing this if you are first starting out with the language.

Of course you may feel silly or strange at first, but once you get into it and you speak more and more, everything else will fade away. Your speech will correct itself. You will feel more confident speaking to others in public. And that they say is half the battle.

So back on topic with vowels, I am down from my soapbox. Vowels in Spanish are the purest sounding participles I have ever heard. If you ever sing in a choir, they always teach you to make sure your vowels are pure. Spanish is done the same way. In fact, when I lived in Guatemala, that is one of the first things school children are taught – how to speak vowels purely and consistently. They would have them speak, recite and write vowel-valued phrases focusing on each vowel. Let’s start here:

“a” is pronounced like the “a” in what the doctor has you say when you open your mouth and say Ah!

“e” is pronounced like long ‘A’ sound in the word pain.

“i” is pronounced like the long “E” sound as in the expression Eek!

“o” is pronounced like the “o” in ode as in “Ode to Joy” by Beethoven.

“u” is pronounced like the “oo” sound as in the word pool.

Now let’s say all of the above vowels, one right after the other. I will write how they should be pronounced by using the examples from my list above:

Ah – Pain – Eek – Ode – Pool

Now drop any consonant sounds:

A – Ai – Ee – O – OO

Now let’s take it one step further and use the appropriate vowel letter:

A – E – I – O – U

Now here is a cute little children’s rhyme using these vowel sounds:

A – E – I – O – U, el burro sabe más que tú meaning a donkey knows more than you!

Keep practicing your vowels over and over again. I hope you had fun learning the Spanish pronunciation for all of the vowels. In my next post, I will cover the pronunciation of consonants. Until then, take care and Hasta luego!

Bienvenidos!

Hey welcome to my blog!

The title word, bienvenidos, means "welcome" in Spanish. If you're new, you may have learned one of many first words in this beautiful language. Join me as we explore Spanish through stories, grammar, vocabulary, culture and music, current events and much more!

If you would love to learn this romantic language, it is possible! You just need to start some place. Why not start here, right now? Feel free to ask me questions, comment on things I've posted, and follow along with me on my website, http://www.SpanishMyWay.com/.

You can pick up the language quickly and have fun doing it. I will show you tips and tricks that I've encountered when learning Spanish all those many years ago. I have a bachelor of arts degree in Spanish from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. I have taught Spanish; I have tutored Spanish; and I have conducted small group studies of Spanish for years. I love this incredibly beautiful and easy language to learn. Come join me for some fun, Spanish-style!