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.