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!
No comments:
Post a Comment