This article will discuss basic Spanish pronunciation. I have spent a while now in Latin American countries and have decided to spend time learning proper pronunciation, to finally work on becoming fluent in the language. This article will be a work in progress.
Vowel Pronunciation In Spanish
a – Example in English: like the ‘a’ in ‘father’. Another language: it is like 아 in Korean.
e – Example in English: like the ‘e’ in ‘egg’ or ‘e’ in ‘bet’. Another language: If you are familiar with Korean, the ‘e’ in Spanish is pronounced like 에 in Korean.
i – Pronounced like ‘ee’ in English. For example, the ‘ee’ in ‘free’, ‘ea’ sound in ‘eagle’ or like the ‘e’ in ‘he’ or the ‘e’ in ‘she’. It is like the sound 이in Korean.
o – Pronounced like the ‘o’ in ‘go’ but faster. It is like the sound 오in Korean.
u – Pronounced like ‘oo’ in the English word ‘moon’. In Korean, it is like the sound 우.
Complex Spanish Pronunciations
Unfortunately, sometimes some letters are completely ignored / are silent when pronouncing a word. A few examples would be:
Words starting with ‘h’.
Almost all words starting with ‘h’ in Spanish, ignore the ‘h’ sound. For example, hombre, huevo, hola. All those words have an ‘h’ in them, but the h is completely ignored / silent and you would start with the next letter, which would usually be a vowel.
Words starting with gue:
For words starting with gue, almost always you will ignore the ‘u’ sound and pronounce it as if it were spelled ge… Example words:
guerra – pronounced as “GEH−rrah” meaning war
guerrero – pronounced as “geh-RREH-roh” meaning warrior
Words starting with gui:
For words starting with gui, almost always you will ignore the ‘u’ sound and pronounce it as if it were spelled gi…
Guitarra – Pronunciation: gee−∗∗TAH∗∗−rrahgee−∗∗TAH∗∗−rrah
Guía – Pronunciation: ∗∗GEE∗∗−ah∗∗GEE∗∗−ah
Words starting with que:
For words starting with que, almost always you will ignore the ‘u’ sound and pronounce it as if it were spelled qe… For example, queso, quien, qué…
Words starting with qui:
For words starting with qui, almost always you will ignore the ‘u’ sound and pronounce it as if it were spelled qi… For example Quindío (a state or department in Colombia), yo quiero, quince, química.
Spanish umlaut u (ü)
The Spanish u umlaut, known as diéresis, occurs in vowel combinations “güe” and “güi”. The diéresis is used to indicate that the ‘u’ sound will not be silent or ignored. In these special cases, you pronounce the word as gue or gui but DO pronounce the ‘u’ sound For example:
Pingüino – Pronounced peen−∗∗GWEEN∗∗−oh (penguin)
Vergüenza – Pronounced ver−∗∗GWEHN∗∗−sah (shame)
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