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pronunciation guide *pronunciation You don’t need perfect pronunciation to be able to communicate – it’s enough to get the sounds approximately right and to stress the words in the correct place. Spanish pronunciation is very regular – you can tell how a word is pronounced from the way it’s written, once you know what sound each letter (or group of letters) represents. A pronunciation guide is given with the phrases in this book – the system is based on English sounds, as described below. Spanish vowels are pronounced the same wherever they occur (unlike English, in which each vowel can be pronounced in several distinct ways). a a in ‘cat’ a nada au ow in ‘cow’ ow autobús owtoboos ai, ay i in ‘pile’ iy hay iy e e in ‘met’ e cena thena ei, ey ay in ‘say’ ay veinte baynte i ee in ‘meet’ ee amigo ameego i (unstressed) y in ‘yet’ y gracias grathyas o o in ‘lot’ o como komo oi, oy oy in ‘boy’ oy soy soy u oo in ‘moon’ oo una oona u (before w in ‘wet’ another vowel) u in que, not qui, gue, gui pronounced w cuenta muy kwenta mwee – quién guerra kyen gerra Except in the cases listed below, Spanish words are stressed on the last but one syllable: tengo, gustan, España, excursiones. The exceptions are: nada *consonants spanish approx english shown in example consonants equivalent book as 1 If a word ends in a consonant other than n or s, the stress is on the last syllable: Madrid, acampar, español. 2 If there is a written accent, the stress is where the accent is: estación, Málaga, café. approx english shown in example equivalent book as *stress In this book, a stressed syllable is shown in the pronunciation guide by bold type: estathyon, tengo. 6 spanish vowels b b in ‘but’ b baño banyo c (followed th in ‘thick’ by e or i) th cenar thenar c (otherwise) c in ‘can’ k cama kama pronunciation guide pronunciation guide Many Spanish consonants are pronounced in a similar way to English. The main differences are with c, g, h, j, ll, ñ, qu, r, v, z. *vowels 7
