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Spanish 101

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The easiest language for English speaking people to learn is Spanish, bar none. That is because there are more than 20,000 words that are the same or similar between both languages. Differences exist in pronunciation only. Chew on that for a while. No other language on the planet gives English speakers that much of a head start. So what's the excuse for not learning?

Pronunciation

A major key to pronunciation is vowels. In English, there are several ways to pronounce any one vowel. Take the word "banana" for example. The letter "a" appears 3 times, yet there are 2 different pronounciations for it. The word is spelled the same way in Spanish yet "a" is pronounced the same all three times. Another example is the word "Mississippi"; the letter "i" appears 4 times, but there are 3 different pronunciations of it. Try saying it aloud and pay close attention to how you pronounce the letter "i". All English vowels follow this same pattern. There is no such confusion however, in Spanish vowels. All spanish vowels are pronounced the same way nomatter where you find them, nomatter how many times they appear in a single word.

Here is how Spanish vowels are pronounced:

"A" is always pronounced "ah" like in "father". "E" is pronouced "eh" like in "met". The letter "I" is pronounced "ee" like in "east". "O" is pronounced "oh" as in "hoe" and "U" is pronounced "ooh" as in "who".

Lastly, unlike English where two adjoining vowels are merged into one as in the word "receive", in Spanish each vowel forms its own syllable and is pronounced separately as in the word "desear" (to desire) "day say arr".

Next class we'll address consonants.

 

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