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Spanish Pronunciation and syllable stress
To properly learn Spanish you must manage pronunciation issues in order to make yourself understood by native Spanish speakers. Fortunately, the Spanish alphabet is similar to the English alphabet, and you can practice pronunciation variations based on the following rules.
The ll in Spanish is always pronounced like the English y in yes. Thus, the Spanish word ella (she, her) is pronounced like eh-ya.
The ñ is the same sound as the ny pair in the word canyon. Thus, señor is pronounced like sen-yor.
The Spanish h is always silent. Thus, hola is pronounced ola (as in cola without the c).
a, e, i, o, u
The Spanish vowels each have only one sound, regardless of what letters they precede or follow, or accent marks on the vowel. The a is always pronounced as in the English word car. The e has the sound of the e in bed. The Spanish i is the same as the English long e or ee as in see. The o is always pronounced as the o in the word cold. The Spanish u has the sound of the English oo as in too or the English ue as in blue.
d
The Spanish "d" has two separate sounds, hard and soft. At the beginning of a word and after "n" or "l", the hard Spanish "d" is similar to the "d" in the word "dog." The difference is that when pronouncing the hard Spanish "d", the tongue touches the back of the front teeth. In other situations (mainly between vowels) the "d" is softer, closely resembling the "th" sound in the word "this."
r
As opposed to the English r, which is formed in the back of the mouth with the back of the tongue, the Spanish r is formed using the tip of the tongue on the upper palate, behind the front teeth, more like the English d.
rr
The Spanish "rr" is a vibrating, or trilling sound.
Stress and accent rules
As well as learning Spanish pronunciation you need to know which syllable in a word should be stressed. In Spanish, the rules for stress (accent) are uncomplicated and there are three rules that cover nearly every word:
1. If a word ends in a vowel, n or s, the stress is on the next to last syllable. For instance, toro, joven and zapatos all have their accent on the penultimate syllable.
2. Words ending in other letters have stress on the last syllable. For example, hotel, hablar, and madador.
3. In other instances, accent is placed on the vowel of the syllable that gets the stress. For example común, médico, inglés, and holá all have stress as indicated.
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