3.6 PRONUNCIACIÓN Y ORTOGRAFÍA / PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING – SAMPLE

Progreso de Section / Sección:

LAS VOCALES DEL ESPAÑOL / SPANISH VOWELS

There are five vowels in Spanish:

a
e
i
o
u

Basic RGB

triángulo vocálico

Spanish vowels are either open (a/o/e) or close (i/u).
There are two anterior vowels (pronounced in the front part of the mouth): e/i
Two posterior vowels (pronounced in the back of the mouth): o/u
And one middle vowel (pronounced in the center of the mouth): a

There are no long or short vowels. Spanish vowels are pronounced clearly and always sound the same (whether at the beginning, middle or end of a word). Compare the pronunciation of the word patatas:

Non-native student: patatas

Native: patatas

Listen to and repeat the following words, making sure to pronounce all the vowels correctly:

patatas

* ¡Para grabar tu voz, activa el micrófono! / To record your voice, enable the microphone!

Grabaciones


chocolate

Grabaciones


restaurante

Grabaciones


bocadillo

Grabaciones


hamburguesa

Grabaciones

ATTENTION: The letter y is pronounced [i] at the end of many verbs: estoy, voy, soy…

Correctly pronounce the vowels at the end of words. Many words end in –o for the masculine form and –a for the feminine:


	Listen to and repeat the following words, making sure to pronounce the final vowels correctly.


amigo ~ amiga

Grabaciones


hijo ~ hija

Grabaciones


abuelo ~ abuela

Grabaciones


chico ~ chica

Grabaciones

The final vowel of many verbs changes:

yo como ~ él come
yo canto ~ ella canta

Repeat the above verbs, correctly pronouncing the final vowels.

Grabaciones

DIPTONGO / DIPTHONGS

A dipthong is the combination of an open (a/e/o) and a close (i/u) vowel within the same syllable:


Hasta luego	has-ta-lue-go