¡Hola! My name is Azalea and I teach Spanish with TakeLessons Live. Do you
want to learn how to do a Spanish accent or sound like a native speaker? In this
lesson you'll learn some of the unique sounds that are specific to the Spanish
language such as the rolled "R" and the Ñ sound. So stay tuned and don't
forget to click the link below to check out our free online Spanish classes.
Let's talk about Spanish accents. Now accents vary a lot from country to
country and even within the same country region to region, in the north, the South
it's different. But the main difference between Spain from Mexico, from South
America is that in Spain they use the Lisp. Gracias. In Mexico there is no lisp.
In Cuba, for example, they don't pronounce the "S". ¿Cómo estás?
instead of ¿Cómo estás? In Argentina they also speak with the "SH" a lot.
Yo me llamo instead of Yo me llamo. In Puerto Rico, for example, they don't
pronounce the "R". They say Puerto Rico. And super slurred together, really long
sentences, really fast. And they don't say "R's". For South America, it's so big
there's so many different countries so it varies a little bit more.
a few differences between Spanish and English in English, there's 12 sounds for
vowels. Different sounds in Spanish there's only 5. We're going to talk
about vowels in a second. For consonants, between English and Spanish, in Spanish
we pronounce all the consonants with a few exceptions which we'll also talk
about in a second. But the main differences between English and Spanish
for consonants is the vibration. In English we say B and V or S and Z. In
Spanish there's no "ZZZ" sound or "VVV" sound. Some unique sounds in Spanish, let's start
with something a little familiar, the "CH". "Ch", "Ch". For example, China. China. Which
is China. A little similar to English. A word for car is coche. Coche. A word in
Mexico for jacket chaqueta. Chaqueta. And the favorite one, chocolate. Chocolate.
Which is chocolate. The "J" sound that we know in English is different. "Hhh", "Hhh". For
example it sounds like an "H". A few examples in Spanish are the following:
names like Juan or José. That "H" sound. Juan, José. Juego. It's a game. Juego. or jicama.
jicama which is a food. Let's talk about the "Ñ" sound. Niño for boy.
Niño. For girl, Niña. Or Spanish: Español. Español. The "X" sound, sounds a little bit
different. You could say México, spelled with an X. México. Sounds like a "J" as well. Or
words like éxito. Éxito. Success. Or excelente.
excellent. Excelente. We also have consonants that are double
like the "RR" or trilled "R"
and we're going to learn how to make
this sound as well. As we said before English has 12
different sounds for vowels. In Spanish there's just 5 vowels and 5 vowel
sounds. Everything is a little bit open, tall, big
smiles. So "A" in Spanish is "A" and the sound is
"Aaa". Let's talk about the 5 vowels in Spanish. "A", "E", "I", "O", "U".
Notice open, everything is in front of the mouth. "Aaa" "Eee" "Iii" , big smile. "Ooh" "Uuu".
A few
examples for "A" would be Mamá. Mamá. this is Mom. Papá. Papá.
which means dad. Árbol. Árbol. Means tree. And California. California.
California. For "E" we have Español. Español. Spanish. Elegante. Elegante for elegant.
"I", it's a smile. You have to smile. "I" familia. Familia. Family. Amigo or amiga. Amigo or amiga. A
boy friend or a friend that it's a boy. And a friend that it's a girl. Smile,
sonrisa. Sonrisa. "O" is round. "Ohh". Hola! Hello. Hola! ¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo estás?
How are you? "Uuu", it's a little closer than "O". "Uuu". Uno. For one. Uno.
Mucho. Mucho. A lot. Unicornio. Unicornio.
For unicorn. Buenos Aires has all the vowels. All right.
Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires.
Now let's practice some consonants in Spanish. The differences between English
and Spanish we said it was the vibration. "B" and "V "in English or "S" and "Z". They
don't do that in Spanish. We have just "B" sound or "S" sound. There's no "Vvv" or
"Zzz" sounds. For example it is hard for people that speak Spanish as a first language
and then they're learning English to make those sounds. Like "Vvv" or "Zzz" or even the "Th".
or "Thh" the TH sounds in English are so hard. For example words like above. Above. In
English you would hear the accent in someone who speaks Spanish saying above.
Above. Because that's how you learn in Spanish how to say the "B". So let's talk
about the differences between B and V. In Spanish "B" or "V". "B" or "V". Both sounds for
this is "Bb", "Bb". Burro. Burro. Which means donkey. Vaca. Vaca. Which means
cow. Bueno which means good or okay. Bueno. And Vamos. Vamos. Which means let's go.
Some countries instead of saying "B" or "V", for the names of these letters, say
"B" grande and "V" chica. Like big "B" and small "V". For "S" and "Z". "S", "Z".
The sound is "Sss" like a snake. "Sss". Sandalias. Sandalias. For sandals.
Zapatos. Zapatos. For shoes. Azul. Azul for blue. Now let's talk about "R's"
in Spanish. There is flipped R. It's just a little "R", "R". This sound for "R"
is used when we find the "R" between vowels. Caro. Caro. Which is expensive. Caro.
Amarillo. Amarillo. Which means yellow. The other sound
for "R" is a rolled "R". N super exaggerated. When the "R" is at the end or
at the beginning of the word. For example flower. Flor.
We don't say flor. Flor. A little "Rrr" Or Roberto. Roberto. The name Robert.
Roberto. Not Roberto. Right Roberto. There's also the "RR" two R's next
to each other. "RR". This is a more
marked or aggressive sound in Spanish. The one that is difficult for
a lot of people. Perro for dog. Perro. Or for car
Carro. Carro. It is very important to make the distinction between a flipped R
and a rolled R. For example a very expensive car, un carro
muy caro. Un carro muy caro. Let's practice making this double "RR"
sound happen. In English, we have all the "R's" in the middle like here. For
example the word car. Car. Now in Spanish, we have to pull that sound
forward. Pull the tongue forward. Move it. Car.
Right we're gonna say car. iInstead of car, carro. But we're gonna push it
everything forward for it and then throw a bunch of air at the end. All right
Let's practice. Carro. It's going to be hard at the beginning because you're not
used to this sound. It's totally natural. Other consonants in Spanish like "L". "L"
only have also the double version Doble "LL". This sounds like a "Lll" "Lll" and varies a lot depending on the region or the country.
For example ¿Cómo te llamas? ¿Cómo te llamas? How are you called or
what's your name. Let's go back to our color example for yellow, Amarillo.
Amarillo. Another example for "LL" can be the word call me. Llámame.
Llámame. Call me. Now this one varies all these "LL" sounds vary because of the
region or the country. Some people for example in Argentina they say, Llámame.
Llámame. Others might say Llámame. Llámame. Or if people in Mexico are really mad
like moms they would say, Llámame. Llámame. Like call me.
Let's talk about consonants that are silent in Spanish. The letter "H" is
silent in Spanish with a few exceptions. For example, we don't say Hola! We say
Hola! Hello! Hola! We don't say hermano, hermana, we say
hermano, hermana. Hermano, hermana. For brother and sister now of course there's
a few exceptions to this rule if the word comes from the English. For example,
Hawai, it's the same. Hawaii. Ohio. Ohio or Oklahoma. Oklahoma. Or the word hámster.
Hámster. It's the same. Hámster. the other example for a mute vowel, it would be "U".
Sometimes this vowel is mute in Spanish "U".
For example que or quien. Quien. This is what, who. Que? Quien?
You wouldn't say que, quien. That is silent.
Also groups of letters like GUI or GUE. war, guerra. Guerra. Or guiso. Guiso.
which is a stew. Not guiso. In that case "U" is silent.
of course there's exceptions to this rule, if you ever see two dots on top of
the "U", those little two dots are called diaeresis. Diaeresis. And we can find them
in words like penguin, pingüino. Pingüino. Not pingüino. Pingüino.
Now let's talk about the pace for native Spanish speakers. For example in Mexico
in the north, they say that we punch the words, that we're angry all the time.
For example, "¡Hola! Como estan?
Me llamo Azalea. ¿Qué tal?"
In the center they sing a
little bit. For example "¡Hola! ¿Cómo está?Me llamo Azalea. ¿cuál es su nombre?"
Other regions
they like to talk really fast in one breath, like a really long sentence.
"¡Hola! Como estan? Me llamo Azalea. ¿Qué tal? ¿De dónde son? Le gusta aqui? ¿Cómo llegaron? ¿Lo que paso?
In Cuba for example, they don't pronounce the "S".
"¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo te llamas?"
This is hola "¡Hola! ¿Cómo estás? ¿Cómo te llamas?"
In Puerto Rico, they don't
pronounce the "R". Puerto Rico. No importa.
It doesn't matter. No importa. Por qué?
No importa. Why? It doesn't matter. All together super fast, without the R's.
Now if you ever see an accent on top of a vowel, it's not gonna change the sound
of the vowel like it would do in French. We're just gonna stress that syllable a
little bit more. All right. accents are really important in Spanish
because they can change the meaning of aword, for example, Papa versus Papá. Papa
versus Papá. The second one has an accent. The first Papa means potato, the second
Papá means father or dad. So you would not say, "oh I love you potato". "Te quiero
mucho papa". Te quiero mucho Papá. Words like Camino vs. caminó. The second one
has the accent. Camino vs. caminó. The first one means road the second one
means he walked or she walked. What do you find the most difficult about the
Spanish accent? Leave a comment and let us know. And if you enjoyed this video
hit the subscribe button so you can stay up to date with more helpful Spanish
tutorials.