[MUSIC PLAYING] El Alfabeto Espanol, the Spanish--
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--alphabet has every letter that we have in the English alphabet. Plus it has one more official letter and three others that sort of act as letters. At one point, four of these were considered separate letters. But now the Real Academia, the Spanish Royal Academy, considers just the [SPEAKING SPANISH] as a separate letter. The [SPEAKING SPANISH] is the one that you see in the word espanol, or manana, where the N has a little squiggly line on top of it.
The others that once were considered separate letters are the --ch, which is the C-H combination, the --e --yeh, which is the double-L combination, and the --ere, which is the double-R combination. They are no longer considered separate letters. However, they do act as separate letters in the sense that each of them has a different sound than the single letter, or than each letter of the combo as you'll soon see. But, for now, let's focus on the letter names. If you were spelling a person's name out loud, or your own or giving an email address, you would want to be able to know how to say the letters in a name or an email address.
So this is how you would say these letters. The A in Spanish is --ah. So try these after me. --ah, --b, --c, --ch, that's the C-H combination, --ch, --d, --e, --efeh, --h, --ah --cheh, --ee, --hota, --k, --ele, --e --yeh, that's the double-L, but it's pronounced --e --yeh for the letter name, --eme, --ene, --en --yeh. That's the one we talked about before in the word espanol. Next, is --oe, --p, --koo, --ere, --ere, the double-R. Then, comes --ese, --t, --oo, --v, --doe --bleh -- veh, --e --kees, --i --gree --e --gah, sometimes also called --yeh, and --se --tah.
Notice that both the letter B, as in boy, and V as in Victor, are --v. That's because the V in Spanish is pronounced like a B. Therefore, you might hear some Spanish speakers say, b grande versus b chica, which means big B and little B. So the B, as in boy, would be --b grande, and the V, as in Victor, would be --v chica.
Now, you can practice spelling your name in Spanish. Here's mine. --ese, --t, --e, --p, --ah --che, --ah, --ene, --ee, --e. Now, you try.
And one more time, here they are again. Try them after me. --ah, --b, --c, --che, --d, --e, --efe, --h, --ah --che, --ee, --hota, --k, --ele, --e --yeh, --eme, --ene, --in --yeh, --oe, --p, --koo, --ere, --ere, --ese, --t, --oo, --v, --doe --bleh --veh, --e --kees, --i --gree --eh --gah, --se --tah. Muy bien.
So how is your Spanish pronunciation? Caliente. Well, we can help if it's not. Some of you may have a gringo accent right now. But, with some practice, you'll find that you can speak Spanish authentically, even if you cannot trill your Rs like this, [TRILLING SOUND WITH TONGUE]. The good news is that Spanish sounds as it looks for the most part.
And every vowel has the same pronunciation in every situation. So the --ah is always --ah. It's never any other sound. There are no silent vowels either. So it has a very consistent set of rules for the pronunciation.
In Spanish, there are only three stress rules. If you don't know what those are yet, don't let it stress you out. We'll cover that at the end of this lesson. But, to give you a comparison, an ESL textbook for learning English as a second language has 35 pages worth of stress rules.
So, by contrast, Spanish is much simpler. Once you've learned the sounds and rules in this section, you'll be able to pronounce any word in Spanish correctly, including names. You may not know what they all mean yet but we'll get to that in future lessons.
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Have you ever wondered why a certain word might be used in one Spanish-speaking country, but not in another? For example, an automovil is pretty generic. But you would hear it called el carro in Latin America while it's called el coche in Espana. And, in Spain, carro refers to a shopping cart, whereas in Latin America coche is a baby stroller. So what's that about?
Also, have you noticed a different pronunciation sometimes for the same word in different Spanish speaking countries or perhaps by different Spanish speaking friends or patients? Dialectal differences cause this issue in any language that's spoken in more than one tiny, isolated community. And it comes from the fact that the language is spoken in more than one place. Therefore, time and distance calls the language to change differently in different places.
For example, English is spoken in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and countless other countries. And yet, in each of those countries, you'll notice that the pronunciation is slightly different. Yet you can still understand someone who speaks English from a different country.
Also, it can control what words are used in those different dialects to refer to the same thing. For example, in the US, we say restroom or bathroom. And in the United Kingdom they might say Loo or water closet or W.C. or the toilets. So you still understand what the reference is. It just takes a second to determine exactly what that meaning is in your own dialect.
We can use context clues, and we can use deductive reasoning skills to determine the meaning of an unfamiliar word. In this course, you will learn what is referred to as Latin American Spanish. This is not a specific dialect spoken just in one region of one country. Rather, it's a combination of the most common pronunciations and the most commonly used words and the many dialects spoken in the many different Spanish speaking countries throughout Latin America. Castellano, or Castilian, Spanish is the Spanish that's spoken throughout the majority of Spain, and it is spoken in a few cities peppered here and there in Latin America.
The two key differences between Castellano, Castilian Spanish, and Latin American Spanish are the pronunciation of the double-L and of the letters C, Z, and S. The double-L in Latin American Spanish is like the letter Y, --y, --y. So I am Yo, Yo. And I call myself Me llamo. Me llamo.
However, in Castillian, it's the --zh sound, like a Z-H. --zh --oe, me llamo Stephanie. So you hear the difference? Yo me llamo Stephanie. Yo me llamo Stephanie. But you can understand me either way.
The other key difference is in the pronunciation of the letters S, Z, and the C when it comes before E or I, the soft C. That's because in Latin America Spanish, all three of those sound like the letter S. And, I should clarify, it's only the C before E or I. Otherwise, the C is a hard C, like a K. So, if you see any of those letters, you will pronounce them just as you would the letter S. It would be receta and zapato. Receta, zapato.
However, in Castilian Spanish, in Castellano that sound is more like a --th, a soft --th, like as in the word the in English, and it would come out like this. Receta, zapato, and that's it for all of these letters. The differences are too many to list here. But, rest assured, if you learn Latin American Spanish, you'll be understood by the majority of your Spanish-speaking patients and clients. And, most importantly, they'll understand you.
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The following chart presents each letter of the Spanish alphabet on the left, with its corresponding pronunciation on the right. Letters with an asterisk are pronounced the same in Spanish as they are in English.
Letter | Sound |
---|---|
a | ah |
b* | as in English |
c* | s (soft) before an "e" or "i;" k (hard) before any other vowel; "cc" is pronounced "ks" |
ch (one letter) | ch |
d | softer than in English in the middle or at the end (in some dialects like "th" at middle or end) |
e | ay |
f* | as in English |
g | h (soft) before an "e" or "i;" g (hard) before other vowels |
h | always silent |
i | ee |
j | h |
k* | as in English |
l* | as in English |
ll (one letter) | y |
m* | as in English |
n* | as in English |
ñ | ny |
o | oh |
p* | as in English |
q | k (never kw) |
r | like "dd" in "ladder;" trilled/repeated at the beginning of a word |
rr (one letter) | trilled/repeated |
s* | as in English |
t | softer than in English in the middle or at the end |
u | oo |
v | like a "b" |
w* | as in English |
x | ks before vowels; s before consonants |
y | ee as a vowel; as in English as a consonant |
z | s |
Note that ch, ll, and rr are no longer considered official letters of the Spanish alphabet; however, many Spanish speakers treat them as such.
For the most part, Spanish sounds as it looks. Each vowel has the same pronunciation in every situation. There are only three stress rules in Spanish. By contrast, a book on English pronunciation contains a section on English stress rules which is 35 pages long! Once you have learned the sounds and rules presented in this section, you will be able to pronounce any word in Spanish!
If you are struggling with a concept or terminology in the course, you may contact SpanishforNursesSupport@capella.edu for assistance.
If you are having technical issues, please contact learningcoach@sophia.org.
Source: This content has been adapted from "Spanish for Nurses" by Stephanie Langston.