The real deal about Spanish vowel sounds

There are three rules which apply to every single vowel in Spanish, but first, do you like the picture? I made it myself. Let me make the introductions: readers, these are the Spanish vowel sounds, Spanish vowel sounds, these are the readers. Please notice the use of the words vowel sounds, which is something quite different from vowel letters. Both in English and Spanish we have five vowel letters, "a e i o u". With those five letters, in Spanish we produce five vowel sounds (the same happens in Greek, Hindi, Japanese and most Bantu languages). It really could not be simpler. It’s the opposite scenario for English, where, with those five letters, we produce the whooping amount of twelve vowel sounds. Even if English is your native tongue, it would be absolutely normal if you had no idea there where so many. In case you don’t believe me, let’s take a look at them.




/i:/ as in feel
/ɪ/ as in fill

/u:/ as in fool
/ʊ/ as in full

/ɒ/ as in lot
/ɔ:/ as in law

/e/ as in head
/ɜ:/ as in heard

/æ/ as in bad
/ɑ:/ as in hard

/ʌ/ as in love
/ə/ as in accept

Why is it important to know your English vowels? Well, in order to learn new sounds we have to compare them to sounds we already know, and figure out their differences and similarities. You can think of the Spanish vowel system as a simplified version of the English vowel system. In other words:


Spanish /i/ as in sí

In English you’ve got two sounds which resemble the Spanish /i/: /i:/ and /ɪ/. There are two main differences between those two sounds: the /i:/ as in feel is long, and the tongue is tense. The /ɪ/ as in fill is short, and the tongue is lax, it sounds a bit like the /e/ from bed, doesn’t it? The Spanish /i/ is a bit of a mixture: it is short, but the tongue is tense. Try to avoid that /e/ quality.


Spanish /u/ as in mucho

I could almost have copied the previous paragraph: the English /u:/ as in fool is long and tense, the English /ʊ/ as in full is short and lax. The Spanish /u/? Short and tense.

Spanish /o/ as in no

Again, in English we have two similar sounds, a long one, /ɔ:/, and a short one, /ɒ/. And again, the Spanish /o/ is somewhat short, but resembles the long /ɔ:/ regarding the position of the tongue. Also, consider this: have you ever heard that short /ɒ/ from lot in final open position (as in a word ending with a vowel)? I’m thinking you haven’t. Let’s consider the Spanish word no: think about it as a short /ɔ:/ sound. If you make it long, we’ll all know it’s not Spanish you’re speaking.

Spanish /e/ as in té


We could say it´s the same sound as the English /e/, but please, try to avoid that /ɜ:/ sound from heard, it´s way to long to sound Spanish (among other technical details rather hard to explain, the easiest of them being the part of the tongue that is raised, central for /ɜ:/ and front for /e/).

Spanish /a/ as in mamá

Now this one is hard. I’ve read the Spanish /a/ sounds a lot like the English /ɑ:/ from hard and father. This is not completely true: when producing the English /ɑ:/ we raise the back of our tongue, but when producing the Spanish /a/ we raise the central part of our tongue. Also, you have to avoid the /æ/ as in bad, because of that /e/ quality. The English /ə/ from accept should also be avoided, but that sound demands a title of it´s own.

English /ə/ as in accept, aka the schwa

This vowel sound does not exist in Spanish, and in English, it only occurs in unaccented syllables. That’s why it´s pretty common to use it in unaccented syllables in Spanish, but that is wrong. It´s the sound from alone, about, over, China (see how it´s never stressed). It´s a weak, lax vowel, it even disappears sometimes, we could just as normally say /lɪsən/ or /lɪsn/ for the word listen. This is something that never ever happens in Spanish. Every written vowel is going to have a vowel sound.



It’s a bit complicated, I know. But if you paid attention, you must have noticed some things which seem to happen to every vowel. That’s because there are three general rules which apply to every single Spanish vowel sound. Over the next days I’ll expand on each of these rules separately, but if you just can wait, you can start applying them right now:

1.- Spanish vowels are short
2.- Spanish vowels are pure
3.- Spanish vowels start differently from English vowels -and end differently as well!


Stay tuned for this series of posts on Spanish vowels by subscribing to the Spanish Pronunciation 101 feed.

This is forbidden!

There is a huge difference between /b/ /d/ and /g/ in English and in Spanish, let’s watch that Nacho Libre flick one more time...




What’s wrong with the Mexican monk’s consonants? Does he sound English or Spanish? We all know he sounds Spanish, but can you tell me why?

Those Spanish consonants are tricky, each of them has two variants, a "strong" one and a "weak" one. The strong one is pretty similar to the English consonant, but only occurs after a pause or after "m" or "n". In all other cases (in most cases actually), in Spanish we use a weaker form.

Listen to the monk again...

This is forbidden!

To say /b/ in English, we put our lips together; the monk doesn’t, he just closes the mouth a bit, but there is no total closure as in English.

The same for /d/. In English, we would touch the roof of the mouth with the tip of the tongue. He does lift the tongue, but there is no contact with the roof of the mouth (alveolar ridge, for the ones who have been reading this bog for any amount of time).

These sounds do not exist in English, and very few English speakers notice them. It’s awfully common to hear them produce those so very strong consonants where they should use the weak variants. Think about it the other way round, why do Spanish Speakers produce such lousy consonants in words with /b/ /d/ and /g/? A word I always hear is about with that weak /b/, and it sounds horrible!

If you teach English, pay attention to your students´ sounds, are they doing it properly, or are they using those weak consonants instead?


Today is the International Translation Day. Next week, as a celebration, I will post some research I’ve been doing on Spanish Dictionaries. I hope it will prove useful for those of you who are planning on buying one any time soon. My regards and salutations to all translators out there.

Shake that /k/ookie /p/api, or how to pronounce the rest of the voiceless plosives properly

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to do with this blog. My main concern is: should I explain a basic vocabulary which will be used constantly throughout every post (what I do when I teach), or should I try to keep the terminology as simple as possible, so that anyone entering the site for the first time will understand what I’m talking about right away? I’ll choose option number two, for now, even though I know some explanations will be painfully wordy if I don’t to use the correct terminology.

That being said, let’s talk about the rest of the voiceless plosives. See how easier it is to classify sounds into categories which share the same features? There are six plosives (that sound produced with an explosion), three of them voiceless (because the vocal folds do not vibrate): /t/ /p/ and /k/.

I’ve already talked about the /t/, and to tell you the truth, pretty much the same happens with the /p/ and the /k/. With these sounds, the point of articulation is the same as in English, but there are two main differences:

1 No aspiration

Just like the /t/; when saying /k/ and /p/ try not to expel all that air! I’ve said the difference is that, in English, the air expelled comes from the lungs, while in Spanish the throat is closed and the only air expelled is what had remained inside the mouth. This is exactly what Antonio Quilis, a Spanish phonetician, says about the subject, but... This doesn’t mean that you have to consciously close your throat every time you say /t/ /k/ or /p/, that could actually be a bit dangerous for your throat and vocal folds. Try not to think about your throat, but do apply more muscular energy when articulating those sounds, mostly around your lower jaw and tongue. This is one of the points I mentioned when I wrote about the Spanish Base of articulation. The aspiration is one devise the English speakers have to be able to tell /p/ and /b/ apart, as well as /t/ /d/ and /k/ /g/. I’ll write about that in the next posts, in the meantime, think about how you say bin and pin, and what would happen if you didn’t make any aspiration for the /p/.

2 No affrication

Again, affrication is that extra sound we hear when /k/ is in stressed syllables, like in come. If said slowly, we would hear /ks/. And again, avoid this please! Keep those plosives short and clean! I don’t want to hear no extra sounds, nor extra air!


For more info on this, see also:

Shake that gringo accent off, 3 /t/ tips

Base of articulation reloaded - Nacho Libre

Shake that gringo accent off, 3 /t/ tips

Tired of the way your /t/ sounds? Most probably you’re missing one of these 3 key points. Open that Sounds of English and Spanish animation window, and read on.


1 Dental articulation

This goes for English and German speakers alike. You guys articulate the /t/ on the alveolar ridge, which is just behind the teeth. In Spanish, /t/ is articulated on the back of the teeth, just like the "th" in words like think or with. Try to keep your tongue plain, and touch those teeth with the tip.


2 No aspiration

I’ve said something about this on the last post. Remember those plosives? They consist on three stages, 1.- closure of the oral cavity, 2.- air pressure built up in the mouth, 3.-realease of that air in a burst. In English, when we release that air, we push it from the lungs, that’s why there’s aspiration, that extra sound when /t/ is in a stressed syllable, like in twist.
In Spanish, we close our throats just before the third stage, and that’s why we only release the air contained inside the mouth. And that’s why the Spanish /t/ sounds "softer".
If you’re still not sure what aspiration is, think about dialects like Irish English and Welsh English, they’ve got a pretty strong aspiration.


3 No affrication

First of all, what’s affrication? It’s when /t/ is released a bit slower, and we hear an extra sound, much like the "ch" in the word change. This is very usual when /t/ is in a strong accented position, in words like time or two. This never happens in Spanish, and it’s why it’s so hard for Spanish speakers to produce the English /t/ properly. If you ever hear a native Spanish speaker, try to notice how he or she pronounces his or her English /t/. Chances are he’s missing the affrication, and even articulating the /t/ on the teeth (which is what you should do!).

IPA, plus why you sound so gringo whenever you say /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/

If you entered the Sounds of English and Spanish animation, you probably saw that letters were written between bars. If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time, you might have seen that here too. That’s the way we graphically describe a sound, for example, in Spanish, the letter "p" will always be produced phonetically as the sound /p/. In English, the letter "p" will be /p/ in most cases, but don’t forget about words like "phonetics" or "alphabet".

This system of phonetic notation is called the International Phonetic Alphabet. It was created in 1888 by what in 1897 would be known as the International Phonetic Association (also called IPA). It was a bunch of French linguists who wanted to create a phonetic system that could be applied to any language. The idea was to devise a way to teach a realistic pronunciation. I’d say they were pretty successful; the International Phonetic Alphabet suffered a few revisions, something completely natural considering it was created over a hundred years ago, but the core organization of vowels and consonants remains the same since 1888. You can see the last version here.

At the beginning, this Frenchmen’s idea was to allow sounds to have different articulations depending on the language, but soon they decided a universal alphabet was better. And this is where this useful tool could turn against you if you don’t know how to use it. Of course Peter and Pablo both start with the sound /p/, what there’s no way you’re going to convince me it’s the same sound! (Next paragraph contains same heavy theory, but if you skip it, you’re going to miss one very important revelation)

Both sounds are bilabial; the point of articulation being the upper and lower lips. Both sounds are voiceless; the vocal chords do not vibrate while saying /p/. Both sounds are plosive, or oclusivas, this means they are produced by a burst of air. But that’s the short explanation, the longer one would say plosives consist on three stages, 1.- closure of the oral cavity (closure, oclusivas, get it?), 2.- air pressure built up in the mouth, 3.-realease of that air in a burst (explosion, plosive, get it?). That is the manner of articulation, and the term says a lot about the sound. In Spanish they are called oclusivas, because the most important thing about the sound is the first stage, the closure. In English, on the other hand, they are called plosives, it’s all about the explosion. It’s so much about the explosion, that when the sound is in a stressed syllable, we even write /ph/. There’s so much air coming out, we say there’s some aspiration going on, an extra sound. And that’s the main difference between English plosives and Spanish oclusivas.

And that’s why you sound so gringo whenever you say /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/!

Notice how they’re all created with a burst of air, those are the plosives. I’ll go back to this in some other post, let it sink in, tell me when you’re ready.

Base of articulation reloaded - Nacho Libre

UPDATE: Sorry guys, got a mail from YouTube, looks like Paramount Pictures Corp. placed a complaint for improper use of copyrighted material. I´ve already sent them an email, let´s just hope they´ll consider granting the rights for the educational use of the movie. In any case, I was already thinking of showcasing a different movie every month, there are many examples to show what a Spanish base of articulation should soud like.


Those of you who want to rent the movie, the old post will guide you to what you should be looking for when watching the movie, here it is:




Remember that base of articulation I was talking about just the other day? Listen to Jack Black speaking English with a Spanish base of articulation, and pay special attention to:

· the way he expires, real English needs more air pressure

· his vowels, short and pure, and all of them with the same tonal quality

· his /t/ /p/ and /k/ (can you hear what´s wrong with "cookies"?)

· his /r/ (think about the tapping)

And if you get to 02:40, that "forbidden" is just beautiful Spanish.

The fat guy smelling food while catching on fire gig is a bit overdone, don´t you think?