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Pronunciation of Spanish "g"This is the place for questions about conjugations, verb tenses, adverbs, adjectives, word order, syntax and other grammar questions for English or Spanish. |
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#1
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Pronunciation of Spanish "g"
I am reading an article about the pronunciation of the Spanish "g". I thought there were two ways ("soft" vs. "hard"). Like the difference between "gemela" and "gato".
The author of this article says that there are three distinctions: - words like gato, goma, gula, guerra, and guiso... - words like agarrar, egoísta, cigüeña and gigante... - words like gemela, ángel or ingeniero... I don't see the distinction between the first and the second. Is there a way to explain this to someone without getting into the technical IPA stuff? Are there comparable English sounds?
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- Lou Ann, de Washington, DC, USA Específicamente quiero recibir ayuda con el español de latinoamerica. ¡Muchísimas gracias! |
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#2
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There don't seem to be any exact English sounds. My grammar gives more or less the English 'g' sound for g before a, o and u, (gato, goma, gula) and like the Scottish loch or German acht for the 'g' before e and i (gemela, ángel). Others require sound characters which don't appear in English.
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#3
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(In private) try saying "guante" and "gante" (not a real word so far as I know) with a finger on your tongue. It needs to be fairly far back, because the sound is made with the tongue near the back of the roof of the mouth.
English accents vary so much that I'm not even going to try. |
#4
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Soft sound: ga, gue, gui, go, gu (u in gue / gui is not pronounced, unless you add a diaeresis):
gato, guerra, guisante, gorila, guapo. Strong sound: ja, ge / je, gi / ji, jo, ju. jamón, gente, jengibre, gitano, jinete, jofaina, julio. There's no difference in pronuntiation between ge /je or gi / ji. And Gante is in Belgium. |
#5
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Iramar: Are you sure about this ?(I mean obviously you know what the sounds are ) but the g in guapo is known (to me) as a hard g, and the g in gente is a soft one. I'm confused.
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#6
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I agree. I think that the confusion here is with the words "hard" and "soft". I know how "guapo" should be pronounced, and how "gente" should be pronounced. It's the other sound that I haven't quite figured out yet..... The article I'm referring to says that for Spanish learners, it's important to learn that sound very early in the learning process, so as not to learn it wrong. Because so much of my learning is online, one of my big fears is that I'm learning mispronunciations......
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- Lou Ann, de Washington, DC, USA Específicamente quiero recibir ayuda con el español de latinoamerica. ¡Muchísimas gracias! |
#7
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Quote:
gemelo - similar to a hard "H". Just try to imitate most any foreigner trying to say "hot" G and J sound the same as in gemelo. try your phonetic here read this in English "hemelo" try a hard or strong "h". |
#8
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Agreed ... but how about the words in the second bullet in my list? Supposedly those are pronounced differently.... That's the one I'm having trouble with....
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- Lou Ann, de Washington, DC, USA Específicamente quiero recibir ayuda con el español de latinoamerica. ¡Muchísimas gracias! |
#9
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Quote:
or gato, goma, gula, guerra |
#10
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Quote:
__________________
- Lou Ann, de Washington, DC, USA Específicamente quiero recibir ayuda con el español de latinoamerica. ¡Muchísimas gracias! |
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