Is there a way in spanish to make the sound "ih"

[cb4]

I may not be spelling it correctly phonetically, but I mean the sound the letter "I" makes in the word "in". Because I believe "in" in spanish would sound like "een", and "en" would sound like the English "aye-n". Is there a way to make that sound?

[Rusty]

The 'i' in the English word 'in' doesn't exist in Spanish. We call it the short 'i' sound.

When a Spanish speaker is learning English, they will pronounce the word 'in' as if it were spelled 'een'. This is the 'i' in the English word 'machine'.

I didn't understand what you were trying to say about 'en'. This is both an English word and a Spanish word. Both are pronounced basically the same way.

[cb4]

But isn't the spanish "e" the same sound as the English "a" in the word "bane"? Therefore wouldn't i"en" sound like "aine" in spanish more than "ehn"?

As far as the I, how would a spanish person spell a word that sounds like the spanish "vindictive"? In spanish, that word would sound like "veendeective", right ?

[Rusty]

The Spanish 'e' is not the same as the English 'a' in 'bane'. That 'a' is a diphthong, which is close to the Spanish 'ei' is 'seis'. Here is the IPA pronunciation of 'bane' - /beɪn/.

If you remove the second vowel, you get the pronunciation of the Spanish 'e'. Again, the English word 'en' and the Spanish word 'en' sound basically the same. Don't let that extra /ɪ/ vowel slip in.

Since a Spanish speaker cannot say the short i sound, 'vindictive' is pronounced as if it were spelled 'veendeecteev'.

[chileno]

That sound exists in Spanish. You just have to dig in deeper to get get it.

Ask any Hispanic adolescent, where the answer is a yes, and most likely that i will sound like the one on "in"

;)

[Rusty]

@chileno: According to every reference I've ever seen on the subject, the Spanish language has five pure vowels.
The short i sound in American English is not one of them.

I'm not saying that the short i sound cannot be learned by a native speaker of Spanish. I'm only stating that it doesn't naturally occur in the Spanish language.

Any deviation from the five vowel sounds that Spanish embraces is simply that - a deviation.

The original poster was asking if there's a way to make the short i sound in Spanish. The answer is no.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Sometimes the vowel sounds are more open or shorter according to the way syllables are linked, but I agree with Rusty. That short i (/ɪ/) is not a part of how we learn and pronounce vowel sounds in Spanish.

As for Chileno's suggestion, all teenagers I know would say "seh", instead of /sɪ/. :thinking:

[chileno]

Sometimes the vowel sounds are more open or shorter according to the way syllables are linked, but I agree with Rusty. That short i (/ɪ/) is not a part of how we learn and pronounce vowel sounds in Spanish.

As for Chileno's suggestion, all teenagers I know would say "seh", instead of /sɪ/. :thinking:

Correcto Angelica. :)

It isn't a Spanish E or a Spanish I it is a sound between both.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

En realidad es una franca "e", no una semivocal, pero si tú oyes algo distinto, es tal vez por influencia de otras latitudes.

[chileno]

Seguramente.

Rusty:

You cannot go by the books alone, especially with the pronunciation.

We pronounce B as V, really? Just get to Youtube and get videos from anywhere and everywhere in Latin America, listen and watch.

You'll find people that will pronounce differently those two letter, even the same person will pronounce two words which should start with one of those pronounce them differently.

It isn't even a matter of being educated.