Homework

[Ree-Ford]

Hi.

I was wondering if someone could give me something to work on? Like a sentence in English and I could research and practice saying it in Spanish? I see lots of people come on here to ask if what they've written is correct but I'm not very advanced like a lot of them! I'm literally a beginner so please give me something that's challenging for a beginner but not to difficult if you can! But I will try to work out anything then come back for feedback You could give me something by messaging me or just by writing on here?

Thanks

Ria

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Ree-Ford

Hi.

I was wondering if someone could give me something to work on? Like a sentence in English and I could research and practice saying it in Spanish? I see lots of people come on here to ask if what they've written is correct but I'm not very advanced like a lot of them! I'm literally a beginner so please give me something that's challenging for a beginner but not to difficult if you can! But I will try to work out anything then come back for feedback You could give me something by messaging me or just by writing on here?

Thanks

Ria

Hola Ria.I have sent you two very useful links. Have you seen them?

Also you'll be happy to know that are several thousand Spanish words that you already know
even if you have never seen them before. You are not aware these words simply because they
have never been pointed out to you. I'm going to show you how easy it is to learn Spanish by showing
you how much you already know. For instance, have you ever seen these Spanish words before?

popular, capital, animal, hotel, radio, conductor, probable, cable, actor, ideal, flexible, central, inteligente

Can you recognize any of these words?

Atlántico, Pacífico, dramático, atractivo, restaurante, importante, presidente, permanente, medicina, optimista, dentista, artista, confusion, invitación

If you can recognize even a few of these words, the Spanish language is yours for the taking. It is encouraging to know that you can identify thousands upon thousands of Spanish words at sight. But it is really exciting to discover that with a few hints you yourself can form these words and that you can start out on your adventure of learning
Spanish with a large, ready-made vocabulary of Spanish words. I will be there with you every step of the way.

es=is, el=the un=a or an

Can you understand these Spanish sentences?

El actor es popular. (The actor is popular.)
El presidente es diplomático.
El tenor es romántico.
El elefante es un animal.
El doctor es inteligente.
El restaurante es excelente.
El cliente es impotante.
El criminal es terrible.
El hotel es excelente.

I'll be back with more. Now I have to go watch my Spanish soap operas. From 7:00 P.M. till 10:00 P.M.
Then the news in Spanish at 11:00 P.M.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by Villa

... Can you recognize any of these words?

Atlántico, Pacífico, dramático, atractivo, restaurante, importante, presidente, permanente, medicina, optimista, dentista, artista, confusión, invitación

... Can you understand these Spanish sentences?

El actor es popular. (The actor is popular.)
El presidente es diplomático.
El tenor es romántico.
El elefante es un animal.
El doctor es inteligente.
El restaurante es exceltente.
El cliente es importante.
El criminal es terrible.
El hotel es excelente.

An accented vowel is as necessary as an unaccented vowel or a consonant in a word. If you get them wrong, you have misspelled the word. Accent marks are never gratuitous. They are necessary for correct pronunciation and interpretation.
For instance, there's a world of difference between ingles and inglés or río and rió. And you'd be wrong to think that pacifico, pacífico and pacificó all meant the same thing.

[Villa]

The words you already know in Spanish fall into several large categories. The first and easiest category is made up of words which end in "or." These words are often identical in Spanish and English.
Remember: el means the, un means a or an. the actor=el actor;
an actor= un actor
Spanish vowels are pronounced: ah eh ee oh oo


el actor (ac-TOR), color(co-LOR, el doctor, director, horror, tractor, interior,
exterior, el error, un profesor, superior, inventor, el favor,

Next there is a category of words that end in "al". These also are often
identical in Spanish and English.

animal (ah-nee-MAL), general, hospital, manual, moral, central, local, musical, natural, rural, social, personal, criminal, canal

The letter "h" is silent in Spanish so hospital is pronounced os-pi-TAL.

[Ree-Ford]

Originally Posted by Villa

Hola Ria.I have sent you two very useful links. Have you seen them?

Also you'll be happy to know that are several thousand Spanish words that you already know

Yes I've seen them, thank you.

I've seen 'hotel' out of that list, but I can see where you're going with this as hotel is basically pronounced as hotel except pronounced without the 'h'?

Yes I can see what those words would be in English.
Atlantic, Pacific, dramatic, attractive, restaurant, important, president, permanent, medicine, optimist, dentist, artist, confusion, invitation.

It seems so simple, I guess I just need to get around the confusing bits, or the bits that 'seem' confusing then it'll probably become really easy
Thank you, you're really kind

El actor es popular. (The actor is popular.)
El presidente es diplomático. The president is diplomatic.
El tenor es romántico. The tenor is romantic.
El elefante es un animal. The elephant is an animal.
El doctor es inteligente. The doctor is intelligent.
El restaurante es excelente. The restaurant is excellent.
El cliente es impotante. The client is important.
El criminal es terrible. The criminal is terrible.
El hotel es excelente. The hotel is excellent.

It really was obvious haha thanks for doing this for me, it's a really nice start.

Originally Posted by Rusty

An accented vowel is as necessary as an unaccented vowel or a consonant in a word. If you get them wrong, you have misspelled the word. Accent marks are never gratuitous. They are necessary for correct pronunciation and interpretation.
For instance, there's a world of difference between ingles and inglés or río and rió. And you'd be wrong to think that pacifico, pacífico and pacificó all meant the same thing.

I understand what you mean. I'll be sure to make sure that I put them in the right necessary places. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Villa

The words you already know in Spanish fall into several large categories. The first and easiest category is made up of words which end in "or." These words are often identical in Spanish and English.
Remember: el means the, un means a or an. the actor=el actor;
an actor= un actor
Spanish vowels are pronounced: ah eh ee oh oo


el actor (ac-TOR), color(co-LOR, el doctor, director, horror, tractor, interior,
exterior, el error, un profesor, superior, inventor, el favor,

Next there is a category of words that end in "al". These also are often
identical in Spanish and English.

animal (ah-nee-MAL), general, hospital, manual, moral, central, local, musical, natural, rural, social, personal, criminal, canal

The letter "h" is silent in Spanish so hospital is pronounced os-pi-TAL.

That's a simple way to look at it.

I was going to mention about 'h' being silent as I've looked up a few words with h in it and it was always silent.

I understand that some phonics (I think they're phonics?) don't sound how they're spelt a lot of the times. Like 'll' = 'y', 'j' = 'h', 'h' = silent? Have I got that right? Is there anymore that are like that?

[Villa]

Originally Posted by Villa

That's a simple way to look at it.

I was going to mention about 'h' being silent as I've looked up a few words with h in it and it was always silent.

I understand that some phonics (I think they're phonics?) don't sound how they're spelt a lot of the times. Like 'll' = 'y', 'j' = 'h', 'h' = silent? Have I got that right? Is there anymore that are like that?

__________________________________________________ ________________________________________

H is not silent if it's with ch. muchacho. moo-CHA-cho (boy)
H is silent when alone. hijo (E-ho) (son)

Spanish J is pronounced like English H.

Spanish ll is pronounced like Spanish y.

Any way Spanish vowel are easy compared to English. Spanish
vowel make only one sound while English vowels have many sounds.
There is the long sound and the short sounds of English vowels and
many other sounds English vowels make.

Learn the sound of Spanish vowels. a (ah), e (eh), i (ee) , o (oh), u (oo)

Letters that sound almost the same in Spanish and English

b, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, z - American Spanish pronounce Z like S.
Spanish V is pronounced like Spanish and English B.

[Ree-Ford]

Originally Posted by Villa

__________________________________________________ ________________________________________

H is not silent if it's with ch. muchacho. moo-CHA-cho (boy)
H is silent when alone. hijo (E-ho) (son)

Spanish J is pronounced like English H.

Spanish ll is pronounced like Spanish y.

Any way Spanish vowel are easy compared to English. Spanish
vowel make only one sound while English vowels have many sounds.
There is the long sound and the short sounds of English vowels and
many other sounds English vowels make.

Learn the sound of Spanish vowels. a (ah), e (eh), i (ee) , o (oh), u (oo)

Letters that sound almost the same in Spanish and English

b, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, z - American Spanish pronounce Z like S.
Spanish V is pronounced like Spanish and English B.

I noticed the 'ch' in w Cachorro.

I didn't think there'd be a difference, I've never noticed it. I'll learn the Spanish vowels, they seem easy enough to remember.

I noticed that in some words I came across that the z sounds like s and the v sounds like b.

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by Ree-Ford

I noticed the 'ch' in w Cachorro.

I didn't think there'd be a difference, I've never noticed it. I'll learn the Spanish vowels, they seem easy enough to remember.

I noticed that in some words I came across that the z sounds like s and the v sounds like b.

There is a particular issue with the way we pronounce vowels in English that causes problems with learning to pronounce similar-sounding vowels in Spanish. The normal sound of each individual vowel letter sounds sort of similar to one of the English vowels, but there are differences in pronunciation that cause a strong foreign accent if you use the typical English pronunciation when speaking Spanish. It's worth the effort to learn to say the Spanish vowel sounds correctly rather than using the similar-sounding English vowel sounds. The most important ones are:

1. Spanish 'e' sounds a lot like the pronunciation of the English name of the letter 'a'. However, in many regional varieties the English pronunciation ends in a glide towards the pronunciation of the English name of the letter 'e', and the Spanish pronunication does not have this glide. Using the English pronunciation (with the glide at the end) can cause misunderstanding because it sounds a lot like the Spanish diphthong (a two-part vowel sound) spelled "ei", and a native speaker of Spanish won't understand whether you are saying "ves" ("you see" singular familiar) or "veis" ("you see" plural familiar).

2. Spanish "o" sounds a lot like the pronunciation of the English name of the letter 'o'. However, in many regional varieties the English pronunciation ends in a glide towards the pronunciation of the sound spelled "oo" in the English word "soon", and the Spanish pronunciation does not have this glide. Compared to the pronunciation of the letter 'e', using the English pronuniation of "o" is less likely to cause misunderstanding because the Spanish diphthong "ou" is much less common; however, it still produces a strong foreign accent to the ears of native speakers of Spanish.

The letters "s" and "z" having identical sounds is almost universal throughout Latin America. In parts of Spain these two letters have distinct pronunciations, as the letter 'z' is pronounced like the sound spelled as 'th' in the English word "thin".

And yes, the letters "b" and "v" have the same pronunciation in the same contexts throughout almost all of the Spanish-speaking world.

[Villa]

Originally Posted by wrholt

There is a particular issue with the way we pronounce vowels in English that causes problems with learning to pronounce similar-sounding vowels in Spanish. The normal sound of each individual vowel letter sounds sort of similar to one of the English vowels, but there are differences in pronunciation that cause a strong foreign accent if you use the typical English pronunciation when speaking Spanish. It's worth the effort to learn to say the Spanish vowel sounds correctly rather than using the similar-sounding English vowel sounds. The most important ones are:

1. Spanish 'e' sounds a lot like the pronunciation of the English name of the letter 'a'. However, in many regional varieties the English pronunciation ends in a glide towards the pronunciation of the English name of the letter 'e', and the Spanish pronunication does not have this glide. Using the English pronunciation (with the glide at the end) can cause misunderstanding because it sounds a lot like the Spanish diphthong (a two-part vowel sound) spelled "ei", and a native speaker of Spanish won't understand whether you are saying "ves" ("you see" singular familiar) or "veis" ("you see" plural familiar).

2. Spanish "o" sounds a lot like the pronunciation of the English name of the letter 'o'. However, in many regional varieties the English pronunciation ends in a glide towards the pronunciation of the sound spelled "oo" in the English word "soon", and the Spanish pronunciation does not have this glide. Compared to the pronunciation of the letter 'e', using the English pronuniation of "o" is less likely to cause misunderstanding because the Spanish diphthong "ou" is much less common; however, it still produces a strong foreign accent to the ears of native speakers of Spanish.

The letters "s" and "z" having identical sounds is almost universal throughout Latin America. In parts of Spain these two letters have distinct pronunciations, as the letter 'z' is pronounced like the sound spelled as 'th' in the English word "thin".

And yes, the letters "b" and "v" have the same pronunciation in the same contexts throughout almost all of the Spanish-speaking world.

Very good. ah eh ee oh oo el burro sabe más que tú! Just a funny little thing we say in México and California.

Put the Spanish vowels with Spanish consonants and you have syllables.

ma me mi mo mu - mah meh mee moh moo

Now we can forum Spanish words and sentences.

Amo a mi mamá. (AH-moh ah me mah-MAH.) I love my mother.
Mi mamá me ama. (mi mah-MAH meh AH-mah.) My mother loves me.

ba be bi bo bu - bah beh bee boh boo
na ne ni no nu - nah neh nee noh noo
ta te ti to tu - tah teh tee toh too

es=is

Mi mamá es bonita. Me mah-MAH s boh-NEE-tah. My mother is beautiful.

[Ree-Ford]

Originally Posted by wrholt

There is a particular issue with the way we pronounce vowels in English that causes problems with learning to pronounce similar-sounding vowels in Spanish. The normal sound of each individual vowel letter sounds sort of similar to one of the English vowels, but there are differences in pronunciation that cause a strong foreign accent if you use the typical English pronunciation when speaking Spanish. It's worth the effort to learn to say the Spanish vowel sounds correctly rather than using the similar-sounding English vowel sounds.

I can see how they're different. I've looked on YouTube at a video of someone saying the vowels and I can hear how it could be easy to become mixed up with English vowels. I think it's not so hard to say, but just hard to remember.

[wrholt]

Originally Posted by Ree-Ford

I can see how they're different. I've looked on YouTube at a video of someone saying the vowels and I can hear how it could be easy to become mixed up with English vowels. I think it's not so hard to say, but just hard to remember.

Exactly! With time and practice a more native-like pronunciation becomes more habitual. But at the beginning one needs to pay more attention than one is accustomed to in order to develop good habits.