Spanish Grammar Guide for English Speakers

Spanish grammar guide for English speakers 1:

Pronunciation:

Vowels:

In written English there are only five vowels, but in spoken English they reach the amount of fifteen (if I remember well). Instead, in Spanish vowels are always the same five, no matter if we are talking about spoken or written Spanish.

So, the sounds are always the same, independently of the word construction, and those sounds are:

A: It sounds as the a in astonish

E: It sounds as e in eclectic.

I: It sounds as i in intelligent.

O: It sounds as o in obsessive

U: It sounds as u in Uganda.

There are no other vowel sounds in Spanish except for the ones above explained.

Consonants:

The Spanish alphabet has almost the same letters as the English one, with some exceptions, but the sound of the letters is not always the same.

B: It sounds as b in borrow

C: With a, o, and u, it sounds as K in kilo. With e and i it sounds as c in ceiling or s in sailor. To obtain the K sound with e and i, we use the letter q followed by u, which is mute in this case, and we will see it under q key again.

CH: This letter has the same sound as the same English construction ch, but as it sounds in chair and chalk, never as it sounds in chore (never as a k)

D: It sounds as d in door.

F: It sounds as f in front or ph in philosophy.

G: With a, o and u it sounds as g in gall or w in war, with e and i it sounds as h in hotel, so the sound is an aspirated one “gesta” is read as “hesta” “gimnasia” is read as “himnasia” with the h sound of heart and hotel. To obtain the gall sound with e and i, we put a mute u after the g and before the vowel, as in “guerra” and “guirnalda” that have to be read with the same g sound as in gall and gomit. When the u precedes e and i and sounds (it is no mute) it has two points above itself, in this way: güira. Remember that if there is no dieresis (dieresis is the Spanish name of the two points over the vowel u) the u is mute.