Contents
Spanish Pronunciation
Numbers, Calendar, and Time
Meeting People
Getting Around
Accommodation
Food and Drink
Services and Transactions
Health
Culture and Entertainment
Shopping
Learn more with these titles from Barnes & Noble
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- Master basic Spanish pronunciation, greetings, and pleasantries
- Read menus, road signs, and other simple printed phrases
- Talk to waiters, ticket agents, doctors, bank tellers, concierges, and more
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Spanish Pronunciation
Vowels
a |
like a in father
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e |
like e in pen
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i |
like ee in fee
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o |
like o in nose
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u |
like oo in loot; silent following q or g except when written with an umlaut (ü), when it retains its original sound (oo) |
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ai, ay |
like y in my
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au |
like ow in now
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ei, ey |
like ay in pay
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oi, oy |
like oy in destroy
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Consonants
b |
b and v are the same: at the beginning of a word or after m, like a soft English b; otherwise, intermediate between English b and English v. |
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c |
before a, o, u, and any consonant but h, like k in keen; before e or i, like s in seem (except in most of Spain, where it’s like th in theme) |
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cc |
like cc in succeed; in most of Spain, the second c is pronounced like th in theme
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d |
at the beginning of a word or after n or l, like a softly spoken English d; otherwise, like a softer th in they
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g |
when followed by e or i, like h in heat; otherwise, like g in go
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h |
silent |
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j |
like h in hope
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ll |
like y in yet; in parts of South America, like s in leisure; in parts of Spain, like j in Joe
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ñ |
like ny in canyon
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q |
like k in keen, followed by ue or ui (the u is silent) |
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r |
at the beginning of a word, or at the end of a word before a pause, like rr; otherwise, like dd in ladder
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rr |
rolled with the tongue touching the roof of the mouth |
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v |
see b
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x |
like English x, in words derived from Native American languages, sometimes pronounced like h in heat (e.g., México) |
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y |
by itself, like Spanish i; otherwise, like Spanish ll
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z |
in Latin America and parts of Spain, like s in seem; elsewhere in Spain, like th in theme
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