7 Common pronunciation mistakes in Spanish
We are going to see two kind of pronunciation mistakes, and we are dividing them in “vowel mistakes” and “consonant” mistakes.
1-“vowel” mistakes:
1.1.Buenohhhhhhhh, tengohhhhh,
The Spanish words are bueno and tengo.
Spaniards keep the vowels short and crisp so no enlarging the word endings.
In English it is quite popular to slide the “o” sound towards an “u” , or the “e” sound to the “I”, at the end of a word. When you are speaking in Spanish you need to try avoiding that sliding motion.
1.2.Uh- buela, ehhm-posible
Spanish words: abuela, imposible.
The “uh” and “ehm” often used in English words such as about (in American English) does not have an equivalent in Spanish. If we will have to chose that “ehm” sound I would say that it is more common in Spanish words starting with “em” than with “im”. Embalse and impresionante start with very different sound.-while in English the pronunciation of “I” and “e” is often the same, -try saying “emission” and “important” and pay attention to their first sound- in Spanish they are two totally different sounds.
To avoid this avoid following English pronunciation patterns and isolate the pronunciation of the vowels instead.
1.3.You-sar, you-til
Spanish words: usar, útil
In English is quite common to curl the lips when you say the “u” sound. You will say the English word utilize starting with the you sound. The Spanish equivalent, utilizar starts isolating the vowel “u”, kind of a “oo” sound.
2 “consonant” mistakes:
2.1-hole-a, hah, blo
Spanish words: hola, hablo.
I would say that one of the most popular pronunciation mistakes in Spanish is to pronounce the letter “h” as you would in English. Never pronounce the “h” in Spanish when it is at the beginning of words.
2.2-roh-sah, rah-zon.
Spanish words: rosa, razón.
Do not pronounce the “r” at the beginning of a word as an English “r”, try to roll that “r”.
2.3-lah-moh, siluh
Spanish words: llamo, silla.
The sound for the double “l” in Spanish is the same like the “ll” sound in the animal “llama”.
“ll” sound in Spanish never sounds like an English single “l”.
2.4-informashun, participashun
Spanish words: información, participación.
Words ending in “ión” are very common in Spanish, in English you will pronounce it as “shun”, avoid doing that in Spanish, instead pronounce the Spanish vowel individually. I as the “ee” in the English word meet, o as the “o” in the English word no, and then the “n”.
And those are the common pronunciation mistakes in Spanish I wanted to talk you about, I hope you find this blog useful and helps your Spanish pronunciation. Remember you can join me for a FREE 4 days Spanish pronunciation challenge, starting the 19th of March signing up here.
Now, as always I would love to hear from you, leave a comment and let me know:
-have you recognized any mistakes that you do or have done in the past?
-what is your biggest struggle with the Spanish pronunciation?
-have you already joing the FREE 4 days Spanish pronunciation challenge? If you haven’t you can sign in here –> https://blancadelatorre.kartra.com/page/itz80
-from 0 (being not confident at all) to 10 (very confident) where do you think you stand with your Spanish pronunciation?
-have your pronunciation ever stopped you from speaking Spanish?
Looking forward to reading your comments!