English Pronunciation for Spanish Speakers

Areas of Difficulty for Spanish Speakers

Consonants:

I. /b/ vs /v/

Practice pronouncing /b/ and /v/ in the following minimally-paired words carefully:

Berry/very             boat/vote          buy/vie            rebel/revel

robe/rove               libber/liver       bile/vile            bane/vane

II. /p/, /t/, and /k/

Practice aspirating these consonants in word initial position as follows:

Paper         point                painting           persecute         prosecute

Talk           tainted              temple              temptation        tranquil

Carry         carriage            curse                cartoon            chronicle

III. /s/ vs. /sh/ 

Make the distinction between /s/ and // using the following minimal pairs:

Sill/shill                 sign/shine        simmer/shimmer          sue/shoe

Sealed/shield         brass/brash      same/shame                 single/shingle

Lease/leash            crass/crash       last/lashed                   

Now try this tongue twister:

She sells seashells by the seashore.

IV. /y/ vs. /dz/

Practice discriminating between /y/ and /dz/ in the following words:

Yet/jet        you/Jew           use/juice          yellow/jell-O   yak/Jack

V. /s/ vs. /z/

Since Spanish does not have /z/, Spanish speakers of English devoice it in English and pronounce it as /s/.  Practice contrasting /s/ and /z/ using the following minimal pairs:

Sue/zoo     seal/zeal           sink/zinc          sip/zip              sing/zing

Bus/buzz   muscle/muzzle             brace/braise                 grace/graze

VI. /m/, /n/, and /ng/ in word-final position

Pronounce the following nasal consonants in word-final position. Be sure to pronounce the final sound in each word. 

Flame        stream              prime               slime                shame

Align         benign             restrain            glean                intervene

Fling          string               thing                bring                strung

VII. /r//

Spanish speaker of English often pronounce English /r/ as Spanish trilled /r/.  Pronounce English /r/ in word, medial, and final position clearly:

Rocket       rain      rainbow           rice      right     reading            writing

Correct      burial   meridian          mirage barrage serenity           narrow

Scar           star      appear              smear   gear     bizarre             slander

VIII. /sk/, /sp/, and /st/ consonant clusters

Spanish speakers of English often insert a vowel before these consonant clusters.  As you pronounce the following words, try to lengthen the initial /s/ sound.

School  skit    skimming    scanning          scoundrel     skirmish

Spill        spoon     special spider  sputnik   sponge           Spiegel

Straw         stream     staunch         stunned            stench      stable

IX. Final consonant clusters

When pronouncing final consonant clusters in English, Spanish speakers tend to drop the final consonant.  Be sure to pronounce the final consonant clusters in the following words:

Tired          hold     lasts     priests  breasts             gold     cold     mold

Scared       flowered          murdered         grist     wrist    mired   fists

X. /th/ vs. /d/

Spanish speakers of English often substitute // for English /d/.  Make the distinction between the two sounds using the following minimal pairs: 

Heather/header      lathe/laid          breathe/breed               birth/bird        

XI. /th/ vs. / / 

Pronounce the following minimal pairs carefully:

Breath/breathe       bath/bathe        cloth/clothe     

Now try this tongue twister:

Those three thieves threw thirteen things in the thicket of thorn trees.

XII. Past tense: -ed

Spanish speakers often pronounce the regular past tense as a separate syllable.  There are three morphophonemic rules that determine the pronunciation of the past tense –ed ending.  They are:

·      When the –ed is preceded by /t/ or /d/, it is pronounce /Id/

·      When the –ed is preceded by a voiced consonant, it is pronounced /d/

·      When the –ed is preceded by a voiceless consonant, it is pronounced /t/

                               Now practice examples of each of the above rules:

                               Wanted     guided             padded             patted               distracted

                               Merged     boiled              braised             smeared           geared

                               Searched   kissed              missed             brushed           flushed

Vowels:

I. /I/ vs. /i:/

Practice pronouncing the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

Hit/heat      fit/feet              sit/seat             fill/feel             live/leave

Skim/scheme                     mill/meal          kin/keen           ill/eel                 

II. /e/ vs. /ei/

Make the distinction between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

met/mate    red/raid            led/laid             fed/fade           wed/wade

let/late        set/sate             get/gate            bled/blade        pent/paint

III. /U/ vs. /u:/

Make the distinction between the short and long vowels in the following minimal pairs:

full/fool     foot/food         should/shoot                book/boot

In addition to the above short (lax) and long (tense) vowels, Spanish speakers also have difficulty with these four vowel sounds:

IV. /e/ vs. /ae/

Practice pronouncing the short vowel and the diphthong in the following minimal pairs:

met/mat      set/sat              fed/fad             led/lad              wed/wad

V. /^/ vs. /a:/

Distinguish between the short and long vowels in the following  minimal pairs:

                              

                              curd/card   heard/hard       curt/cart           burn/barn         hurt/heart