Vocalizing Spanish Vowel Sounds

Correct pronunciation is key to avoiding misunderstandings. If you want your Spanish to sound like a native's, you have to concentrate on your vowels.

The biggest difference between English and Spanish is almost certainly in the way the vowels are written and pronounced. By now, you may be well aware that one vowel in English can have more than one sound. Look, for instance, at fat and fate. Both words have the vowel a, but they're pronounced much differently from each other. The good news is that in Spanish, you always say the vowels one way, and one way only.

Next to the Spanish words throughout this article, the pronunciation is in parentheses, which are called pronunciation brackets. Within the pronunciation brackets, all the words that have more than one syllable are separated with hyphens, like this: (kah-sha). An underlined syllable within the pronunciation brackets tells you to accent, or stress, that syllable.

The upcoming sections discuss the five vowels — which are the only vowel sounds in Spanish. They are a (ah), e (eh), i (ee), o (oh), u (oo). Spanish sees each of these vowels by itself and makes other sounds by combining the vowels in twos.

The vowel A

As children, almost everybody sings their ABCs. In Spanish, the English a that starts off the song, is pronounced ah. The easiest way to remember how to pronounce the letter a in Spanish is to sing the chorus of the Christmas carol "Deck the Halls" to yourself. You remember the chorus, don't you? Fa la la la la, la la, la la. This sound appears as ah in the pronunciation brackets.

Following are some sample words to practice. Remember that you pronounce each and every a exactly the same way.

• Caracas (kah-rah-kas) (a city in Venezuela)

• mapa (mah-pah) (map)

• Guadalajara (gooah-dah-lah-hah-rah) (a city in Mexico)

The vowel E

To get an idea of how the Spanish e sounds, smile gently, open your mouth a bit and say "eh." The sound should be like the e in the English word pen. In the pronunciation brackets, this vowel appears as eh.

Try these:

• pelele (peh-leh-leh) (rag doll; puppet)

• pelo (peh-loh) (hair)

• seco (seh-koh) (dry)

The vowel I

In Spanish the vowel i sounds like the ee in seen, but just a touch shorter. To give you an example, when English speakers say feet or street, the Spanish speaker hears what sounds like almost two i's.

This sound is shown as ee in the pronunciation brackets. Following are some examples:

• irritar (ee-rree-tahr) (to irritate)

• piña (pee-nyah) (pineapple)

• pintar (peen-tahr) (to paint)

The vowel O

The Spanish put their mouths in a rounded position, as if to blow a kiss to someone, and keeping it in that position, say o. It sounds like the o in floor, but a bit shorter. This sound appears as oh in the pronunciation brackets.

Try practicing the sound on these words:

• coco (koh-koh) (coconut)

• Orinoco (oh-ree-noh-koh) (a river in Venezuela)

• Oruro (oh-roo-roh) (a city in Bolivia)

• toronja (toh-rohn-hah) (grapefruit)

The vowel U

The fifth and last vowel in Spanish is the u, and it sounds like the oo in moon or raccoon, but just a touch shorter. Oo, you've got it! This sound is shown as oo in the pronunciation brackets. Here are some examples of the u sound:

• cuna (koo-nah) (cradle)

• cuñado (koo-nyah-doh) (brother-in-law)

• cúrcuma (koor-koo-mah) (turmeric)

• curioso (koo-reeoh-soh) (curious)

• fruta (froo-tah) (fruit)

• luna (loo-nah) (moon)

• tuna (too-nah) (prickle pear)

The diphthongs

Good grief, you say, what's that?

Diphthong comes from Greek, where di means two, and thong comes from a very similar word meaning sound or voice. Very simply, it means double sound. There. That's easier.

The Spanish word is diptongo (deep-tohn-goh). Diptongos are the combination of two vowels, from the Spanish-speaking point of view. For instance, i and o combine to make io as in patio (pah-teeoh) (courtyard or patio.)

Joining the weak to the strong

Diptongos are always made up of a weak and a strong vowel. Calling vowels "weak" or "strong" is a convention of the Spanish language. The convention comes from the fact that the so-called strong vowel is always dominant in the diphthong. To the Spanish speaker, i and u are weak vowels, leaving a, e, and o as strong ones.

To visualize this weak or strong concept, consider a piccolo flute and a bass horn. The sound of the piccolo is definitely more like the Spanish i and u, while the base horn sounds more like the Spanish a, e, and especially o.

Any combination of one strong and one weak vowel is a diptongo (deep-tohn-goh), which means that they will belong together in the same syllable. In fact, they're not only together, they're stuck like superglue; they can't be separated.

In the diptongo, the stress falls on the strong vowel. An accent mark alerts you when the stress falls on the weak vowel. In the combination of two weak vowels, the stress is on the second one.

Try these examples of diphthongs:

• bueno (bwooeh-noh) (good)

• cuando (kooahn-doh) (when)

• fiar (feeahr) (sell on credit)

• fuera (fooeh-rah) (outside)

• suizo (sooee-soh) (Swiss)

• viudo (bveeoo-doh) (widower)

Separating the strong from the strong

When two strong vowels are combined, they don't form a diphthong. Instead, the vowels retain their separate values, so you must put them into separate syllables. Here are some examples:

• aorta (ah-ohr-tah) (aorta) (See! Just as in English!)

• feo (feh-oh) (ugly)

• marea (mah-reh-ah) (tide)

• mareo (mah-reh-oh) (dizziness)

Did you notice in the previous list how changing one letter, in marea and mareo, for example, can change the meaning of a word? This letter phenomenon occurs in Spanish, just as in English. Finding such words is fun. In the case of the previous list, at least the two words come from the same root mar (mahr) (sea). And, associating the tide to one's dizziness isn't all that difficult. But in other places you can have oceans of difference. Here are some more examples: casa (kah-sah) (house) and cosa (koh-sah) (thing); and pito (pee-toh) (whistle), pato (pah-toh) (duck), and peto (peh-toh) (bib or breastplate.)