Build more confident pronunciation step-by-step: breakthroughspanish.com/csp Free mini-lesson & guide to help you build more natural pronunciation: breakthroughspanish.com/pronunciation-guide

I'm a native Spanish speaker, and here are some of my tips: Basically Spanish vowel sounds exist in English too, English has some vowel sounds that are very close. For A, E, I, O, U; you can use the vowels of Bar, Bear, Beer, Bore, Boot; or, Far, Fare, Fear, Four, Foot, respectively. (Avoid using vowels of Bit, Book, But, Back). Spanish voiceless plosives (P, T, K/Q/C) are never aspirated, nor does the voiceless affricate (CH) which is not labialized either. All Spanish voiced plosives (B/V, D, G) become approximants (weak or lazy) between vowels, they remain plosives (hard or strong) in the rest of cases. The same happens with the voiced affricate (LL/Y), but instead of becoming approximant, it becomes fricative, which is something between plosive and approximant. When turning these consonants into approximants, try not to soften them too much (just get rid of the friction), so you don't sound lazy. In standard pronunciation, the English-Y sound exists in Spanish only as part of diphthongs, represented by the letters I/Y, like in Veinte, Voy, Hay, Biósfera, Piano, Muy, Oiga, Haitiano, etc. It is never the sound for LL/Y, when LL/Y is affricate, it sounds almost identical to the English-J sound (without labialization, more precisely an affricate version of the English-Y sound) and when it is fricative, then it's an English-Y sound with friction. The decreasing diphthongs in Spanish, such as AI, EI, OI, AU, OU, etc. sound like some of the English ones, but in English the end of each diphthong is done without much effort, the vowel change is not very clear, but in Spanish they are articulated in a very clear and marked way, until they reach well-defined sounds of Y and W (EE and OO) at the end. Spanish-T and D are dental (like English-L) and Spanish-L is alveolar (like English-T and D). So, Spanish-T is a plosive version of the volceless English-TH sound, and Spansh-D is a plosive or approximant version of the voiced English-TH sound. Ñ is a nasal plosive version of the English-Y sound. Spanish-J/G sound is a fricative version of the English-K sound. It's a smooth sound, but English-H sounds too lazy. English V and Z sounds do not exist in Spanish. So B and V, and S and Z, sound the same.

What I notice most as a speaker of Spanish, Greek, Italian, and mandarin is how people pronounce their vowels, and I’m not talking about pronouncing them completely wrong, but rather being slight higher/lower than where a vowel actually is in a given language. Despite the I in Greek being technically the same as the I in French, the I in Greek is “lower”, which is a dead giveaway that someone isn’t a native speaker; this problem isn’t something to really worry about, as simply talking to native speakers will lead you to adjust your vowel pronunciation, but if you don’t have that luxury, looking up and understanding the ipa vowel charts for languages can be helpful.

Uy necesito esto, pero de español a inglés... para saber qué errores comúnmente cometemos los nativos del español cuando intentamos pronunciar las palabras en inglés, con el fin de sonar más nativo del inglés.

Excellent video. I am a native English speaker and I can quickly hear when another English speaker is speaking Spanish without trying to use a decent accent. Greetings from Montana.

Es excelente que traten de pronunciar el Español de forma más como un nativo y eso se puede apreciar la compleja forma de conjugar los verbos y eso es muy pero muy complejo y entender los artículos y entender la diferencia entre ser y estar ya que en inglés sólo es 'be' y aquí son dos verbos pero así como muchos videos que enseñan inglés enfatizan que debemos pronunciar bien el inglés es bueno que los que hablen español siendo angloparlantes es de admirar

Brilliant! What an eye opener your explanation was for me. Especially the tips on avoiding using English plosives and how to pronounce the G. Thank you!

This was an excellent lesson! I have never seen this explained so clearly. I don't expect to speak Spanish with no accent whatsoever, but the closer I can get to that, the better!

Great tips, thank you so much! I speak Spanish fluently and live in Spain, but an obstacle for me has been reducing my accent. These insights are very helpful!

I love this because it works the other way around. I'm trying to get better at my English pronunciation and this video helped me to notice subtle things. For example, I had no idea about the "air" that you talked about in section 2 and applying that to my English sentences, made me sound better immediately. So thank you!

This is so helpful, actually getting the "d" in the word "madre" makes pronouncing the R Sound so much easier

V and B would also be good to include

This was soooooooooooo helpful!! I've felt like I hit a plateau with my accent and these are exactly the little tips I was looking for. TYSM.

This really helped

Very helpful, thank you. An hispanohablante friend of mine told me that my "D" sound was off, this video helped to correct that some more.

Great channel!. I am a native English speaker but can identify Chicanos speaking Spanish many times by their dragging of vowels, I guess by their Spanish with an English accent,.

perfecto gracias

Thanks for these tips! I know Spanish speakers would probably understand one's Spanish with less-than-perfect pronunciation, but the added nuance takes your Spanish to the next level. I'm always looking to improve my speech. ^_^

fantastic.

Oh I love the idea of the D being close to a TH sound. And I've always noticed the Spanish T is soft, like a soft D. I'm now obsessed at looking at the mouths of Spanish speakers & it's really amazing how different the mouth moves for even the same letters! And I was confused about the G sound in the word Igual. I swear I hear it being said by native speakers both ways... With a harder G sound and sometimes with a silent G. There's a song called "ojos marrones" with a chorus "nada es igual" and it sounds like "e-wall" ??

Even though English is not my fist language and I don't need to worry about those typical English sounds, some of those those pointers about the characteristics in Spanish are very useful to me, as well.

Marvellous. Super helpful. Thanks so much. Telling us about tongue positions etc really, really helps

Excellent!!!!!!! Thank you for this video ❤

Fantastico 🎉❤

This is excellent stuff here!

Dam good clarification 😊❤❤

Excellent video. Thanks!

Fantastic! The details of using the mouth/breath/tongue is exactly what we need. Details matter! Mughas gracias.

Brilliant lesson Connor. Very few if any lessons on KZfaq explain these aspects so clearly.

Ty! Some of these sounds/pronunciations I was having trouble trying to do. I never thought about the relation between how I move my tongue and breath can make such a big difference. 👍🏽

La r es la mas difícil de hacerlo bien ya que aunque puedee ser suave o fuerte segun que palabras las hacermos mas cortas o lamas largas o bien mas fuertes o mas suaves y eso en cada palabra diferente.

muchas gracias!

Nice content, muy bien 👍

Thanks Connor for making this video!! I was hoping you would share a video helping us with pronunciation. This was extremely helpful because I find myself making these mispronunciations especially with the “o” sound. Would you please do a video for the “r” and “rr” caro vs carro and any tips you have for rolling the r’s? Thanks so much! 🙏

This is so very helpful, Connor. I am working to train my ear, but a couple of the examples were a bit too nuanced for my ear right now. Your videos inspire me to keep at it though!

Para pronunciar la D no hay que poner la lengua entre los dientes. Eso es un error que muchos nativos cometen.

Helpful. I can't do the "g".

Thanks! Please a video blending letters like the D with the R in Madre .. Help pronouncing

Since I’m an Arab, I can pronounce all the sounds of any letter. And since I know English, Spanish is much easier than other languages, bc most of the Spanish words are from Arabic and English (w little changes). And what makes it even easier is that the letters have only one pronunciation, unlike English

As a native speaker. The ñ is quite similar to the R in English. The tongue just stays in the middle of your mouth. The sound comes from pronouncing a very nasal N. you have to feel a vibration at the back of your nosetrils. Do you even kinda wanna contract your nose a bit while doing it. I hope it helps.

Good tips! It is just worth noting that in particular for the vowel sounds, such as drawing out the e in mesa and peso, that is more so an issue for those speaking with an Amercian accent. British vowels are different. :)

Why when I seen queso, I said kayso, not you calling me out on the first one lmfaooo 😂😂😂

it is a very important step. i've heard for a long time the differences, but i can't find anyone sympathetic to my cause. i will download the freebie. maybe that will help

I hate it when people respond in English just because I'm a little slow. Also, they assume I can't understand them when I can, although sometimes there's a slight delay.

The general rule I've found for pronouncing Spanish is to say every sound as short and as quickly as possible.

funny thing with the G sound is, if you say "agua" fast enough you could even pronounce it as "ahua"

Here's another one: If it's similar to an English wotd that starts with U, English speakers put a Y in front of the U (Think united, useful, etc,) I hate it when I accidentally do this. I often do it with Estados Unidos because it's so similar to the English word. Also, switching back and forth between Cuba and the American pronunciation is difficult.

Another common mistake that you forgot about is with the Spanish letter J. For so long, I thought it was used with the phoneme /h/ (voiceless glottal fricative) , when really it’s used with /x/ (voiceless velar fricative).

Huh, I've heard different things regarding the Spanish D. I've mainly heard that it isn't aspirated (I:E air gets noticeably through the pronounciation), but I have heard on occasion some Spanish speaker make it into a TH sound in words like THat and THis. Is this a dialectal thing? If so, is it particularly European/Castillian Spanish that does that, or is it some other dialect that does that? Other than that, I'm a bit confused on the Spanish Bs and Vs. What I think I know is that they're practically the same in spoken form, and that they're pronounced as unaspirated Bs at the beginning of a word, and as a special V made with both the lips rather than bottom lip and top teethe when next to 2 vowels which ends up sounding like a mix between B and V. I'm also wondering if the Spanish F is the same as the English one, i:e similar to an English in terms of lip and teeth position, or if Spanish speakers just blow out air similar to blowing out a candle. Lastly, as a Swede I do know how to roll my Rs (Trill), and the tap is not too difficult. Though I wonder whether the rr sound is specifically made near the teeth like with the R-tap, or if it is made further back of the mouth.

Are there not two ways of pronouncing ‘g’ in Spanish? I’m sure I’ve heard the ‘hard’ pronunciation in words where g is followed by ‘u’.

I have discovered that Spanish is spoken in the middle of the mouth, toward the back sometimes. English is a very, front-of-mouth language.

And don't forget the pronunciation of "U", they tend to make it like a "iu".

He looks like famous KZfaqr Dhurv Rathee😅

Careful with your e sound. In spanish we dont have the open é and ó like in portuguese. E and o in spanish are low sounds. People will understand you obviously but it sounds a little odd

'E' egg

Ñ and ny sound practically the same, no need to make this point in my native Spanish view

Vine para ver si pronunciaba bien 😂

peYso queYso 😂