Spanish B/V Pronunciation - Master The Hard & Soft B/V Sounds in Spanish

[@JufBoeliewoelie]

FINALLY someone who can make me do it right instead of just saying it!! THANK YOU!!

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

¡Gracias, Bonnie! :) We're glad it helped.

[@longhaulblue]

This is the best explanation of b/v. Especially with iterative easing of 'b' in 'aba' as a way of practising the lazy 'b'. Thanks!

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

Thanks 🥰

[@DieCor]

Hands down! Your pronunciations are just perfect. I'm from Costa Rica. I had debate with a friend from Colombia who was trying to tell me that in Colombia, they pronounce V the same as Americans do at the beginning of each word. She also lives in the US and has for 15 years. Clearly, she has adapted the American pronunciation of the letter V to her Spanish and refuses to admit. It is very annoying to say the least. I sent her your video.

[@RetroDree]

Gracias, very clearly explained. This was what I was looking for.

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

¡Gracias! 💞

[@mehranzeenavand3623]

after watching this video I no longer feel confused about subtle difference between /b/ and /β/

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

That's great Mehran. Glad you found the video helpful!

[@Alienbacilusua]

Thank you! I finally get a solution to this. Duolingo has been driving me insane, it’s quite inconsistent in spanish pronunciation

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

¡Gracias! 💞

[@jennie1276]

This one has been hard for me. Specially the hard one not soft. I hear it as a V sound when ppl are speaking spanish regularly. But when it’s demonstrated I hear it with a B sound. My mouth automatically wants me to say it with a V sound. So I feel I have to practice saying it fast with a B sound so it’s this weird mix of both. lol. 😩

[@khusheasypianospanish9460]

Thanks a lot . This really cleared my doubt because lot of spanish teachers say that v and b are same in spanish but when i heard spanish i found them different

[@matthewflowers1079]

Thanks for the wonderful explanation! Makes a lot more sense now.

[@TheVespera]

the best explanation Grasiac

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

🥰

[@marckoling2046]

Finally got it! Thank you. And just FYI it's even harder for us Germans to get this. In German, there's an even greater difference between the letter b and v. At first, it's strange to imagine v and b both being pronounced like b. Like, why would you write vivir but pronounce it bibir? But your examples showed me that I was misguided. It's more like bivir, with the plosive b at the beginning and the soft b in the middle, right? Anyway, keep up with the great work!

[@xinxinxiong-yh2ew]

great teaching.

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

🥰

[@chrisshotwell4442]

Thank you! This is super helpful!

[@LaMorrigan]

Thank you for this!

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

Thank you for watching, Brianna! :D

[@SergStrzelecki]

Muchas gracias! So, the weak b/v sounds smth like english "W", right?

[@peteymax]

Gracias. Me gustaría ver un vídeo sobre las palabras que terminan en la letra d, por ejemplo Madrid, oportunidad, Valladolid, etcéteras

[@TheRubenpucelano]

Yo esa d final la pronuncio con el sonido de th en the. Soy español

[@peteymax]

TheRubenpucelano ¡Gracias!

[@cm2687]

Thanks for the video! I was taught to pronounce the “soft” B or V in Spanish like the English V sound and the “hard” B or V in Spanish like the English B sound. Is this incorrect?

[@mistym0rning]

There's not really an English "v" sound in Spanish at all. So when there's a HARD b/v sound in Spanish, it is pronounced basically the same as the English "b". But when there's a SOFT b/v sound in Spanish it is pronounced like an English "b" where you don't let your lips fully close. It sounds almost a little bit like an English "w".

[@benjisaac]

@@mistym0rningevery time I try to do I end up thinking it sounds more like a W, glad someone who knows how to do it is validating that lol. Also when I try too hard my lips move really far forward and it sounds like I’m doing an offensive mob boss impression, like Mr. Big from zootopia lmao

[@daapdary]

At 6:22, I thought you said: "No están difícil, verdad?" But it must be: "No es tan difícil, verdad?" 🙂

[@mihai7558]

0:27 Is the first letter of "vivir" pronounced properly there? Not sure why I hear a "D" sound for the first letter. Tried to listen to it at 0.25x speed and still hear the first letter sounding like "D".

[@alexanderpracias836]

Hello there! I could really use someone's help. How do I pronounce the spanish word "arbol"? With a hard or a soft "b"? And which rule do we apply in this case?

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

A great tip to learn how to pronounce a specific word is going to google translate and pressing on the "play" button. To answer your question, the "b" in "árbol" is a soft b. :)

[@danielshalev50]

Hi , please please explain me in what specific diaelct of spanish are you teaching these "tricky letters" -i really want to know how to pronounce them but it is difficult to understand, since each channel on youtube tells the explanation differently.

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

Hi, thanks for your comment! We cover a variety of accents and variations. The pronunciation of some letters doesn't really change a lot across Spanish-speaking countries.

[@lygophilia4127]

No matter how many times I do it or how many videos I watch explaining this same concept, I can't seem to pronounce the in-between. It's either a B or a W. I can't figure out what you're doing. If I barely put my lips together, there's the B. If I don't bring them together, there's the W. But you're definitely making some kind of in-between sound. My W doesn't sound anything like "yours."

[@GamesCooky]

Gracias. Yo soy noruego. Estoy aprendo español, pero puede ser dificíl. Español está muy bonita idioma. I'm still a beginner. Someone let me know if something was wrong here :P

[@andrzej1978gda]

So the first b in bebo is strong hard B, right? But in a sentence, when I say "yo bebo", is the first b also hard, or is it soft, because it´s between ´yo´ and ´e´, that is two vowels?

[@mausilili1371]

i think it depends, if you pause very aparently between yo and bebo, the b would be a hard b, without pause the b would be soft, because it's actually between 2 vowels, that's my observation, not sure if it's correct

[@lygophilia4127]

As long as you're speaking at a normal pace, it's soft. It would be hard if you took a pause. It's only hard at the beginning of an utterance or after M.

[@JoshauCalum]

Please do letter Z !!!!

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

Hey! We have this video on the topic: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nYG9npapf92bhM0 But we can definitely do a new one with more information on the Z sound. :)

[@luizamkhitaryan5803]

I heard some spanish speakers pronounce b in "muy bonito" softly, though it's in the beginning of the word. What is it connected with?

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

Hi Luiza, Good question! The "b" at the beginning of "bonito" will almost always get pronounced as a hard sound but you may notice very occasionally that if someone is speaking very quickly even the hard b/v sounds can sound softer than usual

[@russiangrammar]

@@StoryLearningSpanish This makes sense, since in the stream of connected speech, the 'b' is occurring between two vowels: the last sound in 'muy' and the 'o' in 'bonito.' And wouldn't this mirror the way 'd' softens between vowels in the flow of speech, even if it's not in the middle of the word - for example, in 'la memoria de los...' isn't the 'd' more like the 'th' in English 'mother'?

[@maldegaar]

There's an issue that isn't brought up a lot. I found this when I was studying Duolingo and doing the easier reading exercises as listening exercises by not looking at the screen. Yo vivo when I was listening and reading sounded like a hard v. When I look away from the screen it's a soft B and sounds more like yo bibo. It's the Yanni/Laurel type effect. Just something to be aware of, your brain is playing tricks when you read and listen simultaneously.

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

Oh, very interesting! Thank you so much for your contribution on this topic.

[@stardollLoretta]

Maybe im stupid, but i never hear a lazy (soft) B sound. I slowed down the video and i still hear V sound when you say "ABA". Its not like a real V sound, its like a lazy V. But its nowhere near B sound for my ears.

[@sepidahsharma5068]

I just waannna say wow

[@thuytrangvuong4715]

If B is hard , what about P ?

[@CrankCase08]

It doesn't help that the audio is so bad, like trying to listen to someone through two thick blankets. More treble is required.

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

Thank you so much for the feedback! This is something we've definitely improved in our newer videos :D

[@IgorYentaltsev]

people who speak Spanish and use the sound [v] as in English, how do they sound? Are they impossible to understand? like, if I say Venga! as [venga] and not as [benga], will that sound absolutely unbearable? or funny?

[@icz0927]

“Siervo” hard or soft v

[@chasingthestars9621]

Muy bueno tu vídeo explicativo sobre la diferencia de cómo pronunciar las letras ''B'' y ''V'' del idioma español. Pero para ser honesto, tanto la letra ''B'' y la letra ''V'' se pronuncian igual y ya no se tiene en cuenta la pronunciación, pero hace tiempo sí se consideraba la adecuada pronunciación de estas letras para escribir correctamente. Pero... ¿Porqué actualmente ambas letras se pronuncian igual? Se debe a que (al menos aquí en américa latina) la fonética de ambas letras era muy difícil de diferenciar. Por este motivo algunas personas empezaron a llamar a las letra ''B'' y ''V'' así: B ----> /B grande/ V ----> /V corta/ Usaban estos nombres para diferenciar una letra de la otra, ya que ambas tenían la misma fonética y era muy complicado saber cuando una palabra se escribía con ''B'' o con ''V''. Recuerden que esto se usaba hace tiempo en gran parte de américa latina, pero hoy en día ya casi nadie las utiliza por respeto a la fonética española. Actualmente se les llama así: B = /be/ V = /uve/ Pero recuerden que tanto la letra ''V'' y ''B'' fonéticamente se pronuncian igual. Espero haberles ayudado con esto.

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

Gracias por contar un poco sobre la historia de las letras shady wolf. ¡Es muy interesante! :)

[@ndjxisjenxjix9525]

Esto no es cierto. El vídeo trata sobre la diferente pronunciación de estas consonantes, lo cual un hispanohablante no es capaz de detectar y jura que son mismos sonidos cuando queda demostrado que son bastante diferentes aunque para un nativo sean casi alófonos.

[@paolaherrera6561]

La letra B se pronuncia exactamente como esta explicado en el video. La V, se pronuncia poniendo los dientes de arriba sobre el labio inferior (siempre). Asi lo enseñan en las escuelas. Tomando eso en cuenta, cada país tiene sus pequeñas diferencias en entonación.

[@StoryLearningSpanish]

¡Gracias por tu comentario Paola! :)

[@arieleduardo2492]

Hola señora, y usted es dónde?