Spanish Dialectology: S Reduction

[@oidualclaudi0]

For me, as a native speaker from Mexico who is not used to hearing s-reduction, I find it so difficult to understand other dialects like the Cuban or Chilean dialects with a very strong s-reduction. We often ask them to speak slowly, but still, they keep on reducing the S even in slow speech, so I think those accents are especially hard for non-native speakers to understand.

[@tenminutespanish]

This is a very interesting insight from a native speaker. Thank you!

[@bilyonarelifestile2226]

check out papiamento in ABC islands, lots of old spanish and old portuguese and other linguistic stuff

[@maritzareneau2673]

Wow, what great counsel from minute 9:16 to 11:50 on s-reduction and stereotypes we create about the people who use it! What a lesson in humility and matter of fact. Embrace it! Yes sir!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you for your kind words.

[@qwertytypewriter2013]

As a Mexican, I use s-reduction only after doing any agitating activities xD And I guess I use it when I sing a song and the artist does it, or in order to speak playfully with someone like "tú qué haceeeee?". Other than that, I never reduce my s's, whenever I do, I'm aware of it and doing it on purpose :) As you said, determining who reduces their s's and when and where is almost impossible just because of the individual variations. I also adooooore the way Venezuelans specifically reduce their s's, but I've found it to be a tad unpredictable as well. Sometimes they won't reduce an "s" and it'll surprise me.

[@michipichu]

I have been trying to discern the pattern of when spanish speakers use s-reduction for so long. Thank you! I think s-reduction sounds really nice but i think your advice to use a neutral pronunciation is the best idea. Really interesting video, i learned a lot!

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm so glad you liked the video!

[@silvestrenet]

Native speakers use s-reduction, Hyper-Correction due to lack of culture or some studies no always but sometimes is the place where you're living. s-reduction or Hyper-correction sound to spanish like slang English words such as : y'all, gotta, ain't, wata(water in jamaica), neva("never" ) , thou and many others words that for a literate speaker they aren't correct but are spoken.

[@gcondado]

It doesn't sound nice at all, it's considered bad spanish and in some places like Mexico you'd be considered illiterate and rural by speaking that way, the president of Mexico speaks like that and everyone makes fun of him because of his accent (he's from that little part in Mexico that appears in green in the map)

[@devonoknabo2582]

@@gcondado that's sad

[@PinkPulpito]

From my understanding I’ve heard the S mostly cut at the end of words to move onto the next word as fast as possible. Especially if the s is the least stressed part . Like pescado becomes pecao. Or Las cosas = la cosa. I mean in some accents anything could be cut though. Speaking with elderly folk from the campo of Chile sometimes I wouldn’t understand a single thing in general. Accent + Chilenismos. Especially with vino tinto.

[@ciegosordomudo]

Spanish speaker from Cádiz, Spain here. This phenomenon is very common with z and x in coda position. For example, “explicar” becomes “ehplicar” and Cádiz becomes “Cadi” or even further “Cai.”

[@tenminutespanish]

Very interesting. I was wondering if this also applied to z in Andalucia. Thanks for answering that question for me.

[@chileanguyfleegman1908]

thicker Chilean accent does the same. and some other chileans will aspirate the non-reduced S too.

[@gonzalo_rosae]

@@tenminutespanish another «gaditan» here 🤣. It does, for instance when pronouncing the word «bizco» (meaning cross-eyed), to the degree that some people miswrite it as «bisco». It even happens with 'x', for instance «exclamar» (exclaim).

[@tenminutespanish]

@@gonzalo_rosae Thank you for your contribution. I learn a lot from native speakers.

[@diegohgugliotta]

​@@tenminutespanish interestingly, it also happens with z in dialects with s/z distinction and s reduction. I'm from Toledo, and here we say gahpacho, not gazpacho, or mahmorra instead of mazmorra

[@conciseenglish7486]

Something interesting that I realized is that the rules governing this reduction (being, only pronounced if there is a vowel immediately after, including in following words), is identical to the rule regarding the pronunciation of the "r" in non-rhotic English accents like RP. When the "r" is pronounced in between two words (like in "or is there") it is called the "intrusive" or "linking r." I just made that connection and I think it is very curious that such a reduction rule would apply directly to another language.

[@leandrobolanos]

Came here to say exactly this, and the non-rhotic dialects of English (r-dropping) are considered prestige dialects, nobody in the UK would think that dropping the r sound is a sign of bad English. Interestingly, in the US some non-rhotic dialects (e.g. Boston, Brooklyn) don't tend to have the same prestige status as rhotic dialects (like general American). There are also many cases where consonants get reduced in syllable final position, and you see it in how the other romance languages developed. A lot of places where you'd see an /s/ in Spanish, the cognate words in Italian or French don't have that /s/, they went through a similar process of /s/ reduction centuries ago!

[@mcgreedz]

Thank you so much for all these videos. They're so well done and informative. Please keep up the amazing work!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you! I'm really glad you like the videos.

[@anis.anis.a]

Bro, this video needs a Nobel Prize 🏆 thank you so much ❤️

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm so glad you liked it! Thank you.

[@Luis-vn6wh]

It's interesting because as a s-reduction user, I would also reduce it in linking positions as in "más uvas" and "unos hombres", sounding like /mahuβ̞ah/ y /mut͡ʃohombreh/. Greetings from Extremadura, Spain!

[@eve36368]

The note about hypercorrection helped a lot because I didn't even realize that was what I was hearing in various samples. Thank you!

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm so glad you found it helpful.

[@ArturoStojanoff]

Here in Buenos Aires city, s-reduction before consonants is completely widespread. At the end of utterances (with a pause, not a consonant right after the s) they're considered regional, lower class, or just colloquial. Before consonants, the s is never not reduced. Not reducing it is actually associated with Bolivian and Peruvian immigrants, which experience a high degree of xenophobia, so it can be seen negatively if it is not clearly part of another regional accent, such as a Peninsular or Mexican accent. Educated, high-class, urban populations in Buenos Aires city always reduce before consonants and seldom at the end of utterances.

[@tenminutespanish]

Very interesting! Thank you for this sociolingustic insight.

[@elmarsana]

Quiero mostrarle a este hombre el tema de LGante con Bizarrap. Creo que se llama Cumbia 420.

[@leomaiden1737]

No sólo en Buenos Aires, la aspiración de la s se da en casi todo Argentina

[@user-en8vb9th5v]

@@elmarsana Querés enseñarle a hablar como un boludo?

[@elmarsana]

@@user-en8vb9th5v No quiero enseñarle nada. Es muy interesante conocer otros modos de decir.

[@SteveSilverActor]

Great channel! Even though I'm from Florida, I find the Cuban and Dominican dialects to be difficult to understand due to the speed and the /s/ reduction.

[@MarcosKunBass]

OMG throughout the first minutes of the video I was, oh what a nice englishspeaking guy, I'm sure he's Spanish is somewhat OK, but then, dude I didn't expect that. Tu contenido es oro pa, saludos desde Argentina! ojalá más estudiantes vean estos videos.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you so much for your kind words! Comments like these keep me going.

[@gaoelnlaojehc8913]

Underrated channel!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you so much.

[@JasonEkonomakos]

10:00 This is extremely true. I started learning Spanish seriously after I visited Argentina. Biggest problem I encountered was pronunciations changed from person to person and region to region. One day I would hear "noventa y tres" as one word missing the "s" at the end. Then another day I would hear "noventa y tres" with the "s" and "y" pronounced. I was exhausted by the end of each day from trying to translate. The only thing that kept me alive and going were the beautiful Argentinian women hahaha

[@xolang]

great video as always! 👍🏾 thank you! I agree that it is recommendable to use neutral Spanish pronunciation. IMO though, s-reduction still falls into the category of neutral, just as American English and British English are variations of "neutral English". I'm talking in terms of pronunciation, because s-reduction is the norm in quite a few national standards such as in Argentina and Chile, just as r-dropping is the norm in England. On another note, it's quite interesting to compare Spanish with other Romance languages. French for one has adopted s-reduction to the point of adapting its spelling. many of the words with a circumflex and a lot of é in the beginning of a word are a product of s-reduction. compare: forest - forêt hospital - hôpital castle - château escribir - écrire isla - île Fenster - fenêtre Even the word "être" (to be) is a product of s-reduction. Not to mention the fact that French today do not pronounce the final -s. On the other hand, neighboring Portuguese seems to have gone in opposite direction by reducing their vowels and stressing the s to the point that "estar" and "espanhol" sounds more like "štar" and "španyol".

[@tenminutespanish]

Thanks for the compliment on the video. I understand and appreciate that s-reduction is ubiquitous in broad regions of the Spanish speaking world, home to whole dialect families. This does not make it neutral, though. The concept of neutrality is between regions, not within a region; between dialects, not within a dialect. So for Latin America as a whole, s-reduction is not neutral. An argument can even be made that s-reduction isn't entirely "neutral" even in places where it is common. If a defining feature of "neutral" is unmarked forms, pronouncing s is unmarked while reducing s is marked, even in s reducing dialects. The situation with r reduction in English dialects is not parallel. Those dialects don't reduce r when speaking casually but pronounce r when speaking slowly and carefully. They consistently reduce r in certain phonetic contexts regardless of sociolinguistic context. What's more, some languages (or societies) have no neutral. A good argument can be made that the UK has no neutral. And there certainly is no neutral form between the UK and the US. "Neutral" is not synonymous with "good", "normal", "educated", or even "most frequent" or "most common". I've been thinking about making a whole video on the concept of neutrality and marked forms. For now I recommend checking out my video on "Which dialect of Spanish should you learn" for an intro to the topic of neutrality.

[@xolang]

@@tenminutespanish Thanks for the clarification. I understand what you mean with s-reduction being not neutral seen from the perspective of Latin America as a whole. On the other hand, I have to disagree with the -s being reduced only in casual speech. At least in Argentina, even when people are speaking slowly and carefully, including when reading from a text, s-reduction happens. Indeed it's a reduction (or more precisely a change into an H-sound) only before a consonant, not at the end of a word or before a vowel, but it happens consistently in careful speech. Just like how many Argentines consistently pronounce ll or y as an SH-sound. Thanks again for the great videos. Keep up the good work!

[@tenminutespanish]

@@xolang I don't mean to imply that s-reduction disappears entirely when speaking slowly and carefully. But the frequency and severity of a reduction does decrease, even in Argentina. If you observe all the [s] that are available for reduction, then look at which ones were actually reduced, and whether they were aspirated or omitted, there is a difference. In careful speech (such as when standing at a podium in front of an audience reading a speech) people pronounce [s] more. I'm not saying they pronounce all or even most [s], but they pronounce more. Listen to something like the narration of a nature documentary in Argentina. The narrator pronounces more [s] when narrating a TV documentary than he would when sitting at a bar chatting with a friend. S reduction is variable in every dialect that does it, and whether the speech is more or less formal (whether the speaker intends for his speech to sound "proper") influences how carefully he pronounces his [s].

[@qwertytypewriter2013]

I was aware of both Portuguese vowel reduction and French consonant reduction but had never thought about them simultaneously. It's incredible how genetically related languages can become so so different just by adopting a series of opposing linguistic phenomena.

[@richardwillis5033]

This is very helpful. I thought I wasn’t hearing the “s.” It has been very confusing to me. This information is very useful to know. Being new to the language I am “listening” for everything which is not how I listen in English. Thank you very much.

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm glad you got something out of the video.

[@richardwillis5033]

Ten Minute Spanish I always do. Maybe that is: Siempre hago! (En espanol espero).

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you! If you'd like to know how to phrase sentences like "I always do," where a helping verb like "do, can, have" is the only verb in the sentence, and the action verb is only implied, I'd be happy to explain that.

[@richardwillis5033]

Ten Minute Spanish an explanation would be great! Afterwards I thought: I either wrote it wrong or wrote something offensive. Glad to know it appears to have just been the former! Would love the correct way!

[@tenminutespanish]

In English, helping verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, been, being, have, has, had, do, does, did, may, might, must, can, could, shall, should, will, would) express time and mood in ways that are usually not translated word-for-word in Spanish. Take the case of, “I went” and “I did go”. What is the difference in meaning? “I did go” is just a more emphatic way of saying “I went”. One person says, “I went” and the other person says, “You didn’t go”, and the first person says “I did go!” How do you translate that? It’s not “Yo hice ir!” since hacer is not a helping verb in Spanish and it doesn’t serve the function of emphasizing positive declarations. In fact, since hacer means “to do” in the sense of “to do/make”, “Yo hice ir” doesn’t mean anything at all in Spanish. The sentence “I did go!” is normally translated as “Yo sí fui!” Literally, “I yes went.” So, how would you translate the shortened version “I did”? Imagine you say “I went” and I say “You didn’t go” and you say “I did!” or “Yes, I did!”. The translation would still be “Yo sí fui”. The fact that you can shorten “I did go” to “I did” in English doesn’t mean that you can shorten the Spanish translation in a perfectly analogous way and have it still make sense. “… did go” is a verb phrase in English, with both “did” and “go” carrying meaning. Since Spanish doesn’t use helping verbs the same way that English does and communicates those concepts using verb endings (or in other ways), there aren’t literal word-for-word translations of foreshortened English phrases with helping verbs. Ok, so if someone says, “I hope you enjoyed your meal” and you want to say, “I always do”, how would you translate that? Well, as we just said, “do” as a helping verb doesn’t translate as “hacer” in Spanish. So, you have to think about what “do” means in that sentence. It is an abbreviated way of saying “I always enjoy it.” Which translates as, “Siempre me gusta.” And that would be the most common way to translate abbreviated phrases with helping verbs, where the verb is implied. You have to think of the implied verb phrase that the helping verb stands for and translate that verb phrase. This isn’t all there is to this topic. The phrase “Siempre lo hago”, meaning “I always do it” can be used in some cases as a translation of “I always do”, when the helping verb “do” refers to an active thing that you do. But I can’t really go into that in detail here. The most important take-home message is that English uses a lot of helping verbs that don’t exist in Spanish. So, when you translate a foreshortened English sentence with just a helping verb (I do, I will, I may), you usually need to think of the whole verb phrase, including the missing verb, and translate the whole thing.

[@LEGIONARIO1970]

Cubans and Puerto Ricans have mastered the art of S-reduction.

[@famousthaneus9810]

And Dominicans

[@ethanaderemi]

I've heard the s in mismo/a be reduced in both ways (i.e. not in terminal position). really like your reading of the sayings btw

[@MarcosKunBass]

2:06 I noticed in some places, when an S is between vowels but of different words, for example, "los otros", the S aspiration is really hard and you can clearly hear it "loHHH ótro(s)"

[@tenminutespanish]

You're 100% right. Thank you for contributing to the discussion. I mention this phenomenon at about 4:50

[@FernandoGarcia-hc9mn]

En Buenos Aires la s es aspirada al final de la sílaba (cuando el siguiente sonido es una consonante), pero nunca es aspirada al final de la frase.

[@tenminutespanish]

Interesante. Gracias por tu contribución.

[@LuXx_CraftYT]

Something really interesting about s-reduction is that where I live, if the "s" is before the [t] or [k] sounds, it sounds almost like an [x] / [h].

[@modusoperandi7500]

This is gold. Thank you.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you. I'm so happy you liked it.

[@mariav.ortegamarcano3626]

I love it, but the only Venezuelan region where the /s/ aspiration doesn't occur (or at least, is not notorious) is in the Andes. The rest of us pronounce it like j or isn't pronounced at all.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you for this contribution to the discussion.

[@awbinn3377]

Very interesting. My Spanish teacher is Venezuelan, and I noticed he tends to skip his S's when talking to his mates etc (when talking to me he wouldn't, but that's obvious since I am not a native speaker) It's kinda like the R sound in English. The Americans, the Canadians, the Scotts and the Irish paRk theiR caRs just around the coRneR, whereas in Australia, where I used to live as a little kid or in England or New Zealand, people paahk theeh cahs just around the cohnah.

[@Monti-Nakjem]

I'm not a native spanish speaker but one thing I learned when learning spanish here in Argentina s is reduced in in the middle of the word in many cases but at the end of the word is not accepted as proper speech here in Buenos Aires. Entonces, "estos" está pronunciado como e(h)tos. I've been living here for 14 years. I speak like an Argentine in this regard. I don't think about it. It has just became part of my speech

[@silvestrenet]

I'm from Dominican Republic and believe me, Don't try to use s-reduction or Hyper-Correction your will sound more naturally.

[@dominicdannies7482]

I just started learning spanish (for 2 month) but the aspirated s is for me already so addicting that I canot stop it, same goes for the sh sound in the argentinian accent

[@TheRoboticFerret]

I've always been curious about this. super informative video!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you!

[@junovzla]

I'm from Venezuela and we generally recude our s sounds even in formal environments and when speaking carefully. We also do reduce our s sounds in word-final position before a vowel (like the first s in 'más hombres'). I haven't personally witnessed this but there's a bit of a stereotype that people from the west of Venezuela aspirate all instances of s, even in word-initial position, and I think this happens in some parts of Andalusía and the Canary Islands as well. Despite the fact that we're a very s-reducing dialect I've never seen anyone hypercorrect s sounds into words they don't belong (probably because we rarely if ever completely delete the s, it's almost always just aspiration, and when there's aspiration the following consonant becomes slightly geminated), but one thing I've noticed we do often is add a [h] sound at the end of the second person singular preterite of verbs if the following word starts with a vowel, but not if tit starts with a consonant, for example "estuviste durmiendo toda la tarde" [ɛʰtːuˈβ˕iʰtːɛ ð̠˕umˈmjɛndo ˈtoɐ̯ lɐ ˈtadːɛ] but "¿qué estuviste haciendo en casa de David?" [ˈkɛ‿ʰtːuˈβ˕iʰtːɛ‿hɐˈsjɛndo̯‿ɛŋ ˈkasɐ‿ɛ̯ ð̠˕ɐˈβ˕i]

[@aaron_accordion]

Excellent video!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thanks!

[@hasanal-omar2578]

Thanks a lot for this informative video! Now I have better understanding for the S reduction which seemed challenging to me for long period of time

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm so happy you found this useful.

[@NoahSteckley]

For the record, I received an audio clip from a native El Salvadoran speaker where they pretty clearly say "un poco ma(h) en Mexicano", aspirating the s (not omitting) of "mas en" In addition, to my great surprise, she reported that speakers in her country are liable, if they 'hablar con la jota', to say "el jalvador"---she seemed to believe they speakers would reduce-aspirate even syllable initial s. She was unaware that she was aspirating her s, it seemed, and sociolinguistically considered 'replacing s con la jota' to be a horrible accent-- she of course appears to have been referring not to, say, peurtorican syllable final reduction, but to the nearby all-positions reduction. That's one speaker's report at least.

[@leandrobolanos]

I've heard some Salvadorean and other Central American speakers do this, even aspirate syllable initial /s/. Don't know yet how systematic this is, it'd be interesting to learn more about this phenomenon.

[@Saicopaz]

I came some years late, but the video lacks another S reduction for the spectrum, the total S-reduction, so words like /nosotros/ becomes [nohotro]. Also your pronunciation is much closer to the caribbean S-reduction, it creates a liason if the next word starts with a vowel, while mine doesnt.

[@rebicore]

I am full-Syrian and my cousin is half-cuban but he pronounces most of the S's in spanish (that's weird for a cuban) and he speaks with a neutral accent (also weird) the same thing is applyed to all of the family but when they reduce the S's the don't notice and when I a spanish leaner point that out they seem confused to a point and they ask me if I am joking

[@tenminutespanish]

How interesting!

[@mistym0rning]

Thanks for another great video!! Personally, I actually find it a bit easier to use s-reduction. The example with más rápido is a good one: it’s so much easier to say “ma(h) rápido” without an s-sound before the trilled r. Request: Could you do a video explaining the best way to “transition” to the trilled r sound after an L? I‘m having trouble with phrases such as “el rey”, somehow I find it difficult to get my tongue to do the trilled r coming from the tongue position of an L. 🤓

[@tenminutespanish]

Yes, there are dialects that pronounce all of their [s] except the one right before a trilled r. So, if you find that easier, you'll be in good company if you choose to do it.

[@tenminutespanish]

The l to trilled r question is really good. I'll add that to the queue of videos I'm planning. Thanks!

[@mistym0rning]

@@tenminutespanish -- thanks, I look forward to that (and all other future videos), your content is super helpful!

[@TheMaru666]

@@tenminutespanish I am a native Speaker and or I reduxe that s before r or I make that r " weird " like more sybilant than trilled . It is the hardest consonant cluster in my own language .

[@user-qf4ny9yx7r]

As an english speaker trying to learn spanish it is much more difficult to understand someone when they are using the s-reduction.

[@tenminutespanish]

That is certainly understandable. But you can do it! Study. Practice. Listen. It's just like any other aspect of a foreign language. You can do it!

[@turcanewyork]

I am from Guayaquil! I guess you sound like me in Spanish 😀

[@tenminutespanish]

I love the Spanish of Guayaquil. I had many close friends from Guayaquil and surrounding areas when I lived in Ecuador. But as I listen to myself, I don't think I sound like people from Guayaquil.

[@patty2557]

@@tenminutespanish nashe

[@flannelsone1159]

When final syllable S-reduction occurs, doe sinalefa follow? For example, los hombres, becoming Lom-bres

[@tenminutespanish]

The s in that example isn't syllable final. It is pronounced at the beginning of the following syllable. [lo.sóm.bres]

[@martinchocoo]

cool vid

[@someacolyte5626]

One thing I’ve noticed is that the s-reduction in some accents (im thinking first and foremost of ones in Spain) is that the S is aspirated before plosive consonants when the s ends the syllable. So /p/, /k/, and /t/ primarily. For example: ahpirada, ehtoy, eh que, buhcar

[@tenminutespanish]

Absolutely! This pronunciation originated in Spain, and is now common in coastal and lowland areas of Latin America.

[@someacolyte5626]

@@tenminutespanish Generally speaking when I speak Spanish, this form of aspiration is what I go for because it flows most easily for me without being too dramatic

[@leandrobolanos]

Sometimes, especially in Southern Spain the aspirated /s/ causes the following consonant to gemminate, or more precisely, the part of the /s/ produced with the tongue takes on the manner and place of articulation of the following consonant, so you get things like /aspirada/ --> /appirada/, and you get a little aspiration on the release of the following plosive.

[@Boss_Scaggz]

@@leandrobolanos I've heard this a lot too in Andalusians. "Usted" doesn't become "uhted" it almost becomes "utsed" with a very strongly aspirated /t/ that almost sounds like /ts/. They also have /ch/ becoming /ts/ ("coche" becomes "cotse"), but I think that's happening across Spain more generally as well.

[@cabarete2003]

Another observation; In the Dominican Republic, you may see confusion over this. For example, Jesus Christ which is Jesucristo may be pronounced Jesucritos. Ha there you went over it.

[@PinkPulpito]

Less S less stressss

[@kara-mariehall5691]

Thank you. Love your videos, so informative, they have helped me sound more natural. Please do a video on syllabification one day. Also, do you have a video on how to pronounce the r after a n like sonrisa? I find that I've said It more like sonAHrisa.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you for the kind words! I'm so happy you've enjoyed my videos. I don't have videos on these topics, but I'll add them to the queue of videos I'll do in the future.

[@saintavisoa9765]

E’toy aprendiendo e’panol ahora mi’mo y hago e’to 😂

[@sofitocyn100]

Learnt spanish from Spain. The only spanish I understand without any issue is Mexican spanish. Also happens to be far more pleasant to my ears than iberic spanish. (With its peculiar c/z pronounced thick th) I don't like the s reduction either.

[@khelian613]

I wonder if the phonetic phenomenon that led to the disappearing of pre-consonant and final -s in French was similar, cause I noticed that with words like e(s)pinas, it kind of brought it closer to modern French "épine" - or país - pays (you don't pronounce the s).

[@tenminutespanish]

Seems like the same thing, doesn't it.

[@shellymartinez3807]

A video on pronouncing the s before a t like in Buenas Tardes.

[@metalupyourasslml]

En El Salvador cambiamos el sonido de la "S" con la "J" y en el oriente del país es mucho más marcado, aunque el sonido de la J es más suave, como el sonido de la H en inglés, pero jamas omitimos totalmente la S, al contrario de Nicaragua donde omiten la S al final de las palabras.

[@elmarsana]

En Buenos Aires la aspiramos como muestra el video, pero no la omitimos al fina.

[@frescodezebada4027]

Soy de Nicaragua y enrealidad varía. En las ciudades del centro no se omite del todo solo que suena menos, En el Pacífico y Caribe la omiten al final de las palabras y en el norte es Z.

[@jesusalexander4112]

La R en Colombia, Ecuador y Venezuela y más, las r son reducidas y reemplazadas con un sonido vocalico largo como en car en inglés, ejemplo casar, casa:, no casa si no casa: es una a larga esto pasa con los infinitivos de los verbos y todo lo que termina en ere, vivir= vivi:, habla sobre eso porque confunde a mucha gente que piensa que en español sólo hay 5 vocales.

[@shellymartinez3807]

Excellent video. Can you please make a video on how to pronounce the l, the t, the p, the r, and dipthongs such as oi,ai.au, Ou,

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you for the kind words. I have videos on all those topics. They're a little older, and a bit slower paced, but they're accurate.

[@tac135246]

Hey I love your videos! Could you do one about the j/g and regional variations of their pronunciation? I've noticed a lot of people from spain and a few other places tend to pronounce them with more of the "rasp" (I don't know the technical term) but I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Always wondered about this.

[@tenminutespanish]

Years ago I made a video on this topic, although I really should make a newer and better one. Here's my old one. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jarCd6uQZ6aSjbM

[@tac135246]

Literally just found that and was watching, awesome!

Although the s reduction is common and practically a standard practice in many countries, it will always be considered by us as a "mistake" and a "bad habit". We tend to admire those accents which respect the pronunciation of all letters and sounds, like the Colombian Spanish from Bogota. The s reduction has a lot of nuances that aren't easy to catch at a first glance for Spanish learner speakers, so we will know immediately that they are forcing the pronunciation. In some cases, if they want to say a word and omit a s instead of aspirate it, they would be saying a completely different word. In the worst of cases they could have an embarrassing moment. I think the reduction of the s will come naturally for a foreigner when he is completely in immersion in the country, speaking Spanish all the time. Congratulations for your excellent videos. You help me to understand more about my language and how foreigners learn it.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you for your insights and contribution to this topic.

[@cabarete2003]

When I was in the Dominican Republic and was about to go home to the US, I decided that I wanted to speak a more neutral Spanish. So, I went into a colmado (bodega) and instead of asking for a refreco I said refesco (a soda...coke/pepsi). The man said "what?" I said it again. He still didn't get me...so I said...un refreco, por favor. Then he said. ah un refreco. I laughed inside.

[@tenminutespanish]

That is really funny!

[@shellymartinez3807]

I have problems pronouncing the word dólares and I have heard native speakers mispronouncing the word.

[@chileanguyfleegman1908]

did you try breaking it down?

[@BobbyBermuda1986]

Please don't try S-reduction as a non-native speaker. Sorry, it just ends up sounding super awkward. I've never encountered a non-native speaker master it well, tho I'm sure it's not technically impossible.

[@famousthaneus9810]

Works fine for me 🤷🏾‍♂️. Granted when I started practicing Spanish it was mainly through music, but there are words where I just naturally don’t pronounce the S (it’s a not conscious decision) & I’ve met native speakers that didn’t believe I’ve only been learning Spanish for a little over 2yrs. I only engage in “letter eating” (“cansao” instead of “casado” for example) where it feels natural to do so though. I think that’s really the trick: not forcing it

[@Boss_Scaggz]

What do you think of Dustin Luke's Spanish? Check out his KZbin channel. He's an American that moved to Argentina and learned Rioplatense Spanish to an extremely high level (along with /s/ aspiration, voseo, and all other unique things about Rioplatense Spanish). His /s/ aspiration sounds perfect to my non-native ears.

[@israelvelasco6158]

Standard Mexican pronunciation is without S reduction.

[@tenminutespanish]

Yes, you are 100% correct.

[@israelvelasco6158]

@@tenminutespanish , thank you so much for promoting my native language! Greetings from Mexico. ¡Muchas gracias por promover mi lengua materna! Saludos desde México.

[@tenminutespanish]

@@israelvelasco6158 I'm so happy you like my channel. Thank you for the kind words.

[@shellymartinez3807]

Would you please make a video on all the steps and the tongue placement of the l. I have issues specifically when the l is the last letter of the word like in abril and Brasil. Sometimes it sounds like an ng instead of an l.

[@tenminutespanish]

I have a whole video on the l. I hope it answers your question.

[@someonerandom704]

Any tips about breaking down sentences into individual syllables, specifically about consonants "hopping" between words? Like, at 2:03, "unos hombres" was realized as [u.no.som.bres] and not [u.nos.ʔom.bres] or something of that nature. Do all consonants do this? Do they do it in different contexts too?

[@tenminutespanish]

Some day I'll make a video on Spanish syllabification. What pointers could I give you here? Well, one is that Spanish has no glottal stops. Rather than separating sentences into individual words, Spanish words just run together, and phonetic rules apply across word boundaries, as if phrases were just one long word.

[@someonerandom704]

@@tenminutespanish If an accent that had distincion or ceceo also had reduction, would it apply to syllable final [θ]? For example the name "Ruiz"

[@tenminutespanish]

@@someonerandom704 That's a great question. I don't know. I have some friends from southern Spain. I'll have to ask them.

[@OscarLopez-qo6rf]

the phenomenon is called resyllabification

[@PeeGeeThirteen]

LOL maybe the S sound is too time consuming

[@tenminutespanish]

Just pronounce /s/ normally. No reason to do any of this. This is just so you understand how natives of certain dialects do it.

[@jefferyfrancom2312]

Thanks for the video! While studying this several months ago a spent hours listening to recording of Spanish speakers trying the figure out the s reduction and I came to the same conclusion as you. Jjj I wish I could have found your videos before. I was gonna ask if you could explain how to do the s reduction? I enjoy it as well and I'm not sure I want to implement it into my everyday Spanish, your reasons are pretty convincing, but I'd like to learn how. Could you explain what the tongue is doing? It's easy with some word combination like "lo' amigo'" but especially followed by a constantent I haven't figured out. For example, I try to say ehtamo (estamos) but it sounds more like hetamo. Any tips on what's happening with the tongue?

[@tenminutespanish]

S-reduction is one of two things: 1) Simple omission. Just don't pronounce anything at all in that spot. 2) Aspiration. Pronounce the /s/ as if it were an English [h] sound. That's it. Very easy. "ehtamo" is correct. "hetamo" is not, because that would be the word "setamo" or "setamos", which isn't a word. Just omit /s/ or pronounce it like English [h].

[@jefferyfrancom2312]

@@tenminutespanish thanks. I'll work on it. 🙂

[@p-j-y-d]

EMOSIDO ENGAÑADO

[@patty2557]

Anashe

[@darthmaul6446]

When the s is completely omitted how can natives always differentiate between singular and plural? (Las casas = La casa) Furthermore does it change something in the relation between usted and tu since those two forms would merge in the present tense?

[@tenminutespanish]

If the [s] is important to the meaning of the sentence, and the context is ambiguous, they'd just go ahead and pronounce the [s], either aspirated or normally. But the plural [s] is usually redundant. For example, if [la.cá.sa] is the subject of the sentence, and you don't know whether it's singular or plural, the verb conjugation will be plural and any accompanying adjectives will be plural. Of course, for masculine nouns, el becomes lo(s). Of course, context matters, too. In the course of a conversation, it would immediately become obvious whether it was singular or plural by the context. There are many languages in which they never pluralize (at least, not the way we do in English and Spanish) and pluralization is just understood in context. The same for usted and tu verb conjugations. If there is any ambiguity, and clearing up the ambiguity matters, they'd just use the pronoun "tú" or "usted" before the verb. [tú có.me] or [u.té có.me]. But in a true conversation, this wouldn't really be a problem, since many other elements in the structure of multiple sentences will clarify the situation. These sorts of confusions are really only possible in isolated snippets taken out of context. They don't arise (or hardly ever arise) in real conversations.

[@TheMaru666]

There is an area in eastern Andalucía ( Granada ) where they have open a, e , i , o , u for marking plurals and " normal " vowels for the rest . In other places there is some kind of aspiration that you can hear , more between vowels , and plural articles and verb conjugation is different , so some s dropped un nouns and adjectives is not a big deal .

[@tenminutespanish]

@@TheMaru666 Thank you for your contribution!

In some of those cases you will use a combination of "aspirated s" and omitted s. In the example, the "s" in "las" will be aspirated and the "s" of "casas" will be omitted.

[@elmarsana]

Como le puedo hacer llegar para que escuche el texto de un género musical de Buenos Aires? Cumbia villera, se llama. Ahora mezclan rapp con cumbia, pero emplean términos castellanizados propios del rapp mezclando con modos de hablar de las "villas", que son asentamientos urbanos muy pobres con su propia estetica e idiosincracia. Tiene dirección de mail, o una página?

[@tenminutespanish]

Gracias. Acabo de hacer una búsqueda en KZbin y Google, y encontré muchos ejemplos. ¿Tienes una canción específica en mente? Si me dices el nombre de la canción probablemente la puedo encontrar por Google.

[@elmarsana]

@@tenminutespanish L gante grabación con Bizarrap. (Comienza: "Si me avisa en cinco estoy/porque sabe cómo soy./ Su gato no le da/'tonce me llama y voy...)

[@albertoestrada4579]

You won’t experience S reduction with Mexican Spanish ❤️

[@tenminutespanish]

Very true. Almost no Mexican dialect uses s reduction. Indeed, most Mexican dialects use the standard pronunciation of every sound.

[@LEGIONARIO1970]

Actually we have some regions where people do the S reduction not as emphasized as the other Spanish speaking countries but we still have them, these regions are all located in the coast areas of Veracruz, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Guerrero, Sinaloa and Sonora but most of the country pronounce all the Ss.