Spanish Latin American Pronunciation Video 1: The Spanish Consonants

This is the first of a multi-part series on Spanish (Latin American) pronunciation. The goal is to quickly familiarize you with the sounds of Spanish (Latin American). You'll then be able to learn them faster, either through your own studies or through my pronunciation trainers. Enjoy!
Flashcard Designs for Teaching Yourself Pronunciation: blog.fluent-fo...
My Pronunciation Trainers: fluent-forever...
Anki Language Learning: ankilanguagelea...
More Anki Decks, including Spanish Pronunciation: speakada.com
Reddit's Anki Language Learning Community: / ankilanguagelearning
A super detailed discussion of the IPA: • Pronunciation Tutorial...

[@nachok2884]

A diferencia de el IPA usado en el inglés, es difícil encontrar este tipo de información de una forma clara y precisa para el Español . Agradezco mucho este video

[@FluentForeverApp]

We are so glad to hear that this video is proving useful for you!

[@svisvisvisvisvi]

Top notch video - detailed, yet clear and concise. Confirmed all my suspicions from previous listening and mimicking.

[@FluentForeverApp]

Thank you! We're happy you found it useful!

[@ramzy-6566]

best video for Spanish consonants.

[@FluentForeverApp]

😍

[@XingchaoYu]

very good summary. i searched lots of pages and youtube, this is so far the best one.

[@VictorGarcia-wl8tb]

Maaaaan I'm a native Spanish speaker, and I always thought our language didn't have some of those sounds I'm shocked ahahahahaha

[@sammosaurusrex]

I literally sweat every time I have to pronounce an r to a native speaker - I’ve broken out of my beloved American r’s, but I don’t think I’ve quite figured out these taps and trills! Such a tonguey language :) Thanks for the video. What are those pronunciation trainers you mentioned?

[@Michaeltudor25]

The best language learning system period. Get his book for suŕe.

[@FluentForeverApp]

Hi Michael, thanks so much for recommending Fluent Forever! We're happy the method and the book have helped you!

[@jaimebenito620]

Gab, many Americans use the tap r when they say words like "butter" (and close IPA transcription use that symbol too); the position and mechanism is identical except for the direction of the tongue, and they look almost identical in an spectrogram. When most Americans say the Spanish words "todo" (everything,), we hear a clear " toro" (bull).

[@marvinjones5766]

[@rzeka]

Marvin Jones Me too

[@ThePassingVoid]

Can I say todo like totho and toro like todo?

[@rzeka]

***** I don't speak Spanish, but I do speak American English. Judging by that, and what I know about Spanish phonology, that seems correct to me.

[@lepredator189]

ThePassingVoid yep

[@jaimebenito620]

Ah, English also uses aspirations in CH sounds and other consonants. Spanish never uses aspirations along with other sounds.

[@lahaynne]

Perfect! Thank you very much!!!

[@anamnihal7566]

Thank u for making

[@kristabradleymusic]

¡Bien, gracias!

[@mattdobz]

the "x" sound does exist in English and is pronounced a little harsher or more phlegmy than in Spanish, but it's from Old English so most words containing it either changed or no longer exist, "loch" is a famous surviving example

[@lepredator189]

You mean 'did' exist.

[@slampog]

God bless, thank you!!!

[@holahoho3441]

Es raro :v, yo nececito aprender los fonemicos en ingles y me pongo a ver los fonemicos del español :u.

[@soycinsun]

Necesito*, fonémicos*, inglés*.. tienes que aprender la ortografía correcta del español.

[@Mirador1]

Es bueno conocer primero lo correspondiente al propio idioma nativo de uno, para después asimilar mejor lo de otro idioma, para, por ejemplo, hacer asociaciones, etc.

[@Sashangle1]

awesome :) thank you!

[@FluentForeverApp]

You're welcome!

[@tico4612]

Cristina habla muy raro español , así no hablamos español en América latina .

[@henhaooahneh]

+tico4612 Es que en America ustedes tienen al menos 5 variedades de español, tan distintas como pueda serlo el español de España. Los gringos creen que existe el español latino y que en el DF hablan como en Buenos Aires o en Lima

[@Emile.gorgonZola]

Idiota

[@compulsivecommenter990]

La descripción es precisa su acento es un poco extraño.

[@LyingRose]

Aro not= Ring Anillo=Ring

[@languagelearner2268]

Did anyone else have a tough time comprehending all this? It was a lot of information, any tips on how to better understand the IPA along with tongue positions? I don't have that great of control or awarness of what the air in my throat is doing or the position of my toungue while I speak. Really interesting stuff though.

[@rzeka]

Well, you're name is Language Learner, so I assume you're gonna be learning more languages in the future. Understanding the IPA and especially how it works can really give you an advantage in pronunciation and accent reduction. The IPA is, basically, a list of symbols that represent sounds. The symbols are mostly taken from the Latin and Greek alphabets, and so might not be perfectly accessible, especially when you get to stuff like [c] and [θ]. *But here's the thing: you can learn the names of the parts of your mouth and how sounds are produced by them.* If you look at an IPA consonant chart, you can see what they call "Places of Articulation" along the top, and "Manners of Articulation" along the left side. If you compare sounds on the chart and take note of what they have in common and what they don't, you can get a good understanding of the IPA symbols and their meaning. If you're having trouble memorizing all of this information, I'm afraid I don't have much to offer beyond saying that if you see a symbol you're unsure of, there's no shame in looking it up and reading it's name to help understand the sound it makes. Also, Wikipedia offers sound files of some people saying a lot of consonants and a few vowels, you can find the recording on the Wikipedia article for the respective sound. Or just look up "IPA chart with sound". Also, if you're confused about the articulation of any consonant, you can paste it into KZbin and hopefully find a video of someone saying it, with their tongue highlighted via some magic technology. *Good luck!*

[@languagelearner2268]

+rzeka Thank you for the tips!

[@daultondonna]

+Language Learner It takes work but you can explore IPA and the tongue positions at a great interactive website from the University of Iowa soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/english/english.html in English or soundsofspeech.uiowa.edu/spanish/spanish.html in Spanish.

[@languagelearner2268]

+Donna Daulton thank you for the links!

[@daultondonna]

+Language Learner Your welcome! I think the pictures of the mouth in motion along with the explanation is the best. I do have to warn you, on the English site, the pronunciations which accompany the drawing are not always the best but the pronunciations with the video of the actual speaker are great. Not knowing Spanish, I don't know about the accuracy of the pronunciations. Understanding the phonemes and the IPS is good idea if you want to hear and learn a language. I would recommend beginning with your native language. I hope this helps.

[@pesinasiller]

jaja, cómo suspira antes de explicar la R 5:44

[@vito741]

Uhhh [z] doesn't exist in Spanish. 'Esmeralda' is pronounced with an [s]. I'm Mexican and my parents can't pronounce [z] no matter how hard they try

[@compulsivecommenter990]

Yes it does exist, it's an alophone /dezde/ /mizmo/

[@compulsivecommenter990]

However it's perceived as a variation of an S, Spanish speakers can't distinguish them and can't really pronounce /z/ separadamente

[@AnaPaula-sc7xy]

​@@compulsivecommenter990 i love how you forgot english separetely and used separadamente because you were talking about spanish

[@compulsivecommenter990]

@@AnaPaula-sc7xy That was totally random, only multilinguals can relate.😂😂

[@AnaPaula-sc7xy]

@@compulsivecommenter990 YES lol I only noticed a minute after I read it because it was so natural to me

[@Kunichiro]

Symbols are not correctly displayed because they need a serif font.

[@jaimebenito620]

By the way, this video covers perfectly the pronunciation of many parts of the south of Spain (eg. my city), but it needs a few corrections to account for the pronunciation of parts of Central and South american Spanish. Why is it then called "American" Spanish? Ps. I know the phonetic details of many Spanish dialects in detail (with IPA).

[@ReanimatorHW]

Do you think that these minor issues might correct thru exposure and imitation?

[@musical_lolu4811]

There's a seperate video for that.

[@maripositapava3001]

Gallo, no gaio

[@javiercastrofranco8975]

Jaja inglés puede ser un idioma universal,pero jamás de compará con nuestro hermoso Español.