Spanish pronunciation: -eu- and -ue-

This video looks at the pronunciation of two Spanish diphthongs that most students pronounce wrong at least some of the time.
Intro and extro music credits:
Track; LAKEY INSPIRED - In My Dreams
Music provided by FlyingTunes
Watch; • Video

[@315lucienthesky]

This channel is such an invaluable resource for learning proper spanish pronunciation. When i'm proficient in spanish and i start learning french i'm gonna be so upset if i can't find any french resources/channels as detailed as yours.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you so much for your kind words.

[@MarcosKunBass]

Acá ya sabiendo hablar español viendo cosas que jamás me dí cuenta que hacía jajs

[@kaikaichen]

For anyone familiar with the Looney Tunes cartoons, I'm thinking the "eu" diphthong would be like how if Elmer Fudd tried to pronounce "el".

[@M_SC]

Hahahahah brilliant

[@NewLife2028]

In Valencia and a few other parts, the O and U are not made the small way as an English-speaker makes them. The 0 is made in the center of the mouth on a depressed tongue with highly rounded lips and partial throat. The U takes it to a whole alien-level made in the throat for females and the chest for males. It has a depth unmatched in any form of English. This only increases the foreign nature and unfamiliar sound to English speakers but, done correctly, adds an exotic flare to Castellano. There is a clip, as if choking off or swallowing of the syllable with Europa, euro to the point that many Spaniards will substitute «pasta, plata, escudo, duro» with historical context, to avoid the vocal gymnastics of Eu.

[@reaux3921]

Mexico is your home

[@genevaconventionsviolator3994]

I wish a channel like this existed for japanese, I'm obsessed with pronunciation but I'm already a native Spanish speaker LMAO

[@MM-jm6do]

Thanks! I was having trouble pronouncing words like “puedo” and “juego” with the hidden ‘y’. Now I know what to look out for!

[@Halcon_Sierreno]

"Diphthong", that's a funny word.

[@M_SC]

It’s secret y again! (I commented on another video). Perhaps my “Secret y” could be a helpful hint to make people stop saying puedo as if it rhymes with play-doh. You tell English natives to notice that they add a “secret y” to their ay sounds even when there is no y written. Tell them to say the toy play-doh without the actual y that’s in the word. It becomes plah-doh. Ah is different from eh (sorry I don’t know how to put phonetic symbols in comments) and to change ah back to eh but to not put the “y” back in. Pleh-doh. Then change to puedo. Lol maybe that won’t help anyone except me.

[@M_SC]

Ty so much for ue diphthong- I had no idea on many words especially reunion. I knew something was wrong on other words with it but could t understand or fix it. On reunion I never even spotted it.

[@kubic-c3186]

i cannot pronounce "fuerte", it is the 'r' after the "fue" that gets me

[@davidcrandall3643]

If you quickly pronounce the word "wetter" with an F in front, followed by "te", that's pretty close.

[@ticholopeluche]

The word is divaded like this: Fuer- te Mayby you are trying to pronunce "Fue" and then seperately "r" and this is what it's making it difficult

[@CrunchiestGranola]

This channel is a rude awakening to how bad my pronunciation is! Thank you man

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm glad you're finding my content useful. If you want to improve your pronunciation, I recommend you go through the videos in my playlist entitled "Core Phonetics and Phonology". Go through the videos in order. Watch one video a week, no more. Then, for 20-30 minutes per day, read out loud to yourself in Spanish focusing specifically on the sound/s discussed in that video. It should take you three or four months to go through all those videos, and when you have, you'll have absorbed the content of a semester-long college course on Spanish phonetics and phonology. And unlike most students in a college course, you'll have actually practiced what you learned every day. Do that, your pronunciation will be MUCH better by the end.

[@CrunchiestGranola]

@@tenminutespanish Man you're the most knowledgeable person about this stuff I've ever heard. I always wondered why I sound like a "gringo" even when I'm not just using English sounds, but you showed me that it's exactly what I was doing. I think that it's a shame that this is not taught in school, which chooses to just basically say "j is h, ll is y and the rest is basically English". The only sound you're video couldn't teach me straight away is the trilled r, but I don't fault you for that as it is notoriously difficult. What you said about glottal stops and strategies for dipthongs (j and w in place of i und u) were really mind opening. I must say I didn't stick to one video a day, but I will go back to one everyday and really drill the specific skill. Muchas gracias! (where ia is one syllable!)

[@tenminutespanish]

@@CrunchiestGranola Thank you so much. Best of luck on you're journey. I can tell you get it. You're going to do well.

[@matteo-ciaramitaro]

These videos are pretty helpful for other languages at getting rid of an English accent in similar language. grazie

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm very happy you find them useful.

[@cbsteffen]

I think the “w” counts as a vowel when it follows another vowel in English. The letter probably gets its name because it’s supposed to be pronounced as “oooo” (as in like two long “u”s without a preceding “y” sound).

[@usamwhambam]

About the eu diphthong, I seem to be able to more closely match the instructor's pronunciation, if I think don't change my tongue or lip position from the setting to say the Spanish e sound (eh, or short a) and then proceed to (attempt) to pronounce the Spanish u sound (short ooh). Same way around for ue.

[@shellymartinez3807]

Muy útil.

[@davidcrandall3643]

Some native speakers continue to round their lips while pronouncing the E in UE, causing the E to sound like the German Ö or the French EU. The ear of an English-speaker might mistake this for some kind of O sound.

[@LimeGreenTeknii]

Wow, so remembering the "d is th after anything except l and n" rule, then "la deuda" would really be like "la thewtha?"

[@tenminutespanish]

Yup

[@mohamedkamara8225]

THANK YOU

[@RUT812]

¡Ay Güey! 😂

[@xavierlong2657]

6:09 im guilty as hell. This whole timr i thought the e was the exact sound as an american long A. Smh.

[@chickenhead6312]

hi! i'm not sure if you get around to seeing these comments BUT can you do a video on the u+i sound? like seguir or construir I'm not confident in how I say it

[@tenminutespanish]

It depends on spelling. The u is silent in -que-, -qui-, -gue- and -gui-. So seguir is pronounced with no [u] sound. But construir is different. In this case ui is a diphthong. The u isn't silent.

[@shellymartinez3807]

Da lecciones privadas!

[@shellymartinez3807]

Please do a video on the ai dipthong.

[@tenminutespanish]

I have a video on diphthongs in my playlist. I discuss ai in detail in that video.

[@leespletter4059]

Are you available for live lessons?

[@tenminutespanish]

I haven't done any live lessons recently, but I could. What did you have in mind?

[@leespletter4059]

@@tenminutespanish I'd just like a few hours (not all at once) with someone who knows about phonetics to really help me with tongue movement and how to produce the sounds. I'm trying for a Mexican accent or at least an accent where people don't notice I'm from the US. I'm looking for someone who says more than, "Just imitate me!" when helping with the accent.

[@tenminutespanish]

@@leespletter4059 The truth is, if you just watch my videos, you'll know everything I have to teach. My core phonetics and phonology videos go through all the Spanish phonemes, their allophones, and how to pronounce them correctly. And my other videos address the most common problems encountered by English speakers. And then my analyses of people's pronunciation address specific issues common to students. There's really not much more to say. I'd jus5 be saying it directly to you rather than in video form to everyone in general.

[@tenminutespanish]

@@leespletter4059 To be honest, the main reason I don't teach private lessons is that most people can't afford what I would have to charge to make it worth my time. I have taught private lessons to a couple people in the past couple years, but they were special situations and they were sponsored by employers.

[@leespletter4059]

@@tenminutespanish Well that makes sense. I appreciate your honesty. I do appreciate your videos and I'll keep watching for sure.

[@wadepatton2433]

comment deleted by author. Carry on.

[@zeenohaquo7970]

Is Que pronounced Kwe or Ke?

[@tenminutespanish]

que = [ke]

[@zeenohaquo7970]

@@tenminutespanish gracias. I guess it is the sole exception to the ue = we rule.

[@tenminutespanish]

Que- and qui- are pronounced [ke] and [ki] everywhere, in all words. Que, queso, queremos, quiso, etc. Because the u is silent in this context, there is no diphthong.

[@zeenohaquo7970]

@@tenminutespanish i see. Interesting silent u.

[@researcher7578]

@@zeenohaquo7970 In classical Latin "que" and "qui" were really pronounced like "kweh" and "kwee", simply when Old Spanish has split from Latin, the "w" glide was dropped, just as is the case with the majority of Romance languages. The modern Spanish diphthong "ue" (at least in the majority of cases) is not directly inherited from Latin, it developed through the change of tonized "o" into "ue" (Latin bOnus - Spanish bUEno, Latin prOba - Spanish prUEba, Latin nOvum - Spanish nUEvo).

[@SevenMilliFrog]

This more of an English speaker problem lmao

[@tenminutespanish]

Yes. Since I am a native English speaker with experience teaching Spanish to English speakers, these videos are biased toward the problems most commonly exhibited by English speakers.

[@ashtarbalynestjar8000]

It’s a common problem. Out of the 20 languages with the greatest total number of speakers, only Spanish, Portuguese, Bengali and Cantonese have an /eu/ diphthong. Many people will replace it with a two-syllable combination /e.u/, or with a similar diphthong that exists in their language, such as /au/ or /ou/.

[@M_SC]

@@ashtarbalynestjar8000 ty for that

[@byteback]

The problem with your videos is that you’re not slowing down on correct pronunciations. If we could pick up these subtle distinctions and emulate people at this speed, we wouldn’t need your videos.

[@davidcrandall3643]

One hack is to play the youtube videos at half speed by clicking on that gear symbol to get to the speed adjustment.