Spanish Syllabification

Intro and extro music credits:
Track; LAKEY INSPIRED - In My Dreams
Music provided by FlyingTunes
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[@richardwillis5033]

This video is great. I had intuited that the words seem to “run together” when I listen to native speakers but I did not understand the depth of what was happening. This is definitely a great project for me to consider when I try to take my Spanish to the next level: omitting the glottal stop. Thanks as always for such an informative video on a topic that I have not seen covered elsewhere.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you! I'm very happy you got something from the video.

[@jamesknapp4305]

❤😂

[@maritzareneau2673]

Gracias por tan perfecto vídeo. Me encanto! Aunque mi primer idioma es español y soy profesora de español, aprendí algunas cosas importantes que no sabia a ciencia cierta. Thanks for such a perfect video. I loved it! Even though I’m a native speaker and I’m a Spanish teacher in the USA, I learned a few important things that I wasn’t sure of. You are an expert and I love to learn from the experts. Thank you!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you for the kind comment. I'm thrilled that you liked my video.

[@brandonsantin]

I'm a spanish native speaker and you say some things that I didn't even know xd, anyway this video help me to understand english and my own language, keep it up!

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm very happy that you liked the video.

[@elizabethmiller7866]

Thank you so much. I am learning this material in school and it's been very hard for me to understand and this video made it so much more clear. I really appreciate it.

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm very happy you liked the video.

[@nicoletalarico9555]

Excellent video! Very thorough and I love how it is organized!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you!

[@DesmoTwanipop]

¡Gracias para los vídeos sobre la phonología y las gramáticas de español! I feel like I have a better understanding of spanish as a learner and it's interesting as a language enthusiast.

[@tenminutespanish]

De nada! I'm so glad you liked the video.

[@lizmikols2075]

Muchas gracias. This video is a bit advanced (several linguistic and speech therapy terms) but IT IS GREAT. It has helped me understand I make my mistakes. For you native English speakers out there, you might want to watch something more basic, first. Then this video will make more sense. Fortunately I had watched those first. So this video was super-helpful and came at exactly the right time in my Spanish adventure. THANKS!!!!!!!

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm very happy you found it useful.

[@josedl1397]

6:16 That's true. Usually when we reduce hiatus to diphtongs we pronounce strong vowels as weak. So Anteojos turns [an.tjó.xos] and almohada [al.mwá.ða]

[@arcumaereum]

Amazing videos!!! I'd like to see a video about intonation, since that's something I struggle with (even in English haha).

[@tetradrive1569]

I second this. It’s an important topic in accent perfection that I can’t find a lot of videos on

[@dereknoble6796]

You really have me thinking how you learned all of this Dan😅. Anyways, another great video as always.

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm thrilled you liked the video, Derek. Thanks for the kind words.

[@larrytruelove8659]

This is so good.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you!

[@darthmaul6446]

Once again an awesome video. One of my friends sometimes told me that my Spanish sounds kinda of in terms of flow but could never pinpoint what is was. But already talking about pronunciation rules which apply over word boundaries may I suggest related topic: sentence intonation.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thanks for the kind words. I'll add your suggestion to the queue.

[@JorgeGarcia-lw7vc]

Video tan perro, Fascinante, Gracias.

[@tenminutespanish]

Me alegro muchísimo de que te haya gustado.

[@espartaco2028]

Damn little man! You go boy!! Them there be some machinations importantes.

[@tenminutespanish]

Glad you liked the video.

[@jeremiasrobinson]

You have a great collection of videos about Spanish, as well as videos about the formation and history of Spanish. I have found these videos to also be informative about closely related languages. As a result, I think another nice addition to this series would be comparing Spanish to other modern Romance languages one at a time, as I suspect you have additional insights to share when it comes to this.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you so much. And thank you for your suggestion for future series.

[@aseeyahrhinesmith1413]

Excellent information!!!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you!

[@leomaiden1737]

Muy bien video, esto explica porque los hispanohablantes hablamos tan rápido, conectamos las palabras todo el tiempo sin pausa, aunque pensé que eso también pasaba en el inglés

[@tenminutespanish]

Tienes razón que pasa también en inglés, pero no exactamente de la misma forma. Las reglas fonológicas del inglés producen resultados diferentes, y a veces usamos la llamada "oclusiva glotal", cosa no se hace en español.

[@wadepatton2433]

This is the good stuff. Thanks

[@tenminutespanish]

Glad you liked it!

[@normtree749]

This lesson and similar ones provided herein is REALLY helpful especially since i don't have an active tutor while I am learning Spanish. Thank you!!!!. Definitely a 5 star video.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you! I'm very happy you liked the video.

[@bsdiceman]

Bravo!

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you.

[@gabriellecuff6992]

THANK YOU!!!!!!

[@tenminutespanish]

Glad you liked the video!

[@luisvaldivieso5217]

Great video.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you!

[@DennisKettinger]

I have an accent that will never ho away. But very one understands what I am expressing. Bilingual starts in childhood or adolescents. After that, your accent is too established to change. Living in a Spanish speaking county for years helps. Other then I doubt if you'll ever listen to Spainish radio or TV and understand most of it.

[@sawp4220]

And as always, great videos! Would you recommend your listeners any basic reference?

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm sorry, but I don't know of any good reference books on this subject. I studied phonetics and phonology decades ago, and our reference materials were all written in Spanish, so they'd be difficult for many of my viewers to read and understand.

[@submerse9993]

That was very interesting and helpful

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you.

[@harrisonji1906]

Leaving a like first, watching the video later :-)

[@tenminutespanish]

Risky! I hope you like it when you're able to watch it. Thanks!

[@harrisonji1906]

​@@tenminutespanish just watched it, super helpful as usual haha. I realized I've been saying "un ? hombre" separately to make sure it's clear. But now I think in real life speaking "un hombre" and "un nombre" sound just the same. Also if you haven't, could you please do a video on the difference between Spanish "p - b", and the "c (as in corto) - g" sound? I can tell the difference between "t - d", but the other two pairs are still quite confusing. Thanks so much!

[@tenminutespanish]

@@harrisonji1906 Thanks for the kind words. You're definitely on the right track with your observation, just not quite the right example. Any time there are two n's side by side, the n sound is a little elongated. So un hombre is [u.nóm.bre] while un nombre is [un:óm.bre] where the : indicates that the n sound is elongated. Some even transcribe it as [un.nóm.bre]. But you're right in general terms. For example "el hecho" and "helecho" are exactly the same: [e.lé.tʃo]. But most English speakers would pronounce "el hecho" as [el ?é.tʃo] and helecho as [e.lé.tʃo]. And thanks for the suggestion of video topics. I'll definitely add that to the queue of topics.

[@harrisonji1906]

​@@tenminutespanish Ah that makes sense. So "el loro" would be [el:o.ro] with an elongated "l" and "el oro" would just be [e.lo.ro], is that right? Very helpful, thanks again!

[@brianwallington9744]

Brilliant's least I thinks -as after 6 min my head was exploding .. I need to break this into its' smallest parts.. and a packet of aspirin :-)

[@3dplanet100]

Wow, that was an excellent explanation. Me, as a Spanish native speaker, I was not aware of the glottal stops in English, and no wonder, when I hear a non-native Spanish speaker speaking Spanish, I can notice he is not a native speaker and its because of the use of the glottal stops in Spanish, such as the example you used: los?hombres instead of losombres.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you!

[@_Xenophon_]

I've been having trouble with understanding phrases which end and begin with the same sound. For example, the phase "Va a hacer" to me almost sounds like the "a" in the middle sounds almost completely omitted. I'm not sure if this is actually the case, or I just can't perceive the separation, because I'm used to an English glottal stop to separate words. Thanks, your videos are really helpful!

[@tenminutespanish]

The a is not omitted, exactly, it's just that all those [a] sounds slur together because there's no glottal stop.

[@user-ke2mj4wy2f]

I like the video and I have a quick question. This question is not about where to put the stress, but more like what is a stress. When I search for Spanish stress, it just tells me where the stress should be, and I wanted to know what stress is. In my search, I saw a video about English stress (I’m a native speaker) and it said that the stress of the word means it’s louder and also longer. I tried the exercises and it’s a very subtle effect. I’ve learned Spanish in various courses, and many, like Michel Thomas, really emphasize the stress and make the stressed syllable longer, so "puedo" is "pweeeh doh" with the "pweeh" part much longer. Or "quiero" is "key aiiirr roe". I saw a clip in Spanish that said that the syllable length doesn’t get longer but just gets louder which surprised me. I then went to a site where a Spanish speaker pronounced the words, and you see her face and the words underneath and word broken up into the syllables and showing the stressed one. It still sounds to me like that Spanish speaker is elongating the stressed syllable and not just making it louder. However, after listening to it a lot, I can see that it might not be longer but my English ear is hearing it longer. It might just be that it is louder but to my ear, it sounds longer/ elongated? Anyone help with this?

[@tenminutespanish]

Increased Loudness: The stressed syllable is typically pronounced with greater intensity or loudness compared to the other syllables in the word. Pitch Variation: It often experiences a change in pitch, which can be higher or lower relative to the surrounding syllables, making it stand out in the auditory perception of the listener. Length: While not as prominent a feature as in English, the stressed syllable in Spanish may be held slightly longer than unstressed syllables, contributing to its emphasis.

[@galagosergei]

Would you check if the principle of syllabication across word boundaries has been correctly applied in the following sentences: /Voy a ir a España/ [ˈboǐa·ˈi·ɾa·es·ˈpa· ɲa] /Carla y yo somos de España/ [ˈkaɾ·laǐ·ʝo·ˈso·mos·ðes·ˈpa·ɲa] Thank you in advance.

[@proyectoshospitalusaquen7214]

¡Vaya vida tan curiosa! Tu queriendo explicar porque nosotros pegamos las palabras unas a otras como lo hacemos y yo entendiendo porque cuando yo intento pegar las palabras en inglés no me suena natural... En ninguna clase de ingles me habían contado esto del "glotal stop". ¡Qué bueno sería que todos los profesores de inglés vieran este video y dejaran de enseñarnos que ustedes pegan las palabras al hablar!

[@tenminutespanish]

Bueno, pegamos unas y no otras. La fonología inglesa y la española son diferentes, y las reglas de cada una explican cómo y bajo qué circunstancias se pegan las palabras de cada lengua. Pero pregúntale a un maestro de inglés qué sabe de fonología inglesa y apuesto a que ni sabe qué quiere decir la palabra "fonología". Realmente da pena que una parte tan esencial de una lengua la ignoramos como si no existiera. Es inexplicable.

[@maritzareneau2673]

El no quiso explicarlo. Lo explico! Y de hecho muy bien. Soy nativa de Honduras y he enseñado español en Estados Unidos por más de 20 años. Ahora soy profesora de ESL (Inglés Como Segundo Idioma) y nunca había visto un vídeo tan perfecto como este. Me gusto mucho también que el profesor no sale en su vídeo. El, muy seria y formalmente quiere hacer hincapié en la informacion o su lección, no distraer con su persona y/o sus movimientos. Un vídeo realmente excepcional, tanto así que me suscribí. Algo que usualmente no hago.

[@tenminutespanish]

@@maritzareneau2673 Muchísimas gracias.

[@sawp4220]

How does syllabification (or perhaps I also mean word stress) apply across word boundaries. I struggle with sentences like "no se lo ha contado a nadie" without sounding like a robot. Let's treat this as just one long word. Is it like [no.se.lo.á] or [no.se.ló.a]?

[@tenminutespanish]

Great question. Spoken in a simple, straightforward manner, this sentence would probably be stressed like this: [no.se.lo.a.kon.tá.ðo.a.ná.ðje], with stress on the two a's with accent marks written over them. The other words are all pronounced as if they were unstressed syllables in a multisyllabic word. So there would be no stress on "lo" or "ha". I couldn't formulate a set of rules for stress right now. I'd really have to think about it.

[@04steen]

[no.se.loa.kon.tá.doa.ná.die]. We call that "encadenación". We tend to build a chain so that a sentence sounds like a single word.

[@jmcgoo]

Will pronounciation rules applying across boundaries create new dipthongs? For example, "casi una", ca.siu.na --> cah syu na

[@jmcgoo]

Thanks so much for your videos! Liking and sharing everyone I know who studies Spanish :)

[@tenminutespanish]

Yes!! Exactly! You can see a fuller explanation of this in my recent video on linking.

[@tenminutespanish]

@@jmcgoo Thank you. I'm so glad you're enjoying the videos.

[@galagosergei]

I would greatly appreciate it if you could check if I have applied the principle of syllabication across word boundaries correctly in the following phrases: Ana y Marta [ˈa•na•i•ˈmar•ta] ------------- Juan y Pablo [ˈxwa•ni•ˈpaßlo] -------------- In your opinion, should the conjuction y be transcribed as [i] (closer to a vowel) or as [ij] (compare the word кий (billiard cue) in Russian (closer to a consonant)?

[@tenminutespanish]

The first one would be [á.nai.már.ta]

[@galagosergei]

I would appreciate it if you could confirm if I am correct in my method of representing a phrase jointly syllabicated and transcribed at the same time. Phrase written: en el hotel Phrase syllabicated: e•ne•lo•ˈtel Phrase transcribed: [en͜ ɛl͜ oˈtɛl] Phrase jointly syllabicated and transcribed: [e•n͜ ɛ•l͜ o•ˈtɛl] ------------ Phrase written: no es toxico Phrase jointly syllabicated and transcribed: no͜•es͜•ˈtɔk•si•ko

[@tenminutespanish]

I would transcribe the two phrases like this: [e.ne.lo.tél] [no.es.tók.si.ko].