Spanish ñ || You've probably never heard this!

[@JorgeGarcia-lw7vc]

Onion and canyon, yes, are practical approximation, and some of y'all might be thinkin, "dude you're nitpicking!" The reality is that native Spanish speakers like myself do notice these subtleties. I remember kids being corrected for saying Alemaña instead of Alemania. It does make a difference, and if you don't get it right, especially if using ñ instead of ni (more than the other way around) you'll sound a little foreign or uneducated. It's no big deal but still a detail worth getting right whenever possible, so just try your best. Great video!

[@tenminutespanish]

I appreciate your comments very much. Thank you!

[@mle3699]

Wow, amazing, I never realized this. My Spanish pronunciation improves with every video you do. ¡Mil gracias!

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm so happy you liked the video.

[@sapphoenixthefirebird5063]

Most Slavic languages, like Russian, also distinguish "na", "ña", "nia" and "ñia" sounds. In Russian Cyrillic, for example, they're written "на", "ня", "нъя", and "нья" respectively.

[@alextsvetkov3211]

I’m binging these vids rn and saving them. And I have to say there r so many similarities between Slavic languages and Spanish somehow. Or maybe it’s me just pulling from both. Cuz we don’t rlly neutralize in Bulgarian (dialect dependent). It’s very interesting tbh

[@thecaf8985]

I learned something new, Ive been overdoing it and always thought that I had to pronounce ñ even with n+iV combonation. Thank you for making this video and helping me fix my bad habit.

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm so happy you liked the video.

[@CW-zs9il]

Great video! Thank you so much for the amazing content you produce. I thought of another minimal-ish pair that may fall into this category: "opinión" and "o piñón"

[@tenminutespanish]

Nice! I have to write that down.

[@eve36368]

Thank you for those diagrams of the roof of the mouth & the tongue. This video settled a lot of my doubts!

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm glad you found this video helpful.

[@angeleduardoaraujo8988]

I could be wrong, but I believe the n-yod pronunciation for ñ actually exist in Spanish, but this is a regional pronunciation. For me, the Argentinians and Uruguayans produce a n-yod sound, not exactly the standard ñ sound, used in the rest of the Spanish speaking countries. All of the Argentinians and Uruguayans I've heard speaking have this particular pronunciation, so it's part of their accent. It's a very subtle change, but those little details make an accent an accent. In a foreign speaker this sound makes them sound like a "gringo" (sorry for using this word, which I know could be offensive for some people, but I don't use it in a derogative way and I believe express my point), but for Argentinians and Uruguayans, all together with their other particularities, makes them sound from those countries. Maybe I'm not correct and this is only my believe, but it's what I think I hear each time I listen and Argentinian-Uruguayan speaker. Congratulation, by the way. I love your channel, even I'm a Spanish speaker myself, but I keep hearing everything I can about Spanish history and linguistics, and this is one of the best channel about it even if it's in English. Sorry if I made some mistake. English is not my first language, so I hope you can excuse Some mistake that I have missed.

[@tenminutespanish]

Your English is VERY good. I don't know about regional variations of ñ. As a non-native speaker of Spanish, there are many regional features I have no experience with. Thank you for your contribution to the discussion!

[@carlosdoriaespitia]

Yes, I have heard some Argentinians pronounce maniana instead of mañana.

[@tenminutespanish]

@Eunice Ramírez Very interesting. Thank you.

[@omarwistohn9806]

only in certain words like "compañía" and only by few people

[@mep6302]

I'm from Argentina and I've never pronounced ñ as ni. There's a clear difference between both sounds. So don't generalize please.

[@jefferyfrancom2312]

Up to this point watching your videos I've already noted your tips on my own study of Spanish. But it's been very helpful to see it written out instead of and abstract thought I have, but this video caught me off guard. 😂But I can totally here the difference. The diagram helps a lot. Thanks for the video!

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm glad you liked it.

[@Sandalwoodrk]

the problem is is that when people are learning these sounds, they´re speaking slowly and enunciating Which makes it harder to differentiate between them but as soon as you try to speak at a casual pace, the wrong sounds become more obvious that´s true for all similar consonant sounds and what makes the point of articulation so important Because even almost identical sounds become garishly different when you start speaking at a quicker pace.

[@tenminutespanish]

This is an excellent point.

[@Leonaise1652]

After so many years of struggle in spanish class(mid school to high school) and still not getting it right you're telling me all I had to do was watch this video😭 Mucho gracias

[@M_SC]

I think accents must be essential here. I’m Canadian, with British father and American/Canadian mother, my accent is particular to Montreal anglos, not like people from Toronto (my Japanese students could absolutely tell) or west or east of this area, though perhaps Ottawa is like us. Anyway, it’s not an American standard accent and I’ve been playing around and I do pronounce canyon and onion with ñ I think. I think the phonetic writing system for it is imperfect in both English and spanish, the sound belongs to both the first and second syllables. I also speak French though and I remember as a kid around 9 years old learning to make the gn sound in French which I think is the same... at least in some words (?).

[@M_SC]

People who pronounce the a in canyon as ae would end up saying canyon with n-yod. You don’t have that accent- when you say (in comments) you pronounce it more the Spanish way when you say it fast, I believe that’s your natural pronounciation and when you say you slow down it becomes n-yod you also (in the video) kind of make it 3 syllables. I think this is unnatural and influenced by your knowledge of its phonetic representation. Ask a kid who can’t read (and doesnt have the (ae) version of (a) sound accent) to pronounce it slowly, I bet they would separate it differently. Just some thoughts I could be wrong!

[@LEGIONARIO1970]

Great video again! There's an interesting and funny story behind this peculiar letter that comes from ancient Spain. I'm an English teacher myself in Mexico and I even find your videos helpful to me, comparing both languages and learning the "what, why and hows makes me understand better many things. Saludos desde México.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you for the comments. I'm very happy you like my channel. Please tell us the funny story!

[@LEGIONARIO1970]

@@tenminutespanish kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZ-rgXmKd9uId5o

[@someacolyte5626]

You’re right about it not being the same sound as in “onion, canyon” except for the fact that in the South, some accents change it to essentially the same sound as ñ. I’m mainly using my own Florida accent and that of my Alabama friends as a reference

[@tenminutespanish]

I pronounce it more like ñ the faster I speak. I think lots of English dialects pronounce it like ñ under various circumstances. But most or all English dialects pronounce it like n-yod when enunciating carefully, and all of them separate the n and yod into different syllables.

[@someacolyte5626]

That’s true. I think it’s prominent in the accents I’m referencing cause we tend to mash our tongue to the roof of our mouth for a lot of sounds even compared general American English

[@jollyjames7170]

I love the vid title + date of upload combo (it's the first day of school for a lot of people). Also the video is gas, I've never noticed this.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked the video.

[@shellymartinez3807]

Amazing video. I used to think the by ñ was two syllables. These little things make a big difference to the ear of native speakers.

[@malkeynz]

Just an FYI: as a New Zealander, I think you're right about my pronunciation of "canyon", but for "onion" my tongue seems to be closer to the ñ position illustrated - I think it's because many of us tend to pronounce it more like (forgive the notation) "ung-yin". I think that's probably closer to ŋ than ɲ (after looking it up) though.

[@tenminutespanish]

Very interesting! Thanks for the contribution.

[@primus6677]

Who knew that two sounds with wildly different tongue placements could sound so similar

[@relaxingmusictosleep-guide6661]

Glad that we inherited this sound after centuries of colonization in the Philippines. We use this sound in every day life. And it's even in my last name. Mañago ❤️

[@tomn5188]

Bueno, eso fue muy útil. Gracias.

[@tenminutespanish]

Me alegro mucho de que te haya gustado.

[@oidualclaudi0]

For some reason in Argentina the ñ sound is starting to disappear and Argentinian people are using the n-yod sound instead

[@mep6302]

I'm from Argentina and I've never pronounced ñ as ni. For me there's a clear difference. I remember my little sister pronouncing ñ as ni and I corrected her. Now she pronounces ñ as ñ and I'm happy for her. She still has the tendency to pronounce it as ni sometimes but I keep correcting her and she keeps improving her ñ pronunciation.

[@kingjimmycraftofcalderonia2017]

Interesting, I wonder if this concept is true for the Italian gn combination-since both Spanish ñ and Italian gn are described like ni in onion or ny in canyon (note: I don’t expect that you to answer this since your focus is on Spanish). Anyways, great video!

[@tenminutespanish]

I speak Italian and Portuguese, and both of them have a grapheme equivalent to Spanish ñ. Italian= gn, Portuguese = nh. But I haven't studied the phonetics of those languages in enough detail to say whether they're exactly the same as Spanish. My suspicion is that they are, but I don't know for sure.

[@kingjimmycraftofcalderonia2017]

@@tenminutespanish Wow, interesting to know that Portuguese have a similar concept with their nh. It fascinate me because I speak Spanish and that there are some similarities between other Romance languages. Especially Italian since I am currently learning it and there are some words that are similar and others that are foreign. But either way, I like your content on your videos on teaching phonology of Spanish-since my goal now is to improve my pronunciation, and grammar on a book that I’ll use. All I can say is I can tell you are good is that despite the fact that I have a hard time currently on distinguishing one native accent to another, I can tell the differences between a native and a non-native accent. And in my ears, you do sound around the native side. But other than that, hope you do well in your videos.

[@msyu1400]

Thank you very much for your teaching. I am from Hong Kong and I speak Cantonese in my daily life. In Cantonese, a lot of syllables start with a “ng” consonant, like “ngo”, which means “I” or “me” in Cantonese. For me, the Spanish ñ sounds like the English “ng” nasal consonant plus the English vowel “i:” (so called long i: sound). I just combine the two sounds together to form an ñ sound. For English speakers, I think they may use the sound “gy” (/ŋi/) in words like “Tangy” (/ˈtæŋ.i/) , “clingy” ( /ˈklɪŋ.i/) to pronounce the Spanish ñ. And the “i” in “gy” (/ŋi/) must be short enough in order to pronounce the Spanish ñ, otherwise, it sounds like an entire syllable itself. Because I started learning Spanish for just 1 week, I don’t know if I am correct. If I am wrong, please correct me. Thanks

[@KaiiAyrenNevaehGames]

That doesn't sound like an ñ to me, even though if it's definitely closer than ni/ny I still would recommend learning the actual sound since it's noticeably different to me. Sincerely, a Spanish speaker.

[@someacolyte5626]

Unrelated to the video but an idea I felt like sharing nevertheless: have you thought about making a video series where you review the pronunciation of a viewer-submitted clip and use it as a teaching thing?

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you for the suggestion. Yes, I have considered that. It would be an interesting exercise.

[@someacolyte5626]

@@tenminutespanish You could also set up a Patreon (if you haven't already) and supporters there could send in the clips

[@tenminutespanish]

@@someacolyte5626 That's definitely something to consider.

[@VectorJW9260]

What I think of is trying to pronounce it like "ng + y" rather than "n + y".

[@arrow_exists2657]

I WAS CORRECT!!! I WAS TOTALLY CORRECT!!! AAAAAAAA THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE WHO THNK IM CRAZY FOR CRINGING EVERYTIME I WOULD PRONOUNCE Ñ BECAUSE IT WAS WRONG

[@shellymartinez3807]

Can you please make a video on the "l" sound? It's a sound a lot of English speakers have trouble with and brings out your foreign accent right away. Thanks.

[@tenminutespanish]

I have a video on the [l] sound in my Old Videos playlist. I'll remake it in the coming year. Still, the version I have now is helpful.

[@driksarkar6675]

Do you have tips on pronouncing [rj] as in barrio ['ba.rjo]?

[@tenminutespanish]

What difficulty are you having with that sound combination?

[@driksarkar6675]

@@tenminutespanish I think it's hard to keep it one syllable, as opposed making it [ri], like ['ba.ri.o].

[@tenminutespanish]

@@driksarkar6675 It is very common for learners to break diphthongs into two syllables. I've never heard of that happening specifically after r, though. I'm not sure what to recommend, other than practice, practice, practice. You obviously know how it should be pronounced. So, you've got to work on it.

[@kaikaichen]

Somewhat of a tangent, but I'm curious as to whether ñ is the same sound as the Italian "gn", such as in _lasagna_ or _Bologna_ (I think "gn" is used in French also).

[@tenminutespanish]

Spanish ñ is the grapheme equivalent of Italian gn and Portuguese nh. But I don't know enough about those languages to know if it's exactly, precisely the same sound.

[@TheMaru666]

Spanish ñ and Portuguesse nh and Catalonian ny are the same sound . I am not sure about Italian gn .

[@Noone-uw3mk]

@@tenminutespanish I'm a Portuguese speaker and I can confirm that they are. However, in Portuguese, the nh can both represent the phoneme /ñ/ as well as the /ng/ depending on which case. You can see this distinction better in Galician, where they use both the ñ and the nh to represent those respective sounds.

[@Noone-uw3mk]

@@TheMaru666 From my understanding, the Italian/French gn is indeed the same phoneme. Maybe there's a tiny difference, but I couldn't hear it.

[@alpacamale2909]

What's the IPA letter for Ñ?

[@T1nxc0]

Symbol* ɲ

[@alpacamale2909]

@@T1nxc0 yeah, and also not exactly that one. this symbol has two sounds. post alveolar I think and palatal

[@T1nxc0]

@@alpacamale2909 ɳ (not in spanish)

[@donovancanoot5697]

PLEASE READ!!! I have a bilateral cleft palate which is a birth defect that affects my speech, i have a lot of trouble pronouncing my Rs, they usually come out more like Ws, ive been trying to learn how to trill my Rs but i want to know if im physically able to do it, if you could look up a few diagrams to see what BCP is and make a judgement based on your knowledge that would be very helpful, i watched your video on how to trill Rs from 2019, (had a good laugh) but i still do not know if i am able to trill since i have a misformed palate and i have air escape to my nasal canals

[@tenminutespanish]

I think it's unlikely that you are physically capable of trilling r. This is because in trilling, the tongue forms a seal and the trill is produced as air is forced past the tongue. You cannot form a seal, since the air escapes out your nasal passage. You cannot force air past the tongue, since any pressure causes air to go out your nasal passages. Everyone who cannot trill conjectures that they are physically incapable. You are the only person I have communicated with who actually fits that description. Something important for you to know is that there are dialects of Spanish that don't trill. They pronounce a different sound instead of the trill. I recommend you watch my video on that subject and try to learn that sound instead.

[@TheMaru666]

I have known adult native Speakers who were unable to trill their rs . Some do an uvular trill ( like in feench ) , some do a " breathy " alveolar tap or a sound or a sounded sybilant , like z in English . All of them were doing fine , personally and profesionally . Sometimes just a good enough try is fine also , even more if you have a phisical feature that prevents you to improve in your phonetics .

[@bromie21]

great vid, this might go against your philosophy but can you think of a word better than onion to help us learn to pronounce it?

[@tenminutespanish]

No. Onion and canyon are as close as you can get using English sounds. There is no exact equivalent for ñ in English.

[@Noone-uw3mk]

@@tenminutespanish I think there are some cases where it would be closer, but I think it also depends on the accent. As a Portuguese speaker, I use the /ñ/ sound when I say a word ending with "ing" followed by a vowel, or some rare other cases like "clingy", but I don't know if most native speakers use the same sound for it.

[@ghenulo]

I fail to see haw /nji/ is hard to pronounce. In my hillbilly West Virginia accent, I actually pronounce "onion" as /ˈʌŋ.jən/ (i.e. pronouncing the n as an ng); Wiktionary indicates that as a Canadian pronunciation but doesn't mention anything about West Virginia. Of course, we also have the pen-pin merger here, so "pan" is /pɛən/, and both "pen" and "pin" are /pɪn/; similarly, we don't pronounce "canyon" with /æ/ but with /ɛə/; I remember looking in a dictionary as a teen and expecting the pronunciation of "pan" to be listed as (pân), as I pronounce it with the same vowel as in "pair", but it listed it as (pan), with the same vowel as in "pat".

[@albayzinHCHO]

comparing "uranio" and "huraño" and "matrimonio" and "moño" is genius. there really is a difference.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thank you!

[@JordannGeorge]

omg compañia and words like it are so hard for me. i think it's the ñ+i combintation. all the other ñ words are fine i think.

[@JuanPablo_RDM]

ñandú Ave corredora similar al avestruz, pero de menor tamaño, sin cola, con tres dedos en cada pie y el plumaje gris o pardo; habita en las llanuras de América del Sur: el ñandú y el avestruz necesitan beber muy poca agua. avestruz de América. El plural es ñandús o ñandúes. (rhea)

[@dny6722]

Ñ

[@A62643]

I just pronounce it as n

[@engorgioarmani3381]

Doesn't British English have [ɲ]? Like 'new'

[@tenminutespanish]

That is n-yod. [njuː]

[@LobyDobster]

This is funny lol. I'm a Colombian and lived in England during my childhood, therefore, both my English and Spanish could be considered native. I've always had this doubt if those sounds were the same. I guess it depends on the dialect, or maybe it's just me, and I've always placed an [ɲ] sound in words like new or onion. I guess I'll never know for sure.

[@tenminutespanish]

@@LobyDobster I can resolve this question for you. English does not have in its inventory a dorso-alveolopalatal nasal exactly like Spanish ñ. English n-yod is close, especially when spoken quickly, but it is not exactly the same.

[@pthompson2113]

Isn't this sound easy?

[@tenminutespanish]

I think so, yes.

[@cabarete2003]

I HATE this...they do it for the sound LL and Y comparing it to the sound in "million."

[@garrymontgomery2033]

you don't show a "like" or "subscribe" button to click on . . . O.K. I found them. Strange location.

[@tenminutespanish]

Thanks for liking and subscribing!

[@israelvelasco6158]

Actually this sound is also used in English language in words like "onion" or "canyon", or in this other case "don't you".

[@tenminutespanish]

I'm sorry, but this is not correct. The sound in "onion" and "canyon" is slightly different from ñ. And I've never heard a native English speaker pronounce "don't you" with anything resembling ñ.

[@dgoins6]

Way overthinking this

[@tenminutespanish]

Depends on your goals. For some people close enough is close enough. For some people it isn't.