Common English pronunciation errors made by Spanish native speakers.

Short and long vowel pairs

Explanation:

One of the biggest pronunciation problems for Spanish speakers are that their language does not have a distinction between short and long vowel sounds. They often stretch all vowel sounds out too much and confuse pairs of short and long English vowel sounds like “ship” and “sheep” both in comprehension and speaking.

 Exercise I

Instructions: Record yourself pronouncing the following words and then listen to the record and try to distinguish the differences between a short and a long vowel sound.

bit / beat

not / note

batter / barter

pull / poole

hat / hate

set / seat

kit / kite

pan / pain

tub / tube

cut / cute

Exercise II

Instructions: In your notebook, group the words that correspond to long vowel sounds in columns and in another column the words with short sounds.

-Home          -Thin

-Love            -Leave

-Cat              -Cheap

-Pool             -Left

-Lost              -Eat

Consonants

Explanation:

Most of the time, Spanish speakers read the consonants of English, as they were the same as in Spanish, but this is not the case. These are the most common errors that Spanish speakers do trying to pronounce consonants:

·       The “ch” in “cheese” may also be confused with the “sh” in “she’s”, as the latter sound does not exist in Spanish.

 

·         Unlike most languages, the “th” sounds in “thing” and “bathe” do exist in Spanish. The problem with “bathe” is that the sound is just a variation on mid or final “d” for Spanish speakers and so some work on understanding the distinction between initial “d” and initial “th” is usually needed before it can be understood and produced in an initial position.

 

·         Some speakers also pronounce a final “d” similar to an unvoiced “th”. “d” and “t” can also be a problem at the end of words, as can “thing”/“think” and sometimes “thing”/“thin” or even “ring” and “rim”. In general, Spanish consonant sounds vary more by position than English consonants do.

 

·         Although a “w” sound exists in Spanish, it is spelt “gu” and can be pronounced “gw”, sometimes making it difficult to work out if a “g” or “w” is what is meant.

 

·         Although a Spanish “r” is different from most English ones, it rarely causes comprehension problems. However, the English “r” can seem so soft to Spanish speakers that it is sometimes perceived as “w”.

Exercise I

Instructions: Read the following words aloud and try to exaggerate the sounds of the consonants mentioned above and try to notice the difference between the sounds. Practice as many times as you consider necessary.

chair / shape

catch / brush

thank / breath

three / both

door / absolved

dry / absented

wader / web

water / wake

race / rainbow

rose / rabbit

Exercise II

Instructions: Watch the next video and repeat the words with it. Then, here you have more words with evolves all the consonants sounds to practice.

-soup

-bat

-light

-dog

-cheese

-whale

-mother

-thumb

-write

-thought