Vowel sound added to words starting with ‘s’ and a consonant

Explanation

 Spanish speakers sometimes add an ‘e’ to the beginning of words starting with ‘s’ and a consonant. As a result, you pronounce the words ‘street’ and ‘school’ as ‘estreet’ or ‘eschool’. This happens because words in Spanish don’t normally begin with a consonant cluster, so sounds like sp, st, sk, sl, sm always have a vowel sound before.

Exercise I

Instructions: Try saying these tongue twisters five times. First slowly. Then get quicker and quicker.

-       SpongeBob SquarePants speaks Spanish at school.

 

-       Spyder spy spilled a spoon of spicy spice on a split of splinter

 

-       A skunk sat on a stump and thunk the stump stunk, but the stump thunk the skunk stunk.

 

-       Thin sticks, skim bricks, thick skids

 

-       How many snacks could a snack stacker stack, if a snack stacker snacked stacked snacks?

 

-       Smite the smelly smoking smiting smoker.

 

-       Smell the sweet smiling flowers.

 

-       Smoky smooth barbecued s'mores are delicious.

 

-       Smart Smitty Smith smelled an apple smothered with peanut butter

 

-       Spencer speaks Spanish with his friend, Spike, at the sporting event in Spain 

Exercise II

Instructions: Write the next column of words in your notebook, then look for a mirror and pronounce each word. Be aware of the movements in your mouth.

scream

screen

screech

scribble

scrimp

speed

spin

spit

spill

spirit