Though this may be a bit difficult to do in a blog series (seeing that it is just plain text), I plan to help people learn the basics of the Spanish language.
How do we know that you can teach us? This is my third year in taking my own Spanish course, and I just love it.
Spanish is easy once you get the hang of it; Using the past tense of verbs is my only issue so far.
Well, I also don't know every word there is to know in Spanish, so I guess there's a negative.
But on the positive side, since I enjoy it, I am therefore good at it.
I have an award if you would like to see it sometime.
Getting Started - Pronunciation Unlike English, Spanish is quite easy to speak, provided you understand how consonants and vowels are pronounced.
Here is the complete Spanish alphabet, accompanied with pronunciations.
a (ah)
b (bay)
c (say)
d (day)
e (a)
f (efay)
g (hey)
h (ache)
i (e)
j (hota)
k (ka)
l (elay)
m (emay)
n (enay)
ñ (enyay)
o (oh)
p (pay)
q (coo)
r (eray)
s (esay)
t (tay)
u (oo)
v (bay)
w (doe-ble-bay)
x (eckeez)
y (egreega)
z (sayta)
ll (eyay)
When Spanish is spoken, the consonants for the most part sound as they would in English, but with a few exceptions and/or rules:
z sounds like our "s". There is no "zz" sound in Spanish.
ll sounds like "yu". It has a "y" sound to it.
Example: ella (she) = "eyah"
y can sound like it would in English, but natives may tend to make it sound like "j"
Example: yo (I) = jo
ñ sounds like "ny"
Example: año (year) = anyo
Pretty easy, huh?
For your first homework assignment, practice el alfabeto (the alphabet). Try to sing it as you would in English, but in Spanish of course.
Danyelle
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