Practice is the key to learning to speak any new language.  If you are a native English speaker who is learning Spanish as a second language, it may appear at first that all the pronunciations are very similar between English and Spanish.  In actuality, there are lots of slight differences between Spanish and English pronunciations that tend to trip up beginners for quite awhile until they work and practice for a long time.  The best way to learn the intricacies of Spanish is to speak with someone who is a native Spanish speaker.

When English speakers first learn how to speak Spanish, here are some of the common pronunciations that give them problems:

B and V- in Spanish these two letters sound exactly the same.  When English speakers are first learning Spanish spelling it can get pretty confusing to differentiate between the two letters.  Actually, it?s sometimes challenging for native Spanish speakers to spell words that contain ?b? or ?v? because they sound alike.

Spanish examples: Barcelona, vestido, visitante

D- the sound of the Spanish ?d? is much softer than in English.  When you are speaking Spanish, you should pronounce the ?d? with your tongue touching the bottom of your front teeth rather than the top.  As you get more practice speaking Spanish, you will notice that the ?d? sounds a little harder when it falls as the first letter in a word than it does when it is placed in the middle.

Spanish examples: caminando, delicioso, día

H- is silent in most Spanish words.  It does not sound like the ?h? in the English word ?horse?.  The letter ?j? actually creates a sound that is similar to the English ?h?.

Spanish examples: harto, helado, herencia

J- is a very tricky letter to pronounce for English speakers.  We don’t have a sound that is equivalent in English, so most of the time we can squeak by if we pronounce the ?j? the same way we would pronounce an ?h? in English.  However, the correct pronunciation of the ?j? is a more guttural, throaty sound that you find very often in German.  You can limp along and communicate fairly effectively by pronouncing the ?j? like an ?h? when you are first learning Spanish, but after you get more practice you will be able to pronounce it properly.

Spanish examples: juego, jota, jamón

LL- is actually considered a separate letter in Spanish.  It comes after ?l? in the alphabet.  The pronunciation sounds like the ?y? in the English word ?yak?.

Spanish examples: llorar, lluvia, llamar

Ñ- this letter looks very unfamiliar to English speakers, but the pronunciation is not too difficult.  It makes a sound similar to ?ny? in the word ?canyon?.

R- one of the most difficult letters for English speakers to pronounce correctly.  It sounds very different than the English ?r? and is pronounced by pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth.  The Spanish ?r? actually sounds more similar to the English ?d? than the English ?r?.

Spanish examples: perdido, rico,  rápido, raza

RR- another construction that is very difficult for English speakers.  The ?rr? sound is made by trilling the tongue against the roof of the mouth.  Some native Spanish speakers even have trouble mastering the ?rr?, but most people can get it if they practice.

Spanish examples: carro, guitarra, perro

X- can be pronounced a couple different ways in Spanish.  In Spanish, the ?x? in ?Mexico? is pronounced very softly and sounds almost like an English ?h?.  In other instances, ?x? can sound like the English word ?example?.

Spanish examples: éxito, Texas

Z- is another letter that is pronounced more softly in Spanish than in English.  It sounds like a middle ground between the English ?z? and ?s?.

Spanish examples: zanahoria, zona, zapatos

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