Basic Spanish - lesson 1 notes

Learning a new language is never easy, but there are some things about Spanish that help?

For a start there is a very precise way of pronouncing each letter and each word. For example: how would we pronounce the letter e in English? It can be pronounced 'ee' as in Peter or 'eh' as in Eric or 'a' as in rein.

In Spanish, it is only ever pronounced 'eh'.

Here is the Spanish alphabet (El alfabeto español). You will see that all letters have a precise and exact sound and it never changes. Some letters, such as C and G, are pronounced differently, depending on the following letter.

El alfabeto español

          Spanish               Pronunciation                          As in                  Example

          letter

A        a                         a                                           Apple              adiós (goodbye)

B        be (beh)              beh                                        Ban                el banco (the bank)

C        ce (seh)               k (before a, l, r)                    Call                 la cava (cava)

                                     cwa (before ua)                     Quack             cuando (when)

                                     seh (before e)                       They               la cena (the dinner)

                                     que (before ue)                      Quest             la cuenta (the bill)

                                     seh (before i)                         They               el cielo (the sky)

                                     qui (before ui)                        Quit                cuidado (be careful)

                                     k (before o)                           Comma             la comida (the meal)

                                     quo (before uo)                      Quote              una cuota (a share)

                                     k (before u)                            Call                  una culpa (a fault)

                                     ch (before h)                          Check              un chico (a boy)

D        de (deh)              deh                                         David              una ducha (a shower)

E        e (eh)                  eh                                           End                 enero (January)

F        efe                      f                                             Fall                 la fotografía (the photograph)

G        ge (heh)               g (before a)                            Gallon             el gato (the cat)

                                      gwa (before ua)                       -                     guapo (attractive)

                                      huh (before e)                        Hen                 gente (people)

                                      ge (before ue)                        Get                  guerra (war)

                                      huh (before I)                        Hill                  girasol (sunflower)

                                      gi (before ui)                          Give                 la guitarra (guitar)

                                      g (before o)                            Got                  gordo (fat)

                                      g (before u)                            Guts                 gusto (taste)

H        hache (acheh)     almost silent – a ghost of a letter                   hambre (hunger)

I         i (ee)                   ih                                            India                inglés (English)

J        jota (hota)          h                                              Hot                  jamón (ham)

K        ka                        k                                              Kill                   el kiosco (kiosk)

NB: there is a Spanish K. They pronounce QU as K, so el queso (cheese) is Kayso.

L         ele (eleh)             l                                               Long                 el limón (lemon)

LL       elle (elyeh)          y                                              Yank                  la lluvia (rain)

M       eme (emeh)          m                                             Mat                   la mujer (woman)

N        ene (eneh)           n                                              Not                   negro (black)

Ñ        eñe (enyeh)          nyeh                                        canYon              el niño (child)

O        o                          o                                              Orange             oro (gold)

P         pe (peh)               p                                              Pay                   el pimiento (pepper)

Q       cu                        k                                              Kilo                    quizás (perhaps)

NB: there is a Spanish Q                                              QUestion           la cuenta (the bill)

R        ere (ereh)            r                                              Rat                    el río (river)

S        ese (eseh)            s                                              Send                 el sol (sun)

T        te (teh)               t                                              Tell                    el tren (train)

U        u (oo)                   oo                                           spOOn               las uvas (grapes)

V        uve                      vuh                                          Vice                   la ventana (window)

W       uve doble             v                                              Vat                   el wáter (toilet)

X        equis                    exc                                          EXceed             el extranjero (foreigner)

Y        i griega                yuh                                          Yacht                 la yema (egg yolk)

Z        zeta                     thay                                        They                  los zapatos (shoes)

Here’s another reason why Spanish is easy – there are rules on how to say a word. In the present tense, the stress is always on the penultimate syllable (the next-to-last syllable). In English, we say 'demand', the sound is flat all the way through. We might stress the D if we are angry. In Spanish, the word is 'demanda' and the emphasis would be on the next-to-last syllable – so deMANda.

There are exceptions. When a word has accents over certain letters, the stress moves to that letter. For example the word for volcano in Spanish is volcán, with emphasis on the á.

The accent is also important in the written word. For example: sí means yes, but si (without an accent) means if; él for him, but el for the. It is essential for understanding both the written and spoken word that the correct stress is made and that accents are written.

One thing I've noticed about learning Spanish is how many words are the same in Spanish as English (or close enough to get). I mentioned 'volcán' a minute ago, but there are lots more. For example, words ending in 'tion', such as 'education' are the same in Spanish, but with the t replaced by c and an accent on the o. So:

          education … educación

          situation … situación

          fabrication … fabricación

Unfortunately 'station' becomes 'estación'.

Words ending in 'ly' have an 'amente' ending

          sentimentally … sentimentalmente

          visually … visualmente

          actually … actualmente

Many Spanish words will be familiar to us. Who knows these words?

Gracias        Adiós           Salsa            Sangría

Paella           Tacos           Playa            Por favour

There are also many words we have stolen from Spanish (and that the Spanish stole from languages spoken in pre-colonial South America):

Chocolate               Patata – potato                 Maíz – Maize or corn

Chile – chilli

We’ve talked about why Spanish is easy, let’s look at why it might be difficult?

Well I find that at my age, sometimes remembering where I left my car keys is difficult, so learning a new language is very hard. Things don't stick like they did when I was 10, so it's really important to practise as often as possible.

Talk to your partner or, if your partner doesn't want to learn Spanish, talk to your dog or cat. Try to think in Spanish, listen to Spanish TV, watch a Spanish film with subtitles or read a Spanish book or newspaper (you can get lots online). Go to Spain on holiday. Apart from age-related memory problems, there are other difficulties and let’s have a look at these now ...

Nouns have a gender – masculine or feminine. We say 'the book' and 'the table'. In Spanish, the Spanish definite article 'the' changes to reflect the gender, so they say 'el libro' (masculine) and 'la mesa' (feminine). It's the same with the indefinite article: a changes to either 'uno' or 'una'.

Those who have learned French will be familiar with this problem. Unfortunately, not everything in French and Spanish is the same sex!

It seems hard, but you get used to it (although I still get it wrong). At the beginning, I found it useful to say if a word ended in 'a' or 'e' it was feminine and in an 'o' it was masculine. That's not a bad start, but there are exceptions – for example día (day – and one of the first words we will learn), is masculine even though it ends in a.

There is also a different way to use adjectives. We say 'the red car' and 'the red apple'. In Spanish you would say ‘the car red’ el coche rojo and ‘the apple red’ la manzana roja, so adjectives generally (not always) come after the noun and have to agree with the gender of the noun.

Now we come to the really hard bit - rolling the R. This terrifies the British, but it is an essential part of Spanish pronunciation. The R is always rolled, but when you get two Rs together, it is rrreally rrrolled. I am not very good, but you get better with practice. In a word such as perro (dog), try pausing between the two Rs – per-ro.

There are other tricks: I asked my Spanish teacher if there was a way to practice and she told me to look in the mirror every morning and say ‘burro’ (I found out later that means donkey – I have no idea what point she was making).

You can practise rolling your Rs in the showerrr. In the bar, you can have anotherrr.

The best way to learn is to say “sort of” in an English accent. Now let’s try that in an American accent. What’s your tongue doing? That’s the action you need to make.

When you feel that you're never going to be able to learn, just keep going. You will get it – eventually.