SPANISH LANGUAGE
Lesson 2a

VOWELS:
While there are many phonetic vowels in the English language, there are only 5 phonetic vowels in the Spanish Language. Their phonemes have a one to one relationship to the written vowels: A, E. I, O, U. In Spanish, these vowels are always pronounced the same in all words.

PRONOUNCIATION:
(Vowels with an equivalent pronounciation in English)

A: Pronounced as the "a" in father.
Examples: casa 'house' , mamá 'mom'
E: Pronounced as the "e" in "bet"
Examples: nene 'child' , bebé 'baby'
I: Pronounced as the "ee" in "seed"
Examples: Lili 'proper name', viví 'I lived'
U: Pronounced as the "oo" in "boot"
Examples: tú 'you', Lulu (proper name) , fufú (regional word)

(Vowel with no exact equivalent pronounciation in English)
O: Pronounced close to the "au" in "haul"
Examples: loco 'crazy' , robó 'he/she stole'


This is the Spanish vowel which is very difficult to pronounce correctly by English-speaking people. Any English-speaking person will unconsciously pronounce this vowel as an English "o" (rounded sound at the end), and by doing so, a foreign accent will easily be detected. For example the word "No" which means the same in both languages, are not pronounced quite the same. The Spanish "No" is more like a "naw", perhaps a little bit more rounded, but without the diphthong ending sound of the english "No".

Spanish vowels are classified in 2 groups: Strong and Weak.

WEAK Vowels:
There are 2 weak vowels in Spanish. They are: I and U.
Weak vowels are used to form diphthongs. (Lesson 2B)

STRONG Vowels:
There are 3 Strong vowels in Spanish. They are: A, E and O.
Strong vowels are mixed with the WEAK vowels to form diphthongs. (Lesson 2B)
Examples of diphtongs are: ai, au, ue, ia, uo, and other combinations

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