Easy Spanish

BIENVENIDOS AL SITIO ESPAÑOL DEL BABEL SITE

Index:

1.The spanish language

2. Pronunciation

3. Conjugation

4. Grammar

1. The spanish language

Spanish is spoken by about 300 million persons in the world. It is the most spoken language after Chinese (890 million) and English (320 million). It is thus worth noticing that speaking Spanish can open up a huge number of doors.

Speakers are from Spain (España), Andorra (even if it is not the official language), Latin America (Latinoamérica; except Brazil), the USA (los Estados Unidos), Philippines (Filipinas) and parts of Africa (África).

It is a latin language which means that it has the same roots as Italian, Catalan, Rumanian, Occitan and French. Closest language is, by far, Portuguese. Catalan, French and Italian are of course close to Spanish. Note that Latin American Spanish has some tiny differences with standard Spanish (Castillan). In Spain, Spanish is the official language of the Kingdom; it coexists with other important languages: Catalan, Basque, Occitan and Galician.

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2. Pronunciation

Spanish pronunciation is quite different from the English one, but it is not difficult. Note that the pronunciation table given below is not perfectly exact. It is worth listening to native speakers so as to improve one's pronunciation. When Spain's Spanish and Latin America's Spanish differ, I give below both pronunciation.

A, Á	Eng but, Fr papa	Note that vowels are pure. This means you have to pronounce them as a single sound, like in French, Italian or German. Not like English diphtongs. There's no differences between accentuated vowels and not accentuated vowels.
E, É	Eng get, Fr bébé
I, Í	Eng kill, Fr lit
O, Ó	Eng born, Fr beau
U, Ú	Eng full, Fr poule
B	[b] at the beginning of a word between [b]&[v] elsewhere	N	Eng&Fr national
C in front of e, i	Spain: like Eng thin Latin Am.: like Eng silence	Ñ	Eng&Cat Canyon; Fr Espagne; It Spagna; Port&Oc Espanha
C in front of a, o, u	Eng kill	P	Eng put; Fr papa
CH	Eng check; Fr *Tch*èque	QU	Eng kill
D	Eng daddy, Fr David In Spain, often like Eng there	Beginning R; RR	Twice-rolled [r]. Eg.: rosa; perro
Final D	Sounds [d]. Often not pronounced; sounds [t] in some regions (Catalunya) and like Eng thin in Castilla	R in a word	Rolled [r]. Eg.: pero; comer
F	Eng father	S	Eng silence; Fr passer
G if front of e, i	Like Ger Bach, Scot Loch, Arabic Khaled	T	Eng put
G in front of a, o	Eng get	V	[b] at the beginning of a word between [b]&[v] elsewhere
GU	Gua=[Gwa] of Nicaragua; Gue=[Ge] of get; Gui=[Gui] of *gui*tar; Guo=[Gwo]	W	(rare) Eng water
H	Not pronounced	X	Between 2 vowels: [ks] Elsewhere, [s]
J	Like Ger Bach, Scot Loch, Arabic Khaled	Y	Eng yes
K	Eng kill	Z	Spain: like Eng thin Latin Am.: like Eng silence
L	Eng little
LL	Eng&Fr million; It famiglia
M	Eng mother

The Spanish alphabet is:

A (a), B(be), C(ce), CH(che), D(de), E(e), F(efe), G(ge), H(hache), I(i), J(jota), K(ka), L(ele), LL(elle), M(eme), N(ene), Ñ(eñe), O(o), P(p), Q(cu), R(erre), S(ese), T(te), U(u), V(ve), W(dobla ve), X(equís), Y(i griega), Z(ceta).

It is often said Spanish is the easiest language to write. Indeed, you pronounce it like you spell it. . .it is not the case in French or English!

Each Spanish word has a stressed syllable (=syllable pronounced stronger). In French the stress always falls on the last syllable (France; Français). In English the stress can be anywhere but the spelling doesn't indicate where it falls (mechanic; company). In Italian the stress is not indicated, only when it falls on the last syllable (lacrima, but città). Spanish spelling, like in Portuguese, Catalan or Occitan indicates precisely where the stress falls. Thus you can pronounce prefectly every Spanish word.

The accentuation rules are:

# A word which ends by a vowel, an n or an s is stressed on its last but one syllable.

Eg.: mañana (morning); cantan (they sing); machos (males).

# A word which ends by a consonnant, except n or s, is stressed on its last syllable.

Eg.: español (Spanish); comer (to eat).

# A word which doesn't follow the previous rules has a written accent on the stressed syllable.

Eg.: atención (attention); jabalí (boar); árbol (tree); médico (doctor); tabú (taboo); magnífico (magnificent).

You may ask: but why 'n' and 's' are considered like vowels in these rules. It is easy to understand. In Latin languages the stress is regular and in a family of words it cannot change. 's' indicates the plural in Spanish words; 'n' the plural in conjugation (see further).

So the rules allows us to pronounce canto (I sing) and cantan (they sing); el canto (the song) and los cantos (the songs) correctly without adding a written accent.

Other uses of written accents:

The accent can become grammatical. It can help us to distinguish two homophones. Examples:

El (the) <> Él (he, him); Mi (my) <> Mí (I)

Tu (your) <> Tú (you); Mas (but) <> Más (more)

Si (if) <> Sí (yes); Solo (alone) <> Sólo (only)

The accent is used with interrogative and exclamative pronouns.

�Cómo. . .? How. . .?

�Cuándo. . .? When. . .?

�Qué. . .! What a. . .!

Note here the use of �. . .? And �. . .! In interrogative and exclamative sentences.

How to write Spanish special letters?

ALT 0191 �	ALT 0161 �
ALT 0241 ñ	ALT 0209 Ñ
ALT 0225 á	ALT 0193 Á
ALT 0233 é	ALT 0201 É
ALT 0237 í	ALT 0205 Í
ALT 0243 ó	ALT 0211 Ó
ALT 0250 ú	ALT 0218 Ú

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