Spanish Sounds 1

What is phonics? It is linking sounds with letters of the alphabet.

What are phonemes? They are the individual sounds in a word, e.g. amigo junio

Similarities between Spanish and English Both languages use the Roman alphabet. Many words are the same in both languages.

Can you work out the meanings of these Spanish cognates in English? noviembre helicóptero planeta elefante limón fantástico océano enorme televisión

November helicopter planet elephant lemon fantastic ocean enormous television

Differences between Spanish and English Both languages have 5 vowel letters, but there are 5 vowel sounds in Spanish and 12 in English. There are 26 letters in the English alphabet with 44 sounds, and 27 letters in the Spanish alphabet with 30 sounds. The extra letter in the Spanish alphabet is ‘ñ’.

There are 3 other letters that used to be part of the Spanish alphabet until recent times - ch, ll and rr - and which are still included in many resources. Facts about the Spanish alphabet - 1 Although these 3 letters are no longer in the most recent versions of the Spanish alphabet, their sounds still exist.

‘ch’, ‘ll’ and ‘rr’ CHocolate amariLLo peRRo

The letters K and W do not exist in Spanish words unless the words originated in another country, e.g. koala, wok. In Spanish you must pronounce every single letter except ‘h’. Facts about the Spanish alphabet - 2

¡Vamos a cantar!

Vowels The vowel sounds never change in Spanish

Words starting with vowels

abeja

elefante

iglesia

oveja

uvas

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abeja elefante iglesia ovejauvas

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Consonants Some are pronounced differently to English consonants

casa hard ‘c’ before ‘a’

cerdo soft ‘c’ - ‘th’ sound before ‘e’ in Spanish and ‘s’ sound in Latin America

ciclista soft ‘c’ - ‘th’ sound before ‘i’ in Spanish and ‘s’ sound in Latin America

coche The Spanish ‘ch’ is pronounced like the ‘ch’ in the word ‘church’

conejo hard ‘c’ before ‘o’

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casacerdo ciclista cocheconejo

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cucaracha hard ‘c’ before ‘u’

gato hard ‘g’ before ‘a’

genio ‘g’ before ‘e’ like ‘h’ in English

gimnasio ‘g’ before ‘i’ like ‘h’ in English

gordo hard ‘g’ before ‘o’

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cucurachagato genio gimnasio gordo

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gusano ‘hard’ g before u

helado ‘h’ is a silent letter in Spanish

jirafa ‘j’ in Spanish sounds like ‘h’ in English

amarillo ‘ll’ in Spanish sounds like ‘y’ sound in English

señorita ‘ñ’ is like ‘ny’ sound in English

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gusanohelado jirafa amarilloseñorita

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ratón ‘r’ at the beginning of a word has a vibrating sound

perro ‘rr’ has a vibrating sound too

ventana ‘v’- a soft, breathy ‘b’

xilófono ‘x’ at the start of a word is a bit like ‘s’ sound in English

zumo ‘z’ is ‘th’ sound in Spanish and like ‘s’ sound in Latin America

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ratónperroventana xilófono zumo

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