Practise your pronunciation with easy words and sentences, includes sound track:)

Question

Ok, taking over from Kiwi's fantastic idea, I have prepared a sound track with easy words and sentences to practise your pronunciation.

Cogumela will be helping to correct

This exercise is aimed at beginners and intermediate students. However:

Listen to the recording, as many times as possible.

Record yourself as many times as it takes to pronounce it

Only post your best shot.

Please read this how to record yourself and keep the sound track and then post it on your post.

How to record and upload audio files

Words and sentences to practise your pronunciation.

película, caro, aparecer, explicación , hamburguesa, intención, trabajo, estrella, imprescindible, lugar, arreglar, realizar, escenario, archipiélago, pronunciación, dotado, ahora

En esta película hay muchas estrellas. Es imprescindible verla.

Una hamburguesa es muy cara en España .

Tenemos que arreglar el escenario ahora.

Realizar un trabajo es importante en mi vida.

La explicación no es suficiente, tu pronunciación sigue siendo mala.

Este archipiélago está dotado de plantas salvajes.

NO tengo intención de volver a hablar con Raúl otra vez.

SOUND TRACK

• Great idea Heidi. I will have to do this now while the children are at school. - MaryMcc Jan 31, 2012
• What did Raúl do? - rabbitwho Jan 31, 2012
• fantastic exercise! really helpful thanks H! - patch Jan 31, 2012
• jejeje, el pobre raúl, es otra palabra que no sabe pronunciar bien Chris, jejeje, así que, no es verdad lo que digo, claro; gracias patchi, hazlo tú también, todo el mundo está invitado:) - Heidita Jan 31, 2012
• This is great! thank you Heidi :) - lovely_lovel Jan 31, 2012
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Answer 1

Please be patient, you don't have to be the best, but you do have to do your best, this practice is not for comparing pronunciations but for learning from your own mistakes

Please remember this, I will not choose anybody as "best" answer on this thread, this is a learning thread, I hope you will find it useful to practise.

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Answer 2

Aquí está mi archivo

Gracias, Heidita, para la practica.

• It is really hard for me to hear your file. Is anyone else having the same problem? - kdrinning Jan 31, 2012
• It might just be me. Did you have trouble with anyone else's? I can hear it alright, but everyone tells me I'm too quiet. - Jadey7 Jan 31, 2012
• Yes Jadey, what I could hear sounded very nice but very softspoken. - Yeser007 Jan 31, 2012

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Answer 3

Así es:

Jeremias

¡Sé compasiva!

• Jeremias , your work is incredible. - heliotropema Jan 31, 2012
• love it Jeremias! - lovely_lovel Jan 31, 2012
• Great Jeremy, but I expected it would be. - Yeser007 Jan 31, 2012
• This is all kind of you to say, and I appreciate it, but let's not forget that the grail here is comprehension, not pronunciation! Further, I know there is plenty to work on in terms of pronunciation! - Jeremias Jan 31, 2012
• another goody. - jennyo45 Feb 1, 2012

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Answer 4

Sound track

A try.

• well done Melissa! - billygoat Jan 31, 2012
• Excellent,another one .Enganosa. - heliotropema Jan 31, 2012
• Good Z, your r's just need a little work, mostly on endings like lugar, arreglar y realizar. - Yeser007 Jan 31, 2012
• great try melissa! - jennyo45 Feb 1, 2012

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Answer 5

Here it is! :D

• Lovely, love. Muy impresiva! - Jeremias Jan 31, 2012
• Queria decir, impresionante :) - Jeremias Jan 31, 2012
• Such a cute voice! - Yeser007 Jan 31, 2012
• Gracias ^_^ - lovely_lovel Jan 31, 2012
• So very good that you have revealed yourself to be a native speaker.Enganosa. - heliotropema Jan 31, 2012
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Answer 6

http://www.archive.org/details/MySoundtrack_190

• Mine did not come across as a hyperlink. Can someone help me? - kdrinning Jan 31, 2012
• There =) - NikkiRivera Jan 31, 2012
• Thanks so much!! - kdrinning Jan 31, 2012
• A very good job,I won't even try now. - heliotropema Jan 31, 2012

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Answer 7

Bueno, aquí es mío.Gary

• wow very nice gary! - lovely_lovel Jan 31, 2012
• Well done sir. You guys are so advanced that I'm not even going to try. - heliotropema Jan 31, 2012
• Heliotropema, you should try! Listen to Heidita. It's not a contest, it's about learning. You won't ever BE advanced if you don't try! Besides, I did it and I don't think I'm that great compared to most of these. - Jadey7 Jan 31, 2012
• Helio, you of all people should give it a try. I'm dying to hear your voice:) - Yeser007 Jan 31, 2012
• Nice, Gary, well done! - Jeremias Jan 31, 2012
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Answer 8

• lovely_lovely

Here it is! :D

Archipiélago, imprescindible

the only words that need some practice.

This is an almost perfect example, the intonation is perfect, the rolling of the r is perfect, the whole thing is perfect, what else can I say?

• jejeje thank you so much :) - lovely_lovel Feb 7, 2012

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Answer 9

Patch's recording

Película, aparecer me son difíciles

gracias de nuevo Heidita

• great job Patch, you sound so natural :) - lovely_lovel Feb 1, 2012
• :) - patch Feb 1, 2012
• Sounds great Patch! :) - Amor_y_paz Feb 3, 2012
• :) ¿Te son difíciles, corazón? Vamos a ver... - cogumela Feb 7, 2012
• ¡Boh! ¡Vete a la porra! :P no veo nada que corregir aquí. Suenas como un nativo. - cogumela Feb 7, 2012
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Answer 10

@Jeremías:

Above all, excellent pronunciation. Very impressive!

You sound very fluent.

A couple of words can be improved:

archipiélago (I'd like to hear a clear i)

hamburguesa (more "e")

dotado (your t sounds too soft, this is an unusual thing! )

salvajes (rather than "salv", it's more like sal-ba-jes)

Just a few tips: try to join vowels, it will make a big difference:

Like this:

Unaam-bur gue sa

quea-rre-glar

e-sear-chi-pié-la-go

Finally, your tu in "tu pronunciación" sounds too stressed, I hear kind of:

Tú. Pronunciación sigue siendo mala.

Excellent work!

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Answer 11

@Jadey:

Congratulations! You sound a bit quiet, but after some changes on my audio settings, I think the quality of the recording was enough for listening to you. Your voice is very clear, you pronounced all the words very carefully, and your vowels sound in general very sharpened. Your R's are remarkable! Excellent work on arreglar, lugar and archipiélago. Really well done!

The words that need a bit of job are these:

Película: the u sound here is English. It's not “iu” as in “queue”, but “u” like in “soon”

Hamburguesa: Ham, sounds like hem to me, and careful with the syllable “bur”too , it seems to me you're pronouncing schwa here: ӘmbӘ guesa

Dotado: the d sound is too harsh, try to pronounce it softer.

Ahora: Practise trying to join more the bit “ao” (there is no pause at all between these two vowels)

Raúl: It's not bad, but if you could stress the ú more, it would sound better: RaUl, not RAul

Try to make the j sound a bit harder in trabajo, trabajar

On the sentences:

Your “ahora” sounds much, much better here. Your película, hamburguesa and Raúl still have trouble. Pronunciación is more like the first time you pronounced the word (you can say "s" or "th", but there is no "sh" sound)

Really nice job!

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Answer 12

After several invites, I have decided to post my attempt, even though I have not fixed what I have been told to fix, namely my "r" 's and "rr" 's. Two things led to this decision. One is the hope that someone can recognize what I am doing wrong with those sounds and explain in an understandable way how to fix it (nothing I have read yet has been any help, including the guide with diagrams of tongues that is frequently linked here). The other is to see what other letters I have regressed on, so that I can work on them again. Thank you in advance.

link text

• Ok, Stadt. I have heard you and have some suggestions for you, please: be patient. - cogumela Feb 8, 2012
• There is a reason my wife says that Spanish sounds stupid coming out of my mouth. - Stadt Feb 8, 2012
• the "r" in caro is almost a "d" sound. (that's what lazarus taught me!) The rolling is all about making the tounge hit the right part of your mouth and then blowing, try out different places untill you kind of get it and then work on it from there. - rabbitwho Feb 8, 2012
• It took forever, but I kind of got something that sounded like a fart noise and developed it into something that actually sounds like a rolled R, I often can't make it when I need to though and need to take a few runs up at it. - rabbitwho Feb 8, 2012
• the caro isn't a soft spanish D it's a hard Englishy d but still r-ish. I don't know, think of a D when you listen to it instead of an R and try to hear how it's different from a D, because it's very similar to a D but a million miles away from our R - rabbitwho Feb 8, 2012
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Answer 13

@kdrinning:

Very nice and confident voice!!

I have absolutely no trouble understanding you. You have a good rythm, and your stress is brilliant!

These are the words that need some work:

caro: in general, your "r" an your "rr" still need be improved. In both sounds, the tip of your tongue needs to slighly touch your palate (in the same place where you get the L sound, that's exactly the place)

explicación , pronunciación (these endings sound a bit nasal, your sound is more Portuguese than Spanish)

hamburguesa: ( no u here, you are pronouncing güe, listen to Heidi's soundtrack and you'll realise the difference)

escenario (the r soft sound is not perfect, see word "caro")

ahora (there should be no pause between these two vowels: ao, not a o)

On the sentences:

Una hamburguesa es muy cara en España. (Apart from the Güe, remember the "h" in Spanish is silent)

Realizar un trabajo es importante en mi vida. (We need more "E" sound here. I can hear "ia" )

La explicación no es suficiente, tu pronunciación sigue siendo mala. (Güe sound again, no u should be present. Remember: ga, gue, gui, go, gu take the same G sound)

NO tengo intención de volver a hablar con Raúl otra vez. (More B, just as you pronounced in vida)

Well done!!!

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Answer 14

here is my effort..pronunciation excersice..

link text

• I ran out of time at the end ,,,not sure what happened then. - jennyo45 Feb 2, 2012
• Seeee that wasn't so hard was it?? Good job but Raül needs emphasis on the u and you need to do something about that background noise:) - Yeser007 Feb 2, 2012
• Thanks yesser ,I didn't notice the background noise,did it sound like birds?? - jennyo45 Feb 2, 2012
• Terrific mate , and i loved the accompaniment of the Cockatoos , a neat touch. - ray76 Feb 3, 2012
• lol ..they are for free. - jennyo45 Feb 4, 2012

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Answer 15

Swampy's attempt.

link text

• nice to see you around swampy - Heidita Feb 7, 2012
• Thanks, Heidita. I would have tried sooner but just saw this thread today. I'm glad you brought it back! - swampy Feb 7, 2012

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