Pronunciation of "él"

Question

The video and the 'listen' sections have different pronunciations of 'el'. How do you deal with this?

Clarification: video lady says el like letter "l"; listen part gentleman says "eel". neither says 'ale'; regional differences an excellent point---Florence for pure Italian..._____, Spain for pure Spanish? - Sheila-Deakin, Aug 30, 2009

Answer 1

I am also kinda confused by your question, but I'll answer anyways: It sounds basically like the name of the English letter "L", except you make the "L" sound by putting your tongue against the front of the palate, not the teeth.

The only "different" ways to pronounce it would be when it means "he" (él) rather than "the" (el), but that's more about emphasis than different pronunciation.

I believe that is a diacritical mark to distinguish between the two words and there is no difference in pronunciation nor emphasis. - 0074b507, Aug 30, 2009

Wow, I had to look up diacritical. Nice vocab, man. - randomraccoon, Aug 30, 2009

Answer 2

It's somewhat humorous to expect someone to be able to describe the proper pronunciation of a letter sound. Consider this:

1. There are regional variations in the pronunciation of English.
2. It would probably be difficult for someone from Boston to explain in person the differences in pronunciation of Ale or the letter L if the other person were from a different region of the country where these sounds would not be pronounced the same (Minnesota, Louisiana or Texas for example).
3. Attempting to give written instructions on pronunciation just magnifies this problem.
4. The fact that spoken Spanish also has its regional differences further compounds the problem.

I think that it might be better if you were to pay attention to and model the way it is spoken by the people who live in your area by trying to engage them in conversation (that way you'll speak more like the people who you live around).

You could also try listening to newscasts in Spanish as the news anchors tend to slow down their Spanish and annunciate there words.

Here is an interesting discussion about the problem with regional differences

Spanish e

Answer 3

I've notice that every since I've been studying Spanish.

I try to pronounce it similar to English's "ale" while many pronounce it like the English letter "L".

"Ale" has a dipthong, or both the Spanish "e" sound and the Spanish "i" sound rolled into one. You just want the first part of the sound. - randomraccoon, Aug 30, 2009

sorry, I was just too lazy to look up the phonetic symbol for a hard A. - 0074b507, Aug 30, 2009

Answer 4

i just say it as the letter "L" in english

Answer 5

The video and the 'listen' sections have different pronunciations of 'el'. How do you deal with this?

Different pronunciations? Can you give us an example? As far as I know, each Spanish word is only pronounced one way.

Answer 6

What different pronunciations are you hearing?