Is the "b" in bueno silent?
A friend of mine insists his high school Spanish teacher told him that the "b" in bueno is silent. I disagree. Who is right?
4 Answers
Missy, I think you are right, in that it's not supposed to be silent. But just because it's not supposed to be, doesn't mean it doesn't become somewhat silent along the way due to some regional accent.
Both B and V are pronounced identically, with the lips rather than the teeth. (We touch our teeth with our lower lips to pronounce the letter V, in Spanish this is never done.)
But the Spanish B/V often isn't a hard B sound like we make. The lips don't quite touch, producing a sort of English V sound, but without touching the teeth with the lower lip.
It's easy for me to imagine that as the contact between the lips becomes less, the sound becomes more and more like a silent letter. Thus bueno could come out sounding like "wueno". My guess is that's what your friend is referring to.
But it's not supposed to be silent.
I have Spanish and Chilean friends and I can't say I have ever heard it with a silent b, and it is distinctly a b not v as in vaso, vive etc where the b/v is indistinguishable
I think Goyo is probably right in that it is a regional thing. My house if full of people celebrating the Holy Week, so I did a little survey. The most common answer I received was this:
If 'bueno' is the first word (buenos días), then the 'b' has no sound. However, if 'bueno' is not the first word (Una buena cosa), then the 'b' is not silent.
Please don't take that as the rule. I will be the first person to tell you that the way people speak here where I live is peculiar at best. Incidentally, they also told me that the d in 'Medellín' (a major city in Colombia) has no sound.
I think this is a great question. I live in Colombia, and I have asked my friends here the same thing, and they insist the 'b' is not silent. However, I hear 'buenos / buenas something' 100 times a day and usually I don't hear a 'b'.
Bienvenio al foro, MissyLinda.
