If Presente! is said after a name, to mean this person is here, how do you pronounce it?
during a protest at the School of the Americas the names of the disappeared were read, and after each name those attending said aloud, "Presente!" The written account said the word means "she is here" or "He is here."
I will be reading this vignette, and want to know how to pronounce the word correctly.
4 Answers
Just say it as it's written: presente. Vowels (i.e. a, e, i, o, u) in Spanish do not get different sounds depending on certain circumstances as often as in English. The worst you may expect is "u" not being pronounced at all (as in "que") and maybe changing the sound of the preceding letter (as in "guerrero"). Accentuation is a whole different topic beyond the scope of your question. For the purposes of the word you're asking, I think it's sufficient to say that this is a "grave" word which tells you to stress the second syllable from right to left: pre-SEN-te. Hope this helps.
I was just wondering about this today! Why are the e's at the end of the word pronounced 'ay' instead of 'eh'?
There's a big street in LA called San Vincente which should be pronounced (according to the rules) San Vin -cEHn - tEH but instead it's pronounced San Vin-cEHn- tAY just like the word here - PrEH-sEHn-tAY.
Why is that? It's just an accent thing, right?
pr
Eh
sen (as in "send")
tay
Welcome to the forum!
It is pronounced---pray-sen'-tay
If you'd like to actually hear it spoken, type the word into the translate box at the top of the page, then click on the speaker icon.
