What are some key pronunciation rules in Spanish?
What are some standard pronunciaton rules that are important to learn in order to speak Spanish correctly? For example, in French you drop any H's, you roll your R's, Y is usually pronounced as a long 'ee' sound (as in 'sheep'), and you usually don't pronounce the last letter of the word.
What are the rules like these in Spanish? I've heard that you shouldn't pronounce 'W', and say it like a B or V in some words instead.
I'm a beginner, by the way guys.
Muchas gracias! =)
2 Answers
Hello, and welcome to the forum. I don't think the advice you received on pronouncing Ws like Vs or Bs is quite accurate. W is not a Spanish letter, so it only comes up in foreign words, and it doesn't sound like V or B. Vs and Bs, however, are often quite similar, sometimes indistinguishable. The sound is more like a B or a V depending on context. Because they are so similar/the same, they are often distinguished in speech by calling V "V de vaca" and B "B de burro." Agrarian, but accurate. Here's a reference article about how the various letters are pronounced.
Here is a link to a page that should help. I hope this works.link text
