Difference between sounds of "v" and "b"
Can someone tell me when to use the "b" sound for the letter "v" and when it is actually is pronounced as "v". Example: Venga actually sounds like "Benga". Is that correct?? When do I know to say the "v" sound instead of "b" sounds.
11 Answers
They are identical in Spanish. They sound somewhere between the English "B" and "V". Most English speakers think they sound like "B", but it's not quite that hard. Try to say "B" without quite completely closing your lips. Or you can say "V" without letting your teeth touch your lips.
Our Spanish instructor, Sergio, here in Madrid was emphatic that the "v" sound "no existe en español."
He gave the examples of "Valencia" and "Barcelona" as starting with the same exact "b" sound.
This creates one of the very few problems native Spanish speakers have with writing their language. Sometimes you will have people writing the "v" as a "b" in words.
In Spanish, the people write what they hear. There is no need for a "spelling" class in grade school. In English, we learn to memorize spellings because there are so many exceptions. This is the one situation where Spanish need to memorize spellings.
The defining characteristics of the 'v' in English is that the teeth meet the lower lip and that it is voiced. There is no such sound in Spanish. The closest approximation to that definition would be the sound of 'f' (teeth meet lower lip but the sound is not voiced [just as it isn't in English]).
and one of those sounds does not exist in English
If you absolutely insist on describing the sounds of Spanish in terms of the sounds of English (which is a very bad idea and, under the best circumstances, can only be expected to teach you how to pronounce Spanish like an English speaker who doesn't know Spanish), the intervocalic v|b is most like a blend of the 'b' and the 'w' of English. However, that's still a dumb explanation. Listen to the sound in Spanish and reproduce it. Forget about English approximations.
Hello and welcome the forum.
In Spanish, both the "v" and the "b" sound like a "b."
Take a look at this article by Lazarus on "How Spanish Letters Sound."
As Kevin and Marianne said, they are identical, you can replace one letter with another any time, and it wouldn't affect the pronunciation at all. However, both have two sounds depending on their position in the speech, and one of those sounds does not exist in English.
Everywhere I've ready they are supposed to be the same but I can clearly hear the difference on the example videos and computer generated sounds on spanish dict. For example I find the following sounds different to me:
http://www.spanishdict.com/videos/barco http://www.spanishdict.com/videos/vida
It could be psychological though since I know one starts with a B and the other with a V.
Moger:
That is because usually those videos are done by people who live in the US. Natives or not, they know the difference...
Now, Some people will tell you to pronounce them like this or like that. I would recommend you to just pronounce them like you always have. Some people don't agree with me, adducing that you will "sound" like a foreigner pronouncing correctly those letters.
Now, how would any native Hispanic living in their countries of origin, not knowing what the difference in pronunciation is between those two letters, be able to discern you are pronouncing them in a different way? Impossible!
You can interchange them (the b and v sounds)
I had downloaded a podcast onto my Ipod, a Spanish language podcast, the first
lesson was on the V and B in Spanish , the teacher gave a list of 20 words with
B and V for us to pronounce , great, but then I realised that there was no way that
I could work out how they were spelled unless I knew the word beforehand.
Each word had a B and a V in it ,so did it start with a V or a B, or vice versa ,
or Biceberza ? Therefore if one is to use this type of learning tool one needs to
have the text with it ,which I guess shows that SD flash cards are the way to go.
i have learned it as a blend of the b-v sound together....
One description I have reads, "b and v are the same; at the beginning of a word or after m or n, like English b without a strong puff of breath; otherwise, intermediate between English b and English v."
This description is from Spark Publishing.
