Beh de burro o veh de vaca
Estoy leyendo otra vez un libro de mí juventud, 'Churún Merú - The Tallest Angel'. Fue escrito por Ruth Robertson, la mujer que dirigió la expedición para medir la catarata Angel Falls por primera vez en los '40's. La conocí cuando vivía en Caracas. Fue una reportero, escritor y fotógrafo. En el libro habla sobre tratando de aprender español, y aprendiendo cómo pronunciar las letras B y V. Dice que tenían que decir la frase, 'beh de burro, o veh de vaca', porque no se puede oir la diferencia en español. Sé como pronunciar las letras, pero ¿es una frase común en español?
I'm rereading a book from my childhood, "Churún Merú - The Tallest Angel". It was written by Ruth Robertson, the woman who lead the expedition to measure the waterfall Angel Falls for the first time in the '40's. I met her when I lived in Caracas. She was a reporter, writer, and photographer. In the book she talks about trying to learn Spanish, and learning how to pronounce the letters B and V. She says that they had to say the phrase, "B de burro, o veh de vaca', because you can't hear the difference in Spanish. I know how to pronounce the letters, but is this a common phrase in Spanish?
9 Answers
I have heard the expression out in the country in Mexico but in the city, while I was doing some of my growing up, it was always "B grande" and "V chica."
And the RAE change to "uve" for V makes good sense, although the old way was never a problem.
I've also encountered "be grande /be chica" and "be alta / be baja".
In the excerpt from the announcement by the R A E of upcoming changes (that Lazarus posted a while back) it was mentioned that the "official" name for 'v' will be "uve" (as was already the practice in Spain). This does away with the need for these sorts of "explanations" since one can simply say "be" and "uve" and (although the consonants, b/v continue to be pronounced identically) the addition of the 'u' (at the beginning of "uve") serves to disambiguate them when naming the letters.
The other day, I was trying to teach my girlfriend how to write a check, ( over the phone ) When it came to b and v she asked me if it was v de vaca or b panzon, she is from puebla
That's the version used in some Latin American countries I guess, because 'v' is called 'uve' in Spain.. but aside from that it's the same: 'con 'be' de burro, o con 'uve' de vaca' (in Spanish we don't put that 'h' in 'beh', etc.. I guess you do it to tell it apart from the pronunciation of 'to be'.. )
Incidentally, I always thought it was a poor phrase, because although it's easy to tell that you are talking about 'cow' (the previous word is another animal), the word 'baca' also exists in Spanish, and it means 'roof rack'. They could have come up with a better pair of words starting with b/v :p
I'm listening to a radio station located in Miami USA and they just asked the speaker to spell his website address:
"¿Quieres decir "b" de Barcelona o "v" grande?"
Ha!!
My teacher used it all the time in high school
Tanto y tonto ... ¿tonto? Funny Spanish stories
The summary is that I learned to use Be de bueno instead of be de burro.
Why "beh" and "veh" instead of "be" and "ve" if we don't pronounce the h? I've heard the phrase, but I would have never written it with those h at the end. See Billstpor's post for more useful information.
Me extraña que en el tiempo que estuviste en Venezuela nunca lo hayas escuchado. En Venezuela así es como se dice: "be de burro, o ve de vaca". También se dice "be de Bolívar". 
