When sounds conflict, what is the rule?
Mis amigos/as,
Here is a sample sentence:
Cuando viene el tiempo, espero que él se niegue a hacerlo.
I believe it translates to something like, "When the time
comes, I hope he refuses to do it."
The question:
When you are speaking the two "a" sounds together ie:
"a" and "hacerlo" do you drop the first a, or just blend it into
the following word (hacerlo)?
Muchas gracias por su ayuda.
5 Answers
I have noticed that many speakers prolong the a when two of them come together. It is not always perceptible, so either not everyone does it or the duration is so short it can't be detected.
The rule of changing Y to E and O to U to avoid the conflict of sounds does not apply to A .
We should wait for a native speaker here though.
When you say "voy a hacerlo", it should sound like "voy hacerlo".
You do not have to pronounce both "a" sounds.
When you are speaking the two "a" sounds together ie:
"a" and "hacerlo" do you drop the first a, or just blend it into
the following word (hacerlo)?
You do blend the sounds (often lengthening slightly the vowel), but not only when the last vowel of a word is identical to the first vowel (sound) of the next word, but in most vowel+vowel combinations. This "blending" is called synaloepha, and it is a feature of the Spanish standard pronunciation, not a "sound conflict". A phrase like "La hermana de Antonio" is normally pronounced as "Laermana deantonio", unless one speaks deliberately slowly and clearly, which is normally in schools or when we expect others to have problems understanding us. A clear pause after "la" and "de" in the previous sentence, in normal spoken Spanish, could sound very artificial.
I think you would just pronounce one "a" sound. So it would be pronounced "niegue hacerlo" and in this case the preposition "a" is just implied.
Good Question though..............
