Use of B or V

Question

Which is correct to use V or B in spanish words for example: Victor, pronounce it Bector in Spanish?

Hope this helps: http://www.spanishdict.com/answers/10091/pronunciation-of-v-in-words....is-it-a-b-sound-or-is-it-a-v-sound - Goldie_Miel, May 24, 2012

Answer 1

It's a semi cross, but I'd say... go more for the B sound for sure.

Answer 2

We pronounce B and V in the same way. The letter "V" is always pronounced like a "B".

In French and English are different pronounciation, but not in Spanish

Examples:

Although we write "Victor" with "V", we pronounce "Bictor" with "B".

The difference is when you write the word, but in an oral use it's THE SAME: always "B".

Answer 3

If you research the history of the phonology of the Spanish language you'll realise that it's been centuries since the B and V sounds merged to become B, since the Mío Cid time, it is not correct to pronounce V as you do in English since that sound is not native to our language, there is no way to differentiate those two letters but by rote learning the correct spelling of words, and people who differentiate those sounds are usually influenced by a foreign language that has the two sounds, like Enlgish, French or Portuguese.

Eventhough history shows that that change happened so long ago, I myself can tell you that I learn the perfect pronunciation of V and B when I was in elementary school. I was not influenced by English. That happened 26 years before I came to the U.S. - farallon7, May 23, 2012

Answer 4

It is sad for me to say this, but most Spanish speaking countries became used to pronounced "V" like a "B". This is incorrect pronunciation but has been widely accepted. I try my best to always pronounce "V" with my lower lip and my upper teeth and "B" with both lips.

• The name of "V" is "uve", "V" labio dental. (Wrongly named b pequeña, or b chica)
• The name of "B" is "B" Bilabial (Wrongly named B grande)
• Today, even Spain has accepted the "b" sound for "v" because of the amount of people that stopped using the "correct" pronunciation.
• Baya = A kind of fruit
• Vaya = Go

Answer 5

I pronounce B as B and V as V in both English and Spanish. It's a lot easier for an English speaker to distinguish the pronunciation of these two letters than it is for a Spanish speaker, but then again, English speakers struggle with their double r's. It just takes patience and practice to perfect pronunciation in both languages.

Answer 6

The pronunciation of course differs from area to area, as you no doubt are aware, but in some places a "V" sound is the norm for both "b" and "v", in other places they use a "b" sound for both, and in some places they pronounce them much as we do in English.

However, one of the pronunciations I have most commonly heard is a cross, as sisonte, where you almost close your mouth as if to make a "v", but then you leave just a small space between your lips and breathe out as you would when saying a "v". It sounds a little like a cross between "b", "v", and "w". I hope this helped.