The letter V pronounced as ... a B?

Question

What is the proper pronounciation of words with the letter V in Spanish? I was taught in college, taking Spanish classes, that it was pronounced as a B. Is this in actuality true? Or does it differ by Latin country?

Thanks for your time.

Miriam [e-mail]

Answer 1

In Spanish the b and v are pronounced almost exactly the same way. Often people make spelling errors because they think a word has the other letter in it or just do not notice the mistake because the sound is unchanged.

A good example of this is: voy (from ir) is often spelled "boy"

Pronunciation is a very individual based thing. Everyone's pronunciation is different, no matter where they live. But in my personal experience, I have heard the most letter switching from chilenos. One of my favorite artists is Francisca Valenzuela, a chilena, and often you can hear her saying things like "quiero vorrar" instead of "quiero borrar."

That's just my personal opinion. I switch my bs and vs half the time just becaue I think it's amusing.

Francisca Valenzuela uhhhh-mazing. - espantapajarito, Jul 3, 2012

Answer 2

I agree with UnMica in that it varies from person to person, region to region. However, I think the most popular is using the "B"-ish sound for both "V" and "B".

• Link 1
• Link 2 : Check out the Detailed section. You'll have to scroll down.
• Link 3 : There are 2 "B" sounds in Spanish, hard and soft.
• • hard B - click on the purple oclusivas tab and you should see a small "b"; Click it and then, the play button to hear pronunciations;
• • soft B - click on the espirantes tab and you should see something like a cursive capital "B"; Again, click it and the play button;
• Link 4: From the RAE. It's in Spanish, but if you can't understand it, you can pop it in a translator.
• Link 5

Answer 3

Lol. Were you copying me or did we have some sort of psychic moment? I just asked an almost exactly the same question!

Take a look for your own enjoyment. My question