No phonetic pronunciation any more?
I always appreciated your phonetic interpretations of the Spanish words. I seem to learn better when I see rather than when I just hear. I know you still give them on your Word of the Day, BUT not when I'm looking up a specific word. Why did you stop?
10 Answers
No problems...you have soothed my wounded pride! I promise to make nice from now on out! LOL
It wasn't a snarly comment...just thought that you lost your password....
That's all. That's why I wrote that "I know"
People, we are all people.
Hmmm strange questions from a person that just today registered and have "always" enjoyed the forum...
I know....
In any event.
ah = a
eh = e
ee = i
awe = o (this one has to be explained in person)
oo = u
That's the key for you assuming your native language is English.
Oh thanks...there really is a necessity for a sarcasm font, isn't there? I post a Word of the Day on a business Facebook page. I have used this page for two years...thank you for caring. I have been signed up for two years...they asked me to verify again this morning, I guess because I did not find it necessary to get into the site to get information.
Yes, thank you for the lesson, I can generally figure out how to pronounce it phonetically. I like to find out for sure where the accent is and confirm mostly the 'g' sound...silly me, I just want to make sure I get it right. Sorry for the confusion. Hopefully, I'll get an answer from SpanishDict as to why they no longer show the phonetic info.
Thank you, rac1...I really appreciate it. I started going deaf after living in Mexico for 3 years. I've been here 10 years now, and, even with hearing aids, it's still a challenge to understand a foreign language especially since I didn't starting learning until I was 58. But it sure keeps my mind young...and my tongue sharp! 
No complaints, Ray76,,,I was responding to Chileno. He may have a good rep on your site, but I really didn't need a snarky comment to a serious question. I pray s/he never goes deaf.
I like to find out for sure where the accent is and confirm mostly the 'g' sound
Funny thing about Spanish is that pronunciation is much more regular than English, so once you know a few rules, understanding how to pronounce a word is much simpler (relatively speaking). For example, in Spanish there are three (3) distinct sounds made by the letter "g." These sounds are related to one another in that they are each articulated using the same vocal organs. Namely, each sound is produced by elevating the rear portion of the tongue to the soft palate (velum) thereby obstructing or partially obstructing the flow of air from the lungs.
Below are the situations where these sounds would be used and a brief description of how they are produced (Note that IPA standards are used to list each particular sound)
[g] — Used when the letter "g" appears at the beginning of a word or after a nasal consonant (ex. gato, tengo, lengua). This sound (a plosive) is produced the same way as the English /g/ (ex. get, ago). By bringing the rear portion of the tongue to meet the soft palate, the airflow is obstructed, and sound is made when the airflow burst through this stop.
[x] — Used when the letter "g" appears before an "i" or an "e." This sound (a fricative) is produced similarly to the English /h/. In this case, the rear portion of the tongue is brought in close proximity to the soft palate as with the [g] sound above, but in this case, the air way is not completely obstructed but instead is narrowed to the point that there is an audible sound produced by friction as air passes through this narrowed passageway. With this sound, the vocal chords do not vibrate.
[?] — Used in all other cases (agua, amigo, amarga) . This sound is produced similarly to the [x] sound above, but with this sound, the vocal chords do vibrate. Another way of thinking about it, is to try to make an English /g/ sound without completely closing off your air passageway.
In regards to where to place the stress on a Spanish word, again, the rules are fairly straightforward.
- If there is a written accent mark then stress falls on that syllable
- Stress falls on the penultimate (next to last) syllable when the word
- ends in a vowel
- ends with an -s
- ends with an -n
3. In all other instances, the stress falls on the final syllable (The only exception here being words of foreign origin that have retained their original stress).
For example:
- Sábado = Sa'•ba•do
- Llegó = Lle•go'
- Llego = Lle'•go
- Llegas = Lle'•gas
- Llegan = Lle'•gan
- Llegar = Lle•gar'
Okey-dokey...I'm fine...sorry I maligned you...no worries. Thank you for writing. Looking forward to finding out about the phonetic text. I wasn't sure whether (maybe I'm wrong) you think I'm a guy. Wrong...woman all the way! Good luck with your search. Karen
No...that's okay...I discovered that the Veláquez Spanish & English Dictionary I just bought has phonetic text pronunciations. Not as easy as looking up words online, but acceptable. I am hard of hearing, so it was a nice advantage to use SpanishDict for doing my Spanish Word of the Day. Thanks.
And, by the way, it wasn't the 'forum' I was talking about. It was http://www.spanishdict.com in general, and, again, thank you for caring.
