BBC SPANISH PHRASE BOOK & DICTIONARY

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A Western Romance language, Spanish is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the other romance languages to an extent, such as Portuguese, Catalan, Italian and Romanian. English and Spanish share variants of approximately one third of their words (via Latin), although the pronunciation tends to be very different. Examples: (1st pronunciation: Iberian; 2nd pronunciation: Latin America; when there is only one, it's shared) Unlike in English numbers of years are always pronounced as normal numbers (i.e. in thousands, not hundreds) thus it is "mil novecientos noventa y dos" ("a thousand nine hundred ninety and two") not "diecinuevecientos noventa y dos" ("nineteen hundred ninety and two"), as the literal translation from the English convention would suggest. Counting in hundreds in general is not used once numbers get to 1000. Most diphthongs can be approximated by blending the first vowel into the second in a single syllable. Spanish ( español), also known as Castilian ( castellano), is the second most-spoken language (around 500 million speakers) in the world. Originating in Spain and spoken by most residents there, it has slightly different pronunciations from the rest of the world's Spanish speakers, as well as a few vocabulary differences.

círculo ( THEER-koo-loh/ SEER-koo-loh) → circle circulo ( theer-KOO-loh/ seer-KOO-loh) → I circulate circuló ( theer-koo-LOH/ seer-koo-LOH) → he/she/it circulated estás ( ehs-TAHS) → you are estas ( EHS-tahs) → these origen ( oh-REE-hehn) → origin orígenes ( oh-REE-hehn-ehs) → origins ciudad ( thee-yoo-DAHD/ see-yoo-DAHD) → city ciudades ( thee-you-DAH-dehs/ see-yoo-DAH-dehs) → cities a like 'a' in "father" e like 'ay' in "pay" or 'ai' in "hail" when stressed; may take on more of a 'e' in "pet" sound when unstressed i like 'ee' in "see" o like 'o' in "stone" u like 'u' in "rule" y like 'ee' in "see". Very rarely used at the middle or ending of words. Consonants [ edit ] b like 'b' in "bed" (but no aspiration) at the beginning of a word and after 'm': boca. A soft vibration sound almost like English 'v' elsewhere. See v below. c follows the same pronunciation pattern as in English. In most cases it is pronounced like 'k' in "kid": calle, doctor. When followed by 'e' or 'i', it is like 's' in "supper" (in the Americas, the Canaries and some parts of the Philippines) or 'th' in "thin" (Spain): cine ( THEE-nay) ch like 'ch' in "touch": muchacho d like 'd' in "dog": de. In some dialects, a 'd' between two vowels is pronounced with a bit of softness, halfway between the normal 'd' and the 'th' in "the": pasado. You're usually fine just using the 'd' sound. f like 'f' in "fine": faro g when followed by 'e' or 'i', like a throaty 'h' ( general = heh-neh-RAHL), otherwise like 'g' in "go" ( gato). In the clusters "gue" and "gui", the 'u' serves only to change the sound of the consonant and is silent ( guitarra), unless it bears a diaeresis, as in "güe" and "güi" ( pedigüeño). In between vowels, it tends to be voiced and not guturral. gu, gü when followed by another vowel, like 'Gw' in Gwen ( agua, cigüeña, Camagüey) h silent: hora= OR-ah. Pronounced like a softer 'j' only in foreign words. j like a throaty 'h' in "ha": jamón; k like 'k' in "kid": kilo The letter K is only used in foreign words (kárate, kilo, Kiev, etc.). l like 'l' in "love": lápiz ll like 'y' in "year"; pronounced like a Zh as in 'Zhivago' only in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay: llamar. In at least some parts of Costa Rica and Colombia, pronounced as the English "j" or "g," as in the words "ginger" or "ninja." Also pronounced like 'ly' as in the English word "million" in northern Spain and in the Philippines. m like 'm' in "mother": mano n like 'n' in "nice", and like 'n' in "anchor": noche, ancla ñ like 'ny' in "canyon": cañón, piñata p like 'p' in "pig": perro q like 'q' in "quiche" (always with a silent "u"): queso, pronounced KAY-so r, rr Spanish has two 'r' sounds both of which are different from their counterpart in English. Some effort should be made to approximate each of them, to help listeners distinguish between perro ("dog") and pero ("but")... or perhaps to understand you at all:

single r: For American English speakers, like the dd in "ladder". This sound is created by putting the tip of the tongue up against where the front of the roof of the mouth meets the upper teeth, very similar to the action English speakers make to pronounce l or d. To some English speakers, it may sound a bit like a combined "d-r". Take care to pronounce r separately when it follows a consonant; a blended English tr will not be recognized in the Spanish word otro ("other"), which should be pronounced more like "OHT-roh". Try to avoid the common pitfall to distinguish the words by the vowel: There is no difference in the e sound of pero and perro and Spanish native speakers won't hear any if you try to make one. Easy Spanish Step-By-Step is the best book to learn Spanish if you like a structured approach to learning.

STOP PARE, ALTO, STOP ( PAH-reh, AHL-toh, stohp) NO PARKING NO APARCAR / ESTACIONAR ( noh ah-pahr-KAHR-oh/ ehs-tah-syoh-NAR) PARKING APARCAMIENTO / ESTACIONAMIENTO ( ah-pahr-kah-MYEHN-toh/ ehs-tah-syoh-nah-MYEHN-toh) NO ENTRANCE PROHIBIDO EL PASO ( pro-ee-BEE-doh el PAHS-oh) GIVE WAY/YIELD CEDA EL PASO ( SEH-dah el PAHS-oh) SLOW DESPACIO ( dehs-PAH-syoh) DIVERSION/DETOUR DESVÍO ( dehs-BYOH) ONE WAY SENTIDO ÚNICO ( sehn-TEE-doh OO-nee-koh) DEAD END SIN SALIDA ( seen sah-LEE-dah) DANGER PELIGRO ( peh-LEE-groh) CAUTION/ATTENION ¡PRECAUCIÓN!/¡ATENCIÓN! ( pray-caw-SHYON/ ah-ten-SHYON) Different learners will have different specific preferences depending on what and how they wish to learn so we have compiled a handy list of the 7 best books to learn Spanish! The Spanish institution in charge of the language is the " RAE" (often pronounced as a word rather than the individual letters) the Real Academia Española or Royal Spanish Academy of the language founded in the 18th century with the perhaps somewhat antiquated motto to "clean, make certain and give splendor" to the language. While their linguistic prescriptivism may rub some the wrong way and despite efforts to include more Latin American voices it is still a largely eurocentric institution, one can be certain that any use endorsed by the RAE will be acceptable in all corners of the Spanish speaking world if in some cases a bit stilted. Still, the reluctance of the RAE to embrace change, particularly Anglophone loanwords or efforts at gender neutral language, has made it lose a bit of its influence even though it is still seen as the "gold standard" of the language in Spain, it is much less influential in Latin America where people tend to speak (and to some extent write) without giving heed to the linguistic commandments from Madrid. The vowels in Spanish are short crisp sounds. They are not dragged out like some English vowels. Spanish makes no distinction between "long" and "short" vowels and Spanish-speakers are unlikely to even hear a difference. There is however a distinction between stressed and unstressed.

And One More Thing…

Besides having a very small number of vowel sounds and a high predictability of exactly what sound is represented by each letter, Spanish has a very clear set of rules about where a stress normally falls, and exceptions are noted with an "acute accent mark" ("´ ") over the vowel of the stressed syllable. Normally, words that end in a vowel, or in n or s, have the stress on the next-to-last syllable ( muchacho = "mu-CHA-cho"); all other words without an explicit accent mark are stressed on the final syllable ( hospital = "os-pee-TAL"). There are no secondary stresses within words. You are encouraged to try and read smoothly through each chapter, aiming to understand the overall meaning rather than translating every single word.