English Pronunciation for Spanish Speakers

English and Spanish have interacted quite a bit over the course of their development, and they bear a number of similarities as a result.  Most dramatic is their shared vocabulary – probably more than 50% of English word forms would be recognized by an average Spanish learner.  However, there are some important differences between their sound systems and this is why we decided to deal with the problem of English pronunciation for Spanish speakers.

SEE ALSO: Silent Letters in English Spelling

Spanish and English are both Indo-European Languages, so they –while different– aren’t completely alien to each other; speakers of both languages probably feel like their languages have more in common with each other than they do with, say, Chinese or Arabic.

One thing that is common to both languages is that the verb tenses are formed in much the same way, with similar combinations of auxiliary verbs:

• I dance – Yo bailo
• I am dancing – Yo estoy bailando
• I have danced – Yo he bailado
• I had been dancing – Yo había estado bailando

Now, of course, these are not exact equivalents, but they are similar enough to enable speakers to understand the rules quite easily.

In terms of pronunciation, there are a number of challenges that Spanish speakers encounter when learning English.  Look at the following video featuring Penelope Cruz and try to determine what it is that prevents her from sounding like a native English speaker.

Long and short vowels: bunker or banker?

The contrasting vowels in the words bat, but, and bot (American) might sound the same to Spanish speakers.  To them, all of these would be in the category of the Spanish /A/ sound, and this can occasionally result in misunderstandings.

In the video above, Penelope pronounces the word banker as bunker, because she is unable to distinguish the two vowels /AE/ and /AH/.  Similarly, she says fun instead of fan.

The contrasting vowels in beat/bit, sheep/ship and leak/lick might not be obvious at first.  Again, this is because we are dealing with two vowels that sound “the same” to the Spanish speaker, as both would correspond to Spanish /i/.

In the two examples above, to distinguish these words by correct pronunciation, the Spanish speaker needs to make very small adjustments in the position of the tongue, jaw, and lips while making the sounds.  For instance, the difference between sheep and ship is that the vowel in ship is a bit more relaxed; the mouth can’t be as tense when one makes this vowel sound; the tongue and jaw must be nearer to their resting positions when this sound is made, and sometimes learners need to simply see a diagram or picture to understand this concept.

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Consonant clusters

Another major area of difficulty for Spanish speakers is consonant clusters.  Spanish speakers have a tendency to want to “reduce” certain sequences of consonants.  In fact, it is the same reason we no longer pronounce the ‘k’ in knight.

Although at one time in the history of English, a /K/ sound could be followed by /N/, we no longer feel comfortable pronouncing it.  A very similar process is at work for Spanish speakers who are learning English.  For instance, “breakfast” might become “brefast” because Spanish speakers are not used to pronouncing /K/ followed by /F/.

If you ask a Spanish person about his or her homeland, chances are they’ll add a short /eh/ sound before the very name of the country, so that “Spain” becomes “Eh-Spain.” This is because in Spanish, words do not normally start with a consonant sound /s/ alone.

Overall, Spanish and English pronunciation differences aren’t extremely difficult to overcome.  With a little bit of time, patience, and practice, most learners make themselves understood and reduce their accents.  In the case of Penelope, however, this remains one of the important features that have defined her as an actress and added an exotic note to all the characters she has played in films.

Photo credit: Carlos Lorenzo / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND