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The importance of being fluent in both this and English is increasing on an almost daily basis. English is widely regarded to be the most difficult language to learn, as it has more exceptions to its rules than any other, and is reported by many to be the most difficult language to learn.

Spanish, by comparison, is fairly by the books, which makes it ideal for those who want to learn on a budget as you don’t need fancy teachers or huge textbooks. Practice your pronunciation and you’ll learn Spanish free before you know it.

The Sounds Of Spanish Vowels

Spanish vowels are mostly letters are the same as in English, but the way they are pronounced is different. For instance, the letter “A” is voiced “uh” in Spanish, and “e” becomes an “ay” sound. “I” changes to a long “e” sound, and “u” is pronounced with an “ooh.” There’s only one vowel that keeps the same sound in English, and that’s “o,” as in “oh.”

By examining a short sentence in Spanish, you can see more clearly how to use this information. Our sample here will be “I want to buy new pants.”

Me gusta comer el queso.

The first two words, “Me gusto,” is pronounced “May Goose-toe,” which means “I like” in English. The word “comer” means “to eat” and you say it like “koh-mare.” “El pollo frito” means “the fried chicken” and is pronounced “Eh-l poh-yo free-toe.”

Spanish Consonants And How They Sound

Consonants take a backseat to the vowels in Spanish just as they do in English. There are a few more rules we have to observe here than there were in the vowels, and even an extra “letter” of sorts: “ch.” The letter “ch” is pronounced as you’d pronounce the same letters in the English word “champion.”

The letter “c” on its own becomes an “s” sound when it shows up before an “e” or an “i,” like in the word “cero,” which is how you say “zero” in Spanish. A “g” letter in front of an “e” or an “i” causes that “ch” sound, but anywhere else will mean that same letter will sound like a hard “g,” like in the English word “go.”

There are additional hiccups as well. The letter “z” will make a “th” sound. The letter “h” is always silent. There’s a second new letter as well, the “ll,” which is pretty common in Spanish and makes a hard “y” sound like in “you.” That sound is used in the word “llamar” and gives the word the following pronunciation: “ya-MAR.”

Then there’s the little tilde that shows up above many Spanish words, such as in “el nio.” In this case, this word makes the same sounds as the “ll” did. As a result, it is pronounced “el neen-yo.” These are the majority of Spanish sounds, so as long as you practice these often, you’ll be able to say whatever you want.

This article won’t tell you everything you need to know to speak fluent Spanish or even prepare you to visit some Spanish speaking friends, but by going over the sounds here you can give yourself a good base to help you learn Spanish free.

There are still more sounds if one cares to look, including “qu,” which becomes a hard “k” sound. “R” letters are always rolled, particularly when they crop up at the beginning of a word. The letter “y” is pronounced just like its English equivalent unless it’s used by itself or at the end of a word in which case it sounds like “eee.

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