STRUCTURE OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE I

In order to master a new language we need to understand the structure of that language; when I was a child my teachers never taught me that for learning a new language sometimes you have to forget yours, note that I never said you have to forget all grammar concepts.

Although spanish and english have a lot of common vocabulary their structures are somewhat different and that is why I said sometimes you need to forget your language.

Español

Voice 1: Este miércoles a las diez de la noche en "La Función De La Palabra".

Voice 2: Me parecía singular que la señora Granda haya usado como título de su vals más famoso una expresión que nunca fue popular, (e) Flor De La Canela es una locución (e) figurada (y fa) y familiar que se usa para denotar (lo ex) lo excelente lo exquisito.

Voice 1: "La Función De La Palabra" este miércoles a las diez de la noche por "TV Perú" "mucho mas que ver".

Translation Literal

Voice 1: This wednesday to the ten of the night in "La Función De La Palabra."

Voice 2: It seemed to me singular that the Mrs. Granda has used as title of her vals most famous a expression that never was popular, Flor De La Canela is a phrase figured and familiar that is used to denote, it excellent it exquisite.

Voice 1: "La Función De La Palabra" this wednesday to the ten of the night by "TV Peru" "mucho mas que ver".

In "translation literal" paragraphs I try to translate literally into english the audio of the video, so that you can understand how is structured the spanish language and how it is used.

Español

Voice 1: Este miércoles a las diez de la noche en "La Función De La Palabra".

Voice 2: Me parecía singular que la señora Granda haya usado como título de su vals más famoso una expresión que nunca fue popular, (e) Flor De La Canela es una locución (e) figurada (y fa) y familiar que se usa para denotar (lo ex) lo excelente lo exquisito.

Voice 1: "La Función De La Palabra" este miércoles a las diez de la noche por "TV Perú" "mucho mas que ver".

English

Voice 1: This Wednesday at 10 pm in "La Función De La Palabra."

Voice 2: it seemed singular to me that Mrs. Granda used an expression that was never popular as the title of her most famous Waltz, Flor De La Canela is a figurative and familiar phrase used to denote what is excellent and exquisite.

Voice 1: "La Función De La Palabra" this wednesday at 10 pm by "TV Peru" "mucho mas que ver".

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VOCABULARY I

Vocabulario / Vocabulary

In order to learning a new language you should learn a lot of vocabulario an advantage of learning spanish for an english speaker or viceversa is that both languages have a lot of common vocabulary that are written equal or similar.

Español	English
a-be-ce-da-rio / al-fa-be-to	alphabet
le-tra	letter
pa-la-bra	word
o-ra-ción	sentence
vo-ca-bu-la-rio	vocabulary
gra-má-ti-ca	grammar
i-dio-ma	language

You should memorize these words and their meanings because from now forward we will use them instead of their english equivalents.

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TRAINING YOUR EAR 1

Now listen carefully to the video, I will give you a few words and all you need to do is memorize and identify them in the audio, however there is only one word from the list that is not in the audio of the video. Tell me what's the word in a comment.

Palabra _word

Hombre _man

Producido _produced

Tierra _land

Reanimalización _{reanimalization}

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LEARNING TO PRONOUNCE THE SPANISH ABC II

Las Consonantes / The Consonants

We will see how to pronounce las consonantes, in most cases spanish letters has only 1 sound for each one and never will be pronounce in a different way, however there is some exceptions then we will see those exceptions.

Don't worry to translate all the words of the examples because for now we are interested in pronunciation.

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Resumen / Summary

In Latam unlike Spain we tend to simplify sounds i.e.

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Letter	Sound
	Latam1	Spain
b	b	b
v	b	v
c	s	c
s	s	s
z	s	z
ll	ll, y, sh2	ll
y	y	y

¹ Latam = Latin America.

² like english T in the word action.

Note: In the above table we refer to spanish alphabet sounds.

Peru b, s, y sound.

All Spanish Letter Sounds

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Explicación / Explanation

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Letter B

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ba, be, bi, bo, bu.

e.g. ba-ño, be-so, bin-go, bo-bo, bu-da.

bla, ble, bli, blo, blu.

e.g. blan-co, adora-ble, blin-dar, blo-que, blu-sa.

bra, bre, bri, bro, bru.

e.g. bra-zo, ham-bre, brin-car, bron-ce, bru-ja.

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Letter C (pay close attention to this consonant because it has 2 sounds)

It Sounds like english K however if the letter C is follow by E or I it sounds like letter S in the word section.

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ca, ce, ci, co, cu.

e.g. ca-sa, Ce-ci-lia, cin-co, com-bo, Cu-ba.

cla, cle, cli, clo, clu.

e.g. cla-ve, cle-men-te, clien-te, clo-nar, in-cluir.

cra, cre, cri, cro, cru.

e.g. crá-ter, cré-di-to, cri-sis, cró-ni-ca, cruel.

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Letter CH

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cha, che, chi, cho, chu.

e.g. cha-cra, chef, chi-co, cho-co-la-te, chue-co.

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Letter D

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da, de, di, do, du.

e.g. da-do, de-do, dis-tin-to, Do-ra, dul-ce.

dra, dre, dri, dro, dru.

e.g. dra-ma, dre-nar, vi-drio, cua-dro, es-drú-ju-la.

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Letter F

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fa, fe, fi, fo, fu.

e.g. fa-vor, fe-liz, fies-ta, fo-fo, fue-go.

fla, fle, fli, flo, flu.

e.g. flá-ci-do, fle-cha, a-flic-ción, flo-tar, flui-do.

fra, fre, fri, fro, fru.

e.g. fra-ga-ta, fres-no, frí-gi-do, fro-tar, fru-ta.

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Letter G (pay close attention to this consonant because it has 2 sounds)

The letter G Sounds like english G in the word gate however if the letter G is follow by E or I it sounds like letter H in the word hit or similar.

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ga, gue, gui, go, gu.

e.g. ga-ma, gue-rre-ro, gui-ta-rra, gol-fo, gus-tar.

gla, gle, gli, glo, glu.

e.g. glán-du-la, in-glés, an-gli-ca-no, glo-bo, glú-teo.

gra, gre, gri, gro, gru.

e.g. gra-cias, Gre-cia, gri-tar, gro-sor, gru-mo.

ge, gi.

e.g. ges-to, gi-rar.

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Letter H (this letter doesn't have sound)

If C and H are together it'll be a digraph called CH and this is other letter diferent from C or H.

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ha, he, hi, ho, hu

e.g. ham-bre, he-la-do, hie-lo, al-cohol, hue-so

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Letter J

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ja, je, ji, jo, ju.

e.g. ja-rra, je-fe, ji-ra-fa, jo-ven, jue-go.

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Letter K

Like letter C sound (in the syllables ca, co, cu); this word is used for foreign words that spanish language adopts.

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ka, ke, ki, ko, ku.

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Letter L

Like letter C sound (in the syllables ca, co, cu); this word is used for foreign words that spanish language adopts.

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la, le, li, lo, lu.

e.g. Lau-ra, Le-er, lim-pie-za, lo-a-ble, lu-pa

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Letter LL

LL is different from L

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lla, lle, lli, llo, llu.

e.g. llan-to, lle-var, ga-lli-na, llo-viz-na, llu-via

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Letter M

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ma, me, mi, mo, mu.

e.g. ma-má, me-lo-día, mi-mar, mol-de, mú-si-ca

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Letter N

Show / Hide ▼▲

na, ne, ni, no, nu.

e.g. na-na, ne-na, ni-ña, no-na, nu-be

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Letter Ñ

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ña, ñe, ñi, ño, ñu.

e.g. ñan-dú, e-ñe, te-ñir, ni-ño, ñu

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Letter P

Show / Hide ▼▲

pa, pe, pi, po, pu.

e.g. pa-ñue-lo, pe-ra, pi-no-cho, po-ro, pul-po.

pla, ple, pli, plo, plu.

e.g. pla-za, ple-ni-tud, su-pli-cio, plo-mo, plu-ma.

pra, pre, pri, pro, pru.

e.g. prác-ti-co, pre-mio, prin-ce-sa, pro-me-sa, pru-den-cia.

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Letter Q

Only exist "que" and "qui" syllables.

Show / Hide ▼▲

que, qui

e.g. pe-que-ño, quie-ro.

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Letter R (pay close attention to this consonant because it has 2 sounds)

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If the letter R is between 2 vowels its sound will be soft

e.g. pa-ra, cle-ro, ti-ro, mo-ro, mu-ro.

Otherwise (the letter R is in the beginning of the word or between 1 vowel and 1 consonant or at the end of the word) its sound will be hard

e.g. ra-ta, re-to, car-ta, cer-ro, a-mar, o-diar

Note: When 2 R letters are together like in the word cerro their sound will be hard

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Letter S

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sa, se, si, so, su.

e.g. sal-sa, se-llo, si-lla, so-lo, sue-ño

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Letter T

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ta, te, ti, to, tu.

e.g. ta-bla, te-le-vi-sión, tier-no, to-do, tú-nel

tla, tle, tli, tlo, tlu.

e.g. a-tlas, a-tle-ta

tra, tre, tri, tro, tru.

e.g. tra-ba-jo, tre-cho, tris-te, trom-pe-ta, true-no

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Letter V

Show / Hide ▼▲

va, ve, vi, vo, vu.

e.g. va-so, ver, vi-sión, vo-lar, vue-lo

Note: There are not spanish words containing vla, vle, vli, vlo, vlu; vra, vre, vri, vro, vru.

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Letter W

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Letter X

Show / Hide ▼▲

xa, xe, xi, xo, xu.

e.g. exa-men, exen-to, próxi-mo, a-nexo, exu-be-eran-te

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Letter Y

Show / Hide ▼▲

ya, ye, yi, yo, yu.

e.g. ya-te, ye-so, ra-yi-tas, ra-yo, a-yu-no

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Letter Z

Show / Hide ▼▲

za, ze, zi, zo, zu.

e.g. za-pa-to, ze-ta, en-zi-mas, co-ra-zón, a-zul

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LEARNING TO PRONOUNCE THE SPANISH ABC I

The Vowels / Las Vocales

Las vocales in spanish are a e i o u and there is only 1 sound for each vowel.

_(bat)Murciélago word contains las 5 vocales

Some vocales may appear combined into words, not all vocales combinations are shown in below table and maybe not all vocales combinations in below table exist; but for learning to read as spanish speaker it's ok.

aa	ae	ai	ao	au
ea	ee	ei	eo	eu
ia	ie	ii	io	iu
oa	oe	oi	oo	ou
ua	ue	ui	uo	uu

e.g.

• Aé-reo
• A-teo
• Fu-rio-so
• Koa-la
• Hue-so

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THE SPANISH ALPHABET

El Abecedario / The Alphabet

El abecedario or el alfabeto formaly has 27 letters; uppercase is red and lowercase is blue:

A a, B b, C c, D d, E e, F f, G g, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, Ñ ñ, O o, P p, Q q, R r, S s, T t, U u, V v, W w, X x, Y y, Z z.

And 2 digraphs: Ch ch, Ll ll.

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HI

English

Hi I am Donnie Emanuel and I'm making this blog for teaching spanish and improving my english skills; well I can say that I have and intermediate english grammar level also I have to say that I have not a great english pronunciation level; I need to learn a lot of vocabulary too.

Regarding to teaching spanish I would say that in this blog we will go from a 100% in the first spanish lessons in english to a 100% advanced spanish lessons in spanish through the time.

In the end I hope I can achieve my goals so I would be very grateful for any questions, suggestions or corrections in each topic.

Español

Hola soy Donnie Emanuel, estoy haciendo este blog para enseñar español y mejorar mi inglés; pienso que tengo un nivel intermedio en la gramática inglesa pero no tengo un gran nivel en la pronunciación del idioma inglés; también necesito aprender más vocabulario.

Con respecto a las lecciones de español tengo que decir que las primeras se darán 100% en inglés hasta llegar a unas lecciones 100% en español.

Al final espero que pueda lograr mis objetivos así que estaría muy agradecido por sus preguntas, sugerencias y correcciones en cada tema.

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