The short version
- Most of an English accent in Spanish comes from a few sounds, and vowels are the biggest one.
- Keep every vowel short and full, even in unstressed syllables. Don't let them slide into "uh".
- Say p, t and k without the puff of air English puts on them, and soften b, d and g between vowels.
Say "Barcelona" the way you would in English and you'll probably say something like "Bar-suh-LOH-nuh". A Spanish speaker says "Bar-the-LO-na", with four clear vowels and no "uh" anywhere. These Spanish pronunciation tips are about exactly that kind of difference: the small, predictable sounds that English speakers carry over without noticing.
You don't need a perfect accent. Plenty of people speak excellent Spanish with a clear English accent. The goal is to be understood easily, so people don't have to work to follow you and don't switch to English.
Your mouth has spent your whole life making English sounds. When it meets a Spanish word, it grabs the nearest English sound it knows. Usually that's close enough to be understood. Sometimes it changes the word completely, like pero (but) and perro (dog).
The fix is the same for every sound: notice the difference, then say it out loud enough times that your mouth does it without you thinking. The list is short, and fixing the sounds below takes care of most of the problem.
1. Vowels: short, pure and never "uh"
This is the big one. Spanish has five vowel sounds, and they stay the same wherever they are in a word. English does two things that Spanish doesn't.
First, English slides its vowels. Say "no" in English and your mouth moves from "o" to "oo" at the end. In Spanish, no stays on one clean "o" from start to finish. The same goes for e: de and que shouldn't end in an "ee" sound.
Second, English squashes unstressed vowels into "uh". That's why "chocolate" comes out as "chok-luht". In Spanish every vowel gets its full sound: cho-co-la-te, four syllables, four clear vowels.
| Vowel | Sounds like | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a | "a" in "father", but shorter | casa |
| e | "e" in "bed" | mesa |
| i | "ee" in "see", but shorter | vino |
| o | "o" in "hot", with rounded lips | todo |
| u | "oo" in "food", but shorter | luna |
There's a whole post on this in Spanish vowels: the quickest pronunciation win, because it's the fix that makes the biggest difference for the least effort.
2. P, t and k: no puff of air
In English, "p", "t" and "k" at the start of a word come with a small puff of air. In Spanish they don't. It's a small thing, but it's one of the clearest signs of an English accent.
Hold a tissue or a strip of paper a few centimetres in front of your mouth. Say "paper" in English and watch it move. Now say papá, tomate and casa and try to keep the tissue still. It takes a few goes. Once you can do it, practise a few words a day until the no-puff version feels normal.
The Spanish t is also made further forward. Put the tip of your tongue against the back of your top teeth, not on the ridge behind them where English puts it.
3. R and rr: tap and roll
Spanish has two r sounds, and neither is the English one.
- A single r in the middle of a word is a quick tap, very like the "tt" in the American way of saying "butter". Pero, caro, hora.
- A double rr, or an r at the start of a word, is a roll: perro, carro, rojo.
Mixing them up can change the word, so the tap is worth getting right even if you can't roll yet. If the roll is what's stopping you, there are step-by-step exercises in how to roll your R in Spanish.
4. B, d and g between vowels: go soft
At the start of a phrase, Spanish b, d and g sound much like English. Between vowels, they go soft. Your lips or tongue come close together but don't fully touch.
- D between vowels sounds a lot like the "th" in "this": cansado, todo, nada.
- B and v sound exactly the same in Spanish. Between vowels, the lips don't quite close: la vaca, sábado, uva.
- G between vowels is a soft, breathy version: agua, lago.
In relaxed speech in much of Spain, the d in words ending in -ado gets so soft it almost disappears. You'll hear cansao for cansado and he terminao for he terminado. You don't need to copy it, but it helps to know it's there when you're listening.
5. J and z: the two Spain sounds
These two are where Spain sounds different from most of Latin America, so they're worth learning properly if you live here.
The j. J, and g before e or i, is a throaty sound made at the back of the mouth, like the "ch" in Scottish "loch". In Spain it's quite strong. Jamón, ajo, gente, Jorge. An English "h" is the usual mistake, and it sounds too weak.
The z. In most of Spain, z, and c before e or i, is said like the "th" in "think". Gracias is "gra-thias", cerveza is "ther-ve-tha". Parts of Andalusia and the Canary Islands use an "s" sound instead, as does Latin America. Both are correct. Pick the one used where you live.
| Word one | Word two | |
|---|---|---|
| r or rr | pero (but) | perro (dog) |
| r or rr | caro (expensive) | carro (cart) |
| Stress | papa (potato) | papá (dad) |
| Stress | esta (this) | está (is) |
| s or z (most of Spain) | casa (house) | caza (hunting) |
6. The small ones: h, ll and stress
A few more that are easy to fix once you know them:
- H is silent. Always. Hola is "ola", hotel is "otel", ahora is "a-o-ra".
- Ll and y sound the same for most people in Spain, a bit like the "y" in "yes": calle, yo, llamo.
- Stress follows rules. A written accent shows you where the stress goes: médico, café, árbol. Without one, words ending in a vowel, n or s are stressed on the second-to-last syllable (casa, hablan), and most others on the last (hablar, ciudad).
English speakers often put the stress where the English version of the word has it. Animal is "a-ni-MAL", not "AN-i-mal". Hospital is "os-pi-TAL". Chocolate is "cho-co-LA-te". If people look confused by a word you're sure you said correctly, check the stress first.
How to practise these
Don't try to fix everything at once. Pick one sound a week and focus on it while you do your normal speaking practice.
A few ways to do that:
- Slow down one sentence. Take a sentence you use a lot, like Me gustaría un café con leche, and say it slowly, getting every vowel clean. Then say it at normal speed.
- Record and compare. Record yourself saying a short phrase, then play a native speaker saying the same thing. The differences are much easier to hear on a recording than while you're talking.
- Use your phone's dictation. If it types what you meant, the sound came out clearly. It's one of the methods in how to practise speaking Spanish on your own.
Recap
- A few sounds make up most of an English accent in Spanish.
- Keep every vowel short and full, and never let it turn into "uh".
- Say p, t and k without a puff of air.
- Tap a single r, roll a double rr, and soften b, d and g between vowels.
- In most of Spain, z and ce/ci sound like "th", and j is strong and throaty.
Pronunciation improves fastest when you're saying real sentences out loud every day. That's how 100 Spanish Conversations works, and you can post a recording in the community on Skool if you want someone to listen to how a sound is coming out.
Leeroy studied Spanish for years before moving to Spain and finding he couldn't hold a conversation. He built Basically Spanish around the method that fixed it. Questions? leeroy@basicallyspanish.com