The Sounds of Spanish

Spanish and English share some similar consonant sounds. For instance, the 'c' before a, o, u (hard c) is said like a 'k' (casa = kah-sah, color = koh-lohR, culpable [guilty] = kool-pah-bleh).

On the other hand, single vowel sounds are somewhat different. Some are similar but not identical. The Spanish single 'a' is similar to the English 'a' in father. The Spanish single e is similar but less open than the English 'e' in met. The Spanish 'i' has a sound that falls between the English short and long i sounds. The Spanish 'o' is similar to the British English 'o' in lock, mop and so on. The Spanish 'u' is similar to the 'oo' sound in a cow's moo.

English speakers should always use a full single vowel sound in Spanish regardless of where the stress falls in the word. English speakers use a 'schwa' sound in many unstressed vowels and that sound is never used in Spanish for single vowels. Let's use this comparison for clarification. In Spanish metal = metal, but the pronunciation is completely different in the two languages; in Spanish metal = meh-tahl, in English = me (= open e) - tal (= schwa sound for the unstressed a).