|
Rules on how to pronounce clusters of letters:
Golden rule: The pronunciation rules for clusters of letters overwrite those for the individual letters they contain, which we saw in previous pages.
These are the main clusters with their own pronunciation rule:
- CA, CO, CU, CL, CR: here the "c" sounds like the English "k". Examples: cloaca, crocante.
- CE, CI: here the "c" sounds like the English "ss" in "passage" in Latin America and the south of Spain, and like the "th" in "cloth" in Castilian Spanish. Examples: cerveza, cien.
- CH: the Spanish "ch" sounds like the English "ch" in words like "chair" or "chin". Examples: chimenea, China.
- GA, GO, "GU + consonant", GL, GR: sounds like the "g" in the English word "get". Examples: gragea, gusano.
- GE, GI: sound exactly like the Spanish "j", or a very strong English "h". Examples: Jorge, gigante.
- GUE, GUI, QUE, QUI: the vowel "u", as we learned above, has its own unique and pure sound, but not in these four clusters. Here the "u" is silent. The "u" is only pronounced when it has two dots over it, "ü", for instance in the word "pingüino". Practise saying: quién, que.
- LLA, LLE, LLI, LLO, LLU: sounds like the English "y" in "yes", although it’s stronger at the beginning of a sentence or after a comma. Examples: llave, silla.
- RRA, RRE, RRI, RRO, RRU: have a strong trill, often difficult to master. Practise saying: correo, Inglaterra.
- YA, YE, YI, YO, YU: in most areas they sound exactly like LLA, LLE, LLI, LLO, LLU above.
|
|
information pages
Spanish courses abroad