Consonants Can Cause Problems for Spanish Speakers

Author: Ela Britchkow, Speech Therapist, Certified American English Pronunciation, Accent Reduction Specialist

There are key differences in how consonants are pronounced by Spanish and American speakers.

Many English consonant sounds do not exist in Spanish: they include the voiced and voiceless “th”; /v/; /z/; “sh”;”zh”; /y/; and /h/. To speak with an American accent, Spanish speakers need to clearly pronounce these English consonant sounds:

/th/ -depending on the variety of Spanish /th/ may be voiceless or voiced.

•  When voiceless, e.g., in the English word THIN, the /th/ may be replaced with a /t/ or /f/.  It is then incorrectly pronounced as tin or fin.
•  When voiced, e.g., in the English word THEY, the /th/ may be replaced with /d/ and incorrectly pronounced as dey.

​/v/- Although in Spanish the /v/ sound is pronounced the same as it is in English, the difficulty is:

• The /v/ sound is often substituted for the /b/ sound.
• So for example, the English word VERY sounds like berry.

/z/ - Is pronounced differently in Latin America and in Europe.

• A Latin American would replace /z/ with /s/, so the English word ZOO would be incorrectly pronounced as soo.         
• Someone from Spain would instead replace /z/ with the /th/ sound.

​/sh/ - may be replaced with /tch/ or /s/ sounds.

•  When /sh/ is replaced by the /tch/ sound, e.g., the English word CATCH is incorrectly pronounced as cash.         
• When /sh/ is replaced by the /s/ sound, e.g., the English word SHIP is incorrectly pronounced as sip.

​/sh/ and /ch/ sounds are often confused.       

• The word “sheep” may sound like “cheap.”
• The word “chop” may sound like “shop.”

​/zh/ - tends to  be replace with “sh” or /s/ sounds.       

• When /zh/ is replaced by the /sh/ sound, e.g., the English word PLEASURE is incorrectly pronounced as plesher.         
• When /zh/ is replaced by the /s/ sound, e.g., the English word PLEASURE is incorrectly pronounced as plesser.

/y/ -may be replaced with the /dj/ sound.

• Example, The English word YET is incorrectly pronounced as jet

​/h/ -in Spanish is always silent and not pronounced.

•  Example, the English word HAY is incorrectly pronounced as eye.
•  Spanish speakers have the tendency to pronounce it very hard when speaking English, like our "J." 

Spanish speakers usually roll or trill their /r/. To sound American, avoid this.
/P/, /t/ and /k/ are not aspirated and sound more like /b//, d/ and /g/. 

Helpful hints:
When a word begins with an /s/ cluster or blend (2-3 consonants together like sm, sn, sl  str, etc.)

• Spanish learners tend to add /e/ to the beginning:
• Examples:
  •  eSpanish for Spanish
  •  eschool for school

Spanish speakers may have difficulty with final consonant cluster

• They tend to omit one or two of the final consonants
• Examples:
  • The English word HOLD may be mispronounced as hole.
  • The English word BOX may be mispronounced as bos.

The above just begins to cover the many exciting aspects of pronouncing Spanish consonants with an American accent. This can really help you speak and be understood like an American.

For more support, please contact:
Ela Britchkow, President, Clear English Speech
215-322-6781
contact@ClearEnglishSpeech.com
©2018 Ela Britchkow