Read carefully this text.
THE MOST COMMON MISTAKE
By Dr. Richard Grayson, University of West Florida
Spanish-speaking peoples´ most common mistake in pronunciation
is without a doubt the pronunciation of words that begin with
"sp", for instance "speak", "special", "Spanish", etc.
They have a tendency to put an "e" in front of such words. For
instance, the word "special", they pronounce "e-special"; "speak",
"e-speak"; "Spanish", "e-Spanish", etc.
The following is an exercise to correct this. Pronounce the word
first in Spanish, the second in English incorrectly, and the third
in English correctly:
[Objeto Flash Eliminado] |
Spanish |
Incorrectly in English |
Correctly in English |
Hablo español. |
I e-speak e-Spanish. |
I speak Spanish. |
Hablas español. |
You e-speak e-Spanish. |
You speak Spanish. |
Él habla español. |
He e-speak e-Spanish. |
He speaks Spanish.
|
Now pronounce the following:
I speak special Spanish; you speak special Spanish; he speaks
special Spanish.
If you listen to my pronunciation and copy it, you will have elimated
the most common error made by Spanish-speaking peoples. |
Spanish-speaking |
de habla española (no "Spanish spoken") |
etc. |
etc. (pronounced etcetera, not "E-T-C") |
for instance |
por ejemplo |
following |
siguiente |
mistake |
error |
the same way |
el mismo modo |