The document provides instructions for pronouncing words in Spanish. It explains that vowels each have one sound and consonants vary depending on the following vowel. It describes diphthongs as strong vowels followed by weak vowels. Spanish words are generally one syllable consisting of a consonant and vowel, or consonant and dipthong. Stress typically falls on the second to last syllable, except for words ending in consonants where it is on the last. Written accents indicate stressed syllables.

1. ¡Pronunciaressencillo! Perhaps the most important component in learning a second language is being able to read that language effectively. Follow these steps and you should have no problem reading new Spanish words thereafter. Spanish is a very easy language to decode (you are lucky you already know how to read English, which is a very difficult language to decode).

2. Know what sound each letter makes.

3. El abecedario español/ The Spanish alphabet

4. The vowels only make one sound each: A, E, I, O, U (Y= I when it is a vowel) “H” doesn’t make any sound other than the vowel that it accompanies. 2. Know how to pronounce dipthongs. “a, e, o” are open (strong) and they are given the stress in pronunciation. “i, u” are closed (weak) and are less pronounced when accompanied by open vowels. dipthong = strong/weak vowel+ weak vowel since “w” is not native to Spanish if it were added to a vowel it would act just like the dipthongs that begin with “u”.

6. 3. Consonant –vowel/dipthong combinations (or strong vowels alone) =1 syllable. For the following combinations simply add the consonant sound to the vowel sound: These consonants are pronounced the same so their combinations sound the same (but in Argentina the “ll” is pronounced like the 2nd “g” in “garage”):

7. The following are three sets of combinations that are similar in the following ways: Examples of “qu” and “gu” variations that are spelled differently in order to indicate the hard /k/ and /g/ sounds:

8. Choose which form correctly separates the following words from the first column into syllables. The first one is done as an example. en/fer/me/ra enf/erm/era e/nferm/e/ra méd/i/co mé/dico mé/di/co con/ta/gio/so con/tagio/so conta/gioso ju/n/tos jun/tos ju/nt/os ans/io/samien/te an/sio/sa/men/te ansio/sa/mente a/tra/pa/rí/as atra/parí/as atrap/arías

9. 4. Finally, know on which syllable to put the stress. I. Natural stress in words, without a written accent, ending in a vowel, “n”, or “s” falls on the second-to-last syllable. Sections II and III onnext 2 pages… (audio iscontinuous)

10. II. Natural stress in words, without a written accent, ending in a consonant (not n or s) falls on the last syllable.

11. III. Otherwise, if the accent is written for you, then you automatically know where to put the stress.

12. NOTE! Interogativesalwayshave a writtenaccentmarkoverthenaturallystressedvowel so todistinguishthemfrom… …theconjunctions, prepositions, and pronounthatwouldotherwisebespelledthesame.

14. “té” is “tea”

15. “tú” isthe informal pronounmeaning “you”

16. “sólo” means “just” or “only”

17. “mí” isthe personal pronounfor “me”

18. “esta” is a femininedemonstrativeadjectivethatmeans “this”

19. “te” isthe personal pronounmeaning “you”

20. “tu” istheposessiveadjectivefor “your”

21. “solo” means “alone”