Spanish is a highly phonetic language; words are generally written the way they sound and there are far fewer cases of letters with more than one pronunciation. Words with silent letters are far fewer, and letters which have more than one sound follow strict rules which make pronouncing the sound of a new word found in written form close to 100% predictable. As a result, the relationship between English spelling and pronunciation is extremely confusing for Spanish speakers. They tend to make assumptions that previous patterns they have seen in English spelling and pronunciation hold true with new words they encounter. While English has twenty vowels and diphthongs, most of which can vary in spelling, Spanish has far fewer, and the spelling does not vary. Unlike English, which has short and long vowels, Spanish has only short vowels. As a result, vowels are problematic for Spanish speakers, and distinguishing long-short vowels is particularly difficult.
- /v/ & /b/ (e.g. very / berry).
- /ʤ/ & /j/ (e.g. jello /yellow).
- /ɪ/ & /i:/ the long and short I sounds (e.g. fill / feel). Spanish does not have long vowels.
- /ʊ/ & /u:/ (e.g. pull / pool). Spanish does not have long vowels.
- /ʧ/ & /ʃ/ (e.g. ship / sheep). Spanish has a ch letter combination which produces a sound somewhere between the two Englsih sounds. The sh letter combination does not exist in Spanish.
- /es/ vs /s/ Spanish speakers tend to add a preceding /e/ to a limited number of words starting with /s/. Usually this occurs with English words that have a similar sounding equivalent in Spanish that starts with /es/ in Spanish such as Spain/España or spouse/esposo/a, but can also happen with other words [e.g. speak > /espɪk/. However, it is important to note that this area of a Spanish speaker’s pronunciation should not be a priority; there are few minimal pairs involving /s/ and /es/, and therefore this is a problem which seldom causes a serious breakdown in communication. However, as learners are often very self conscious about their pronunciation, it may be a priority for some learners.
- /æ/ & /ʌ/ (e.g. fan / fun) This problem happens because the letter a is always pronounced as /ʌ/ in Spanish.