English for Spanish Speakers
English for Spanish Speakers
Pronunciation Practice: /a:r/ ("car")
Here is a list of difficult English pronunciation areas for Spanish speakers.
Vowel Problems
- ship vs sheep (/ɪ/ vs /iː/)
- full vs fool (/ʊ/ vs /uː/)
- cat vs cut (/æ/ vs /ʌ/)
- bed vs bad (/e/ vs /æ/)
- hat vs heart (/æ/ vs /ɑː/)
- not vs nut (/ɒ/ vs /ʌ/)
- work / world / word (/ɜː/)
- schwa /ə/ in unstressed syllables
- reduced vowels in connected speech
- long vs short vowel contrast
Consonant Problems
- b vs v (very common confusion)
- j (/dʒ/) vs y (/j/)
- g vs h (silent h issues)
- English h sound (house, help)
- final consonants (stop → sto)
- consonant clusters (texts, asked, months)
- s vs z (rice vs rise)
- sh vs ch (ship vs chip)
- t vs d at the end of words
- p / t / k aspiration (pin, top, cat)
TH Sound Problems
- /θ/ think, three, thank
- /ð/ this, that, those
- t instead of th (think → tink)
- d instead of th (this → dis)
- s instead of th (think → sink)
Word Stress Problems
- photograph vs photographer
- present (noun) vs present (verb)
- record (noun) vs record (verb)
- comfortable stress placement
- interesting stress placement
- vegetables pronunciation
- chocolate pronunciation
Syllable Reduction Problems
- family → famly
- every → evry
- camera → camra
- different → difrent
- restaurant → restrant
Ending Problems
- -ed endings (worked / played / wanted)
- plural -s vs -z (cats / dogs)
- -es endings (washes / changes)
- -tion endings (station, education)
- -age endings (village, message)
R and L Problems
- English r (red, right, road)
- r at the end (car, better, teacher)
- l vs r confusion (light / right)
- dark L (full, milk, people)
Silent Letters
- know / knife / knee
- walk / talk / half
- listen / castle / whistle
- doubt / subtle / debt
- island / answer
Connected Speech Problems
- linking sounds (go on, far away)
- intrusive r (idea of, law and)
- weak forms (to, for, of, a)
- contractions (I’ve, I’d, we’re)
- reduced "and" → /ən/
Intonation Problems
- yes/no question rising tone
- WH-question falling tone
- contrast stress (I said THREE, not two)
- sentence stress vs Spanish syllable timing
- English rhythm (stress-timed language)