Tip of the Day: Pronouncing the Spanish letter "o"

 

The Letter “O” in English and Spanish.

 

English has at least 5 sounds for the letter “o.”  Here they are :

short o	long “o”	long u  (ooh)	short u	<?>  or sound
got	note	to	from	or
not	wrote	two	son	bore
lot	boat	into	done	forever
on	rope	unto		ore
Ronald	soap	shoe		gory
same sound in	other vowels
father		glue, brew, through	dumb, rum, sum

 

Spanish has only one sound for the letter “o” and the correct pronunciation is none of the above, but closest to the long o in boat, wrote, and soap.

 

If you listen carefully, the English long o is made up of two vowel sounds, the first one is the true Spanish o followed by a long u sound b-oh-ooh-t; Two vowel sounds back to back are called diphthongs. The English long o sound is a diphthong, made up of two simple vowel sounds pronounced together in “boat”

 

To pronounce the correct Spanish o, you take the English long o in boat and clip it short so the trailing u sound is eliminated. It takes practice but listen to these exercises.

Practice in front of a mirror and make your lips form a round letter “o”

 

If you pronounce the o like in English not, got, rot, etc…Spanish speaker hear an “a” this can make a big difference:

obeja  (sheep) vs. abeja (bee)

otras (others) vs. a trás (behind)

hombre (man) vs. ambre (hunger)