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Lesson 7: Spanish Pronunciation part 1
From the La Bamba Grammar Chapter
Natural Stress
Do Spanish words seem hard to pronounce? Don’t worry, there are a
few keys that can help you master Spanish pronunciation. Natural stress
helps you identify the part of the word you naturally emphasize a little
more. Look at the following English words:
ACcents are
not COMplicated
SPAnish is EAsy
In Spanish,the most common endings for words are S, N, or vowels (a,e,i,o,u)—and the natural stress is on the second to last syllable. Listen to how strange these words sound if you pronounce them wrong:
Click
to hear an mp3 of these words being sung
Even when a word has many syllables, the natural stress for words ending in S, N,or a VOWEL is still on the second to last. For words ending in a consonant besides N or S, the stress is on the last syllable. Look at the following examples:
| last syllable | 2nd to last syllable | ||
| bailar | baiLAR | marinero | mah-ree-NEH-roh |
| realidad | realiDAD | arriba | ah-RREE-bah |
| control | conTROL | necesita | neh-seh-SEE-tah |
Listen to an mp3 of these words
La Bamba Sound Puzzle
Worksheet/Activity: Pronunciation
Quiz: Pronunciation
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