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  • Hola, I'm Jordan and this is a Spanish Quickie--fast, easy Spanish lessons from somebody who speaks

  • your language.

  • Today, were going back to pronunciation. If youre having any problems with pronunciation,

  • make sure you check out the first video I did called Spanish Pronunciation.

  • In this real quick video, were going to focus in on the special sounds that are specific

  • to Spain or España!

  • If youve ever been to Spain or spoken to somebody from Spain, youve probably noticed

  • right away, they speak with a lisp. No seriously, the correct way to speak Spanish in Spain

  • is basically with a lisp.

  • In Spain, lots of letters make the THHHH sound like with a th.

  • First, there’s c. In Spanish, c can make a kuh sound like in rico. But it can also

  • make a c sound like in vecino. But in Spain, in that second case, in vecino, the c makes

  • a th sound...so it would be vecino.

  • Rico means rich for the record. And vecino is neighbor.

  • Same thing goes for the Z. In Latin America, the z makes the s sound, like an s. But in

  • Spain, just like the C, it makes the th sound. So zapato in Mexico would be zapato in Spain.

  • Okay, I can accept that. But what hit me as really crazy is the d also follows this pattern.

  • It’s a little softer, but depending on the person, not really. So la mitad in Mexico

  • would be la mitad in Spain.

  • I remember when I first started learning Spanish (in Holland, living with a bunch of Spanish

  • people), I was having a hard time doing their accent. So I really had to focus, and remember

  • it every time--it hadn’t become involuntary yet.

  • One day during that period when I was struggling, I went up to my buddy Ramon and said something

  • that started with this word. So I went up to him and saidNethethito...” I messed

  • up. The s is always supposed to sound like an s, so he jokingly askedOh nethethitaths???”

  • Now, unless youre learning Spanish specifically to use in Spain, I would suggest just going

  • with the normal, Latin American sounds. It’s much more common and quite frankly, much easier.

  • Not that the Spanish way is hard, it’s just, like in Necesito, it’s harder because you

  • have to make one sound then switch to make the other. Whereas in Mexico it would be necesito--much

  • easier I think.

  • That’s it. Don’t forget, there’s also a difference between Spain and Latin America

  • when it comes to personal pronouns. If that’s news to you, then you need to watch the video

  • called Personal Pronouns.

  • For everybody else, no homework today. I just wanted you to be aware of this situation.

  • As I point out movies and music in the future, lots of them will feature these sounds from

  • Spain. Cause quite frankly, I love Spain.

  • If you liked this video, why don’t you hit the like button or the little thumbs up, and

  • if you haven’t subscribed to the Gringo Español newsletter, be sure to do that now.

  • You can’t rely on Facebook to tell you of my new videos--sign up and youll get an

  • email once or twice a week with links to any new videos and extras I posted. The link is

  • below this video or directly to gringoespanol.com.

  • Adiós. Hasta luego.

Hola, I'm Jordan and this is a Spanish Quickie--fast, easy Spanish lessons from somebody who speaks

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