Friday, Novembrer 18

Spanish II:

1. Notes on vowel sounds, syllables, and accents.

Vowel Sounds:
A is pronounced similarly to the "a" in "father" or the "o" in "loft." Examples: madre, ambos, mapa.
I is pronounced similarly to the "ee" in "feet" and the "e" in "me," although usually a little briefer. Examples: finca, timbre, mi.
O is pronounced like the "oa" in "boat" or the "o" in "bone," although usually a little briefer. Example: teléfono, amo, foco.
Now, the two vowels whose sound can change:
E is generally pronounced like the "e" in "met" when it is at the beginning or within a word. It is pronounced similarly to the Canadian "eh," kind of a shortened version of the "é" in the English "café," when it is at the end of the word. Sometimes it can be somewhere between those two sounds. It's not quite the sound of the English letter "A," which if pronounced slowly often has an "ee" sound at the end, but closer to the "e" of "met." Keep in mind that even when it's at the end of the word, in a sentence it may sound more like the "e" of met. For example, in a phrase such as de vez en cuando, each e has approximately the same sound. Examples: café, compadre, embarcar, enero. See also the lesson on pronouncing the e.
U is generally pronounced like the "oo" in "boot" or the "u" in "tune." Do not pronounced it like the "u" in "uniform." Examples: universo, reunión, unidos. In the combinations gui and gue, as well as after q, the u is silent. Examples: guía, guerra, quizás. If the u should be pronounced between a g and i or e, an umlaut (also called a dieresis) is placed over it. Examples: vergüenza, lingüista. This letter is covered in more detail in the lesson on pronouncing the u.

Syllables:
Actually, there is a lot that goes into syllables and in Spanish III/IV we will work with strong vowels and weak vowels. Right now, we are going to create a rule that will help us read Spanish better.

1. Each syllable will have only one vowel (this isn't the real rule) unless it is a dipthong (we'll call this two vowels that make one sound). When you read long words, break it into syllables and then focus on vowel sounds. Reading becomes easy.

Written accent marks (tildes):

We will create a rule I call "the 90% rule" I call it this because if you use it, you will be right 90% of the time. (we'll learn the other 10% later).

1. Now that we break words into syllables, we can write accents when needed. Focus on the second to the last syllable and if the stress of the word happens on that syllable then we don't need to write the accent. If the stress is on any other syllable then we have to write the accent above the vowel in that syllable.

This rule doesn't work for words ending in (ar, er, ir, ol, al, or, ad)

If you were gone, take notes by hand on the three topics above, we will get practice with this on Monday.



Spanish III/IV:

1. Finished poem presentations.

If you were gone you need to do something Spanish related, like livemocha.