060 tips to better your pronunciation and help your students

Prof. Francisco Zabala 2011

Tips to Better your Pronunciation and Help
your Students
Adapted from Prof. Laura Aza

Code

Correction

1.

.U.

Just drop your jaw. Your lips should be in a neutral position. This sound
may be quite back, and it may be similar to your Spanish <a> in ‘encaje’

2.

.z.

Remember this is called the ‘smiling <a>’. It is different from Spanish. You
should spread your lips more. Smile! This is a front sound, so this should
be more similar to an /e/ than to an .P.-

3.

.@9.


This is a long sound and most importantly back sound. This is what you say

when you go to the doctor’s to have your throat examined:
‘aaaaaahhhhhhhh’.

4.

Aspiration

You need to produce more aspiration (i.e. an extra puff of air). Remember
to use the techniques we practiced at the workshop, i.e., holding a piece
of paper and moving it with your breath, etc.
- /p/ Think that you’re blowing a candle. This friction that occurs between
the lips is necessary after a strong /p/.
- /t/ Think that you have a little /s/ after the /t/. Think of the word “pizza”
in Spanish… well, that is a kind of aspirated /ts/.
- /k/ Think that you have a ‘jota’ sound after it. Say ‘jamón’. Now insert a
/k/ before it (thus, ‘kjamón’). If you managed to do so, any English speaker
would understand the order ‘Come on!’ So, a good aspirated /k/ must
always contain a kind of Spanish ‘jota’ sound.
TIP: Your aspiration will be more audible if you produce a very tiny
narrowing in your mouth. If you open a lot, you will waste all your air and
nothing will be heard!

5.

.a.

This sound is plosive, as opposed to the Spanish /b/, which is usually
approximant. Think in terms of a /p/ sound and add voice. We have a
plosive /b/ in Spanish in the words ‘ambo, combo, Rambo’. Tip: Close your
lips completely with your fingers as if they were pegs and release the

closure suddenly. A mirror can help you visualize these movements: if
your lips don’t touch, that’s the Spanish .A.


Prof. Francisco Zabala 2011
6.

Choppy

It sounds too chunky. Make sure you pause at the right time and not in
between words which should go together. You’ve got to be careful with
your sounds, but you should never forget that MEANING is essential!

7.

.c.

This sound is plosive, as opposed to the Spanish /d/, which is usually
approximant. Therefore, you should make sure there is a complete closure
between the tip of your tongue and the alveolar ridge. Tip: Imitate /t/ and
then add voice. Now… does it really sound English? Test it! Say ‘Cuando
ando con Armando’… these are dental plosives in Spanish. Now, put on an
English accent and say that phrase – remember that in Spanish a larger
area of the tongue touches the palate, in English it is just the tip that
touches a more internal part of the palate: the alveolar ridge.

8.

.C.

There are two important factors to bear in mind when producing this
sound. First, place your tongue between your teeth so that you can see it
with a mirror. At the same time, it should be produced with an incredible
amount of friction. That is, you should feel tickles in your tongue when the
air passes through it. Exaggerate the <d>, as if you were really angry, in
“¡¡¡Qué TARADDDO!!!”

9.

.cY.

You should avoid producing this sound like a .R.- It is much stronger.
Remember it is a mixture between a fricative and a plosive. You should try
producing a .sR. and then add voice. This sound is found in the speech of
people from Paraguay, Corrientes and Misiones in words such as ‘ayer, a
Jessica, inyecto’.

10. Dark Z4\

This takes ‘dark L’. You should curl back your tongue. Produce an /o/.
Now, while you are saying an /o/, touch the alveolar ridge with the tip of
your tongue. Yes! That’s a dark /l/: you articulate a /l/ that resonates like
an /o/.

11. Dropping of final You are dropping consonants. Think that this final consonant is part of the
next word. E.g.: ‘End it’ should sound like .!dm
cHs.:
Daddy did it, Ann
Consonants
should be .cz

ch
!cH
cH
szm.
12. Dropping of
sounds in
Consonant
Clusters

A cluster is a combination on consonants. This is very difficult to
pronounce for Spanish speakers, especially when it happens in final
position or together with a word beginning with another cluster.
Examples: /nes klåÄs/ instead of /nekst klåÄs/ and /aˆ hæv tuÄ
test tWmÅrW¨/ instead of /aˆ hæv tuÄ tests tWmÅrW¨/
Now you’re dropping one of these consonants so that it’s easier to
pronounce the phrase. Avoid doing this, as this may lead to grammar
mistakes or meaning.


Prof. Francisco Zabala 2011
13. .d.

This vowel is much opener than in Spanish. You should spread your lips
and open you mouth a lot more. It occurs in Spanish before <rr>. Compare
the degrees of opening in your Spanish pero and perro – the latter is
really open, identical to the English one.

14. .29.

This is like a schwa but longer. Your lips must be in a neutral position. It is

the first sound that comes out when you open your mouth. Don’t round
your lips, don’t open your mouth much, don’t produce tension… just do
NOTHING! It’s a very ‘lazy’ sound!

15. .f.

This sound is plosive, as opposed to the Spanish g, which is usually
approximant. Therefore, you should make sure there is a complete closure
between the back of your tongue and the velum. You’ve got to think of it
as a kind of soft /k/. We have it in Spanish in the words ‘tango, rango,
mango, pongo, sunga.’

16. .g.

When you produce this sound, you should avoid producing a scraping
sound that is typical of the Spanish ‘jota’. The place of articulation for /h/
is glottal. That means that the tongue does not touch any articulator. The
air escapes freely once it passes the glottis. Tip: Use a mirror and produce
words with /h/. If you are pronouncing them correctly, the mirror should
mist all over. In Spanish we produce a phoneme that resembles the sound
produced when we are going to spit, in English it resembles the sound we
use to clean a mirror or glasses.

17. .H.

This vowel should not sound like the Spanish /i/, but rather closer to an
/e/, otherwise, it is confused with the English /i:/. It occurs in Spanish
before <rr>. E.g. ‘birra’-
You can also hear it in Spanish when we say ‘Se,
se’ instead of ‘sí’.

18. .H?+
T?.

We tend to transfer our .h`.
and .t`.
into English. So, if you hear that your
diphthongs in ‘hear’ and ‘tour’ rhyme with the Spanish ‘tía’ and ‘púa’ it is
because you are not saying .H?+
T?. but .h9?+
t9?.. Pay particular attention
to the starting point in each one.

19. .h9.

/i…/ You need to produce more tension in your tongue (not your throat!).
Make sure your lips are spread out and your tongue is so high that is
almost touching the palate. You can find this sound in Spanish in the
phrase ‘mi tía maria comía todo el día.’

20. Linking /r/

Go over the concept of linking r. You are not using it here.

21. Mispronuciation

This word is mispronounced. Look it up in the pronunciation dictionary


Prof. Francisco Zabala 2011

and pronounce it accordingly.
22. .Mf.

Final /g/ is not pronounced in English. Make sure it is a very nasal sound. If
you keep the velum lowered so that the airflow escapes through the nose,
you will not produce an oral /g/. Touch the tip of your tongue: it will
vibrate a lot when you produce nasals!

23. .N9.

This is a long sound and it requires a lot of tension. Your lips should be
closely rounded. Start by producing /u:/. Keep the closely rounded lip
position, but open your jaw as if to produce an /o/. If you keep these two
features, you produce a good, rounded .N9..

24. .P.

Your .P.is not rounded enough. In American English, many words take
.@9.
when .P.
is the norm in British English. What’s the difference? They
are practically the same sound! Just make sure that you round your lips
for .P..

25. Onglide

Vowel Onglide. Avoid adding a non-existent schwa before a word
beginning with an s-cluster. Example: stupid, smoke, snake, etc. Tip: Count
the number of syllables. If you see that you say an extra syllable it means
you are producing an onglide (.!roh9j. one syllable, Vs.

.d!roh9j.
two
syllables(-
If your /s/ is very strong and long, you will not produce an
onglide.

26. Past tense

You need to over the past tense rule.

27. Plurals

You need to go over the plurals rule.

28. Present simple
3rd person

You need to go over the third person singular rule for the present simple.

29. Rhoticity

‘r-colouring’. Remember that British English is a non-rhotic accent. This
means that /r/ before silence or consonants is not pronounced. Avoid
curling your tongue back. Make sure that the tip of your tongue is down,
behind the lower teeth.

30. Rhythm

Rhythm. Remember that English rhythm is stress-timed, that is, many
syllables are shortened. You should focus on the strong syllables and on

making them stand out. You should rush through the unimportant ones.

31. .r.

/s/ In Spanish we “mask” all our <s> when they come before a
consonant, we just produce them as breath, a kind of [h] sound. This is not
the case in English. So, in Spanish we say Este Z!dgsd\, Misterio
Zlh!gsdqin\, Asco Z!`gjn\, but in English it must always be East .h9rs.,


Prof. Francisco Zabala 2011
Mystery .!lHrs?qh., Ask .@9rj., with a full-blown /s/. Compare the Spanish
pronunciation of /s/ that Mexicans or Bolivians have: /s/ is ALWAYS
present in their speech, as in English.
32. .T.

This vowel should not sound like the Spanish /u/, but rather closer to a
Spanish /o/, otherwise, it is confused with long .t9.- We have it in Spanish
before /rr/: Burro Z!aTqqn\, Curro Z!jTqqn\, Susurro Zrt!rTqqn\- TIP: Don’t
round your lips much!

33. .u.

/v/ You need to bite the inside of your lower lip, but not so strong, as you
need to leave an opening through which the air flows, thus producing
friction. Try producing /f/ and then add voice. Tip: Make sure that you bit
the very internal part of your lower lip, not the visible exterior. Try to feel

34. .v.

/w/ This sound plus an .T. sound can be difficult. Tip: /w/ is more closely
rounded than .T., so you’ve got to make sure that you are opening your
mouth, no closing it when you pronounce this cluster. Avoid adding a /g/
before /w/. So ‘wood’ and ‘good’ should be pronounced differently. Try
saying ‘wa, we, wi, wo, wuuuuu.’ You should feel air coming out of your
mouth.

35. Weak Forms

Remember function words are usually weak

36. Weak .sR+
cY.

.sR+
cY.- In Spanish we are nowadays changing .sR.… women, especially,
reduce the second element, making it really weak and short. For example
Mechas Z!ldsR`r\, chocolate ZsRnjn!k`sd\, chuchi Z!sRtsRh\. So, in order to
have a good .sR. and .cY.+ in English we should think of the second
element as a really long and strong one. Imagine it is a kind of:
ZsRRRR\
nq
ZsR9\
..
ZcYYYY\
nq
ZcY9\-

37. Weaken vowels!

Syllable weakening. Try eliminating schwa whenever you can, because
otherwise, it sounds very Spanish-like. Examples: Children, Curtain, didn’t,
kitchen.
Sometimes, you may be tempted to produce quite a strong vowel instead
of /?/: avoid doing so! ‘August’ and ‘album’ are .!N9fTrs+
!zkaTl. and not
.!N9f?rs+
!zka?l..

38. Word Stress

Wrong stress. Check in what syllable this word bears the stress

39. .y.

This word takes / z /. Remember it sounds like a mosquito or a bee. Place
your fingers on your Adam´s apple and feel how it vibrates. Hold it for a
long time. Once you have achieved the production of that sound start


Prof. Francisco Zabala 2011
shortening it until you have the ‘normal length’. Say: Busy Lizzy is dizzy.
40. .S.

Your tongue should stick out between your teeth. Tip. You should try to
imitate Spanish people when saying ‘zapato’

41. .Y.

This sound is voiced. Try producing it in isolation and place your fingers on

your Adam’s apple. Now say ‘shhhhhhhh’. Then add voice and notice how
your vocal folds start vibrating. You can also try imitating a posh Spanish
.R. as when they say ‘yo’.