Page:Dictionary of spoken Spanish (1945).djvu/7

Part I

Spanish-English

Grammatical Introduction

I. Sounds and Spelling

Both the sounds and the spelling of Spanish are simple, and will be described together, with the Spanish letters as a starting point.

0.1⁠Vowels are five in number:

Spelling	Description	Examples
i	like English i in machine or ee in beet	fino "fine"; mí "me"
u	like English oo in boot	puro "pure"; tú "you"

These two vowels may occur unstressed before or after a stressed vowel, in which case they are pronounced like English y and w respectively: bien "well"; bueno "good"; automóvil "automobile".

e	like the e of English they, if no consonant follows in the same syllable; like e in bed, if a consonant follows in the same syllable	pero "but"; puesto "put"
o	like the o of English know, if no consonant follows in the same syllable; like au in taut, if a consonant follows in the same syllable	todo "all"; corte "court"
a	l ike the a of English father	mano "hand"; parte "part"

0.2⁠Consonants are:

p	like English p	Pepe "Joe"
t	like English t, but with tongue against upper teeth instead of gum ridge	tanto "so much"
qu (before e, i), c (elsewhere)	like English k or "hard c"	que "that"; carro "cart"

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