Problematic Spanish sounds and letters (II): Why «G» does not get well with «E/I» (ep. 23)

Bienvenido o bienvenida, my dear beginner! We continue with more problematic Spanish sounds and letters.

In this third podcast about orthography and pronunciation problematic letters, we are going to see how vowels «E» and «I» can make pronunciation troubles when combines with some consonants.

In the next podcasts I will tell you which consonants are problematic when they meet with E and I vowels. But, in this one, we are going to listen to the first of this consonants: «G».

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• «G» letter will sound in the same way as Goal or Grandfather everytime that you will find it with A, O, U. For example: GATO (cat), PreGUNTA (question) or GOL (goal).
• However, G will sound different when it will meet with this troublemaker vowels E and I: Gitano (gipsy), General (general).

Can you appreciate the sound difference? GATO-GITANO. Is the same letter but it sounds different according which vowel meets: G+ E or I will sound as aspiration sound /X/ but with A, O, U it will sound as English.

However, to make a bit more difficult this podcast, now you will wonder if it’s a posible to pronunce the letter G + I and E in the same way as in English. And yes, but you will have to add a «U» betwen the G and E/I. For example, escucha con atención:

«GUITARRA vs. GIRAR».

The difference is that GUITARRA is written with GUI and GIRAR without «u»: the word sounds completely different.

My dear Spanish beginner, to finish this podcast I recommend you to take a short text in Spanish and I ask you to underline every word that contains the letter «G». Then, try to separate the words acording the vowel (E/I or A/O/U) and try to pronounce them. Remember that if you find a «U» between E and I it will sound as English.