¿Is Spanish pronounced in the same way as is it written? (Ep. 21)

Is it said that Español is written in the same way as it is pronounced, so, es decir, that if you know the basic pronunciation rules of Spanish, you will be able to read perfectly any text.

However, eso NO es del todo verdad (it’s not absolutely true).

I explain you why in this podcast

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En español, you can find a lot of different regional variations that break this general rule. Everytime that you learn Spanish with a book, a teacher or a podcast like this, you are listening or learning an specific Spanish variation that normally it’s based on a standard one. The problem is that the standard one is not closed and it’s not sistematic, but opened to all the varieties and differences that you can find in the different territories where Spanish is spoken.

So, the point here is that although we have a general and standard ortographic Spanish system spread and normalized in all the countries were Spanish is spoken or taugh, and although is it true that (in general) every letter writen in Spanish has a particular sound, that doesn’t mean that every letter is always pronounced in the same way.

In this sense, there are some ortograhpic rules that will help to identify when a letter is pronounced or written in different way and, in other cases, you will have to accept that Spanish is a widespread language and there are some regions and countries that has its own pronunciation rules despite sharing the same ortopgrahic system.

En conclusión, my dear Spanish beginner, try to read so much as possible to stick this ortographic system but also, try to listen to much as possible in order to identify the main rules of Spanish pronunciation but also the little and specific differences about pronunciation.

In the next podcasts, I will show you some of the basic problematic letters that are writen always the same but that are pronounced different according to the ortographic rule or according to which Spanish variation you are using.