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5.2: Tomando posesión de la fonética—un repaso y un poco más

  • Page ID
    206156
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    Several times we said that Spanish is phonetic, that we write it as it sounds. If we have good control of the vowels sounds, we can have a very good control of the Spanish pronunciation. We also studied that knowing the sound of each consonant or consonant group with each vowel is key. Here is a chart about the sounds of the vowels and the consonants that have changes.

    Sonido Inglés: vocal a vocal e vocal i vocal o vocal u
    Fonética irregulares: Consonante – vocal K ca que qui co cu
    G ga gue gui go gu
    Gw gua güe güi guo
    H ja ge, je gi, ji jo ju
    Th, S za ce ci zo zu
    S sa se si so su
    silent ha he hi ho hu

    Let’s revisit the verb conducir (to drive), an “IR” verb as it relates to the above chart. Write the conjugation of the verb in the indicative mood in the present time:

    escribir_1-3.png

    yo ___________ nosotros/as __________

    tú ___________ vosotros/as ___________

    él, ella, usted __________ ellos, ellas, ustedes ___________

    Now read aloud the conjugation that you just wrote, did you note it correctly or does something sound wrong?

    Remember:

    • the sound K with the letter C is with the vowels a, o, u
    • the sound th/s with the letter C is with the vowels i, e

    The verb conducir has th/s sound with the “I” but when we change the ending to conjugate the verb, we take off the” ir” and we use the ending “o”. Then we are using the sound K with the vowel “o”.

    Can you h ear the incorrect sound?

    • yo condu co
    • nosotros/as condu cimos
    • tú condu ces
    • vosotros/as condu cís
    • él, ella, Ud. condu ce
    • ellos, ellas, Uds. condu cen

    All the endings are the th/s, except in the first person (yo), where the “co” creates the sound K. To avoid this inconsistency, we add a Z before the last syllable co, to have the soft sound of th/s and then the K sound with the o.

    • yo conduzco
    • nosotros/as conducimos
    • tú conduces
    • vosotros/as conducís
    • él, ella, Ud. conduce
    • ellos, ellas, Uds. conducen

    Although we studied this pattern in the previous unit, we want to reinforce the concept of sound rules. By making this minor change, we keep the soft sound “th/s” along with the endings of the conjugation of the infinitive verbs ending with “ir”. Go back to your conjugations above, note the difference in a different color pen to make it stand out.

    escribir_1-3.png

    There are several verbs that have this “phonetic irregularity” in the first person. In the next chart write the conjugation for the first person, in the indicative mood in the present, making the phonetic adjustment:

    Verbo en infinitivo Significado en inglés Conjugación primera persona
    conducir To drive/ to lead yo conduzco
    deducir To deduct
    introducir To introduce
    producir To produce
    reducir To reduce/ to cut back
    reproducir To reproduce
    seducir To seduce
    traducir To translate

    Let’s see another example, conocer (to know). Following what we just studied, write the conjugation for the first person of the next verbs. Pay attention to the fact that the infinitive ends in “er”.

    Verbo en infinitivo Significado en inglés Conjugación primera persona
    conocer To know/ to meet Yo conozco
    crecer To grow up
    establecer To establish
    nacer To be born
    obedecer To obey
    parecer To appear

    After this exercise, we recommend you make your flashcards: You don’t need to write all the conjugations. In this case, you can write (reg with ZC) to help you remember the change that the verb has based on phonetics. Now you understand why it changes; when you understand, you know!

    Below are other verbs that have some phonetic irregularities. You will be able to understand these irregularities if you remember the table:

    Sonido Inglés: vocal a vocal e vocal i vocal o vocal u
    Fonética irregulares:Consonante – vocal K ca que qui co cu
    G ga gue gui go gu
    Gw gua güe güi guo
    H ja ge, je gi, ji jo ju
    Th, S za ce ci zo zu
    S sa se si so su
    silent ha he hi ho hu

    This page titled 5.2: Tomando posesión de la fonética—un repaso y un poco más is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Elizabeth Silvaggio-Adams and Ma. Del Rocío Vallejo-Alegre (Milne Publishing) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.