|
 |
Spanish -- Pronuncing Accents | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5703 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes  Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 12 09 April 2010 at 12:13am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Okay, here is something that has been bugging me a bit since I started studying the preterite around mid-term of this semester and I'm just wondering how anyone else who has learned, or is learning, Spanish handles this.
I'm not sure how to go about tackling the shift in accent in Spanish, it makes it very akward for me to speak. I know that we have it in English and I've been trying to catch myself in the act, and figure out how we do it, but...to no avail. I want to read that book. I have read it already. I object to that statement What is that object on the shelf there? Truly just men are a rarity I'm just a man, I'm hardly perfect. So forth and so on. The main pain comes in the form of Spanish verbs so far, because in the present verbs end in "-o" for 1st person, while in the preterite the 3rd person ending is "-ó" hablo vs habló el vs él como vs cómo porque vs por qué. I tend to pronounce them each pair the same way, I know its wrong, I’m supposed to shift emphasis from one syllable to the next, but I cant seem to do it. Is there a list somewhere of the top XXX most common of these words in Spanish available I am not sure that I can hear the contrast between these two verbs either, on paper it is easy to tell them apart, but in speaking and listening...I get very lost very fast. Any tips on this? Edited by global_gizzy on 09 April 2010 at 12:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hypersport Senior Member United States Joined 5881 days ago 216 posts - 307 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 2 of 12 09 April 2010 at 12:47am | IP Logged | |||||
|
The accent is there for a reason. The difference in how they sound even in very fast speech is easily noticeable. If they are pronounced wrong, the rest of the context won't sound right either, like it's obvious that there is something wrong.
It's like a Spanish speaker learning English, if they say "this grapes taste good" you notice right away, should have been these grapes. But to the native Spanish speaker, they don't sound much different, especially since they don't have the small "i" sound like English has. I'm not saying it's easily noticeable for you, but with enough time it will be. The thing is, you have to get to the point where you aren't thinking about the conjugation of the verb, and how similar some are to others, etc. Sure, the words are similar, but they mean entirely different things. When you can associate what a given word means, it won't matter how similar it is to another word. You already do this with English. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| TheBiscuit Tetraglot Senior Member Mexico Joined 5923 days ago 532 posts - 619 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Italian Studies: German, Croatian | Message 3 of 12 09 April 2010 at 5:41am | IP Logged | |||||
|
The context should tell you. Perhaps more listening practice? You could also find sites where people write in Spanish without accents and work out where they should go.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 12 09 April 2010 at 9:22am | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, more listening. But listening is not enough. He has to repeat what he hears, read loud and speak.
He would probably also pick up a lot of bad spelling habits. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 5 of 12 09 April 2010 at 12:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
This is a common problem, and most frequently it's because of the recordings that the average learner listens to.
Or maybe I should say: MOST FREE·KWENT·LEE IT IS BEE·COZ OVV THEE REH·CORD·INGS THAT THE AVE·EH·RADGE LEARN·ER LISS·ENS TOOOOO. If everything you hear is overstressed and overpronounced, you actually end up losing the stress, because your ear hears everything as stressed. And in Spanish everything is pronounced more clearly anyway. So exaggerate the stressed syllable. Make it completely clear and unambiguous that you are stressing it. But make sure that you do it, one way or the other. If you say it, you will learn to hear it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5703 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 12 09 April 2010 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Thanks to those who've replied but it doesn't answer my initial problem. I am having ALOT of trouble shifting the stress of the accents. How do I do this?
I try listening, but I dont have a lot of audio to access. I'm not at a Virtual SPN-Keyboard, accented letters will be capital. hablo vs hablO El vs el etc. Also, many of the question and filler words (se, como, que, etc) have different accented forms and I dont know how to pronounce them. I've been having problem with the stressing and accents since week one of Spanish 101. I think I do a good job of the 2nd to last syllable rule (I cant be sure, SPN speakers tell me my accent is good, but I can just mimic what they say back to me, I am having a hard time internalizing how to stress the right syllable on my own.) But this issue of the same word with two versions, is stressing me out. I dont know how to do the same words twice: one with an accent, one without is really stressing me out. (did you catch the pun, dear reader?) Does FSI or anyone else have a course that helps you to develop an accent? I'm not trying to sound native, though I wouldn't mind that at all, I'm just trying to be intelligible when speaking to a native on the fly, no rehearsed scripts etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5453 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 7 of 12 09 April 2010 at 4:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
Although I haven't tried FSI or DLI myself, I guess their courses could be used to develop a good accent, or any other course with audio recordings such as Assimil or Linguaphone. Once you're past the beginner stage, start listening to native materials as well. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6894 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 12 09 April 2010 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
It sounds like you might be trying too hard. The stress patterns are supposed to end up in the right places without effort, just like they do in English. Relax, take a deep breath, and try again. Imitate audio material (look up "shadowing" techniques in this forum), repeat as many times as it takes, take frequent breaks and make sure you do it as relaxed as you can manage, paying special attention to not trying too hard. This will be effective not only for stress patterns but most other pronunciation and accent issues as well.
There is lot of free audio material all around the net. Just have a friendly word with auntie Google and she'll help you out. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
