Spanish Pronunciation B/V I saw some people on here making comments on Spanish b and v and decided to give a small explanation. This is by no means me trying to be a smart ass or know-it-all, but as an amateur linguist, native Spanish speaker and longtime learner of Brazilian Portuguese I thought Id share some knowledge. I hope yall find this helpful. So here it goes. The b and v in Spanish are not different sounds. The reason that some words are written with a b and others with a v is etymology. Vida comes from Latin vita and beber comes from Latin bibere. Most native speakers who cant spell very well tend to make a lot of mistakes in writing these words. The sound these letters represent is determined according to its position within a word or a sentence: b/v at the beginning of an utterance or after a nasal consonant (m/n) is pronounced as a fully voiced bilabial plosive/stop (your typical b, from here on hard b). In all other places its pronounced as a bilabial fricative/approximant (from here on soft b). I find the best description for this last sound to be that of a b with the lips not fully closed but only slightly touching each other. This is the sound you hear after all consonants (except for the nasals m/n) and between vowels. ¡Vete! - Go away! (hard b) Que te vaya bien. - May things go well for you./Good luck. (soft b) Las cuevas me dan miedo. - I am afraid of caves. (soft b) ¡Bebe algo! - Drink something! (first b hard, second b soft) Que bebas algo! - (She said) that you should) drink something! (soft b) Me llamó Jacobo. - Jacobo called me. (soft b) Words like ambos (both), ambulancia (ambulance), tumba (grave, tomb) are always pronounced with a hard b-sound (because of the m.) Most Spanish speakers in the Caribbean and surrounding areas (coastal continental dialects) speak a very fast-paced form of Spanish and so there will not often be a pause or stop for the b/v-sound to be at the beginning of an utterance; in these dialects you will hear the hard b-sound very rarely. Always keep in mind that there is no difference between b and v, the difference in writing is purely etymological. There are some speakers, especially people on TV or people who want to sound educated, who make an effort in pronouncing a v-sound. However, most of the times these people will also use this v-sound in words that have b showcasing that this is a learned (fake) pronunciation which contradicts Spanish phonology. Also the fricative approximant sound (the b/v in between vowels) may sound somewhat like a v for some speakers or when pronounced emphatically (since the typical v-sound is also a fricative) but people who have this pronunciation dont distinguish between b and v to make this sound. So if they pronounce a v-kind of sound for the soft b they will do this in ave and in abogado as well. (And even so, this sound is not a real v.) This hard/soft distinction also occurs with the letters d and g (g before a, o, u). At the beginning of an utterance and after nasal consonants (m/n) the d sounds as a hard d (close to English do) and g as a hard g (close to English good). Whenever these letters occur between vowels or after other consonants they have a soft pronunciation; d in this case sounding exactly as English th in the, this, that, those (never as in thin, thick, thrive) and g sounding as a g that is not fully closed, the tongue only slightly touching the palate/velum. (Keep in mind that Spanish g is also pronounced as a hard h-sound (velar fricative) before e and i, this is a totally different, unrelated sound.) Dame eso. - Give me that. (hard d) Ya te lo di. - I already gave it to you. (soft d) Lo he comprado. - Ive bought it. (soft d) ¡Guárdamelo! - Hold/save/keep it for me. (hard g) Te lo voy a guardar. - Ill keep it for you. (soft g) Dame un poquito de agua. - Give me some water. (soft g) You will also hear the hard d-sound from most speakers after the letter l: alcalde (mayor). This distinction between soft and hard is not present in typical Brazilian Portuguese, so Brazilian b, d and g (g before a/o/u) always have the hard pronunciation. (This hard/soft distinction does however occur in European Portuguese.) Also, it may be useful to know that in (Brazilian) Portuguese b and v are two totally different letters with their own pronunciation. I hope this information will clarify things for some of you. Ive tried to avoid too many technical terms, and keep it as straightforward as possible. If anyone has questions about Spanish pronunciation (c/z and g/j alteration, when to use ue and üe and so on), Caribbean Spanish and/or differences between Spanish and Portuguese feel free to tag me in a post and Ill try my best to answer them.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 02:10:26 +0000
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