English for Spanish speakers · part 15 of 22
Pronunciation problems for Spanish speakers
Sounds that either do not exist in Spanish or behave differently. Work on them in roughly this order — the first few carry the most weight.
| Sound / feature | The difficulty | Watch word |
|---|---|---|
| TH /θ/ and /ð/ | No English th in Latin-American Spanish | think, this |
| V vs B | Spanish b and v sound identical | vote vs boat |
| H | Spanish h is silent; English h is breathed | house, hello |
| J | Spanish j is a harsh throat sound; English j is soft | July, judge |
| SH /ʃ/ | Does not exist in Spanish | she, ship |
| Final consonants | Spanish rarely ends words in hard consonants | cat, big, hard |
| Consonant clusters | Spanish breaks them up | strengths, texts |
| Initial S + consonant | Spanish adds a vowel | school, Spain |
| English R | Softer, un-trilled, often coloured | red, car |
| The schwa /ə/ | The reduced, lazy vowel English lives on | about, sofa |
| Word stress | English stress moves and reshapes words | PHOtograph / phoTOGraphy |
The initial "S + consonant" trap is the single most recognisable feature of a Spanish accent:
Spanish adds a vowel: e + school → "eschool" ✗ English does not: school → "school" ✓ Spain → not "eSpain" student → not "estudent" special → not "especial"
There is no e before that s. Have students practise starting the word directly on the s — it feels abrupt at first and sounds correct immediately.
The schwa /ə/ is the most common vowel sound in English and has no home in Spanish — the vague "uh" in unstressed syllables (the a in about, the er in teacher). Spanish speakers pronounce every vowel fully, which makes their English sound over-articulated. Training students to relax unstressed vowels into a schwa does more for a natural accent than almost any other single drill.
Some words are spelled almost identically in both languages, which tempts students to keep the Spanish pronunciation. The English version is genuinely different, and worth isolating.
| Word | Spanish instinct | English reality |
|---|---|---|
| chocolate | cho-co-LA-te (3–4 syllables) | CHOC-late (2 syllables) |
| hotel | o-TEL (silent h) | ho-TEL (breathed h) |
| banana | ba-NA-na | buh-NAN-uh (schwas) |
| hospital | os-pi-TAL | HOS-pi-tl |
| animal | a-ni-MAL | AN-i-ml |
| computer | com-pu-TER | com-PU-ter |
Two forces act in every row: stress moves, and unstressed vowels reduce to schwa. Banana is the clearest example — English swallows the outer vowels and lands hard on the middle. The word's stress pattern matters more than its individual sounds.
Words that reliably cause trouble, and why. These reward drilling one at a time.
| Word | The trap | Says roughly |
|---|---|---|
| comfortable | swallowed middle syllable | KUMF-ter-bl |
| vegetable | swallowed middle syllable | VEJ-ta-bl |
| clothes | the -thes cluster | kloathz (near close) |
| Wednesday | silent first d | WENZ-day |
| queue | five letters, one sound | kyoo |
| colonel | spelled nothing like it sounds | KER-nl |
| world | r + l together | wurld (one syllable) |
| squirrel | squ + rr cluster | SKWIR-ul |
The theme repeats: English does not reward students for pronouncing every letter. Often the correct pronunciation is less than the spelling promises, not more.