The Vowel A
The first letra (letter) of el abecedario is a vocal abierta. When saying it, your mouth is widely open and the distance between the palate and the tongue is at it greatest.
The first letra (letter) of el abecedario is a vocal abierta. When saying it, your mouth is widely open and the distance between the palate and the tongue is at it greatest.
You use the sound of a everyday: What do you say when after a long day's work you can finally sit down and put up your feet? Or when you go to the doctor and he asks you to open your mouth as he peers inside? Exactly! You say "ahhhhhh". Now just skip the six extra h's and you have the Spanish letter a.
Practise Pronunciation of Vowel A
Spanish English
ajo garlic
altar altar
Amércia America
árbol tree
clavo nail
fruta fruit
True to it's abierta vowel category, a does not combine to form diphthongs with its sister letters e and o, but it does combine with las vocales cerradas. That is, when a is immediately in front of an unaccented i or a u, the soun that is produced is neither a pure a, the dominant vowell in this case, nor a pure i or u, the subordinate vowels within the combination. As a result, the ai sound is not "ah-ee" but rather "i" as in "tie". The au resembles the "ahw" combination in "ouch".
Practise Pronunciation of Vowel A
Spanish English
ajo garlic
altar altar
Amércia America
árbol tree
clavo nail
fruta fruit
True to it's abierta vowel category, a does not combine to form diphthongs with its sister letters e and o, but it does combine with las vocales cerradas. That is, when a is immediately in front of an unaccented i or a u, the soun that is produced is neither a pure a, the dominant vowell in this case, nor a pure i or u, the subordinate vowels within the combination. As a result, the ai sound is not "ah-ee" but rather "i" as in "tie". The au resembles the "ahw" combination in "ouch".
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