Part I: Vowels

Aren't you so surprised that the first lesson covers pronunciation? Isn't pronunciation so much fun? Don't you just love it? Get used to it. If you've ever learned a foreign language (and if you have, good for you), you know it always comes first. We're going to start with the vowels (vocales).

The great thing about Spanish is that the vocales never change. They always stay the same. If you're varying the pronunciation, you're doing it wrong. Don't worry about speed or accent right now, just practice. If you go to Mexico right now, they'll know you're a gringo or gringa (name for people from the United States) before you even open your mouth. So don't worry about it.

Here we go:

a (ah) like the 'o' in hot, like the 'au' in caught
e (ay) like the 'ay' in day, sounds like the long 'a' in English
i (ee) like the 'ee' in tee and gee and feed
o (oh) like the 'o' in toe, sounds like the long 'o' in English
u (oo) like the 'ew' in Ew! and few, like the 'wo 'in two

Got it? Wasn't that fun? (I'm being slightly sarcastic, even though I actually, um, did think it was fun). Oh, well. Let's go on to Part II of Lesson 1.

Part II: The Alphabet

The difficulty for me in teaching you the Spanish alphabet has to do with the Spanish Academy. They got rid of some of my favorite letters. However, in other latino and hispanic countries they have kept the letters. Therefore, I'm going to teach you how I was taught. All of them. They're not that hard. It's just like English's alphabet, plus a few.

a (ah)
b (bay)
c (say)
ch (chay)
d (day)
e (ay)
f (ay-ffay)
g (hay)*
h (ah-chay)
i (ee)
j (ho-ta)*
k (kah)
l (ay-lay)
ll (ay-yay)
m (ay-may)
n (ay-nay)
� (ay-nyay)
o (oh)
p (pay)
q (koo)
r (ay-ray)
rr (ay-rray)**
s (ay-ssay)
t (tay)
u (oo)
v (bay cheek-ah)
w (doo-blay bay, or doo-blay oo)
x (ay-kees)
y (ee gree-ay-ga)
z (say-tah)***

Notation:
* Notice the h's in these pronunciations? Those have a slightly different pronunciation. It's okay to pronounce them as you would in English (you little gringo, you), but if you really want to be correct, put some phlegm into them, kind of like clearing your throat. You know what I'm talking about. Everyone's cleared his/her throat at some point in his/her lifetime.
** The double r has an interesting pronunciation too. Have you ever seen the Ruffle commercial where they have the slogan "RRRRRRuffles have rrrrrrridges"? Well that rolling of the r's is very important to Spanish. You only roll them when they're double (as shown in the word ferrocarril which means train) or when r is the first letter in the word (like the words rapido meaning fast and roto meaning broken). If you can't roll the r's, don't worry about it. Lots of people just can't quite manage it. It's okay.
*** The z's in Spanish are not like the English z. It just sounds like the English s.

Part III: Masculine and Feminine

Pay very close attention English speakers, because this probably doesn't make a lot of sense to you. In spanish, nouns are masculine or feminine. That means that el or la precede them, both of which mean 'the'. For example (por ejemplo), la guitarra which means the guitar and el ni�o which means the boy (and also the weird weather pattern that probably caused all the freaks in DC to...well, never mind). Usually, and there are always exceptions, you can tell femininity and masculinity from the last letter in the word. If the word ends in a, it's a girl. If the word ends in o, it's a boy. Got it? Here: Let's try a few for practice. The answers are at the bottom of the page.

1. __ gringo (green-goh)
2. __ gringa (green-gah)
3. __ mexicana (may-hee-cah-nah)
4. __ mexicano (may-hee-cah-noh)

Part IV: Pronouns.

Spanish	Pronunciation	English
Yo	(yoh)	I
Tu	(too)	You (informal)
Udsted--abbr. Ud.	(ood-stayd)	You (formal)
El	(ayl)	He
Ella	(ay-yah)	She
Nosotros/Nosotras	(noh-soh-trohs/noh-soh-trahs)	We
Vosotros/Vosotras	(voh-soh-trohs/voh-soh-trahs)	You guys (plural, informal)
Ellos	(ay-yohs)	They (male/male-female)
Ellas	(ay-yahs)	They (female only)
Udstedes--abbr. Uds.	(ood-stayd-ays)	You guys (plural, formal)

Part V: Customs.

In each of these lessons, I'll try to squeeze in a cultural tidbit. Simply learning Spanish is important, but learning about Hispanic peoples is very important as well.

In Hispanic culture, it is customary for men to shake hands formally or, if they already know each other even embrace and pat each other on the back. Among women, the custom is to shake hands and, if they know each other, kiss each other on both cheeks in Spain and on only one cheek in Latin America. When a man and woman who know each other meet, they generally kiss on both cheeks.

1. el
2. la
3. la
4. el