I'm Julie Cunningham, MA, CCC-SLP, a licensed speech-language pathologist. I help Spanish speakers speak American English clearly and confidently.
Words like beat and bit can sound alike to many Spanish speakers. Choose Spanish in the free 2-minute American English accent test to check the sounds that are often hard for you.
To see which sounds in your own sentences are often hard for Spanish speakers, type them into my free American English IPA translator. It marks those sounds for you, like the IH in sit.
Prefer one-on-one help? See my private accent reduction training.
You can start for free with English Pro Lite, my online American accent course, with 45 lessons and 2.5 hours of video.
English Pro is my full program, for intermediate learners and above. It's $49.99 a month or $479 for lifetime access, with a 10-day money-back guarantee.
Are you a native Spanish speaker who:
- worries about saying words like sheet, beach, and peach, because they sometimes come out sounding like curse words?
- switches B and V, so very and berry sound the same?
- isn't sure when the letter "s" sounds like S and when it sounds like Z?
American English Pronunciation for Spanish Speakers: Top 5 Pronunciation Challenges
These are the five pronunciation challenges I hear most often from my Spanish-speaking students. Read about each one below, then watch the free video lessons to practice.
Spanish Challenge #1: The EE /i/ and IH /ɪ/ vowels
Almost every Spanish speaker I work with has trouble with these two vowels. The long, tense EE /i/ in seat also exists in Spanish, so it's usually easy. The short, relaxed IH /ɪ/ in sit doesn't exist in Spanish, and that's where the trouble starts.
Many Spanish speakers use EE /i/ in place of IH /ɪ/, so sit sounds like seat. Both are real English words, so the listener may hear a different word than the one you meant.
There's another reason to get these vowels right. If you say sheet with the short IH /ɪ/ vowel, it becomes a curse word in English! That can be very embarrassing, and it happens to many English learners, not only Spanish speakers.
How to Pronounce the EE /i/ and IH /ɪ/ vowels in English
For IH /ɪ/, relax your face and tongue, and make the vowel shorter than EE /i/. Watch the videos below to practice EE /i/ as in beat and IH /ɪ/ as in bit.
Read more:
Spanish Challenge #2: The UH /ʌ/ and AH /ɑ/ Vowels
The substitution I hear most from Spanish speakers is AH /ɑ/ (as in father) in place of UH /ʌ/ (as in butter). Some speakers use the Spanish /a/ vowel instead, which sounds close to AH /ɑ/.
With this substitution, bug sounds like bog, and mother sounds like "mahther." Bug and bog are both real words, so the listener may hear the wrong one.
How to Pronounce the UH /ʌ/ and AH /ɑ/ Vowels in American English
UH /ʌ/ and AH /ɑ/ sound a lot alike. Two things make them different: how far your jaw opens, and where your tongue is.
- UH /ʌ/: open your jaw only halfway, and keep your tongue relaxed in the middle of your mouth.
- AH /ɑ/: open your jaw wide, and keep your tongue low and tense.
Watch the videos below to practice both vowels.
Read more:
Spanish Challenge #3: Final Consonant Endings
In Spanish conversation, it's common to drop the last consonant of a word. English speakers do this too, but the rules for when you can drop a final consonant are much stricter in English.
Spanish speakers often drop final consonants in places where English speakers wouldn't. For example, played ends in a /d/ sound: /pleɪd/. If you drop that /d/ in "I played the game," played sounds like play, and now you're talking about the present instead of the past.
In English, you usually drop a consonant only when the Rule of Three applies: when three or more consonants come together, the middle one is often dropped (but not always!). In friends, for example, the consonants /ndz/ come together, and the /d/ is usually dropped.
Watch the videos below to learn the Rule of Three, the -ed ending, and when you can drop a final consonant.
Read more:
Spanish Challenge #4: S and Z consonants; B and V Consonants
Most varieties of Spanish don't have the Z /z/ sound in the English word zoo. So Spanish speakers often use S /s/ instead, and zoo sounds like Sue.
English spelling makes this harder. Many English words are spelled with the letter "s," but that "s" sounds like /z/. You hear this a lot at the end of words, like houses, these, and is.
B /b/ and V /v/ can be confusing, too. In Spanish, the letters B and V stand for the same sound. In English, they're two different sounds, so very and berry sound different and mean different things.
How to Pronounce the S/Z and B/V Consonants
S /s/ and Z /z/ differ in voicing. For S /s/, your vocal cords don't vibrate. For Z /z/, they do. Put your hand on your throat and feel the difference!
B /b/ and V /v/ differ in placement (B uses both lips; V uses your upper teeth and lower lip) and manner (B is a stop consonant; V is a fricative).
Watch the videos below to practice S /s/ and Z /z/, and B /b/ and V /v/.
Read more:
- How to Pronounce the S /s/ and Z /z/ Consonants
- How to Pronounce the B /b/ and P /p/ Consonants
- How to Pronounce the F /f/ and V /v/ Consonants
Spanish Challenge #5: Intonation
Spanish has a lot of melody in the voice (also called intonation), but the patterns are very different from the patterns of American English.
Take the Spanish sentence "Quiero comer algo." The voice often rises on the last word, algo. In English, that's "I want to eat something."
Many Spanish speakers carry the same pattern into English: "I want to eat something." That doesn't sound typical in American English.
How to Pronounce American English Intonation
An American English speaker would put the highest pitch on eat: "I want to eat something." With the Spanish pattern, it can sound like you'll settle for anything, or like you mean something as opposed to nothing.
Watch the videos below to learn more about American English intonation.
Read more:
Common questions from Spanish speakers
What are the biggest American English pronunciation challenges for Spanish speakers?
The five I see most are the EE and IH vowels, the UH and AH vowels, final consonant endings, the S/Z and B/V consonants, and intonation. Each one has a free video lesson on this page.
Why does sit sound like seat?
The long, tense EE /i/ vowel in seat also exists in Spanish, but the short, lax IH /ɪ/ vowel in sit does not. It's common for native Spanish speakers to substitute EE /i/ for IH /ɪ/, so a word like sit may sound like seat.
Is there a free English pronunciation PDF for Spanish speakers?
Yes. Download the free PDFs in Challenge #1 (the EE /i/ and IH /ɪ/ vowels) and Challenge #2 (the UH /ʌ/ and AH /ɑ/ vowels) on this page. For every sound of American English, my free English Pro Lite course has 45 video lessons.
Should I use an app or work with a speech-language pathologist?
An app can give you practice and a score. A speech-language pathologist can hear why, for example, sit sounds like seat, show you how to change your tongue, lips, or jaw, and track your progress over time. You can do both: practice with my free English Pro Lite course, then get feedback in private training or the 5-Week Intensive Accent Class.
What a Spanish-speaking student says
“I recently finished a 10 sessions program with Julie and I am completely satisfied with the results. Since the first class, it was clear that she was an expert on the subject and created a safe space to practice and ask.”
Juan V., Spanish, Student
Meet Nicky
Nicky found her own voice in English, and her confidence grew a lot.