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Lesson 1

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Spanish Translations

Spanish is spoken on a very large part of our planet. From Spain in Europe to the Phillipines , many countries in Africa , Southern USA , Mexico and nearly all of South America. It is also a UN language. These lessons will introduce you to a few hundred common words.

Each phrase below is in Spanish then the English translation and then the way it is pronounced.


If you spot any mistakes in these lessons please contact us ukindia@innotts.co.uk . In this lesson we will look at numbers


There is an alphabetic character in Spanish , double Ñ or ñ , pronounced nny . for eg niño is ninnyo or child . It has been left out in some cases below but when you see ny you should understand that you can use it .

Some characters such as h in hombre jare silent as below.

Cero problemas , zero problems ; (seero problayma)

Un hombre , One man ; ( oo-n om-b -re)

Una mujer , one woman ; (oo-naa moo -hay -r)

Dos pajaros , two birds; (dos paa-haa-ro-s)

Tres Añios , Three years ; (Tres aa-nn-yio-s)

Note ( thanks to Nataly Romero)

singular masculine- un ( a woman)
singular feminine- una
plural masculine- unos
plural feminine- unas

Cuatro casas , Four houses ; ( koo-aa-tro kaa-saa-s)

Cinco pesetas, five pesetas ( spanish currency) ; ( seen-co pesetas )


Notes on the above .

u is pronounce oo as in uno (oono) , h is silent as in hombre (ombre) , j is pronounced as h as in mujer (moohay-r) , y is sometimes not written as in anos ( aan-yo-s) , Q is pronounced K as in quatro -kooatro , C is pronounced as S as in cinco( seenco) or as K as in casas ( kaasaas) , i is a long ee as in cinco (seenco) , a is long like the a in father eg pesetas (paysaytaas) , e is like ay in hay as in mujer (moo-hay-r).


Revise the above again

Uno hombre , One man ; ( oo-no om-b -re)

Una mujer , one woman ; (oo-naa moo -hay -r)

Dos pajaros , two birds; (dos paa-haa-ro-s)

Tres Años , Three years ; (Tres aa-nn-yo-s)

Cuatro casas , Four houses ; ( koo-aa-tro kaa-saa-s)

Cinco pesetas, five pesetas ; ( seen-co pesetas )


Lets look at more numbers

seis cigarrillos , six ciggarettes ( say-ees seegaarreelleeos)

siete libros , seven books (seeay tay leebros)

ocho coches , eight cars ( ocho kochays)

nueve cartas , nine letters (nooay-vay kaartaas)

diez tiendas , ten shops (deeayz teeayndaas)


Notes

ch as in china


once hoteles, eleven hotels (on-say otaae lays)

doce manzanas , twelve apples ( dosay maansaanaas)

trece hombres , thirteen men ( traysay ombrays)

catorce dias , fourteen days (kaatorsay deeaas)

quince kilos , fifteen kilos ( kween say kilos)


Notes

c in doce sometimes pronounced as s , z also as s as in manzanas , ui is wee as in quince


Revise numbers 6-15

seis cigarrillos , six ciggarettes ( say-ees seegaarreelleeos)

siete libros , seven books (seeay tay leebros)

ocho coches , eight cars ( ocho kochays)

nueve cartas , nine letters (nooay-vay kaartaas)

diez tiendas , ten shops (deeas teeayndaas)

once hoteles, eleven hotels (on-say otaae lays)

doce manzanas , twelve apples ( dosay maansaanaas)

trece hombres , thirteen men ( traysay ombrays)

catorce dias , fourteen days (kaatorsay deeaas)

quince kilos fifteen kilos ( kinsay kilos)


And numbers from 16-20

dieciseis ciudades , sixteen towns ( deeay see sayees seeoodaades)

diecisiete patatas , seventeen potatoes ( deeayseeseeaytay paataytaas)

dieciocho periodicos ,eighteen newspapers ( peeree odeekos)

diecinueve medicos , nineteen doctors ( medikos)

veinte palabras , twenty words ( vayntay)


Revise the words again

dieciseis ciudades , sixteen towns ( deeay see sayees seeoodaades)

diecisiete patatas , seventeen potatoes ( deeayseeseeaytay paataytaas)

dieciocho periodicos ,eighteen newspapers ( peeree odeekos)

diecinueve medicos , nineteen doctors ( medikos)

veinte palabras , twenty words ( vayntay)


The following covers words till one billion

veintiuno flores, 21 flowers

veintiseis zapatos, 26 shoes

treinta y un mesas, 31 tables ( traynta ee oono mesaas)

- note y in treinta y uno - is pronounced as ee as in eek!

treinta y siete boletos , 37 tickets

cien muchachas , 100 girls

ochocientos pantalones, 800 trousers

mil cheques , thousand cheques

mil tres gatos , 1003 cats

mil cien galletas, 1100 biscuits

mil cienteuno pelotas, 1001 balls

tres mil camisas, 3000 shirts

cien mil avions , 100,000 airplanes

cincocientos mil perros, 500,000 dogs

un millon de naranjas , one million of oranges

nueve millones de bicicletas , nine million of bicycles

un billiones de edificios , one billion buildings


Note ( thanks to Nataly Romero) The consonants "C" and "G" are pronounced hard when followed by
vowels such as "a" "o" and "u"
But they are soft when followed by "e" and "i"

Examples:
Casa (house) kaa-saa
Goya (the painter) Go-yaa
Cielo (sky/heaven) See-ay-lo
Gen (gene) Hayn

There is no English "Z" sound in Spanish.
The word for "potato" is not "patata." It is "papa." This is not to be confused with Papá, which means father.
Potato is "la papa"
Dad is "el papá"
The Pope is "el papa" (no accent over the a.)

The "V" is not pronounced like an English "v" in most countries. It is more commonly pronounced like a "b."

Vaca (cow) Baa-kaa
Vaso (glass) Baa-so
There is no such thing as "cincocientos" It is "quinientos" for 500. "


Another reader writes .

rr

A rolled "r" sound (voiced trilled alveolar approximant


j

A sort of clearing-ones-throat type of sound, as in the german composer "Bach" ("Baj"). Made by puting your toungue were you do to make "k" and then without moving it, blow (unvoiced velar fricative)


z

"th" as in "think" (unvoiced dental fricative)


v

"b"


ll

"ly" (palatialised alveolar approximant)


c

soft "c" (when before e or i) it's "th"


Yo

like the name "Joe"


Some comments from Salina Ferguson PBoricua@aol.com

In your ponounciation you gave the sound [ey] as the phonetic tranlsation of spanish "e" this is incorrect in Spanish all the vowels are pure they do not contain the semi diphthong found in english pronounciation. The sound is more like the "e" in when (american pronounciation) .

The word for years in spanish is spelled anos (with a tilde over the n)there is no "i".

Before nouns uno becomes un. i.e. Un Hombre is a man or one man. Also cero problemas is never said, the correct way to say no problems is ningun problema with an acute accent over the u in ningun.

The letter "ll" has three sounds which are acceptable either "ly" as in million, "y" as in yellow or the french "j" or english "s" in pleasure.
After the letter "q" u is silent unless followed by "a" or "e" or if it has a diaresis over it. i.e. quatro [kwatro], quince [keense] but note that if the u in quince had a diaresis over it then the prnounciation would be [kweense].

Patata does mean potato in spain. The pronounciation "th" for soft c or z is only appropriatein Madrid everywhere else the letters are pronounced as "s". Like wise "ll" is pronounced "ly" as in million only in spain elswhere it is like the "s" in pleasure. Laslty "j" can either be an aspirated h (like the german "Ich") or an unaspirated h as in the english "hello".

It is important to note that in the question "how do you get to the center of Madrid" the word "al" is necesarry before the word centro.


In the next lesson we will look at some common questions...Lesson 2