Basic Spanish For English Speakers

There are around 400 million speakers of Spanish in the world, this is the people that use Spanish as their native language. Here we have a list of the countries that have it as the official language.

Mexico 104 millions Colombia 42 millions Spain 41 millions
Argentina 36 millions Peru 27 millions Venezuela 23 millions
Cuba 11 millions Guatemala 11 millions Chile 15 millions
Bolivia 8,5 millions Nicaragua 5 millions Puerto Rico 4 millions
Costa Rica 3,8 millions Panama 3 millions Ec. Guinea 0.5 millions
Uruguay 3,2 millions R. Dominicana 8 millions Paraguay 6 millions

Other territories where Spanish is Spoken:

U.S.A 13% of the total population Andorra 0.2 millions
Guayana, Belice, Philipines, West Sahara, Gibraltar, Israel and Turkey( Jews and Arab communities banished from Spain.)

There is also a huge ammount of caribbean and Pacific islands where we will find dialects and different versions of the Spanish language. Not to mention Spanish/Hispanic communities of immigrants worldwide.

The number of people that learn Spanish as a second or third language is increasingly high, it will be easier for you to find a Spanish speaker in Brazil or in the south of France than an english one.

Why do all these languages from Western Europe sound so similar?

The answer is in the common Latin roots. The roman empire stablished itself in all Europe, except for the cold lands of the North and East. As centuries went by Latin mixed with local languages creating what today we know as Latin derived indoeuropean languages.
Between these languages we can find French, Italian, Portuguese, Galician and of course Spanish.

Also in English we will find that all the difficult or elegant words to use in conversation will inevitably come from Latin.

Why knowing all this will help me while learning Spanish?

We will be able to understand at least 30% of a conversation in Italian or Portuguese, we will be able to improve our English skills with words very common in Spanish, but that become stylish when we use them in English.

We will be seeing in chapter 2 how we can bring all the latin words that we know to our spanish speech with very simple rules.

PRONOUNCIATION
In Spanish there are no mixture of vowels like in French for example, vowels are pure and open. If you write something you read it the same way, letters will never change depending on the accent or where it´s placed in the phrase. Therefore we can say that Spanish is simpler to learn than other languages just because from the very beggining you will be reading as you should and writing as... well writing is another story... J.

A E I O U normal, as in the word CAN TEN SIN COT TULIP LL
This double L sounds ALWAYS like in the words JOHN, JIM, JUICE. To pronounce this sound like an SH or like a normal I is considered an accent.

QU In Spanish the Q goes ALWAYS followed by a U after this combination of letters can only come an E or an I. We pronounce it like QUE= KE QUI= KI. (U doesn´t sound)

G this letter sounds normal with A O U (Galon, Gong, Gunther) and it changes into a strong sound with E and I (GE GI). The strong sound is the same we can find in Arab or Hebrew for the words Hoppa or Ahmed. Is the same sound we use when a fish bone is in our throat and we try to get it out, or when we are about to spit very strong (I apologize for the comparison, but the first priority is pronounciation)

G+U+E G+U+I To make the soft sound with G and the letters E and I we put a U in the middle, this U doesn´t sound. Therefore the verb "to get" in english, we would write it in Spanish like TU GUET "to give" like TU GUIV.

V in Spanish nowadays sounds totally like a normal B, it´s another mistake to pronounce it like an English V. Therefore "Bill" and "Vilna" would sound BIL, BILNA.

R will sound soft only when it´s between two vowels, in the other cases will be strong (like the german R, as strong as you can pronounce it) Try to imitate how people from India or Russia says the R in the word America (very strong).

Ñ This letter sounds like NH in other languages (Piranha, Caipirinha,) or like the word Champagne but well pronounced.

J Sounds always strong with all the vowels, (like G with GE and GI) exactly this spitting sound (I apologize once again).

C sounds like KA KO KU only with these letters (A, O, U) and soft with CE CI, this soft sound is exactly the one in the words "Thin" "Thought" "Thing"

Z goes only with the letters A O U so, ZA, ZO, ZU. Sounds like "Thin" or "Thanks" (Z will never go with E or I).

B,D,F,K,L,M,N,P,S,T and X Sound totally normal, (L is normal like in the words "Lantern" "Lincoln" "Light".

H in Spanish has absolutely no sound, just ignore it in the words. (except with CH, this sounds like in "China".

W is used only for foreign words and it sounds exactly as in English "William"
- Remember once again that all the letters must be clear and pure, specially vowels.
Reading.

When we read Spanish, we will place the accent always in the second sillable by the end except if it´s marked by a graphic accent or if the word is a verb (Remember this when reading please).

GAto CAsa
(cat, house) Información= InformaciON.