pronunciation
  • Hunter1234 January 27

    When i first started learning spanish in school, we first had to learn our alphabet. My teacher kept saying if you can say it you can spell it. Is that true for other languages like italian and french? is i all phonetics like spanish is or when i move on to italian will i have to learn more than the alphabet to know how to pronounce words?

  • Anna January 27
    Hello Hunter1234!

    In spanish that rule is true. Words are spelled exactly how you pronounce them.

    For what I know it does not work the same for French. I am currently on Essential Level 1-2 and pronunciation changes significatly from the spelling. I had a French pronunciation questions a week ago and I learnt there are 17 different vowel sounds in French, compared to 5 vowel sounds in Spanish (one for each letter). Here is the thread:  http://www.livinglanguage.com/community/discussion/comment/962#Comment_962

    I am not sure about Italian, but I would suggest to add this question to the Italian Category and get an Italian e-tutor to help you!

    ¡Saludos!
  • Hunter1234 January 27
    O okay thank you very much Anna i will re-post in the Italian Category.

    Merci encore!
  • Christopher January 28
    For French, believe it or not, pronunciation is usually predictable from spelling, but the system is very different from English. (See the note I left for you in Italian.)

    Once you know the relationship between sounds and spelling in French, you know how to pronounce most new words you come across. Even something like:

    écureuil (squirrel, sort of ay-kew-roy, but that's only an approximation)

    It looks un-phonetic because the English sound system is different, and our spelling reflects that. But once you know French, you can predict how to pronounce it.
  • Hunter1234 January 29

    thank you very much Christopher! im excited to learn as many languages as possible.

    Tenga un buen dia!

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