In this class, we will move on to our next vowel sound, /ɑ/ (in words like model, collar, song). This sound is frequently confused with /ʌ/, and we will learn how to clearly distinguish them. Then we will move on to common diphthongs of English.

Now we move on to the consonants that cause most problems for Spanish-speakers. In this class, we will cover the 2 sounds of “TH,” in words like “brother” and “bath,” learning how to position the tongue correctly. Then, we will review /ɾ/, or the “tapped T” sound used in American English for words like “water,” “bottle,” and “city.”

This sound can be very challenging to many Spanish speakers, so in this class we will learn how to make a nice, strong English R sound. You will learn how to correctly pronounce words like “right,” “really,” and “river,” without trilling your Rs as you do in Spanish. We will then tackle the tricky r-colored vowel sounds, in words like “party,” “thirty,” and “forty.”

In this lesson, we will learn why the /j/ and /dʒ/ sounds (in words like “yellow” and “job”) are so challenging for Spanish speakers. Then we will train our mouths to correctly produce these two sounds clearly. Then, we will look at a common mistake, which is adding an extra vowel sound in front of s-blend words such as “sleep,” and how to resolve it.

We will move on to the final vowel sounds that cause confusion and misunderstanding in English: /b/ and /v/. In Spanish these sounds are nearly identical, while in English there is a very clear and distinct difference. We will learn to produce both sounds clearly. Then, finally, we will look at how to correctly pronounce words ending in -ed in the past tense.