Coffee Break Spanish - How to pronounce the letter J in Spanish | CBS Show 2.05

Episode Date: June 27, 2024

Are you unsure how to pronounce the letter J in Spanish? If so then this episode of the Coffee Break Spanish show is for you! We teach you how to pronounce the letter J correctly and share several practice tips!Prefer to watch these lessons? You can do exactly that for free on Coffee Break TV, and download the episodes to your device so you can access them on the go. Or, you can head to our Coffee Break Spanish YouTube channel to access the video version of each podcast episode there. Remember to subscribe to our channel so that you don’t miss an episode.That's not all... each episode of the Show is accompanied by a blog article to increase your understanding of the topics covered.➡️ Click the link to access the blog article and worksheet that accompany this lesson ⬅️Like the Coffee Break mugs featured in our episodes? Click here to purchase your own. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish. Welcome to the Coffee Break Spanish Show. I'm Mark. And I'm Mark. All right, and you? Very, very. Very content of here with another episode of the Coffee Break Spanish show.

So in this weekly episodes, we bring to you a little bit of information of the Spanish language, be it grammar, be a pronunciation, which will be focusing on today. Exactly. And you can subscribe to this podcast wherever you get your podcasts, or if you're watching your video version, there's a video version, there's a video version, version, you can subscribe on YouTube to our Coffee Break Spanish channel. And just while I mention that there, we've got these fantastic mugs, our Coffee Break Spanish mugs, and you can find them in the link under this video.

And if you're watching this, then you can find them in the video. If you're listening, you can go to Coffeebreakgiftshop.com. Yes, very well. So you mentioned pronunciation. We're focusing in pronunciation. And one particular aspect of pronunciation, perhaps the most tricky, well, maybe the second most tricky aspect of pronunciation. Yes, exactly. So we are going to be looking at the sound of the Jota.

The Jota, the Jota in Spanish. Very well. Very interesting. Yes. Epezzamos? I guess to begin with, for a non-Spanish speaker, making the sound is the difficult part. How do we make this sound, Concha? Oh, that's such a good question.

Okay, so there are obviously different varieties of the sound that we'll be looking at later, but the main sound that you're, would hear is the, it's a strong sound, it's a h. A h, type of sound, yeah. So I want you to imagine a cartoon. When they're laughing in a cartoon, they go like, he, he, he, he, he, he. Yeah, so it's that kind of sound that,

but you bring it a little bit back to your throat. So instead of at the front with your tongue, you bring it back to your tongue. So instead of being he, he, he, he, he. Yeah, so it's, there's breath coming through. Yes. But we do something with our tongue to, shape that breath.

So that kind of exactly. You're kind of pushing your tongue towards the roof of your mouth a little bit

he, he, he, that's And I've heard this sound really quite strong like I'm thinking

of a word like aho garlic aco, quite a strong aho but I don't think

you say it quite as strong as that no I wouldn't I would say I would say a little bit softer

like aho ajo yeah exactly so there are different varieties And in my case is because I'm from the south of Spain and we use that softer sound.

But if you went to Madrid or Barcelona or any other place from Andalusia upwards. Then it would be hamon, ajo, that sound. So Annabelle from Madrid, she would say chamon. Exactly. Hamon with a more Ghe sound. And I think, to be honest, I think as Scots, we have a little bit of an advantage

because we have the sound, as in loch. Exactly. Word loch, like loch lohmund, Loch Ness. Yeah. And it's got that same

hugh. Yep. So that you can replicate that sound and put it into the Spanish word and it would be perfect. And obviously English may not be your native language.

You may have that same sound in whatever language you speak. But if you have a similar sound then you can use that to make a Spanish J. Another way of another way I've heard of making

this sound is starting with a k sound like the letter c for example in cat yeah and when you start with k k and then just add a little bit more breath into that kh yeah don't completely close your tongue in the roof of your mouth yeah exactly yeah it's like a softer start as well the k it's very so just soft than that and add a little bit more breath exactly yeah let's practice it because i think what we should do is hear you talking about these sounds and then we'll repeat them. So we're going to leave some space for our listeners to repeat. Yeah, perfect. So let's start with the word that we just mentioned.

Ajo. Ajo. So it means garlic. Ajo, very important ingredient in lots of Spanish dishes. Absolutely, yeah. We love ajo. Good dishes from all around the world. Exactly.

And another word, which is something that we love, is hamon. Hamon Hamon You're definitely saying it a little softer than I'm used to So I'm trying to emulate your speech But I think if Annabel were sitting here She would be saying Hamon

Yes, exactly So for me it's much more natural to say Hamon And what about in Latin America for example In different, obviously pronunciation is going to vary from country to country But is there a general rule? Is it softer or stronger?

It's definitely softer Yes And it's the same in the Carnary Islands for example, if you go on holiday to Tenerife, for example, then you'll hear that hamon. Hamon. Hamon. Okay. Okay.

Shall we look at one more? Yeah. One of my favorite words in Spanish. Oh, really? Yeah, I love it. Okay. So this one, Mark's favorite word, is majo. Maho.

Yeah. Maho. It just means nice. Yeah. A decent person. It's a maha. Yeah. Exactly.

Yeah. Very nice. And I would say it a bit softer, of course. Maho. Mahha. Mahha. Very good. Very well.

Okay. So, yeah, so you hear these sounds a lot in a lot of different Spanish names. For example, Jose. Jose, okay, this is just like a verbal workout this time, yeah. Exactly. Jose. What about Juan? As well, yes.

Or Maria Jose in Femin as well. Maria Jose. Yeah. But nowadays, there's a tendency to introduce names that are, it sound not so Spanish, a bit more international, like Jennifer. Jennifer. So Jennifer, you're using almost a j-send the same as it would be in English. Exactly.

There's a slightly more bit of a D in there, isn't there? Yeah, Jennifer. Jennifer. Jennifer. I guess we're trying to replicate the sound, the English sound, but with our accent. Exactly. Jennifer. So in these new names, we don't really translate the pronunciation.

Let's say. We wouldn't say, Genifer. Yeah. Are there other words like that that are words, not just names? Yeah. For example, if you think about the car, the Jawar. Dawar. Yeah, Jawar. We would say Jawar. How do you say the animal? Jahuar. Interesting.

Yeah. Okay, so you say haguar, but jaguar. Exactly. For the, for the car. Yeah. That is completely new to me. I love learning new things. Excellent. Yeah. And another one would be, for example, DJ. Oh, yeah. Okay. You're not going to say DJ. No, I mean, maybe other people would, but now the tendency is to use the J sound. DJ.

Yeah. DJ. Okay. Yeah. So if we borrow words from English, then we would use the J sound. Well, with our Spanish accent, of course. Now, Concha, I have one question. I'm heading off to Mexico soon.

Quite excited about this. But in Spanish, do we say Mexico or Mexico? Okay. So actually, you can say both. but the rule says that you should say Mexico. Mexico. But do we spell it with a G or with an X? We spell it with an X.

So are all X's, H? No, not really. There is only two instances. Okay. Mexico and Texas as well. Texas, yeah, right. So you would never say Texas in Spanish? No, we wouldn't.

So Texas and Mexico. Yeah. I mean, I say we never. we never, but that is the rule. The rule says that they have to be pronounced with a sound. And that is the rule of the R-A-E. Yes.

So tell us about the R-A-E. Oh, I love it. The R-A-E is La Real Academia Española, and it's just an organization that collects all the grammar pronunciation rules, everything related to the Spanish language. Everywhere it's spoken. Everywhere. So it's not just, it's about the Spanish language

as opposed to Spain, Spanish, for example. Exactly, no, no. It's about all the countries. Yes, yes, very important. Okay. So in this episode, we've talked about the J sound, the J sound in Spanish. And we've given you some tips on how to pronounce it. Perhaps you have that sound already in your language, in which case, great.

If not, then hopefully our tips have helped you work out how to pronounce it. We looked at it in the middle of words, like Ajo. We looked at it at the beginning of words, like the names, like Jaime, Juan, and so on. Yes, yes. And we also looked at the letter X, which has two pronunciations. Exactly. Or two words where it's pronounced as a jota as well. You know, there's one thing missing, Concha.

Oh, what is it? I think you can guess. I think I can guess. It's a pronunciation episode. What do we need? Un travalinguas. A little tongue twister for you. So Concha has written something and she's not taught me yet.

So I'm going to listen to this and see if we can work out what it means. So go for it. Okay. So it's quite long. So let's do bit by bit. Okay. But then I want you to try and do it all at once and as quickly as you had. Madreia.

Oh, OK. So the first bit is Juan and Juanita Juegan to Juntar Junkos. Okay. Juan and Juanita Juerga. Uh-huh.

A juntar humkos. Perfect. So there's a junco. Is that what you get at the side of a river? Exactly. The reed. Uh-huh. The read.

Okay. So Juan and Juanita are playing at Juntar gathering reads That is Juan and Juanita Juergian Juntar

Junkos Very well Second part Junto A Zanja Del Jardin Junto A la

Zan Del Jardin Okay So Juntu Bisaid A Zanja That's

Like a Dutch Yes Exactly Okay. Del Jardin of the garden. So Juntoa la Zanja del Jardin, or the Sanja, if you're using Setturican pronunciation as well. So the whole thing.

So Juan and Juanita Juergian to Junkos Junto to the Zanha del Jardin. Oh my goodness. Okay. So I'll try and see that, but okay. Okay. Juan and Juanita Juanita

Juegan to Junkos Junto a Zanjad del Jardin. Now, Bebiendo Jujo So drinking Jojoba juice Uh-huh. It's very good for you.

Bebendo Jujo de Johoba. Very well. And Comiendo Hamon De Jihon. And Comuendo Jom de Jihon.

That's very very good. J-J-O-N. That's spelled G-I-J-O-N with an accent. Yes. So that is

a little bit of a teaser for a next episode that we're going to be doing because this sound, even though we are focusing on the J letter the J, can also be made with a G. Yeah, but that's for another episode. So the whole tongue

twister. Okay, I'm going to try because it's hard for me as well. Juan and Juanita Juegan to junks So Juan and Juan and Juanita are playing at the ditch in the garden, Bebiening Jujo de Jihon. So Juan and Juanita are playing at gathering reeds next to the ditch in the garden,

drinking jojoba juice and eating ham from Jihon. Exactly. It sounds a lot easier in English. And as ever, like most tongue twisters, it doesn't really mean a lot. Yeah. It's not the sentence that you're going to be using every day. No, no, no. Okay, I'll go for it. Juan and Juanita

Juegan to join us Junkos, Junko'a del Jardin, Bebiento Hugo de Jolla and comienda Jamon de Jihon. Very bien, perfecto. I think we should stop there.

Right, so that was our lesson on the pronunciation of the J. I hope you have enjoyed this little pronunciation challenge. And all these examples and more information, you can see them in the blog article. So make sure to go to the description because there you'll find the link. Exactly. And if you'd like more practice with your Spanish, then you can access our free regular email lessons. We send out emails regularly about pronunciation like Jota with tongue twisters, but also other emails relating to culture, grammar, vocabulary, a whole range of different topics.

Just sign up at coffee break. languages.com slash Spanish. Mm-hmm. That's. Well, nothing. Yeah, Mark. That's all for

today. Much thanks to you. Thanks to you. Thanks to you. Thanks a most of us. And after the next. Happy coffee breaking.

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