English pronunciation by Spanish speakers
A typical pronunciation problem for Spanish speakers is that of words that begin with 'S + consonant'. For example, Spain
may be pronounced eh-spain
. What are other standard (eh-standar) pronunciation issues for Spanish speakers?
(Note: This is a query for specific examples; thus, we do not have here an exact duplicate of this question, which was a little more vague.)
Solution 1:
Whatever English phonology has that Spanish doesn't.
- Distinction between tense and lax vowels. For example, Spanish speakers may pronounce “bit” like “beet” and “full” like “fool”.
- Additional consonant phonemes:
- /v/ (confused with /b/)
- /z/ (confused with /s/)
- /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /dʒ/ (confused with /tʃ/).
- /θ/ (confused with /s/ in some Spanish dialects)
- /ð/
- Initial consonant clusters /sk/, /sp/, /st/. Spanish speakers tend to add an epenthetic /e/, as you have mentioned.
- More complex consonant clusters, like /str/ and /ŋkθs/ in “strengths”.
- English is stressed-timed rather than syllable-timed like Spanish.