Pourquoi le "sol" et le "do" ont-ils parfois une sonorité différente ?

Learning the alphabet is the absolute basis to learning a language. In order to be able to read and write, you need to know how to pronounce different letters. Some languages, like English, have lots of different rules to memorize when it comes to pronunciation. In Spanish, every letter makes the same sound consistently, except for “g” and “c”, which sometimes sound different. Why is that? We’ll show you!

L'espagnol est une langue phonétique

L'espagnol est ce que les spécialistes appellent une langue phonétique. prononce les mots by just looking at it. That’s also why accent marks are so useful! They tell you exactement où le stress doit porter sur les mots qui ne respectent pas les règles de l'accentuation.

Read moreVidéo : Faux amis espagnol-anglais

Of course, there always seems to be an exception, doesn’t there? All letters make the same sound, except the letters “c” and “g”, which have two different sounds.

“C” and “G” sound different in predictable ways

Ne t'inquiète pas, même si ces lettres peuvent produire des sons différents, il existe une astuce simple pour pouvoir savoir quel son elles produisent dans un contexte donné. Comme la plupart des langues, l'espagnol a subi de nombreuses transformations au fil des ans, et l'influence de différentes langues a fait que ces deux lettres représentent deux sons.

Read moreActivité en ligne : Conjuguer les verbes espagnols au présent

First, we need to make a distinction between soft and hard sounds. For the letter “c”, it’s soft when it sounds like an English “s”, and it’s hard when it makes a “k” sound. For the letter “G”, it’s soft when it makes an English “h” sound, and it’s hard when it makes an English “g” sound, as in “goat”.

Doux après e ou i, dur après a, o, u

The sound “c” and “g” make depends on the letter that comes after. If they are followed by an i or an e, they make a soft sound, and when followed by an a, o or u, they make a hard sound. Let’s practice!

Essaie de prononcer ces deux mots en faisant attention à la règle que nous venons d'apprendre :

• gigante
• circo

Both of these words use the soft and hard version of the letters! “Gigante” sounds like “he-GAN-tay”, and “circo” sounds like “seer-co”.

Next time you come across a new word with a “c” or a “g”, remember these rules and you’ll be able to decode it like a pro!