Do you have many years of studying Spanish under your belt, but still find that Spaniards speak too fast for you to comprehend everything we say?
If you want to know why this happens, watch the following video in Spanish, or if you prefer, keep reading.
Is it true that Spaniards speak so fast?
On one hand, it’s true: Spanish is one of the languages spoken at a fastest pace. The curious thing is that even though we speak quickly, we don’t provide more information than in other languages because our words are longer… It’s as if all languages had agreed to set the maximum amount of information that can be conveyed in a specific time. And this is not just my impression; it’s something that has been studied.
Pronunciation also affects comprehension
Okay, we speak quickly, that’s a fact, but that’s not all. If you’ve read one of my previous articles, you’ll know that the letters B, D, and G have two pronunciations. And this is very important because, for one of these options, we don’t close the airflow in the mouth, or to put it another way: we don’t generate that “explosion” of air that we make when saying a standalone word that starts with B, D, G.
And I say this is important because the faster we speak, the less we will close off the airflow, and the space left between the lips or between the tongue and the palate will be wider.
Taking all of this into account, when a Spaniard pronounces the number 99 at high speed, it’s very likely that you won’t understand it. Let’s see why:
If you don’t know the pronunciation rules for the letter B, what you will expect is:
- no[b]enta y nue[b]e
How it’s correctly pronounced is with the other option:
- no[β̞]enta y nue[β̞]e
How it’s pronounced at high speed is:
- no[β̞]enta y nue[β̞]e
In other words: the sound of the approximant B is hardly heard. It’s not completely eliminated, but the lips barely close between vowels.
Of course, when you hear that phrase, you won’t have a way to transcribe those sounds in your head. And when you try to look up those words that are new for you (no’enta y nue’e), you won’t find them. Your mind will have a hard time understanding that nue[β̞]e means nueve because for your mind to understand the number 9, it needs to be nue[b]e, with a clear occlusive B.
And as this, as we’ve seen, doesn’t happen with just one phoneme… we have a problem. Every time a Spaniard speaks quickly, which is most of the time, you will have difficulty understanding all the words that have these sounds.
However, if you start working on your pronunciation and begin to assimilate that slight sound of [β̞] as what you mentally transcribe as a B, you will have many more chances to understand everything that is said.
Why don’t Spaniards pronounce all the letters?
And this is not all; we also have to understand that many sounds disappear between words. A classic example is when we have two identical vowels, and the second one is not unstressed (not in the strong syllable).
In this first example, the first E in eres is stressed, so it has enough strength to “survive.”
- ¿De dónde eres? → ¿De dónde eres?
However, in this example, the E in estás is not stressed; the stressed vowel is in the syllable tás, so it simply disappears:
- ¿Dónde estás? → ¿Dónde’stás?
So, just like before, if your mind is expecting to hear /donde estás/ and only hears /dondestás/, your mind might think:
- What does dondes tas mean?
or
- What does don destás mean?
This example is very basic, but if the same happens with other words that are not as typical, the likelihood of not understanding them increases because your mind won’t know where to break the sentence in order to understand the words that create it.
How can I fix this?
Therefore, if you transform your pronunciation to the rules of Spanish language, these new options will seem more normal to you over time, and when you hear them, your mind will be better trained to understand them. This is where you have proof that very good pronunciation doesn’t only serve to make a better impression and have a better image in front of others but also to improve your comprehension.
And if you want to keep improving your pronunciation even more, you can find a FREE course in the box below.