Why Do Spanish Speakers Sound Spanish? | Improve Your Accent

Understand why Spanish speakers sound Spanish when speaking English with the help of Sofía Vergara.

00:00 - Intro
00:29 - Consonants (L Sounds)
01:24 - The TH Sounds
01:53 - The M Sound
02:30 - Syllable-final Consonants
03:20 - Vowels (/iː/ and /ɪ/ Vowels)
03:49 - The /ʌ/ Vowel
04:21 - The Hesitation Sound
04:53 - Conclusion

*Disclaimers*
1. Sofía Vergara has been chosen because she exhibits the highlighted accent features to such an extent that it is easier for the viewer to hear. If a speaker with a "less strong" accent were chosen, it would be harder for non-phonetically trained viewers to understand the points in the video.
2. Not all native Spanish speakers will have the same accent features (or these features to the same degree) as Sofía Vergara. However, I have taught many Spanish speakers who do have accents similar to Sofía Vergara's (even young people and even people who have lived in England for many years).
3. There are many accents (and dialects) in the Spanish-speaking world. When a Spanish speaker from Spain speaks English, it will sound different to someone from Argentina speaking English. There isn't just "one Spanish accent", but this video summarises some accent features that most Spanish speakers have (either when they started to learn English or even now after speaking English for many years).
4. I have not shown all potential accent features that Spanish speakers may have.
5. Some topics have been simplified for a general audience.

*Links*

[ImproveYourAccent]

For those of you who have thought of Spanish words ending in “m” like “ultimátum”, “álbum”, “currículum” notice that they are usually pronounced with [n] (or [ŋ] or nothing) at the end rather than [m] when spoken.

[pewpewman._.]

Why english people sound english when they talk in spanish ?

[jotashock]

Curiosamente al revés también se da el caso de angloparlantes que pasan toda su vida en Latinoamerica o España y nunca dejan de escucharse como gringos xD

[hlwmdhb]

Chill people, he’s only trying to help us with our pronunciation. He used a strong accent as an example because there would be no point showing someone that can actually speak properly with barely an accent. And yes, Spanish accent is not the same as Latinoamerican accent but he means the language overall. Anyway, let’s relax and if you feel like you don’t need these tips then good, but some people might.

[dmanakell]

you forgot to mention the one that's perhaps the most iconic. "we Espeak Espanish"

[BrianDeParma]

As an Italian living in Spain, I love to observe the different mistakes that Spanish and Italian speakers do when speaking English.
In my opinion, the most obvious and common features of the English pronunciation by peninsular Spanish speakers are:
1- As in Spanish there are no words beginning with s+consonant, when pronouncing such words in English they add an E at the beginning. For example: speed --> espeed. Made in Spain --> made in Espain. I'm Spanish --> I'm Espanish. This is the funniest one for me.
2- As the /h/ sound doesn't exist in Spanish, they use a /χ/ or /x/ sound instead.
3- As the /æ/ sound doesn't exist in Spanish, they use an /a/ sound. We Italian speakers usually turn it into an /ɛ/.
Exemplifying points 2 and 3, "happy" is usually pronounced /'χapi/ by Spaniards, and /'ɛp:i/ by Italians. Harrison Ford becomes respectively /'χarison/ and /'ɛr:izon/ (poor Harrison).
4- Many Spaniards have a hard time in pronouncing the /d͡ʒ/ sound (like in "jump"), and they turn it into a /ʝ/ (like in Spanish "yo"). Also, sometimes they find it difficult to pronounce "v" and "sh" correctly (as these sounds don't exist in contemporary peninsular Spanish).

[MotorcycleGearHub]

Sofia Vergara seems to exaggerate her accent as part of her "Latina" allure in the industry; many Latin-American and Spanish actors do this as they usually only get stereotypical roles in films. One commonality with people from mainland Spain is that they will pronounce each and every syllable in words as is the norm with the Spanish spoken in most mainland Spain. On the other hand, I've found that many Latin Americans have a tendency to elongate syllables when speaking in English; ditto for Andalusians and Canarians in Spain. Just my observation as someone who goes back & forth between a pseudo East-London accent and a Castilian accent.

[carlostejada]

a free tip for english speakers who want to speak spanish:
learn how to pronounce the

like: Rapido Ruedan las Ruedas del Ferrocarril

[gemmaurbano]

I heard kind of a saying once that it says:
The person who speaks 2 languages is called bilingual, the person who speaks 3 languages is called trilingual and the person who speaks 1 language is called English.
I found it true

[idontknowiknow]

Why do english ppl sound english when speaking a different language?

[ijansk]

Why do English speakers stereotype the Spanish language and people with tropical music?

[christianalbina]

You used the most stereotyped (forced) spanish accent which does not represent how most native spanish speakers really speak english

[eliamakeup]

At least Spanish speakers make the effort of learning another language. I would like to hear an English speaker talking is Spanish without any accent

[jdrv]

I believe it's easier for a Spanish speaker to speak English fluently, than for a English speaker to speak spanish

[juanfranciscobrizuela]

To be fair, Sofía Vergara's accent is horrible, even for non native speakers standards

[simpdestructor]

Creí que mi inglés era horrible hasta que escuché a Sofia Vergara y Peña Nieto xd

[deval]

She's not a good example. I'm a native spanish speaker and i do not speak like that.

[NostalgiCrazy]

I didn't realize everyone hated her accent so much 😮 I love her accent!

[BeatifulSadness]

As a Spanish speaker, I liked this video but I have a few criticisms with your choice. I believe Sofia Vergara is a nice way to illustrate some of these points but is not very representative. I don't know if it is intentional or not but she tends to overplay some of the things she says to add a "latina" feel to it as opposed to, say, Pedro Pascal who still maintains an accent while speaking in English but is not as exaggerated. Perhaps a Mexican actor (or actress) would be a better choice?

[hannergoe]

But Sofia Vergara speaks like that because of her show, because of her character, she exaggerates it. normal Spanish accent sounds how for example Shakira pronounces, a little bit more English but we can still feel spanish accent sometimes, i'm spanish and that's how My English speaking sounds.