Some Spanish consonants have this property--they soften between vowels.

 'b' - burro = hard /b/, abeja = softer /v/ sound made without teeth
touching the lips
 'd' - dar = hard /d/, cada = softer /th/ sound like in
English this but with the tongue up against the back of the front teeth
instead of extended between the upper and lower teeth
 'g' - gas = hard /g/, haga = softer /g/ sound we don't have in
English

Technically, a voiced Stop consonant becomes a voiced Fricative

consonantintervocalically. In Linguistics, this is a an example of a common
phenomenon called Complementary distribution.

Note also that written 'b' and 'v' are pronounced identically, but there are two
sounds for b/v governed only by whether they are between vowels (without
regard to spelling).
Some Spanish consonants have this property--they soften between vowels.

 'b' - burro = hard /b/, abeja = softer /v/ sound made without teeth
touching the lips
 'd' - dar = hard /d/, cada = softer /th/ sound like in
English this but with the tongue up against the back of the front teeth
instead of extended between the upper and lower teeth
 'g' - gas = hard /g/, haga = softer /g/ sound we don't have in
English

Technically, a voiced Stop consonant becomes a voiced Fricative

consonantintervocalically. In Linguistics, this is a an example of a common
phenomenon called Complementary distribution.

Note also that written 'b' and 'v' are pronounced identically, but there are two
sounds for b/v governed only by whether they are between vowels (without
regard to spelling). The answer is simple. Just you have to remember when “d”
is between vowels, pronounce it “th” as in the English word “there” but little
bit softer, like: ocupado, puedo.
And when the letter “d” comes between consonant letter or at the beginning of
a sentence, it is pronounced as the normal “d”. Here are a few examples: dar,
llorando

Spanish pronunciation rules

Exercises
1. Spanish pronunciation exercise - single choice question
2. Spanish tilde - pronunciation exercise
 3. Accute accent in Spanish exercise

¡Buenos días! Let´s get started with voicing Spanish!

Theory and practice of Spanish pronunciation

Vocalization of Spanish letters might be confusing for an English speaker as they
represent different sounds from their English equivalents. Let´s take a look on those
letters that make a difference with regard to pronunciation.

g pronunciation
The letter g before the vowels a, o, u, ue, ui has the English hard g sound, such as in
the word "good". However, before e and i, g sounds as exaggerated English h.

g sound exaggerated h sound

guerra (war) gerente (manager)

gastos (expenses) gigante (giant)

gorro (hat) gente (people)

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y pronunciation
The pronunciation of Spanish letter y is the same as of Spanish i. For instance:

 hoy (today)
  setenta y uno (seventy one)
 ida y vuelta (round trip).

ll pronunciation
Depending on the Spanish-speaking country or region this letter could be heard as
[ʝ], [ʒ] or [ʃ]. Notwithstanding, the majority of Spanish speakers say it like the letter y.
In other words, ll and yrepresent the same sound. It could be compared to the
sounding of the English "yes". For instance:

 lluvia (rain)
 llaves (keys)
 llano (flat)
 zapatillas (sneakers).

x pronunciation
The Spanish x sounds just like the English one. Exception to the rule are the names
containing x. In this cases the letter would rather sound as English h.

x sound h sound

xenófobo (xenophobic) México

xilografía (woodcut) Xavier

z pronunciation
In Spain it is pronounced like English th in the vocable "thanks" for example. In Latin
America the same letter sounds like s. Some Z-words:

 zanahoria (carrot)
 zapato (shoe)
 zanja (ditch).

v pronunciation
In Spanish v and b represent the same sound:

 Valencia (Valencia)
 vacaciones (holidays)
 viernes (Friday).

j pronunciation
J is alike English h in "hi", but exaggerated. It is also the same as Spanish ge and gi:
  joven (young)
 jornada (working day)
 junio (June).

u pronunciation
It's like English oo in "roof", but shorter in the majority of the words. In the
variants gui, gue and qu it is silent, unless it is marked this way:

 güe
 güi.

oo sound, but shorter silent u güe, güi

Usted (you, polite) guerra (war) pingüino (penguin)

uno (one) guitarra (guitar) cigüeña (stork)

c pronunciation
If it´s followed by the vowel sounds e and i, the pronunciation of the letter is like th in
English (in Spain) or like s (in Latin America). If the letter is followed by the
vowels a, o and u it is pronounced as k.

th sound or s sound k sound

cerveza (beer) cuando (when)

cielo (sky) comida (food)

Diphthongs
Do you remember the pronunciation lesson number 1 from the alphabet lecture? Let
us remind you the most important points:

1. Two strong vowels one next to the other = 2 separate syllables: europeo,
paseo.
2. Strong vowel + weak vowel = 1 syllable with stress on the strong
vowel: antiguo, especial.
3. Two weak vowels = 1 syllable with emphasis on the second vowel: suizo,
influir.
How to stress the accent
Which are the common rules?

1. Words that end in consonant different from N and S have stress on the
last syllable: salud, pastel, personalidad.
2. Words that end in a vowel, N or S have stress on the penultimate
syllable: julio, persona, joven.

The Spanish acute accent called tilde (á,é,ó,í,ú) is very important in the language. It
indicates that the normal rules of the word stress are being violated. Words with
accent mark have to be learnt by memory. For example:

 murciélago
 miércoles
 sábado.

Some more words with "tilde" are:

Some words with acute accent in Spanish

énfasis (emphasis)

politización (politization)

canción (song)

francés (French)

característica (characteristic)

según (according)

Acute accents are also used to distinguish words written in the same way, but with
divergent meanings. For instance: si (if) and sí (yes).