The ‘Essential’ Consonant Exercises

Now that we have practised those ten introductory exercises with the aim of giving your tongue a newly found flexibility, let’s move on to the practice of those sounds that will make your pronunciation exquisitely close to that of native speakers of Spanish.

Let me be very clear: The significant difference in the pronunciation of Spanish words is determined by the place of articulation of the tip or the blade of the tongue on the hard palate when producing the sounds of the Consonants contained in those words.

It is important at this point to note that words will have Consonant points of articulation in different parts of the word: At the Beginning, in the Middle or at the End of a word. These are called Initial, Medial, and Final points of articulation.

In Articulatory Phonetics, the place of articulation of the consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract as a result of an active articulator (in this case the tongue) coming in touch with a “passive location” (In this case, a specific spot in the hard palate).

Now, let’s narrow down the focus of our attention using the above graphic: In those cases where in English we would naturally articulate a consonant sound by placing the tip or blade of the tongue [17] and [16] roughly between the front of the hard palate, location marked with [4] and as back as [5], those sounds are articulated with the tip of the tongue [17] placed at [3] and as far back as between [3] and [4] in Spanish.

The above applies specifically to the letters T – D – N – L and R . This means, of course, that when speaking in Spanish, the tongue will automatically and unconsciously articulate in the spot indicated, whenever these 5 consonants are voiced.

Consider the sentence : Tendremos Dos Noches Libres

Try to place your tongue at the point discussed, and you will hear the difference when saying this several times. I recommend you do this in front of a mirror.

Now let’s turn our attention to the letter “T”.

The Consonant “T”

Consider these English words that use the letter ‘t’ and while you repeat them aloud, make sure you “feel” where you place your tongue every time you produce a ‘T’:

Take your time, Tony.

Tim took Tom to the doctor yesterday.

Terry takes the train to work.

If you listen with attention to the song “Shallow” sung by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga you will notice that the letter T produces a lot of air as their tongue goes to the roof of the mouth every time they sing it.

Instead, the Spanish ‘T’ will be right behind the teeth. In fact, our tongue will actually touch the teeth in these words:

The Consonant “D”

Consider these English words that use the letter ‘d’ and while you repeat them aloud, make sure you “feel” where you place your tongue every time you produce a ‘D’:

Donald diced a dozen apples.

Doctors have said diabetes can be controlled.

Didn’t Donna decide to do a PhD in dentistry?

The Spanish D is also the subject of our attention in this workbook, because it is actually almost the same sound that we make in certain English “th” words (especially the article “the”. It is almost the same as what we explained with the letter “T”. While our English “D” is behind, the Spanish “D” is up front, and the tongue will actually touch your teeth.

The Consonant “L”

Consider these English words that use the letter ‘L’ and while you repeat them aloud, make sure you “feel” where you place your tongue every time you produce a ‘L’:

The lamp is little.

A light load is a lot better to carry.

Do you like looking at the lights in the park?

The Spanish L is also the subject of our attention in this workbook because it is a very different consonant than the English. You see, in English the L has different positions in the Initial, Medial and Final positions. Compare the initial ‘L’ sound in the word LOST with the final ‘L’ in the word ALL. In the first case the tongue goes up and touches the palate a few millimetres behind the teeth. In the second case, the tongue rises but does not touch the palate.

So while our English “L” is in different positions depending on whether it is an Initial, Medial or Final consonant, the Spanish “L” is up front, and the tongue will actually touch your teeth.

The Consonant “N”

Consider these English words that use the letter ‘N’ and while you repeat them aloud, make sure you “feel” where you place your tongue every time you produce an ‘N’:

Norman named his son Norman.

Jennifer was named nanny of the year.

Nobody knows anything about Narnia.

The Spanish N is also the subject of our attention in this workbook. It has the same place of articulation of the Spanish ‘T’

So while in our English “N” the tongue rises to touch the hard palate a few millimetres behind the interdental papilla of the front teeth, the Spanish “N” is up front, and the tongue will actually touch your teeth.

Exercises

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