Showing posts with label Pronunciation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pronunciation. Show all posts

Tuesday, 27 February 2018

I spy with my little eye

Veo, veo

Veo, veo   I see, I see
¿Qué ves?  What do you see?
Una cosita   A little thing
¿Y qué cosita es?   And what little thing is it?
Empieza con la ´a´   It starts with the letter ´a´
¿Qué será? ¿Qué será? ¿Qué será?    What will it be?

¡Alefante!
No, no, no,
Eso no, no, no   Not that
Eso no, no, no
no es así   That´s not right (literally ´it´s not like this. That´s not the way it is´)
Con la ´a´ se escribe amor,    With the ´a´ you write ´amor´
con la ´a´ se escribe adiós,
la alegría de la vida
y un montón de cosas más.   and a whole lot of other things besides (literally ´many things more´)

Veo, veo ...



This is a well known song in Spain, somewhat equivalent to the English 'I spy with my little eye'. It is particularly interesting as a way to present the five Spanish vowels ' a, e, i, o, u '.

The song is repeated for every vowel, changing the ending of the question ´¿qué será?´ just to match each vowel:
¿Qué seré?  for e
¿Qué serí?  for i
¿Qué seró? for o
¿Qué serú? for u

And also ´¿qué seraf?´ for f of ´final´ (end).

Each time we get the wrong answer, with an incorrectly spelt word:

alefante instead of elefante
eyuntamiento instead of ayuntamiento
invidia instead of envidia
oscuela instead of escuela
umbligo instead of ombligo (belly button)

It was largely popularised by Spanish children entertainer Teresa Rabal, whom we can see here in the 1982 film ´Loca por el Circo´. It might not be Oscar material but the song performed by Rabal still has that indelible trace of nostalgia that we associate with established cultural memorabilia of a generation's childhood:



And here is a new version with colourful pictures and written words:


Saturday, 12 November 2016

La Marcha del Alfabeto

La Marcha del Alfabeto


Spanish alphabet song (military style) by Barbara MacAurthur

El alfabeto

Pronunciación de marcas famosas

Pronunciación de marcas famosas

Pronunciation of famous brands

Videoele clip with a list of brands and the way they are pronounced in Spanish.


With the exception of ´google´, ´hyundai´, ´renault´, ´vodafone´, ´windows´ and ´volkswagen´, the pronunciation of international brands following the regular pattern of the Spanish alphabet can be a useful way to verify the consistency of its general rule, ie every letter is pronounced the same way in all contexts.

Once you know the code you can apply it every single time.

Pronunciación Marcas







El Alfabeto

El alfabeto


BBC Languages has some useful information about the Spanish alphabet. Apparently, the page has been archived but you can still access the mp3 file with the pronunciation of the alphabet.

El alfabeto español