But you’ll find a few differences in how certain consonants are pronounced in Spanish. It is often pronounced like the "x" in "example" or "exit," but it also may be pronounced like the s or the Spanish j. The /g/ sound for the letter g as in girl is presented before the /j/ sound for g as in gym. Spelling: j (j ob, j udge), g (g in g er, g em), ge (mana ge), dge (ju dge), d (sol d ier), gg (su gg est), dj (a dj ust) The sound / ʤ / is not a standard phoneme in Spanish and, consequently, it tends to be more problematic. Sounds. So in most cases its an H sound. 2. There are 2 sounds that natives produce in different parts of their mouth – depending on the following sound – for better flow: the sound of the letters N and L (see the table below). Learn how to pronounce the J sound in Spanish, with expert Andrea Cukier. If you give the j the sound of the English "h," as many English-speaking Spanish students do, you will be understood, but keep in mind that is only approximate. The w sound doesn’t exist really in Spanish, the letter exists in the alphabet but all words are not really Spanish, and it is pronounced just the same as in English. Lejía is written with j. That phoneme is often in diphthongs, for example: hielo, hierba, hierro, Javier. The history of "j" is kind of complicated. In Argentina, it is a primary characteristic of the language... they do it very strongly. The phoneme / j / is the is the sound we find in words like young, yes or yogurt. Learn how to pronounce these … While this is not considered a letter anymore by the RAE, it sounds like the y sound in English … The letter “g” makes the /j/ sound. The letter “g” makes the /j/ sound when followed by an “e,” “i” or “y” … Eugenio Martínez Celdrán describes the difference between them as follows (with audio examples added): [j] is shorter and is usually a merely transitory sound. By age 4, normally developing monolingual Spanish speakers acquire most sounds of the language except for /g/, /f/, /s/, /ɲ/, /r/, and /ſ/.5 Phonemes in English that do not occur in Spanish include the following: This is true with any of the three variations of ll we’ve learned about so far. The only difference from this English letter “g” sound is, as with any Spanish consonants, the Spanish g is pronounced a bit softer. In most of Spain, they use a sound that is ever-so-slightly whistle-ly, … The [j] sound (what you write as /y/) did not shift to the letter ll in Spanish—that is [λ], which has been simplified in some dialects to [ʝ] or even [j]. The letter J sounds like the HARD G in Spanish (the sound is similar to the English H but raspier). Spelling: j (j ob, j udge), g (g in g er, g em), ge (mana ge), dge (ju dge), d (sol d ier), gg (su gg est), dj (a dj ust) The sound / ʤ / is not a standard phoneme in Spanish and, consequently, it tends to be more problematic. The acquisition of English consonant sounds by Spanish speaking Mexican-American children four to eight years of age. This means that mastering the /ɣ/ sound is a key to learning to speak Spanish quickly. If you ask most Mexican speakers if they use a "j" or a "y" sound for the "y" and "ll", they'll tell you they use a "y" sound instead of a "j" sound. Oftentimes, Spanish speakers may pronounce the /y/ consonant sound as in ‘yes’ ‘years’ and ‘yellow’ as a /j/ sound, pronouncing it as jes, jears, and jello (by the way, this is not the same /j/ as in ‘jalapeno’). I have been listening to some spanish music and some of the Colombian artists that i have seem to pronounce their 'Y's and 'LL's like 'J's, is this just my ears or is that their accent? But another friend of mine from Venezuela pronounces his last name, Murillo, with a "j" sound, and actually almost like a "yj" sound (if that makes any sense). If you produce the sound as #8 shows, the sound will be raspier [X] than if you produce as in #9 [h]. While /j/ is very similar to the "i" in the Spanish diphthongs "ia", "ie", "io" and "iu", most Spanish speakers pronounce the initial /j/ in words like "yes", "young" and "university" like /dʒ/, i.e. However, nowadays, in most Spanish-speaking countries, the ll in pollo is pronounced the same way as the y in arroyo. 2. The letter "jota" of Spanish The letter "jota" is always pronounced the same.