/k/

In Spanish there are three letters which can sound /k/: C, Q and K

We have 5 vowels and you can find the sound /k/ with all of them but the letter to use changes:

A O U work together in the same way, and E I in another way. Let´s see:

Letter C as /k/

Casa: /ˈkasa/ - House
Comida: /koˈmiða/ - Food
Cuna: /'kuna/ - Cradle

so CA, CO, CU sound /ka/ /ko/ /ku/, but what happens with E and I?¿?¿?

Cerebro: /θeˈreβro/-Brain
Cisne: /ˈθisne/ - Swan

Ce and ci don´t sound like /k/!!!!
Children in school learn this rule pronouncing this: C = /ka/ /ko/ /ku/ /θe/ /θi/. You could try!

Letter K as /k/

Well, this one is very easy. Most of words with K come from other languages and it always sounds /k/, for instance:

Karaoke: /karaˈoke/
Euskera: /eu̯sˈkera/ - Basque
Kilogramo: /kiloˈɣramo/ - Kilogramm
Koala: /koˈala/ - Koala bear
Kung fu: /kuɱˈfu/

Easy, but do not get so happy. There are few words in Spanish which have this letter, what a pitty!

Letter Q as /k/

Letter Q is always followed by U and E or I, I mean: Que or Qui.
It never works with A, O , U. Let´s see some examples:

Queso: /ˈkeso/ - Cheese
¿Qué tal?: /ke tal/ -How is it going?
Raquel: /rraˈkel/ - Rachel
Quien: /kjen/ -who
Aquí: /aˈki/ - Here
Chiquillo: /ʧiˈkiʎo/ - little boy

You will never read Qa, Qo, Qu, Qua, Quo, Quu in Spanish but you could find words like "Quorum" or "Quasi" which are Latin words.

To sum up, you can find /k/ in Spanish in these ways:

CA CO CU QUE QUI
KA KO KU KE KI

Castellano vs Español

When I go abroad I say that I speak Spanish.
Spanish means "español" but, in fact, I never say "Yo hablo español" but "castellano".

That´s funny. Around 9 different languages are spoken in Spain. Most of them are as official as "Spanish" and they are Spanish, of course! I mean, they are from Spain indeed: Catalonian, Galician, Aranese, Basque, Asturleonese, Aragonese... and all of them are languages of Spain. In America is also usually called Castellano instead of Español, but both words are right.

"Castilla" is a great region in Spain which is currently divided in 3 regions (Castilla León, Castilla la Mancha and Madrid, which has its own region because of its capital status as happens, for instance, in Vienna or Brussels). When all kingdoms of Iberican peninsula got united, the language of Castilla got spread over the other kingdoms even they kept their own languages. So nowadays, 6 Spanish regions have coofficial languages.

Most of them have 2 official languages but Catalonia have 3. Other languages are spoken in other regions altought they are not official yet, for instance Asturleonese and Aragonese.
And, yes, all of them were born and are spoken in Spain, weren´t they?

San Millán de la Cogolla, a small town which is located in the Region of La Rioja, is considered the birthplace of Castellano/Spanish. There were written the first words in Spanish and the first Spanish Grammar (by Elio Antonio de Nebrija), which dates from 1492.

more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Mill%C3%A1n_de_la_Cogolla http://www.fsanmillan.es/index.jsp

Introduction

Welcome everyone!

Even I am not a Spanish language student and I do not have a degree in Spanish or journalism, I study law and being precise with your words is a need, so I really need to be careful with how I use my mother tonge.

I have been studying English seriously for 6 years and nowadays I focus on German and French also. I hope this short blog helps Spanish learners in their way to success.

Spanish native speakers usually show off about how easy is Spanish pronounciation, "just pronounce what you read", but that is not true!

As far as I am concerned, all languages I have known have exceptions or, what is worse, pronounciation could be a main issue. Spanish has these kind of exceptions, and I will try to explain all of them clearly in the easiest way I can do.

Good luck and enjoy learning the mother tonge of 400.000.000 people in the world!

I wish I could translate this blog in French and German but I do not feel self-confident. Let´s wait, please.


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