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Lesson Introduction

In this latest edition, Esti and Leo lock horns on the wa-/gua- and we/gue- issues. JP tries to talk about conditional sentences in the hypothetical path, and every body gets mad at the guy who hit Esti with his car.

Comments (11) RSS

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jpvillanueva says

To summarize pronunciation: 

Lili and Esti often add a [g] sound to syllables [wa] and [we], regardless of how they are spelled.

Leo tends to follow the spelling:  if it's "gua-" he says [gua], if it's "güe-" he says [gwe].

Me, I sometimes have a costeño pronunciation (sometimes), so I never pronounce a [g].  I pronounce "guacamole" and "Guatemala" as [wakamole] and [watemala].

As I said in the podcast, [gwa] and [wa] are variations of the same phoneme in Spanish... we hear the difference because in English, they are different sounds. 

In English the /t/ in "top" is very different than the /t/ in "stop."  The /t/ in "top" is aspirated; it will make enough wind to move a piece of paper if you're holding it in front of your lips.  We don't hear it; to us, they are both the same sound.  However, Thai people and others whose langauges distinguish between those two sounds hear it as clearly as English speakers hear the difference between [we] and [gue]

June 27, 2008 from the Web.
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roborob says

Me gusta mucho la comunicación entre los cuatro....!guau!.....☺☺☺

June 27, 2008 from the Web.
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dtang says

Good cultural insight... Uau!

June 27, 2008 from the Web.
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bonitalynn14 says

Dtang, it sounds like Chinese? I'm not good at spanish but i know alot about  cultures and languages, i'm trying to learn Chinese and spanish. they r nothing alike though they both have indents.

June 27, 2008 from the Web.
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shangzhe says

Mil gracias Esti, JP y Leo.

I didn't realize this single question could lead to a huge fight between you people.haha

Estoy totalmente sin querer, en verdad! Jajaja

PS:JP, thanks a lot for pronouncing my name right.

I really appreciate that!

Un buen fin de semana!

 

 

June 27, 2008 from the Web.
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shangzhe says

It's so amzing that nearly 500 million people share the spanish language, but definitely they share it in different ways.

¡ Un español, muchos españoles!

June 27, 2008 from the Web.
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bonitalynn14 says

yea they say in america the number one language is almost spanish, more spanish people are growing  all over U.S.A and if you know spanish then you can get around alot more easier.

June 28, 2008 from the Web.
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docmolly says

Si hubiera estado con Esti cuando ese tipo la chocó, la habria llevado a tomar un helado.

Thanks for the great Q&A session and I think I have both an easy and a hard question for a future "Par' que sepas"

1. Could you please explain the use of escuchar en Mexico compared to Spain? I get the impression used differently. And how about ver/mirar. I've heard in Spain you should say "Veo la tele," instead of "Miro la tele."

2. Now for the hard one. Could you explain the use of the passive voice in the statement like:

"... intervención quirúrgica en la que se le detectó un cáncer de útero..." (de la lección de Evita)

Gracias y hasta pronto!

June 29, 2008 from the Web.
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fabrizio says

Buon giorno chavales, muchas gracias por la respuesta. El podcast salió muy divertido, como siempre.

Esti, espero que te pongas bien muy pronto.

June 29, 2008 from the Web.
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donperigo says

speaking of phantom letters what about  the extra t that creeps in to the θ so that cinco gets pronounced as
sTeenko (not theenko),
eksTelente not ecthelente,
fosforesTente not fosforethente etc.

listening to native speakers i presume this is the correct way to pronounce things but I've never read or been told as much.

July 31, 2008 from the Web.
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ping8888 says

nice

September 3, 2008 from the Web.

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