Comments on: Smells good

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easemac, ha ha, nothing gets by your pupil! Liliana is Mexican; she pronounces "huele" with a light /g/ sound at the beginning. Esti (from Spain) reports the same pronunciation. I am not a native speaker of Spanish, and I don't start that word with a /g/ sound. Maybe it's because I don't see a /g/ written, or maybe it's because ten years ago when I was learning Spanish I hung out with "costeños," who have a different pronunciation. I'm not sure why I don't pronounce it, but I don't! In Latin America, linguists put dialects into two groups: "costal" and "mountain." This has to due with historical issues, related to the colonization of Latin American. Lili and Esti's pronunciation (and Leo's for that matter) pattern as "mountain" dialects, and my pronunciation often patterns after "coastal" dialects. Anyway, tell your student that our different pronunciations are not meaning-bearing; they are just variations. If your pupil is trained in linguistics, tell him/her that the sounds are both allophones of the same phoneme : ) Great question!

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Thanks JP for that detailed response. My student doesn't have any training in linguistics (he's only 12 years old), but I do see a bright future for him. I had always heard this word "huele" pronounced the way you do, in fact. Unlike other words with two possible phoneme pronunciations ("agua", "guapo", "guacamole", etc), "huele" is simply not written with a "gu", que yo sepa..... In any case, thanks for keeping us all sharp!

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me gusta leer un libro

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Very intersting to read about the two variations of dialect costal vs moutain I have heard those words both ways too with a light g sound as well as the w sound did not know why the difference gracias

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Estoy confundida. ¿Cuál es la diferencia entre decir la hamburguesa es rica y la hamburguesa está rica.

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Las besos de mi esposa esta que rico!!! y ella gusta a escuchar cuando me lo susurro. (I probably said that wrong...I hope the idea comes through) ~Russ

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¡Qué buena lección! Me gusta muchísimo. No sabía que Esti y Leo pueden hablar tan sensualmente. :) La discusión de JP and Lili me recuerda de una escena muy sensual de la peli "La Mujer De Mi Hermano" en la que uno de los protagonistas dice "¡Qué rico, mi amor, qué rico!". :)

What a great lesson! I like it very much. I didn't know that Esti and Leo could talk that sensually. The discussion of JP and Lili reminds me of a scene in the movie "My Brother's Wife" in which one of the main characters says "¡Qué rico, mi amor, qué rico!".

Russ: Creo que es mejor decir "¡Los besos de mi esposa están tan ricos! Y a ella le gusta escuchar cuando se lo susurro."

Russ: I think it is better to say "The kisses of my wife are so delicious! And she likes to hear it when I whisper this to her."

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Hola

Se puede decir ¿ "¡ Que rico nadar !" o "¡ Que rica la natacion !" ?

gracias

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Jaja, JP y su YUM! cracked me up. :D I know I'm very fond of food, but I think JP has me beat. I could virtually hear him drooling this time around. ^^