The Letter C and K

Today we're going to look at the final consonant sound that differs from English because of its aspiration. Check out my previous posts if you don't remember what that is. Actually, we're going to see two letters because the "k" only appears in loan words but otherwise has the same sound as the hard "c". Also, what do I mean by "hard"? Basically, like in English the Spanish "c" has both a hard and soft pronunciation depending on whether it's followed by an "e" or "i". In English, we see this difference when we compare "hard c" words like "cat" and "cook" to "soft c" words like "city" and "cell". Similarly, Spanish has the hard and soft difference which you can see if you compare "hard c" words like "campo" and "con" to "soft c" words like "cierto" and "celos".

For this post, we're mainly interested in the hard "c" pronunciation because that's where we see a difference between the English and Spanish pronunciation. In English, the hard "c" and "k" have an accompanying puff of air when you say the letter. Put your palm in front of your mouth and try saying the following words:

camp

kill

rack

Notice that blast of air on your hand? Good. The non-aspirated form of the sound generally appears when the hard "c" is preceded by a consonant. For example, let's try the words:

scout

skill

To isolate the non-aspirated hard "c" let's try the splitting exercise. Try placing a short pause between the "s" and "c/k".

s--cout…s--cout…s--cout…s--cout…s--cout

s--kill…s--kill…s--kill…s--kill…s--kill

Now, lengthen the space between the "s" and "c/k" and soften the "s" to a whisper.

s----cout…s----cout…s----cout…s----cout…s----cout

s----kill…s----kill…s----kill…s----kill…s----kill

Ok, let's drop that "s" altogether and pay attention to how you're making that hard "c" sound. There shouldn't be any puff of air anymore on your hand.

cout…cout…cout…cout…cout…

kill…kill…kill…kill…kill…

Keep that non-aspirated hard "c" sound going and now let's use it in some real Spanish words.

causa…causa…causa…causa…causa…

kilo…kilo…kilo…kilo…kilo…

All right! That should cover it for the letters "c" and "k". I hope you found that helpful in improving your Spanish accent and sounding less like a gringo!

Here's your trabalenguas for the day!



Until next time!