2. Tomando posesión de la fonética—un repaso y un poco más

Several times we said that Spanish is phonetic, that we write it as it sounds. If we have good control of the vowels sounds, we can have a very good control of the Spanish pronunciation. We also studied that knowing the sound of each consonant or consonant group with each vowel is key. Here is a chart about the sounds of the vowels and the consonants that have changes.

Let’s revisit the verb conducir (to drive), an “IR” verb as it relates to the above chart. Write the conjugation of the verb in the indicative mood in the present time:

yo ___________ nosotros/as __________

tú ___________ vosotros/as ___________

él, ella, usted __________ ellos, ellas, ustedes ___________

Now read aloud the conjugation that you just wrote, did you note it correctly or does something sound wrong?

Remember:

• the sound K with the letter C is with the vowels a, o, u
• the sound th/s with the letter C is with the vowels i, e

The verb conducir has th/s sound with the “I” but when we change the ending to conjugate the verb, we take off the” ir” and we use the ending “o”. Then we are using the sound K with the vowel “o”.

Can you hear the incorrect sound?

• yo conduco
• nosotros/as conducimos
• tú conduces
• vosotros/as conducís
• él, ella, Ud. conduce     
• ellos, ellas, Uds. conducen

All the endings are the th/s, except in the first person (yo), where the “co” creates the sound K. To avoid this inconsistency, we add a Z before the last syllable co, to have the soft sound of th/s and then the K sound with the o.

• yo conduzco
• nosotros/as conducimos
• tú conduces
• vosotros/as conducís
• él, ella, Ud. conduce
• ellos, ellas, Uds. conducen

Although we studied this pattern in the previous unit, we want to reinforce the concept of sound rules. By making this minor change, we keep the soft sound “th/s” along with the endings of the conjugation of the infinitive verbs ending with “ir”. Go back to your conjugations above, note the difference in a different color pen to make it stand out.

There are several verbs that have this “phonetic irregularity” in the first person. In the next chart write the conjugation for the first person, in the indicative mood in the present, making the phonetic adjustment:

Let’s see another example, conocer (to know). Following what we just studied, write the conjugation for the first person of the next verbs. Pay attention to the fact that the infinitive ends in “er”.

After this exercise, we recommend you make your flashcards: You don’t need to write all the conjugations. In this case, you can write (reg with ZC) to help you remember the change that the verb has based on phonetics. Now you understand why it changes; when you understand, you know!

Below are other verbs that have some phonetic irregularities. You will be able to understand these irregularities if you remember the table: