“G”: One letter, two sounds.

If you read the previous post you know why the “c” is pronounced in two different way The “g” follows the exact same pattern.

Let me refresh it for you. It all depends on which vowels are next.

If there’s an “I” or an “e” after the “g”, it sounds like a “J” (jota) or a very strong English “h”.

This happens for example in:

Genial (he nee al) – great

Egipto (eh heep toh) – Egypt

If you have trouble pronouncing this, try to pronounce a word with “h” like in “house” and make that sound stronger and stronger.

On the other side, if there’s any other vowel (“a”, “o”, “u”) the “g” sounds like a English “g”.

Some examples are:

Gato (gah toh) – cat

Gota (goh tah) – drop (of water or another liquid).

Angustia (an gus teeah) – anguish

Remember there’s another letter in Spanish with the sound of a strong English “h”: “j” like in “Junio” (hu nee oh) –june

And that’s all! See you in the next post!