This introductory lesson contains four assignments. When you have finished them, you will be able to greet people, say "yes", "no", "please" and "thank you", order drinks, count up to 5, and refer to various persons and nationalities.

You will know 25 out of the 32 sounds of Spanish, have a vocabulary of about 30 words and phrases, and be able to manipulate gender (masculine and feminine) and number (singular and plural) to create approximately 90 different phrases of the type determiner + noun. Reference material on vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar is included.

When you feel you are prepared, telephone 0845 456 3951 or +44 (0) 141-334 8902 for your FREE 15-minute lesson. Please telephone during working hours, and allow for any time difference with the United Kingdom.

The following are the 32 sounds of Spanish:

Vowels:     i e a o u

Plosives:   p b t d k g

Fricatives: f B T D s z x G

Affricates: tS jj

Sonorants:  m M n J N l L r rr j w

This course uses a phonetic transcription to represent the sounds - your tutor will demonstrate them to you. A description of each sound is given below (those with no description do not appear in this lesson). A recording is also available.

• Vowels
  1. i LIke ee in English meet. un."di.a a day
  2. e Like e in English bet. "le.tSe milk
  3. a Like a in southern English path, but with the tongue further forward. "tar.De afternoon
  4. o Like o in English stop. "no.tSe night
  5. u Like oo in English moon, but using an old-fashioned pronunciation with strongly rounded lips. "u.na one
• Plosives
  1. p Like English p, but without the following puff of breath. es.pa."Jol Spanish
  2. b Like English b. "bwe.no good
  3. t Like English t, but with the tongue touching the teeth and without the following puff of breath. "tar.De afternoon
  4. d Like English d, with the tongue touching the teeth. un."di.a a day
  5. k Like English k, but without the following puff of breath. ka."fe coffee
  6. g Like g in English good. "gra.Tjas thank you
• Fricatives
  1. f Like English f. ka."fe coffee
  2. B A sound halfway between English b and English v; a buzzing sound made by blowing voiced breath between the two lips. por.fa."Bor please
  3. T Like th in English think. Ter."Be.Ta beer
  4. D Like th in English this. a."Djos goodbye
  5. s Like ss in English hiss. se."Jor gentleman
  6. z Like z in English lazy. u.naz."no.tSes a few nights
  7. x
  8. G
• Affricates
  1. tS Like ch in English church. "le.tSe milk
  2. jj
• Sonorants
  1. m
  2. M
  3. n Like English n. "no.tSe night
  4. J Like a combination of n and y, as in English onion. se."Jo.ra lady
  5. N Like English ng. iN."gles English
  6. l Like English l. "le.tSe milk
  7. L
  8. r Like a tapped English r. se."Jo.ra lady
  9. rr
  10. j Like y in English yacht. "gra.Tjas thank you
  11. w Like English w. "bwe.no good

Some sounds behave in similar ways, so we need to classify them into groups.

• Voiced and voiceless. With a 'voiced' sound, the vocal cords vibrate. The sound can be sung. If you put your hands over your ears, you can hear a buzz. If you touch your larynx lightly, you can feel vibrations. With a 'voiceless' sound, however, the vocal cords do not vibrate. The sound cannot be sung. There is no buzz in the ears or vibration of the larynx.
• Voiced consonants. The voiced consonants are b d g B D z G jj m M n J N l L r rr j and w.
• Velar consonants. The velar consonants are those pronounced against the back part of the roof of the mouth: k g x G and N.

A strong feature of Spanish is the way sounds at the beginnings and ends of words are affected by the words coming before and after them. The changes that occur in this lesson are listed below.

Every Spanish noun belongs to one of two genders, masculine and feminine. Nouns referring to living beings usually have the same gender as their sex, but with non-living things there is no sex. So you have to learn the gender of each noun when you learn the noun. The gender is shown in the vocabulary as m. or f.

To make a noun plural, add s to it if it ends in a vowel, or es if it ends in a consonant. se."Jo.ra lady, se."Jo.ras ladies; es.pa."Jol Spanish man, es.pa."Jo.les Spanish men.

The articles el and un have different forms for masculine and feminine, singular and plural. "Agreement" means that the determiner must take the appropriate form (masculine or feminine, singular or plural) for the noun it refers to.

The numeral u.no behaves just like un, dropping its final o. The adjective "Bwe.no, used only in the plural in this lesson, has masc. plur. "Bwe.nos and fem. plur. "Bwe.nas, and must agree with its noun. The plural of un means a few.

The determiner in Spanish goes immediately in front of its noun, just as in English. You can combine any of the determiners given in the vocabulary with any of the nouns: dos.Ter."Be.Tas, uN.ka."fe, TiN.ko."no.tSes.