Listening to compressed words in Spanish
By Peter on Jan 29, 2009 in Spanish
I’ve been trying to improve my listening skills in Spanish. So far I’m terrible at it but I’m picking up more words the longer I listen. I’ve discovered part of the reason I have difficulty understanding words is because Spanish speakers like to compress their words together when consecutive words end and begin with a vowel sound.
For example: Listen to the jet-lag lesson on SpanishPod.com. Pay attention to the 4th line of the dialog (about 1:25 into the lesson). The man says “Ah, claro. Porqué aquí son ocho horas más.” but what it sounds like is “Ah, claro. Porquéqui son ochoras más.” This takes some getting used to, and I admit I’m still not good at differentiating each word when it all runs together, but I’m getting better. Practice, practice, practice.
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I think this happens with every language, not only Spanish. That’s why we need tons of hours of listening!
thelanguagelearningblog.com | Jan 29, 2009 | Reply
People like to take shortcuts when they talk. We do it in English too
Thomas (babelhut.com) | Jan 30, 2009 | Reply
This seems like more than just shortcuts. This is how they speak on most learning audio, which I presume is trying to teach me the proper way to speak. If I read something written in English, I pronounce it the way it’s written, without shortcuts.
Maybe I’m the last guy to figure this out, but figuring it out has helped me with my listening skills at least somewhat. =)
peter | Jan 30, 2009 | Reply
@Peter: I mean the unconscious shortcuts your mouth takes to use less movement. The tendency to read a sentence like “What do you want to do later tonight” as “whaddya wanna do laderdonight?” That’s how it sounds when I say it anyway. Do you really pronounce all those “t”s?
thomas | Jan 30, 2009 | Reply
@thomas: Now that I’m a little more conscious of it, the answer is sometimes. It seems to depend on how fast I say it. I see your point.
peter | Jan 30, 2009 | Reply
I have noticed this sort of thing with Catalan.
E.g.
estaba a punt de (he was about to)
seems to go to:
estaba punt de – missing out the ‘a’ or absorbing it into the end of estaba.
Jim Morrison | Mar 24, 2009 | Reply
As a native Speaker, it is just the opposite — for me they speak a bit to slow … :) I am not wanting to be mean, but this guy is fairly average … Not worry, this happens which all languages … “listening” is a task you need to practice a lot, chiefly in order to break up the speech chain and process it :)
Septem Trionis | Mar 31, 2009 | Reply
Septem is right. The more input you get in Spanish, the slower it seems to go (the speaking of native speakers). To me, most Spanish sounds normal, but never too fast. There are persons from certain regions that speak a bit slower; to me that sounds reaaaaaly slow.
Ramses | Apr 1, 2009 | Reply
I have a long way to go then, everything sounds fast to me! =)
peter | Apr 1, 2009 | Reply