Spanish Route episode EIGHT your guided tour to  Spanish.

Good morning, good afternoon or good evening. Welcome to SpanishRoute. The program, the podcast, to learn Spanish the easy and fun way.

My name is Sergio and I speak from Spain. This is the eighth program, your eighth stage on your way to Spanish.

Today we will talk about the the Spanish alphabet and focus on the letters be (B / b), UVE (V / v) and uve doble (W / w). Their different names, their pronunciation and words with different meanings and are spelled differently but pronounced the same.

But first, as always, I want to remind you that on my website, spanishroute.com you can follow the written transcription of this audio. 

And if you want to improve your speech I can help you practice your Spanish with Skype conversation sessions. Remember SpanishRoute.com

And now. Let's start with the class.

Before focusing on the pronunciation of the letters be (B / b) and EUV (V / v) I'm going to pronounce the complete Spanish alphabet. In later programs we will focus on the pronunciation of other letters that can submit questions for students of Spanish. As the C/c and Z/z, the G/g and J/j, or the I/i and Y/y.

The alphabet in Spanish

The alphabet (alfabeto y abecedario: these two words are synonymous) is currently made according to the official grammar of the Spanish language by 27 letters. 5 vowels and 22 consonants. 5 digraphs are also recognized: they are sequences of two letters representing one sound.

This is how the alphabet sounds in Spanish:

A / a, B / b, C / c, D / d, E / E, F / f, G / g, H / h, I / i, J / j, K / k, L / L, M / m, N / n n / N, O / o, P / P, Q / q, R, r, s / s, T / T, U / u, v / v, w / w, X / x, Y / y, Z / z

The five vowels appear in this alphabet are: A / A, E / e, I / i, O / o, u / u

The five digraphs are: the letters c + h, the double L (ll), double R (rr), the letter q + vowel u, and letter g + vowel u . We also discuss these digraphs on these programs.

And today we will talk about the letters be (be), vee (uve), double vee (uve doble) in Spanish.

The letters be (B/b)  and uve (V/v) in Spanish: Names and pronunciation

Letters be and vee may pose a little difficulty for those starting to study Spanish.

The letter be (B / b)  is the second letter of the Spanish alphabet and has its origin in the letter of the Greek alphabet beta. In America it is also known as be alta o be larga (high be, or be long).

Vee letter (V / V) is the twenty - third letter of the Spanish alphabet and has its origin in the letter Upsilon Greek alphabet. From which also derive the vowel u and the letter (Y/y), also known as "i griega" (Greek i). Other names for V are: uve baja, uve corta o uve chica. "Chica" in this case is synonymous with small. Not to be confused with the guy or female person young age (girl).

Although both letters can be used different names the current rules of the Spanish language recommended to always use the names "be" and "uve".

The letters B and V currently represent the same phoneme in Spanish. The bilabial sound / b /

The stocks of two different letters for the same phonemes is due to the Latin origin of language. Since, at the beginning and until the Middle Ages these two letters did represent different phonemes. But little by little these differences were lost.

Sometimes you can hear a Spanish speaker pronounce vee with labial dental / f / phoneme. Instead of "viento" (wind) you can hear "/ f / iento. 

But this is due to pronunciation or regional accent of Spanish. The right thing at present is to pronounce the sound / b / bilabial phoneme: Viento (Wind).

The phoneme / b /. In words that are written to (B/b) as words that are written with V/ve you may have a different intensity or loudness depending on the position of the phoneme in the phrase or word.

For example: usually a sound / b / stronger when the phoneme is the beginning of a word or after the letters "m" and "n...