LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "el animal" in Spanish?
e-lah-nee-MAHL — the stress is at the end, the reverse of English AN-imal.
Three syllables, a-ni-MAL, beat at the end. The word finishes in l, a consonant that is not n or s, so the default rule places the stress on the final syllable with no accent needed. The plural "animales" now ends in s, and the beat slides back to a-ni-MA-les — still second-to-last, still unmarked.
Listen: el animal
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Mi animal favorito es el caballo.
My favorite animal is the horse.
Listen: Mi animal favorito es el caballo.
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"Mi animal favorito es el caballo" places the adjective after the noun. "Favorito" is stressed on RI, and "caballo" has a double l as a y sound. Say "mi animal" and the i links straight into the a with no break at all.
Where English speakers slip
The English "animal" front-stresses the word and reduces everything after, giving "AN-i-mul". Spanish puts the beat firmly on the last syllable with a wide-open "ah". The final l then wants darkening, and the unstressed vowels want crushing. This is a word that looks identical in both languages and sounds nothing alike.