LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "el cerdo" in Spanish?
el SEHR-thoh — the c is an s and the d is soft, close to the th in "those".
Two syllables — CER-do — with the stress on the first, which is the default placement for a vowel-final word. The plural "cerdos" keeps it. Note that "carne de cerdo" is how you say pork — Spanish does not have a separate word for the meat the way English separates pig from pork.
Listen: el cerdo
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Hear it in a sentence
El cerdo come mucho.
The pig eats a lot.
Listen: El cerdo come mucho.
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"El cerdo come mucho" keeps everything simple, which makes it a clean drill for the two consonants: a soft c at the front and a soft d in the middle. "Come" is stressed CO-me with a fully pronounced final e, and "mucho" has a rounded "oo" and a ch as in "church".
Where English speakers slip
A hard c gives "KER-do", the standard reading for anyone who has not absorbed that c before e is an s. The r then gets the English curl that bends the "eh" into "ur", and the d gets popped when it should be soft. Regionally, "puerco", "chancho" and "marrano" all mean pig too, depending on the country.