For Spanish speakers, certain sounds in English present a significant hurdle. These are typically sounds that either do not exist in the Spanish phonetic inventory or do not naturally occur in specific positions within a word—particularly at the ends of words.
Whether you are delivering an executive pitch, negotiating a contract, or presenting at an international conference, mastering these 10 core phonetic challenges will immediately elevate your spoken English and ensure your audience focuses on your message rather than your accent.
1. Confusing /v/ and /b/
In English, /v/ is a voiced fricative produced using the upper teeth and lower lip, whereas /b/ is a voiced plosive produced using both lips. Because Spanish speakers often treat these sounds interchangeably, they frequently confuse them in speech:
«Next vacation I’d love to visit the river.»
2. The /ɪ/ vs. /i:/ Vowel Confusion
Spanish has only one high front vowel sound (/i/), which leads Spanish speakers to default to this sound whenever they see the letter i in English. However, the letter i in English is usually a short /ɪ/ vowel or the diphthong /aɪ/ (guided by the «magic e»):
- Short /ɪ/: «Did this awful din win?»
- Diphthong /aɪ/: «Why dine with fine wine?»
3. /s/ vs. /ʃ/ («s» vs. «sh»)
The /ʃ/ sound (as in «ship») is made by slightly rounding the lips and pulling the tongue further back in the mouth compared to the /s/ sound. The /s/ sound is the only one of the two that exists in standard Spanish, although /ʃ/ appears in regional languages such as Catalan (e.g., CaixaBank):
«I like to push a sharp fashion sense.»
4. The 12 Vowels of English vs. The 5 Vowels of Spanish
Vowels present a major challenge because Spanish contains only 5 vowel sounds, whereas Received Pronunciation (RP / BBC English) utilizes 12 distinct vowel sounds formed from various mouth positions. Spanish speakers often substitute a single familiar Spanish vowel for several distinct English vowels, leaving listeners confused:
- /æ/ vs. /ɑː/: hat vs. heart
- Vowel contrasts: hood, hooted, hurt, hut, hooter
- /ɒ/ vs. /ɔː/: pot vs. port
- /ɪ/ vs. /iː/: fit vs. feet
- The easy exception: /e/ as in hen
5. The Nasal Sound /ŋ/
The /ŋ/ sound is produced at the back of the mouth in the same position as /k/ and /g/. Spanish speakers frequently substitute it with an alveolar /n/, missing the nasal resonance:
«I was walking along talking and singing a song.»
6. Lack of Aspiration on /p/, /t/, and /k/
In Received Pronunciation (RP), the consonants /p/, /t/, and /k/ are heavily aspirated—meaning they are released with a strong burst of air. In Spanish (as well as General American to a lesser degree), these sounds are produced with much less airflow:
«Park the car in town.»
7. Ignoring the Weak Vowel: The Schwa (/ə/)
Spanish is a phonetic language where vowels retain their strong forms and you almost always pronounce what you see. English, by contrast, relies heavily on weak forms, the most common being the schwa (/ə/). The schwa can be spelled using any vowel letter—a, e, i, o, or u:
about, tighten, lentil, today, column
8. Smooth ‘R’ and Silent ‘R’ in RP
The Spanish ‘r’ is tapped or rolled (e.g., pero, perro), whereas the British RP English /r/ sound is smooth:
rock, red, arrow, try
Furthermore, in British Received Pronunciation, the letter ‘r’ is completely silent at the end of a syllable—a rule Spanish speakers often forget:
work, worker, bare, barer, court, her, pour, Spaniard
(Note: In General American, the final ‘r’ sound is pronounced more prominently).
9. Syllable-Final Consonant Devoicing
Spanish phonetics does not allow voiced consonants at the end of syllables or words. As a result, Spanish speakers tend to «de-voice» English voiced consonants (removing the vocal chord vibration) and turn them into unvoiced equivalents:
- /d/ ➔ /t/
- /b/ ➔ /p/
- /v/ ➔ /f/
- /z/ ➔ /s/
- /dʒ/ ➔ /tʃ/
Examples where this occurs include words like bad, cod, job, love, Madrid, and badge.
10. The Dangerous Letter ‘S’ vs. /z/
The letter ‘s’ is notoriously tricky for Spanish speakers because it is very often pronounced as a voiced /z/ sound. Many Spanish speakers either do not know when to use the /z/ sound, do not know how to form it, or simply forget to make the effort:
cheese, was, news, lose, as, is
Master Your Accent and Professional Presence with Edward Olive
Understanding these 10 common phonetic mistakes is an essential first step, but breaking ingrained speech habits requires expert acoustic feedback and real-time coaching.
As Edward Olive, a specialist in accent reduction, British Received Pronunciation (RP), and executive communication in Madrid and online worldwide, I help professionals transform their spoken English so they project confidence, authority, and clarity in every interaction.
Ready to eliminate your pronunciation hurdles and speak English with executive precision?
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