The hard Jota sound sounds a lot like the German "ch" in "acht". I think the Hebrews and Arabic language also uses that "ch" sound. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Good comment. That's what I was wondering: "Thanks god I was practicing the german "ch" sounds a couple of days ago, now is easy for me to pick up the spanish j sound".
I speak Hindi , urdu also know about Arabic. The Spanish "J" is sound like to me is the urdu and Arabic Letter "خ" and hindi letter "ख" . It's sound likes guttural h / k or "kh".
@@manz007 I don't believe Hindi has this sound. It has an voiceless aspirated velar plosive, which sounds like the k in English when it's at the beginning of a word
Thanks for this. I always told by some idiots, J is pronounce as an H in English and many books also does write H as there is no Khe words in English, like in Arabic Khe.
Thank you for explaining it, I learned the Spanish pronunciation for the alphabets and the hard J was easy for me because in Arabic we do have that sound, so there was no problem with Jota
I asked my wife the difference between J * H letters, as she understands Spanish better than I do. She didn't know either, which brought me here. The hard version is similar to the "kha" guttural sound in Arabic and also the breathy "ha" sound in Arabic as well. I wonder if these are left over sounds from when Arabic was prevalent in Andalusia/Moorish Spain. Very informative video. Thanks for posting.
Thank you so much for your comment! Some people think it could come from the Arabic sound. There are some interesting debates online: linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/1443/where-did-spanish-get-its-x-arabic-influence#:~:text=Spanish%20did%20have%20Arabic%20influence,Latin%2C%20going%20through%20some%20variations. www.quora.com/Why-did-the-Spanish-j-change-its-sound
Thank you very much for this instruction and clear explanation since I was truggling that why I was taught the "j" is pronounced like "h" in English then I make a search and the check dictionary, they procounce the J likes a combination of "h" and "k" :3
I learned Spanish as a second language in Venezuela. They don't pronounce it so hard in the Caribbean, although they can. For a gringo this has always been challenging for me. I was watching a movie from Spain recently and decided after pronouncing j softly for 20 years I should learn to say it like a Spaniard too.
Thank you! I took your cue to make the softer j in the back of my throat and realized that, to make the hard j, I just needed to push the bottleneck of air forward in my mouth. SO much easier! Thank you!! This was such a frustrating sound for me to learn, but I think this is going to stick.
I'm a absolute beginner . And really I'm not able to get it that how its pronounced. But now I get it. I'm from india. And I speak urdu,hindi n able to read and perso arabic script. Well Spanish letter "J" it's sounds like perso arabic script "خ" kh like guttural H or K. And bit like hindi letter ख.
How about j + two vowels? Juan jueves, etc. In Mexico they see to become a “w” sound but in South America I’m being corrected…?? Or in comparison to Gua- or Gue- (agua) (guera)
Some variants of spanish are very relaxed, while other emphasize more the pronunciation of the words (and you can guess which one is which by their music). But our diphtongs (a soft vowel + a strong vowel) are mostly pronounced as you say (Jweves, Jwan, etc, instead of Ju-an, which you can only see in primary schools when they're teaching kids to write. But if you're making the J dissapear altogether (Weves, wan), well, that's not something we do in any spanish speaking language country. Maybe if Spanish is an influence to a dialect?
Hi, Daniel! As Olly explains in the video, there are two variations, one soft and one hard. Choosing which one to use depends only on the country or region where you are. If you're using the strong J, then you should use it for all sounds (ja, je, ji, jo, ju); same if you choose to use the soft one. In any case, you can use either in any Spanish-speaking country and you will be understood! ;)
It doesn't make a difference as they are both used in different parts of the world. If you use the hard J people will assume you're learning Spanish from a Spain method and if you use a softer J people will asume you're learning from a Latin American method. They don't impact the meaning of the word you're saying.
Hold up, I've been trying to pronounce this by pushing the tongue against the upper palate to the front and here I'm supposed to gargle? Egads, I'm n nervous to accidentally spit
Thank you so much for this. I really struggle with sounds and I have a friend whose name I’m so embarrassed to try to say because I just couldn’t hear the sound and no one knew what I meant when I asked if it sounds like an H. Holy shit though have I never felt more “white”. I’m so envious of people raised around other languages and cultures.
I don't know if anyone else is using Duolingo. They do use the sound as explained here, like when they say Juan - but one of the characters - Junior - is always pronounced like the English "J". Anyone have any idea why?
For example, in peru they use a harsh/hard J sound and in Venezuela they use a much softer one. Countries like Perú, ecuador and chile as well as Spain use a harsher J sound and the caribbean countries use the softer one. But a native speaker wouldn't even notice it nor point it out
The guy in the video misinforms. That strong and guttural "J" only occurs in Spain (and not even all of Spain). In most of Latin America (Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Perú, etc) the J is pronounced more in the veil of the mouth (where is the letter k pronounced) and without uvular realizations. Countries like Venezuela, El Salvador or the Caribe pronounce the J very aspirated and soft.
Someone just sent me here because I didn't understand 'throat scraping sound' to mean 'phlemy throat-clearing sound.' Has anyone else ever heard such a description for this sound?
Iberian Spanish has the throat-clearing sounding one. If that’s too hard for you, you can use the softer Latin-American Spanish one that doesn’t make the vibrations. Either one is perfectly fine.
no but it's understandable in a slightly gross way. People make a sound similar to the hard J when they have phlegms in their throats and they want to spit them. Nasty people I might add.
I'm from Colombia and I think you are over doing the Jota a little bit to much, it is guttural, but not to the point it sounds like that. Maybe in Catalonia, or the Basque country which have influence from French, which makes it understandable as to why it sounds like that. The Jota, in its most appropriate use sounds like the soft Jota, in fact, in "standard" Spanish, it is so.
You just made that up. I'm from Spain and he's pronouncing the J pretty much accurately. The soft J is the exception here, only being typical in Southern Spain (Andalucía, Murcia, Extremadura) and the Canary Islands. And btw I don't get the French influence thing, their "r" is way softer than our G and J, so it really makes zero sense.
@Ryan Appolon élève Spanish (Spain) Js and Gs sound harsher than you think, I believe. It is common to hear from other Europeans when pronouncing words in Spanish how they pronounce Gs and Js very softly, so I assume that it is a common belief that is mostly a misconception (probably based on how Andalusians speak).
I think he learned the language from Peru, people here tend to pronounce the J sound that way, when I came here I was a little surprised actually. But I like it
![The best trilled [r] video yet!](/img/n.gif)
The hard Jota sound sounds a lot like the German "ch" in "acht". I think the Hebrews and Arabic language also uses that "ch" sound. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Good comment. That's what I was wondering: "Thanks god I was practicing the german "ch" sounds a couple of days ago, now is easy for me to pick up the spanish j sound".
Many languages have it
....hindi , urdu ,arabic ,welsh, many european langauges .....etc
I speak Hindi , urdu also know about Arabic. The Spanish "J" is sound like to me is the urdu and Arabic Letter "خ" and hindi letter "ख" . It's sound likes guttural h / k or "kh".
@@manz007 I don't believe Hindi has this sound. It has an voiceless aspirated velar plosive, which sounds like the k in English when it's at the beginning of a word
Thank you for introducing us to the wide variety of ways J is pronounced in spanish.
Thanks for this. I always told by some idiots, J is pronounce as an H in English and many books also does write H as there is no Khe words in English, like in Arabic Khe.
Yeah like what's with all those English speakers I suddenly see claiming you pronounce it like H ?.. Wtf.
Thank you for explaining it, I learned the Spanish pronunciation for the alphabets and the hard J was easy for me because in Arabic we do have that sound, so there was no problem with Jota
Same in Hebrew! And also in Scotland loch (lake) has the same guttural sound.
Same in urdu , we have this sound (خ)
Sane in Somalia. It’s a piece of cake for us.
That was easy for me since in arabic we have Letter خ which is equal to the JA sound explained in the video
The soft J is also used in the southern part of Spain, in Andalusia (where I live), and it's pronounced even more similar to the H sound in English
That's true!! Thank you so much for your contribution. And lucky you, living in Andalucía! 😍
I asked my wife the difference between J * H letters, as she understands Spanish better than I do. She didn't know either, which brought me here. The hard version is similar to the "kha" guttural sound in Arabic and also the breathy "ha" sound in Arabic as well. I wonder if these are left over sounds from when Arabic was prevalent in Andalusia/Moorish Spain. Very informative video. Thanks for posting.
Thank you so much for your comment! Some people think it could come from the Arabic sound. There are some interesting debates online: linguistics.stackexchange.com/questions/1443/where-did-spanish-get-its-x-arabic-influence#:~:text=Spanish%20did%20have%20Arabic%20influence,Latin%2C%20going%20through%20some%20variations.
www.quora.com/Why-did-the-Spanish-j-change-its-sound
Thank you very much for this instruction and clear explanation since I was truggling that why I was taught the "j" is pronounced like "h" in English then I make a search and the check dictionary, they procounce the J likes a combination of "h" and "k" :3
Exactly, the sound is harder than an English h :D
I learned Spanish as a second language in Venezuela. They don't pronounce it so hard in the Caribbean, although they can. For a gringo this has always been challenging for me. I was watching a movie from Spain recently and decided after pronouncing j softly for 20 years I should learn to say it like a Spaniard too.
Thank you! I took your cue to make the softer j in the back of my throat and realized that, to make the hard j, I just needed to push the bottleneck of air forward in my mouth. SO much easier! Thank you!! This was such a frustrating sound for me to learn, but I think this is going to stick.
In my country Nicaragua we pronounce a soft J, but I've always liked the more gutural J
In Peru we pronounce it like in Spain and I remember some people (from abroad) telling me that they like how I pronounce it 😀
I'm a absolute beginner . And really I'm not able to get it that how its pronounced. But now I get it.
I'm from india. And I speak urdu,hindi n able to read and perso arabic script.
Well Spanish letter "J" it's sounds like perso arabic script "خ" kh like guttural H or K. And bit like hindi letter ख.
Yeah
What is the correct grammatical spelling of the family name Oregel (Orejel)? Should it be spelled with a G or with a J?
J
We have the same sound hard sound in arabic as well
Some English dialects have this sound (e.g. Scottish English and South African English)
In Dutch we have a lot of J sounds but that's a g in our country. A very hard G btw.
MrMyopinionsmatter Cool! Waarom ben je Nederlands gaan leren?
@Bootsandcats ik leer ook Nederlands and i have a question - wouldn't it be mooie taal?
In Belgium, it's a soft sounding G
Theres also guttural G as in "Gente".
How about j + two vowels? Juan jueves, etc. In Mexico they see to become a “w” sound but in South America I’m being corrected…?? Or in comparison to Gua- or Gue- (agua) (guera)
Some variants of spanish are very relaxed, while other emphasize more the pronunciation of the words (and you can guess which one is which by their music). But our diphtongs (a soft vowel + a strong vowel) are mostly pronounced as you say (Jweves, Jwan, etc, instead of Ju-an, which you can only see in primary schools when they're teaching kids to write.
But if you're making the J dissapear altogether (Weves, wan), well, that's not something we do in any spanish speaking language country.
Maybe if Spanish is an influence to a dialect?
So it’s خ in Arabic
mahmoud bayomi its خ and ح
it actually does come from arabic
@ what?? it literally does
Is the Spanish j the same sound as the French r?
Was coming to ask this but checked if someone else already did
As a French speaker, I can tell you it is very similar, but it is different; the French r is a little more rolled than the Spanish sound.
Hi, Aansh! The mouth position is basically the same, but the sound is different! :)
Hi , I would like to ask if there is an obligation to pronounce the JA sound as strong J variation , or the opposite (softer variation) .
Hi, Daniel! As Olly explains in the video, there are two variations, one soft and one hard. Choosing which one to use depends only on the country or region where you are. If you're using the strong J, then you should use it for all sounds (ja, je, ji, jo, ju); same if you choose to use the soft one. In any case, you can use either in any Spanish-speaking country and you will be understood! ;)
is it similar to french R sound?
Not exactly, the J is harder.
So what's the difference soft sound nd hard sound make in conversation ....should we make soft more or hard
It doesn't make a difference as they are both used in different parts of the world.
If you use the hard J people will assume you're learning Spanish from a Spain method and if you use a softer J people will asume you're learning from a Latin American method.
They don't impact the meaning of the word you're saying.
Hold up, I've been trying to pronounce this by pushing the tongue against the upper palate to the front and here I'm supposed to gargle? Egads, I'm n nervous to accidentally spit
It's all about practice! Try to think of it as a hard "h" sound; kind of the "h" in "hello", but harder!
Thank you so much for this. I really struggle with sounds and I have a friend whose name I’m so embarrassed to try to say because I just couldn’t hear the sound and no one knew what I meant when I asked if it sounds like an H. Holy shit though have I never felt more “white”. I’m so envious of people raised around other languages and cultures.
Thank you so much for your comment! We're happy our videos are taking you one step closer to pronouncing your friend's name correctly :D
I don't know if anyone else is using Duolingo. They do use the sound as explained here, like when they say Juan - but one of the characters - Junior - is always pronounced like the English "J". Anyone have any idea why?
Junior is borrowed from English and pronounced like English. Juan is completely Spanish.
Aside from Jota sound is H, then it's also J like "just (in English)"?
Nope, there is no English J sound equivalent in Spanish.
Hi, Judhel! Nope, the Spanish "j" is always pronounced in the same way, as a strong English "h".
Very complicated explanation
For some reason I only have trouble with pronouncing J when it precedes the I
because this gargling sound is more natural with your mouth rounded for O. when is spread wide for I it is harder indeed.
2:20 "Parts of latin America" is so vague. One or two examples, maybe?
I have visited a small town in southern Ecuador were people used a very hard J
For example, in peru they use a harsh/hard J sound and in Venezuela they use a much softer one. Countries like Perú, ecuador and chile as well as Spain use a harsher J sound and the caribbean countries use the softer one. But a native speaker wouldn't even notice it nor point it out
@@oriverde this is true
my country (Bolivia) uses a softer J. But as Olly say, I've seen countries where the sound varies from region to region.
The guy in the video misinforms. That strong and guttural "J" only occurs in Spain (and not even all of Spain). In most of Latin America (Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Perú, etc) the J is pronounced more in the veil of the mouth (where is the letter k pronounced) and without uvular realizations. Countries like Venezuela, El Salvador or the Caribe pronounce the J very aspirated and soft.
Someone just sent me here because I didn't understand 'throat scraping sound' to mean 'phlemy throat-clearing sound.' Has anyone else ever heard such a description for this sound?
Iberian Spanish has the throat-clearing sounding one. If that’s too hard for you, you can use the softer Latin-American Spanish one that doesn’t make the vibrations. Either one is perfectly fine.
@@Miguel.L It's not about it being difficult, but about the name of the sound. The only language I'm working on right now is Esperanto :)
no but it's understandable in a slightly gross way. People make a sound similar to the hard J when they have phlegms in their throats and they want to spit them.
Nasty people I might add.
I'm having a hard time doing it hahahahahaha
It's tough, but you got this! It only takes some practice :D
you should just say it sounds like the Dutch 'g'.
כ/ח in Hebrew
I'm from Colombia and I think you are over doing the Jota a little bit to much, it is guttural, but not to the point it sounds like that. Maybe in Catalonia, or the Basque country which have influence from French, which makes it understandable as to why it sounds like that. The Jota, in its most appropriate use sounds like the soft Jota, in fact, in "standard" Spanish, it is so.
Well, it depends. In Peru we pronounce it like that also
You just made that up. I'm from Spain and he's pronouncing the J pretty much accurately. The soft J is the exception here, only being typical in Southern Spain (Andalucía, Murcia, Extremadura) and the Canary Islands.
And btw I don't get the French influence thing, their "r" is way softer than our G and J, so it really makes zero sense.
Not true...Maybe for Colombia. In Buenos Aires, the "j" sound is as described in the video.
@Ryan Appolon élève Spanish (Spain) Js and Gs sound harsher than you think, I believe. It is common to hear from other Europeans when pronouncing words in Spanish how they pronounce Gs and Js very softly, so I assume that it is a common belief that is mostly a misconception (probably based on how Andalusians speak).
I think he learned the language from Peru, people here tend to pronounce the J sound that way, when I came here I was a little surprised actually. But I like it
hard sound is better for native speakers.
not in every country.
It would be way more helpful to see a close up of your mouth pronouncing these sounds
Freak