2 Medical Spanish Pronunciation Rules for medical Spanish words

2 Medical Spanish Pronunciation Rules to help you ACE medical Spanish words

2 Medical Spanish Pronunciation Rules

In this free Medical Spanish lesson you will learn two easy rules for making sure you’re pronouncing medical Spanish words properly. These 2 medical Spanish pronunciation rules apply to all Spanish words as well, and they’re especially great for all of you learners who are learning new vocabulary through self-study with your own books and resources.

Here is the Medical Spanish lesson about Spanish Pronunciation Rules I taught to the Facebook group:

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El Problema – ¿Dónde poner énfasis?

One of the most common confusions when learning a new language is where to put emphasis and which vowels or syllables to stress in a word as you pronounce it. However, once you get a hang of pronunciation and natural stress on words, you’re able to comprehend the people you’re speaking to much easier and you are able to be more easily understood.

SpanishEnglish
El DoctorThe doctor
La Doctora   The doctor
La dicaThe doctor
El CardiólogoThe Cardiologist
La CardiologíaCardiology
Los rayos equisThe X-ray
El hospital   The hospital
El AbdomenThe abdomen
Las estudiantesThe students
El dolorThe pain
La enfermedad   The illness
HincharPuff up
HinchadoSwollen
HinchazónSwelling

Regla número 1 : Palabras que terminan en una vocal (a, e, i, o, u), la letra N o la letra S:

In Spanish, all words that end in a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), N or S have the natural stress on the 2nd to last syllable. The bold syllables below are the natural stress of the word

SpanishEnglish
La doc-to-raThe doctor
Los ra-yos e-quisThe X-Ray
Las es-tu-dian-tes   The Students
Hin-cha-doSwollen

Regla # 2: Todas las otras palabras:

If a word doesn’t end in a VOWEL, N or S, then the natural stress is on the final syllable. See the examples below with the final syllable highlighted.

SpanishEnglish
El hos-pi-tal The hospital
El do-lor   The pain
Ha-blar To speak (v)
Co-mer   To eat (v)
Vi-vir To live (v)

¿Qué pasa con los acentos? Los acentos rompen las 2 reglas:

When you see written accents on a word, that usually means the word’s pronunciation is breaking one of the natural pronunciation rules. In rare cases, it just distinguishes one word from another like: si = if, sí = yes. However, more often than not, a written accent means that a word may end in a vowel, n or s, but the stress isn’t on the 2nd to last syllable. See below how the words break the natural accentuation rules…

SpanishEnglish
La -di-ca The doctor
El car-dió-lo-go   The cardiologist
La car-dio-lo-gía Cardiology
La Hin-cha-zón The swelling
La In-fec-ción The infection

Práctica

¿Cómo se pronuncian estas palabras?

SpanishEnglish
La diabetes   Diabetes
La dia-be-tes
La enfermeraThe nurse
La en-fer-me-ra
El órganoThe organ
El ór-ga-no
La infección   The infection
La in-fec-ción

For a more thorough discussion on medical Spanish pronunciation, consider this online course I put together for you to practice your pronunciation!

Medical Spanish pronunciation Course
Pro feedback medical spanish pronunciation

I packaged all of this into easily downloadable .pdf notes –

Keep up the good work speaking responsible Spanish to your patients!

*If the link isn’t working for you, you may need to unblock pop-ups in your browser settings

¡Gracias POR aprender español conmigo!

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