What are Spanish and Portuguese words that you still struggle to pronounce or spell?

[u/Candid-Fun-6592]

[u/Mother_of_Brains]

Paralelepipedo

[u/rmiguel66]

“Hacer ejercicio” is specially hard for me. “Huevos revueltos” used to be a problem, but not anymore.

A nice Portuguese word that doesn’t mean anything but it’s good to practice: pipabaquígrafo.

[u/Hot-Recording-1915 → u/rmiguel66]

Na verdade é papibaquígrafo, não?

[u/rmiguel66 → u/Hot-Recording-1915]

Pipabaquígrafo

[u/Kenji182 → u/rmiguel66]

Papibaquígrafo

[u/lucascla18]

Otorrinolaringologista

Its the doctor that takes care of ears,nose and mouth

[u/tenfingerperson → u/lucascla18]

Otorrinolaringólogo *

[u/AdLeather1173 → u/lucascla18]

In medical chart a lot of doctors just put ORL to avoid having to write that shit every single time.

[u/Hot-Recording-1915]

Not with specific words by themselves, but I live in Spain and to me it’s impossible to talk like them with their “ceceo” (a different sound they use for ‘c’ and ‘z’). Every time I try I fail miserably.

[u/apolo399 → u/Hot-Recording-1915]

Hey! Ceceo is actually similar to seseo, but instead of resolving all the sibilants to an /s/ sound, ceceo resolves them to a /θ/ sound. Distinción is the one that has both /s/ and /θ/ in its inventory.

[u/Hot-Recording-1915 → u/apolo399]

Yeah I know what it is, but when trying to use it in the day to day my mind simply freezes and I end up mixing it, so now I just use seseo and it’s fine, there are a lot of people from Latin America here anyway 😅

[u/gadeais → u/Hot-Recording-1915]

We can understand seseo just fine. Distinction is hard but It can be usefull for remembering spelling tjough

[u/Hot-Recording-1915 → u/gadeais]

Yeah last week I was trying to buy gauze in the drug store and was pronouncing ‘gaza’ instead of ‘gasa’ so it sounded like I was trying to buy the Gaza stripe

[u/gadeais → u/Hot-Recording-1915]

To be fair gasa and Gaza have the same origin so...

[u/laranti → u/Hot-Recording-1915]

It's just the English "th". I actually find it easy. It's sort of pleasant to hear as well (in euro Spanish). Once I saw someone teach "th" as Lula saying "doce de pêssego" and I've been saying it perfectly since then.

Barcelona = Barthelona

[u/Weird-Sandwich-1923]

Cabelereiro

Cabeleleilo

Carelebelo

Calerolero

Cablelolelo

[u/RioTheLeoo]

This is embarrassing, but I can’t say “birria” properly without a ton of effort and sounding dumb.

Something about the “ee” sound into the “rr” just throws me off

[u/Ponchorello7 → u/RioTheLeoo]

I also have a problem with trilled "Rs".

[u/RioTheLeoo → u/Ponchorello7]

I don’t have a problem with them for anything else, it’s just specifically when there’s an “i” before lol 😭

[u/Friendly_Exchange_15 → u/Ponchorello7]

I cannot for the life of me trill my Rs. I tried so many times, my tongue just won't do the thing

[u/zhiro90 → u/Ponchorello7]

if you're a native english speaker, a good crutch for trilled Rs is to pronounce them as "RH", try perho, cigarho, etc. It sounds 85-90% like the real thing and just passes.

[u/Ponchorello7 → u/zhiro90]

Thank you for the recommendation (which honestly seems very useful), but the saddest part is that Spanish is my first language. I immigrated to the US when I was a kid, and my teachers bullied me for rolling my Rs, so I had to relearn that.

[u/JuanGabrielEnjoyer → u/RioTheLeoo]

Can you pronounce the X though? Because as embarrassing as you think that is, I see way more people get mocked for not being about to pronounce X than not being able to roll their Rs

Being fair though, I also encounter more people that have an issue with the X so maybe it’s just that lol

[u/Choice-Lawfulness978 → u/RioTheLeoo]

Where the hell does "birria" have an "ee" sound lmao

[u/RioTheLeoo → u/Choice-Lawfulness978]

The “i”?

It’s like “beerria”

[u/Choice-Lawfulness978 → u/RioTheLeoo]

I love the "ai" sound in "like"

[u/AdLeather1173 → u/RioTheLeoo]

In Colombia there is good contestant for that word "ñarria - ñiarria", the second versión makes you think before reading it. I think that is as hard as spanish goes for pronunciation in short words for native speakers.

[u/Significant-Yam9843]

my "r" sounds too golpeado. everybody thinks i am a f****** european. but i m Brazilian jqjajajajaja

[u/kweencheez]

Spanish: Still cant trill my r, unless it's preceded by t or d 😭

Portuguese: Still have trouble with nasal sounds. Like with Chão, I have to slow down and make the first and second syllable slightly separate so the nasal ão is more prominent 😭

[u/apolo399]

I still struggle to produce /e/ and /ɛ/ in some situations like in céu vs seu.

[u/manwhoel]

supercalifragilisticexpialidoso

[u/gabrielbabb]

Potuguese nasal words, like Maranhao. (the AO)