I got curious about Spanish pronunciation today, especially for words that look familiar like “honor.” Sounds straightforward, right? Wrong. My first try was awful – I said it like “ON-or,” thick with my usual accent. Felt totally off. So, I decided to actually figure this out properly, step-by-step, no fancy linguistics required.
First Stop: Trusty Old YouTube
Grabbed my phone and went hunting. Typed in “how to pronounce honor in Spanish,” sorted by newest. Found a Spanish teacher chilling in her living room, explaining it clearly. Key takeaway? That H is silent, period. Who knew? Felt kinda dumb thinking about all the times I’d thrown the H sound in there. She emphasized it sounds exactly like… “onor.” Not “aw-nor,” mind you, but a crisp, clear O, like in “own,” but shorter. O-nor.
Getting My Mouth to Cooperate
Okay, silent H, got it. Easy! Or so I thought. Saying it out loud felt weirdly unnatural. My tongue kept wanting to mess it up. Here’s what worked:
- Dropped the H cold turkey. Practiced just opening my mouth and saying “onor,” starting straight with the O sound.
- Got hyper-aware of that O. Made it short and clean, not drawn out like “own,” but sharper, more punchy. Think “octopus” without the ‘ctopus’.
- Focused on the rhythm. Spanish words often stress the second-to-last syllable. For “honor”? That’s the O! So it’s o-NOR. Said it over and over: “o-NOR, o-NOR.”
- Recorded myself. Yep, hit record on my phone. First playback made me wince – still sounded stiff. But hearing it was crucial. Kept replaying the teacher and then my own attempts, adjusting.
The “Fast Method” That Actually Stuck
The biggest game-changer was linking it to a Spanish word I actually already knew decently: “el amor” (love). I know “amor” – it starts with that same crisp O sound and has a similar rhythm (a-MOR). So I tricked myself: replaced “amor” mentally with “onor.” Said “el onor” a bunch, pretending it was a real phrase. It clicked! That familiar structure bypassed my English habits.
After what felt like a hundred tries, playing back my recording finally yielded something that sounded passable. Still not perfect, mind you – rolling the final R smoothly like a native is a whole other beast! – but significantly better than my initial “ON-or” disaster. The sound was cleaner, the stress was landing correctly on the second syllable.
End result? It still feels a little awkward in my mouth, like trying to write with my non-dominant hand, but I’ve got the core sounds down. Silent H, crisp O, stress on the second syllable. On to practice integrating it into sentences without sounding like a donkey!
