Do Spanish speakers do anything to Spanish words to make them sound more English?

Well, shit, I completely missed that.

It’s hard to see how she could be “more right,” since I agreed with her on the right way to pronounce Shakespeare in Spanish. I was just pointing out that at least some Spanish speakers may stick an initial “e” on it, even if that is not correct. He was attempting to pronounce the name as it is in English, but made a mistake based on Spanish. You seem to be contending that Spanish speakers never make mistakes when pronouncing foreign names. Based on personal experience, they most certainly do.

I dispute that the speaker put an e before Schakespeare, the e you hear is not really there. At least I do not hear it clearly, and I have a trained ear for that. It’s in my job. Using this false e is a very common error indeed, and we Spaniards, me included, commit a lot of mistakes with foreign languages and that one in particular, but this man you linked did not.
BTW: The name of this S followed by a consonant is “s líquida”. As we Spaniards have dificulty pronouncing it, we use a prótesis and introduce a vowel, usually an e.

Sorry, you’re wrong. I listened to it multiple times to make sure it’s there, and it most definitely is. As I said, it’s not very distinct, but there’s clearly an “eh” sound before the “s” that an English speaker would not introduce.

Eh, FWIW I first learned that name as *"chakespier"*, no leading e, until I went to actual school. Due to the American influence Puerto Ricans long ago adapted to saying “sh” like the Spanish “ch”. They do however keep the protesic e voicing when it’s an initial s before a “hard” consonant (e.g. ordering a Stoli).

Well, I disagree and side with Nava when she says replying to Fretful Porpentine in her post #78 that “Anyone who put an e- there was either pulling your leg or saying “eh… sha-kes-pe-A-re”.” There is the slightest of hints of an “eh…” before Shakespeare on your video, but if you had to listen to it “multiple times to make sure” and you admit yourself that it is “not very distinct” I don’t think we have to argue to death about it. You claim it is a fonetic “eh”, I hear a hint of a nervous “eh” that is not related to an accent. Shall we leave it at that?
I think we agree on the important points anyway: the protesic e is real, Spanish speakers use it a lot, and mostly very clearly. Shakespeare is not one of the most egregious cases where Spanish speakers tend to use it.

I just wanted to chime in that I agree with those who say it’s IMPOSSIBLE to teach a native English speaker to say the “long o” sans diphthong simply by giving an English example, because NO SUCH EXAMPLE EXISTS. It’s an inherent part of the sound in English, period.

(At least with, say, a glottal stop, you can point to a non-phonemic but very real example in English, like “uh oh!”).

So, you must use some other method to teach this sound, like sticking a finger cross-ways between your lips and trying hard to avoid squeezing your lips onto your finger to complete the sound.

Or you could listen to a recording of the sound and practice imitating it; no need for a (nonexistent) English example. There are also many diagrams of how to hold the mouth and tongue. I agree that the best way is to work with an articulation coach who knows all the speech exercises and tricks, including sticking a finger or cork in the mouth.

Spanish is not really so bad vowel-wise: to a first approximation there are not too many of them, they are not too crazy (are cardinal vowels) or have fine distinctions where two sounds seem to you the same for some reason even after listening to them dozens of times.

Many have experienced the humiliation of having our pronunciation corrected because we were not saying a foreign word right. But eventually also the satisfaction of being mistaken for a native speaker.

I don’t know: you just used stop and period. Point. Non. Perhaps even diphtong and glottal. I don’t know what to think anymore :confused:

Most of the words you mentioned contain the sound many English speakers call a “short o.” The English sound that is diphthongized is the “long o.”

I think you have a point with — well, “point.” That is indeed a “long o” without the subsequent rounding of the lips. I think it’s precisely because it IS also a diphthong, just a different one (“long o” plus “ee”).