I have noticed a few Spanish words which seem to be pronounced incorrectly. I depend on what I hear to accent the words correctly in the review dictation examples and this is why I have picked up on them. I can mention a couple now and then if asked, I will submit the list I have found so far. jazmín should have a capitol J and be pronounced haz MEEN rather than HAZ meen and vacío should be pronouned vacEEo rather than VAC io.
Thanks for any suggestions.
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Are you using the app (ios/android) or web version (if so, what browser)?
I’m am using the web version with Chrome as my browser.
(I’m sorry it took me so long to reply but I am new to LingQ and still figuring out how it works. I seem to get so many e-mails and reminders I am not sure which are the important ones.)
You can adjust your email settings at any time on the Notifications page: Login - LingQ 
Regarding the Spanish words pronunciation, which voice do you have selected for Spanish under the settings (gear icon on the home page, Reader Settings tab)?
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I have ‘Lucia Spain’. Should I try one of the others? I have often checked pronunciations against SpanishDict.com and they have a sample of European (ie Spain) or Latin American which I find useful.
Maybe give it a try with another available voice. I’ll check what we can do regarding the “Lucia Spain” and if there are any issues with it.
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I think I should mention that I wasn’t meaning in the original lessons but the voice for the word or name when I am reviewing my LingQs.
Yeah, that’s TTS voice. Have you tried changing it under the settings?
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I have changed it to Enrique and for Jasmín his pronunciation sounds good but when I tested it against vacío, he also stresses VA rather than the í. I don’t want to waste more of your time but while we are having a conversation,
- For some of the written lessons I have been working on, some place names don’t have capital letters. For now, that doesn’t bother me but it may cause other learners problems.
- If I want to add new words to my LingQs, should I put only the Spanish word on one line or the Spanish word and the translation? If and when the list gets accepted, does the notification come online or in the form of an e-mail. Should I stay on the page until I get the notification? So far I have only tried a couple of tests but I have many more words I want to add eventually.
How is “vacío” spelled in the lesson? Is there an acute accent over the í [vacío]? I’ve tried the TTS on Google translate [female European Spanish accent] and the spelling “vacío” is pronounced with the stress over the “i”, whereas the spelling “vacio” is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable.
Notice that “vacío” can have two different meanings: as an adjective it means “empty”, as a verbal form is “I empty”, from the verb “vaciar”.
All native speakers pronounce the first variant with stress over the “i”, which would be spelled “vacío”. As a verb, however, you can hear both the same pronunciation (I pronounce it like that) and the pronunciation with stress over the “a”, which would be spelled “vacio”.
The TTS seems to acknowledge the existence of the latter variant and that’s why you get the vAcio pronunciation when there’s no accent.
For the record: the vAcio pronunciation for the verb is considered “non-standard” because it deviates from the normal stress pattern for verbs, but some speakers still use it.
The accent was on the í. Yes, when I first became aware of it and looked it up I also noted the two possibilities.
I think that the ‘non-standard’ pronunciation you mentioned still conforms to standard because I have seen that in some books on how to pronounce Spanish words the io is considered only one sound or syllable so that the A reverts to being the second-to-last syllable.
Thank you for your comment.
I think perhaps I need a better understanding of how words are used in a practical way instead of in isolation. I was using SpanishDict.com with the European Spanish voice. If I select the audio for the single word it is very distinctly ‘vac I o’ but if I put the word into the translation for ‘it is empty’, está vacío there is one pronunciation for vAcío. Then if I try ‘it was empty’, there is another voice and very distinctly “estaba vac I o”. I think I’ll just relax and go with the flow… When I get enough courage to actually pracice speaking Spanish, someone will either understand me, correct me or say they don’t know what I am trying to say. LOL
Yes, that’s a great idea. As for pronunciation, the stress should always be on the “i” but, because there’s another stressed syllable on “estÁ”, it is possible that this stress somehow “obscures” the stress on “í” in some cases. I do advise you to stress the “í” when you speak, though. As they say, you gotta be fluent to earn the right to “mispronounce”
Le deseo mucho éxito en su aprendizaje.
¡Muchas Gracias! Realmente aprecio su ayuda y sugerencias.
Encantado de ayudar, Jellylava. Un saludo y mucha suerte