Georgian → Spanish
Spanish uses 27 sounds. You already own 12 of them from Georgian. The other 15 are the work — and 12 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: labiodental → bilabial
Spanish: to have · written "b", "v"
Soft b/v between vowels — lips don't fully close.
Your /v/ is the one in ვაშლი (apple).
the move: labiodental → dental
Spanish: nothing · written "d"
Soft d between vowels, like English 'th' in this. Nearly vanishes in -ado endings.
Your /v/ is the one in ვაშლი (apple).
the move: alveolar → dental
Spanish: beer · written "z", "ce", "ci"
Spain only. Latin America: /s/.
Your /s/ is the one in სახლი (house).
the move: uvular → velar
Spanish: ham · written "j", "ge", "gi"
Harsh in Spain, soft [h] in the Caribbean.
Your /χ/ is the one in ხელი (hand).
the move: without the aspirated part
Spanish: bread · written "p"
Your /pʰ/ is the one in ფული (money).
the move: without the aspirated part
Spanish: all · written "t"
Dental, no puff of air.
Your /tʰ/ is the one in თევზი (fish).
the move: without the aspirated part
Spanish: cheese · written "c", "qu", "k"
Your /kʰ/ is the one in ქალი (woman).
the move: without the aspirated part
Spanish: boy · written "ch"
Your /t͡ʃʰ/ is the one in ჩაი (tea).
the move: alveolar → labiodental
Spanish: fire · written "f"
Your /s/ is the one in სახლი (house).
the move: open-mid → close-mid
Spanish: table · written "e"
Your /ɛ/ is the one in ერთი (one).
the move: open-mid → close-mid
Spanish: bear · written "o"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in ორი (two).
Words you may say identically
Two or more Spanish sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
- f = θ = s → your s vs vs train this pair →
- β = ð → your v vs
- r = ɾ → your r vs train this pair →
Genuinely new
Nothing in Georgian sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
year
Closest thing you own: — but bilabial → palatal.
street
ll and y merged (yeísmo) for most speakers. Argentina: [ʃ].
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant, velar → palatal.
egg
Closest thing you own: — but plosive → approximant.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Georgian | Spanish | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed, heavy clusters | Syllable-timed |
| Stress | Weak and non-contrastive. Two-syllable words take it on the first syllable; longer words tend toward the third-from-last. No pair of Georgian words is distinguished by stress alone, which is why dictionaries do not mark it. To an English ear Georgian can sound evenly stressed, almost flat — that is correct, not a lack of expression. | Fully contrastive, and mercifully written: if a word breaks the default pattern (stress on the second-to-last syllable for vowel/-n/-s endings, on the last otherwise) it carries an accent. Three-way minimal sets are common and the accent is the only thing separating them. |
What you have that Spanish doesn't
21 sounds with no job in Spanish. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Georgian has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned Spanish from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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