The Most Beautiful Words in Spanish (while practicing Shadowing) [VIDEO]

The Most Beautiful Words in Spanish : Shadow Practice

If you use the MosaLingua app, then you already practiced pronunciation by repeating the words and phrases on your study cards.

But speaking correctly is more important than pronunciation alone. You also need to consider the rhythm, intonations, and connected pronunciations between words that we do without even thinking about it.

The focus of this article and the video below is to highlight that with shadowing, you can practice all aspects of speaking in one exercise to speak more naturally.

How Does Shadowing Work? Follow the Exercises from the Video Below!

There are multiple ways to practice with shadowing, but here are a couple of steps we’d recommend at MosaLingua:

In the video below, try repeating each sentence three times:

1. The First Time: Just listen. Concentrate on the sounds and the rhythm of the sentence. You can even close your eyes if it helps you focus.
2. The Second Time: Watch how I move my mouth and my hands to see how to accentuate and add intonation to each sentence. Then, pause the video and repeat after me. If you can, record yourself and compare your pronunciation to mine.
3. The Third Time: Repeat the sentence with me and try to match your speed and intonation with mine as closely as you can.

One last thing: as you may have noticed, the accent in the video is Spain Spanish. When choosing someone to shadow, it’s important to choose someone who has the accent that you want to have. So, if this isn’t the accent you’re looking for, I’d advise you to practice with videos from someone with the accent you’d like to have.

There are a ton of Spanish accents and that’s exactly where the beauty of this language lies. Don’t you think? Let’s go explore some of Spanish’s linguistic wonders!

Shadowing : The Most Beautiful Words in Spanish

Encandilar

“Su forma de hablar ha vuelto a encandilar a todos en la sala de conferencias; es imposible no prestarle atención.”

→ His way of speaking once again enchanted everyone in the conference room; it’s impossible not to pay attention to him.

The words “encandilar” describes the action of enchanting someone with something, that being either extraordinary beauty or by outstanding quality, like someone’s way of speaking from the example. If you think carefully, you can guess the meaning of the word “candela” inside of “encandilar.” That’s why this word is so beautiful and metaphoric to me.

If you listened carefully to the video, when I pronounced the word “encandilar,” I slowed down the speed a little bit. We often do that to emphasize the key word in the sentence and to highlight our opinion on something. The same applies to the word “imposible,” which was important in the second part of the sentence.

Arrebato

“Me dio arrebato y no lo pensé dos veces : hice las maletas y tomé el primer avión a Bogotá. Necesitaba verlo.”

→ I had an impulse and I didn’t think twice. I packed my bags and took the first flight to Bogota. I needed to see it.

This term describes a sudden push and intense emotion or passion. It’s like a flurry of emotion that leads us to a wave of unexpected and powerful emotions.

We’ve all felt a push to laugh uncontrollably or felt love at first sight. Apart from the intonation in the sentence, which highlights the most important information, you should also pay particular attention to the pronunciation of the double “r,” a unique sound to Spanish: aRRebato.

A distinctive characteristic of Spain Spanish is that “c” placed before “e” or “i” is pronounced like a soft “z.” In Latin American Spanish, this sound is pronounced like an “s.”

Flechazo

“Cuando conocí a Ana, fue un flechazo; desde entonces no puedo dejar de pensar en ella.”

→ When I met Ana, it was love at first sight. Since then, I can’t stop thinking about her.

A “flechazo” isn’t only sudden love, it’s like of an arrow, or a “flecha,” ran through your heart with this instantaneous and irresistible feeling of attraction.

In the second part of the sentence, my pace is faster. Did you notice? And in a way, I ran together, “I can’t stop thinking about her” into one single block of words. That’s something that we do without even thinking about it. Often times, it isn’t just one word, but a group of words that encapsulate the meaning. And that’s why our brain “bundles” the words together into one block when we pronounce it. It’s interesting, don’t you think?

Pícaro / Pícara

“La sonrisa pícara de Marcos delata sus travesuras, pero es imposible resistirse a su encanto.”

→ Marcos’s sly smile revealed his mischievousness, but it’s impossible to resist his charm.

The word “pícaro” evokes the mischief and the cunning that can be found in a mischievous smile, or in a charming mischief maker. It’s describing something or someone that makes you laugh and think at the same time. In this sentence, the intonation is high at the beginning until the word “Marcos,” then it falls back down suddenly. We do that to distinguish between the subject of the sentence and the rest of the sentence. In this case, the intonation reflects that the protagonist is the Marcos’s sly smile.

Cariño

El cariño que siento por mi perro se refleja en cada paseo y momento que compartimos juntos.

→ The affection that I feel for my dog is reflected in every walk and moment that we share together.

I chose the word “cariño” because when I tried translating it into other languages, it wasn’t easy. On one hand, a lot of people know what “cariño” means when we use it to refer to someone with affection, for example our partner or our children, or even a good friend:

“Cariño, llámame cuando llegues”.
→ “Dear, call me when you get there”.

In this case, however, the word “cariño” is referring to a profound and warm feeling towards someone or something. Although it’s less intense than love, we often confuse it (and translate it) to mean love. Affection implies a strong and durable emotional connection over time.

If your house holds good memories that impact you to this day, you could say for example:

“Tengo mucho cariño a esa casa”
→ “I love this house a lot”.

Like in the previous examples, the sentence starts with an elevated intonation that comes down with the verb and then goes back up so we focus on the emotions and the dog invokes in this person:

“En cada paseo y momento…”.
→ “in every walk and moment…”

These are, in my opinion, only some of the most beautiful words in Spanish. And of course, I hope that this video helped you work on a Spanish accent that you can be proud of. Remember that every Hispanic country has it’s own linguistic charm, so explore and discover new magnificent words in every corner of the Spanish-speaking world!

Do you know any special Spanish words from other countries? Share them in the comments to continue to enrich our list of the most beautiful words in Spanish.

Video – The Most Beautiful Words in Spanish

Find out more tips from our Spanish teacher, Mirari, in the video below. This video is in Spanish with subtitles in six languages! To access them, click on the gear in the bottom right of the video and select the subtitles that you’d like to read with the video

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For More Information

If you liked this article, here are a couple more that might be of interest to you:

• How to Roll your R in Spanish
• Exercises to Improve Your Spanish Pronunciation
• 10 Commonly Mispronounced Words in Spanish