1.4 Spanish stops
| Phoneme | Allophone | Orthography | Articulation | Context |
| /p/ | [p] | p | voiceless bilabial stop | all |
| /t/ | [t] | t | voiceless dental stop | all |
| /k/ | [k] | ca/o/u, qu, k | voiceless velar stop | all |
| /b/ | [b] | b, v, (w) | voiced bilabial stop | initial position (after pause), after nasal |
| [β] | b, v, w | voiced bilabial approximant | elsewhere | |
| /d/ | [d] | d | voiced dental stop | initial position, after nasal and liquid |
| [ð] | d | voiced interdental approximant | elsewhere | |
| /g/ | [g] | ga/o/u, gue, gui | voiced velar stop | initial position, after nasal |
| [ɣ] | ga/o/u, gue, gui | voiced velar approximant | elsewhere |
Ideas for exercises
Depending on the level of your students, take a few sentences (or phrases) and ask your students to underline those occurrences of /b d g/ that are realised as approximants. For example, find all the [ɣ]’s in
Gabriela le ha comprado unos guantes ingleses a Miguel.
Or, which allophones of /d/ occur in this sentence?
Dora y Tadeo han tenido un día tremendo.