With a couple of exceptions, every vowel is pronounced separately in Spanish.
They don’t do diphthongs. Even ‘euro’ is pronounced ay-oo-ro. You do get some elision, like with ‘auto’. It should be ah-oo-toe, but the ah-oo elides to ow. The big exception is u after g. It might just tell you how the g is pronounced.
This thread shows a lot of promise. l used to have a bit of a wry giggle at the Chinese newsreaders on the English TV channels. Most of them pronounced comfortable as ■■■ - for - table. Insisting on reading every silly bull.
It wasn’t until l elicited from them the missing sounds when l pronounced the word, that they realized not every sound was pronounced separately and that l was saying, ■■■-f-t-ble. The problem is there are many teachers who have heard those news readers and are now using that pronunciation, which is now becoming a model for younger people.
Many people are not able to tell the difference between their own pronunciation, and someone else’s. They will tell you the are saying the word the same way as you, even when it is different. I had to tell them what thy were saying, and at times, like the example above, had to make the very obvious difference even more exaggerated, to the point where it became comical before they could distinguish a difference.
As an example, if your wife asks you “where are you going” to which you reply “we’re out of tingle lube, I’m off the the Ad-ult store to grab a tube”.
Or when you’re 15 and want to by some smokes “shopkeep, may I have a packet of Winnie Blues?” To which the shopkeep replies “you’re not 18, you pre-pubescent vagabond” you reply, “Please… Can’t you see I’m an a-dult?”
Here’s one (slight Spanish tangent but whatevs) which always gets a laugh from the Digs clan: chorizo. I go for chaw-ree-tho. And told it’s chaw-rizz-oh. Que?
Funnily enough, when growing up I experienced similar from the adults in the house, especially the old man.
“A-dult” was used as the more formal or authoritarian version, where “ad-ult” was seen as the more generic term for older people.