As an avid Mexican food-lover, it’s better to know how to pronounce the correct name of some of the popular Mexican dishes. No doubt, there are many tough words to pronounce in Mexican cuisines, but with the help of proper understanding of pronunciations and little best efforts will make you speak like native Mexican. Most of us have absolutely no problem when it comes to saying ‘Taco’ or ‘Burrito’, but what about other dishes like carne asada, costallia, chipotle etc. Chances are your waiter will try to understand what you’re try to say! So, here’s a list of some of the popular Mexican dishes to help you out with how to correctly pronounce them! Before we start, let’s understand how certain letters are pronounced! How to pronounce it with Mexican way for the sake of your favourite dish! Usually, J in Spanish is pronounced with an H sound. This is the reason why fjita is pronounced like “fah-HEE-tah,” instead of “fah-JEE-tah. It’s good to substitute the letter J with H sound in any Mexican items.
How to pronounce LL In Spanish, when LL are put together, this creates a Y sound. When you encounter with the worlds like quesadilla, bear in mind to replace the last LL with Y sound. How to pronounce with ‘E’ endings. Words like elote are pronounced as “eh-LO-tay” and not “ee-LOTE.”. Similarly, ensure that such words have an “ay” sound at the end whenever you pronounce them. Here’ the list of Mexican dishes that are mispronounced.
jalapeño – It is a hot pepper. It is pronounced as holl-uh-pehn-yo. The ‘n’ with the tilde (ñ) adds that “y” Pronunciation. It is called an enye (en-yah).
albondigas – It is a meatball soup. This is pronounced as al-bon-dee-gus.
pico de gallo – It is a chunky salsa. The correct way to pronounce this dish is : peek-oh duh-guy-oh. And people usually pronounce LL as in the word mall.
pollo – It means chicken. Pronounced as poy-oh. Common pronunciation error is pronouncing the LL as in the word Doll.
picante – It is a red spicy sauce. Pronounced as pee-con-tay with common pronunciation mistake like stressing on the wrong syllable and omitting the last E.
cerveza – It is beer. Pronounced as serv-ay-suh with a pronunciation error in last two syllables. Better not to emphasize on Z.
guacamole -It is a condiment made from avocados. Pronounced as gwahk-a-mole-ay.
fajitas -it is dish made of peppers, onions and meats sauteed and generally served with salsa, beans, cheese, tortillas and guacamole. It is pronounced as fuh-heet-uhs with popular common pronunciation error with the syllable J.
quesadilla – It is a thin crust with cheese melted on top. This dish is pronounced as cay-suh-dee-yuh. But the common pronunciation glitch is pronouncing two LL as in the word Mall.
habanero - It is a very hot pepper which is pronounced as ah-bahn-air-oh. And the common pronunciation error is saying the N like it has a tilde on it. Make sure that the wrong pronunciation doesn’t make you go away from your favourite dish at Sizzling Salsa. For a range of amazing Mexican cuisine in Surat, Sizzling Salsa is a good place offering truly Mexican taste. So, don’t hesitate, just work a little bit over the correct pronunciation as there you go señor y Señora!