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How do you pronounce "los" when conjugated? For example, in Verlos (e.g. see them).

Is it like "Los" in "lost"? Or Louhse?

I know there will probably be variation, but I am trying to avoid the wrong ways.

Also, does it change when it is not conjugated?

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Los isn't conjugated — it's enclitic. That's the term for when a pronoun is attached to the verb.

Nothing changes for pronunciation. For the vast majority of speakers, that will be /o/. The letter o in Standard Spanish always has the same pronunciation regardless of stress or position in a word. Every o in los olorosos sounds the same.

Now...the handful of exceptions that as a non-native speaker you should avoid unless trying to specifically mimic an accent from a particular region.

For a few speakers in certain South American regions, via influence from other languages with a three-vowel system, that vowel will be /u/ (although those speakers generally pronounce all their /o/ as /u/).

Others as may adjust word or phrase final -o vowels to be a bit closer to /u/ (or even a swcha-like vowel), and in that case, because the los is enclitic, may be affected when its proclitic (unattached) form would stay a pure /o/.

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  • "The letter o in Standard Spanish always has the same pronunciation". I sometimes think that English speakers (or speakers of any other language with more vowel sounds than Spanish) would maybe disagree. I mean, we might pronounce different o sounds, or a sounds, or... but the important thing is that the pronounciation doesn't change the meaning, as opposed to English (to live/live music).
    – MikMik
    May 15, 2015 at 11:40
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I would say that sounds similar to the English word loss (/lôs,läs/) as in "avoiding loss of time".

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  • Careful! That works for some accents of English but not most American ones. My loss (Southern AmE speaker) is basically the same as Spanish las
    – user0721090601
    Apr 27, 2015 at 17:25
  • I (Midwestern AmE) consider my loss to be /lↄs/ - rounder and more closed than /ɑ/ (cf. lots), but still not enough to be a spanish o.
    – Random832
    Apr 27, 2015 at 19:05
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    I understand that, but I'm not sure if the common Spanish speaker would appreciate the difference between /lↄs/ and /ɑ/. I still remember my wife (native English speaker) pronouncing "Look" and "Luke" to my group of friends and no one could see the difference. To my ear, except for the "t", "loss" and "lots" would sound the same.
    – Diego
    Apr 27, 2015 at 21:26

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