Pronouncing the V and B

Habits die hard, and one of them those of us who grew up speaking English have is thinking that the "b" and the "v" are pronounced differently. That's true enough in English — but not in Spanish! In terms of pronunciation, b and v might as well be the same letter in Spanish. (That's one reason many native Spanish speakers get the two letters mixed up while spelling, and why a few words, such as ceviche or cebiche, are correct with either spelling.)

What can make matters mildly difficult is that the sound of b/v can vary depending on where it appears in relation to other sounds.The v in "a veces" doesn't sound the same as the v in "en vez" even though veces is the plural form of vez. Many students find this confusing, which may be one reason it has been discussed at length in our forum.