B vs. V

I have been taught that the letter V in Spanish is pronounced like the letter B in English and the letter B in Spanish is pronounced like the letter V in English. And I believe the beginning lessons of the Rocket Spanish course made note of this also. However, I am working on module 2 of the level 1 Spanish and for the Spanish pronunciations so far, it sounds like the letters B and V are being pronounced as they would be in English. Am I just not picking up on the very subtle differences in the pronunciations or are the pronunciations not correct in module 2, level 1? Thank you in advance for the clarification. 

I believe it's that both the Spanish V and B frequently sound almost exactly like the English B.  There are instances, however, when they both sound very much like the English V.

There is a much better response from Scott_C and Liss further down in this grammar section of the forum under the discussion titled “In lesson on how to say spanish words... the speaker is unequivocally pronouncing the 'V' in PRIMAVER as a V.”

¡Hola, RocketL-piff y edmoonus!

Just jumping in to provide some links that may be helpful!

RocketL-piff, you can find the thread that edmoonus is referring to here and the Level 1 lesson on pronunciation that covers these letters (with examples) here. 

If you still have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Saludos,

Liss

This video explains some of the reasons we English speakers have trouble hearing the differences of the b and v in Spanish :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aGapVzDL-k

Saludos,

Ronaldo

That video helped me understand this B and V pronunciation issue much better.  Thank you!  From the very beginning of my Spanish learning, I encountered this question.  

You're welcome.  I am in the same boat as you! ;-)  The part in the video that I liked was that when we pronounce a v that Spanish speakers probably hear it okay.  When I was taking Spanish in USA schools growing up, I don't remember them teaching it, but that was so long ago that maybe I am wrong.  It is interesting that other Romance languages such as Italian do indeed have a Vee sound in their alphabet so I wonder if they also have any accent or difficulty with it when they learn Spanish.

Here's something you might find amusing.  My wife is bilingual (Spanish and English) because her father was bilingual and her mother only speaks Spanish.   English was her second language, but she learned it at a very young age growing up.  When I asked her about this B/V pronunciation question, she insisted that her Spanish V was pronounced the same as an English V.  She even remarked “…otherwise, how would one know how to spell the Spanish words?”  However, when I listened more carefully to her pronunciation, I could tell the Spanish V was not quite the same as my V (lower lip moving behind and scraping under the front teeth).  She was doing the bilabial fricative as described in the video without knowing that it was different than her English V.  She is 100% fluent in English with almost no accent whatsoever.  In fact, when I asked her to pronounce English words that start with V, she pronounces it as all other English speakers (dental fricative) without knowing otherwise.  Very interesting :)