Breakdown of Mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación cuando practica en voz alta.
Questions & Answers about Mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación cuando practica en voz alta.
Va mejorando uses the structure ir + gerund (ir + gerundio), which often expresses a gradual, step‑by‑step progression over time.
- Mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación…
→ Suggests she is little by little improving, steadily, as time passes.
Compare:
Mi hermana mejora su pronunciación cuando practica en voz alta.
→ More neutral, a general fact: whenever she practices aloud, her pronunciation improves.Mi hermana está mejorando su pronunciación.
→ Focuses on what is happening around now, like a current process, but doesn’t emphasize the gradual accumulation in the same way va mejorando does.
So ir + gerundio adds the nuance of ongoing, progressive change, often with a sense of “more and more over time.” This construction is very natural and common in Latin American Spanish.
Yes, that sentence is grammatically correct and natural.
Mi hermana mejora su pronunciación cuando practica en voz alta.
→ States a general, habitual truth. Whenever she practices aloud, result: improvement. It sounds like a rule, a fact.Mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación cuando practica en voz alta.
→ Keeps the idea that practice helps her, but adds that she is making progressive, ongoing improvement, not just an isolated cause–effect fact. It feels more like you are watching the gradual progress.
Both are fine; va mejorando simply adds that “step‑by‑step progress” flavor.
Both express an ongoing process, but:
Está mejorando → standard progressive: she is improving (right now / around now). No strong implication about how the change accumulates.
Va mejorando → she keeps on improving / is gradually improving more and more. It suggests:
- small increments over time,
- a process that is moving forward stage by stage.
In many contexts they can be interchangeable, but va mejorando often feels a bit more dynamic and gradual than está mejorando.
Su pronunciación specifies whose pronunciation it is: her pronunciation.
- Mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación…
→ Clear: it is my sister’s pronunciation that is improving.
If you say:
- Mi hermana va mejorando la pronunciación cuando practica en voz alta.
This can sound like:
- she improves “the pronunciation” in a more general or external sense (for example, she is a teacher improving the pronunciation of a group), not necessarily her own.
So in this context, su is natural and preferred, because we are talking about her own skill.
In isolation, su is ambiguous in Spanish: it can mean his / her / their / your (formal).
But in Mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación, context usually removes ambiguity:
- The closest logical reference is mi hermana, so native speakers will understand su pronunciación as my sister’s pronunciation.
- If the speaker wanted to emphasize that it is her own pronunciation, they could say:
- Mi hermana va mejorando su propia pronunciación. (her own pronunciation)
In normal conversation, su pronunciación here is clearly understood as belonging to mi hermana.
In Spanish, practicar is usually not reflexive when you mean to practice something (a skill, an activity):
- Ella practica español. → She practices Spanish.
- Él practica guitarra. → He practices guitar.
- Mi hermana practica en voz alta. → My sister practices out loud.
Se practica would mean “practices itself” or “one practices” (impersonal), which is different:
- Aquí se practica mucho deporte.
→ A lot of sports are practiced here / People practice a lot of sports here.
In the given sentence, practica simply means she practices, so no se is needed.
En voz alta literally is “in a high voice”, but its real meaning is:
- “out loud / aloud” – that is, speaking so that others can hear you, as opposed to silently in your head.
Examples:
- Leer en voz alta. → To read out loud.
- Repite en voz alta. → Repeat out loud.
It can sometimes overlap with “loudly”, but the main idea is not volume; it is not silent.
If you want to emphasize loudness (high volume), you would typically use fuerte or alto in a different construction:
- Habla fuerte. → Speak loudly.
- Pon la música más alta. → Turn the music up louder.
So en voz alta is best understood as “out loud”, not just “at a high volume.”
In Spanish, with singular, close family members, you normally use the possessive adjective without an article:
- mi hermana (my sister)
- mi mamá / mi madre (my mom / my mother)
- mi papá / mi padre (my dad / my father)
- mi hermano, mi hijo, etc.
You do not say la mi hermana (that would be incorrect in standard Spanish, though it exists in some regional varieties or in old texts).
You can use the definite article without a possessive when it is clear from context whose family member it is, but that is more typical with certain verbs or regional usages:
- Voy a ver a mi hermana. (standard)
- In some regions you might hear: Voy a ver a la hermana. (but this can also sound like “the sister” in a more generic or third‑person way, so it’s less clear).
In your sentence, mi hermana is exactly what you want: my sister.
In Spanish, the present tense is commonly used in time clauses like cuando to express habitual actions:
- Mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación cuando practica en voz alta.
→ Whenever she practices aloud (as a habit), she keeps improving.
So cuando practica here means “when(ever) she practices”.
You would not say cuando practicará for this meaning. And cuando está practicando is possible, but it changes the nuance; it focuses much more on a specific moment:
- Mi hermana mejora mucho cuando está practicando en voz alta.
→ She improves a lot while she is practicing out loud (during that ongoing action).
For general, repeated situations, Spanish strongly prefers present after cuando.
Yes, that word order is perfectly natural:
- Mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación cuando practica en voz alta.
- Cuando practica en voz alta, mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación.
Both are correct. Moving cuando practica en voz alta to the front just emphasizes the condition/time frame a bit more: In those moments when she practices out loud, that’s when she improves.
What you generally cannot do is split va and mejorando in a strange way, like:
- ✗ Mi hermana mejorando va su pronunciación… (incorrect / very unnatural in modern Spanish)
Ir + gerundio works as a single verbal unit and normally stays together.
Yes, you can say:
- Mi hermana va mejorando su pronunciación al practicar en voz alta.
This is also natural and common. The nuance:
- cuando practica en voz alta → when(ever) she practices out loud (time/habit).
- al practicar en voz alta → by practicing out loud / when practicing out loud (more like “in the act of practicing” or “by means of practicing”).
In many contexts they are almost interchangeable, but al + infinitive sounds a bit more compact and formal, and it can emphasize the means: she improves by practicing out loud.