The sound of "art" in the word heart is just like the word art (drawing, painting, ect). The "ur" sound of hurts sounds just like the word "her." The "ts" sound (like 'tis' in tis the season) is said at the end. It's hard to explain the "h" sound in front of them, but it's literally "h" + "art" = heart and "her" + "ts" = hurts. Hope that helps (I can understand how both words can be hard to say for someone learning English).

Jaarts (In Spanish) = Hearts Jarts (In spanish) = Hurts That's the closest words I could make in Spanish that sound the same :) Add me on Skype and I will tell you how they sound. That'll be the best ^_^ Listen to the sounds of the words here : http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=hearts&submit=Submit http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=hurts&submit=Submit

Phonetically, the main difference lies in the sound of the vowel (plus the final /s/ sound of hurts). The vowel of hurt is centered in the mouth, while the tongue is lower and father back when producing the vowel of heart. That means that to pronounce the vowel in heart, you must open your mouth wider and move your tongue farther back. For both vowels, you also need to articulate an English (not a Spanish) /r/ at the same time. To do that, contract the back of the tongue while pronouncing the vowel to give it an additional /r/-like sound. If you want to see animations of the vowels, go to http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html. Click on monophthongs - central - /ɝ/ (hurt) and monophthongs - back - /ɑ/ (heart). Fonéticamente, la diferencia principal se radica en el sonido de la vocal (claro, más la /s/ final de hurts). La vocal de hurts es central en la boca, mientras que la vocal de heart se pronuncia con la lengua más abajo y más retráida. Quiere decir que cuando se pronuncia la vocal de heart, se requiere abrir más la boca y mover la lengua un poco más hacia la garganta. Para las dos, también hay que articular una /r/ inglesa (no española) al mismo tiempo. Para hacer eso, hay que contraer la raíz de la lengua mientras se pronuncia la vocal, lo cual colorea la vocal con el sonido de la /r/. Para ver unas animaciones de las vocales, ve a http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/frameset.html. Haz clic en monophthongs - central - /ɝ/ (hurt) y monophthongs - back - /ɑ/ (heart).