Is there any way to predict when Spanish speakers would pronounce the "j" like the English "j"? ... The general way to predict that a given letter in language A will be pronounced like it is language B is when the word in language A is a loanword from language B. This tends to fall apart for English as we tend to aggressively enforce our own phonetic rules on loanwords, but most other languages tend to try to replicate the original pronunciation ... More on spanish.stackexchange.com

g / j Some consonants in Spanish have different sounds depending on what other letters they come before/after. There are 3 main 'g' sounds in Spanish: 'Guttural' g / j the 'kch' sound you mentioned occurs when g comes before i or e general, gigante occurs anywhere you see a j jalapeño 'Hard' g / gu like g in gun / gu in guitar occurs when g comes before any other letter gato, grande occurs when gu comes before e or i guerra, guitarra 'Diphthong' gu / gü like gu in iguana occurs when gu comes before a or o guante occurs whenever you see a gü (always before e or i) pingüino If the hard/soft g isn't at the start of a sentence, and doesn't come after an n, then it is pronounced slightly softer. But this is just a natural effect on the sound when normally pronounced in this context, natives don't consciously learn this distinction. e.g. gato (hard) mi gato (slightly softer) foreign transcriptions Oaxaha is a transcription from Nahuatl ( Huāxyacac ), and Guadix from Arabic ( Wadi 'Ashi ), and in most accents they are pronounced slightly differently: i.e. Guadix is pronounced with a soft 'g' sound at the start. However, you are correct to note that these two sounds are very close, exemplified by the fact that the Spanish name for the tree from which the city gets its name is written as either huaje or guaje . sounds Here is a more detailed breakdown of the different sounds: Letter(s) | Context | IPA | Examples | English approximation | g | before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩ | [x] or [h] | general | similar to a "strong" English ⟨h⟩-sound; e.g. the ⟨ch⟩ in Scottish loch or in German Bach | g | not before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, and either word-initial after a pause, or after ⟨n⟩ | [ɡ] | gato; grande; vengo | practically the same as the typical English ⟨g⟩ sound, except that it is fully voiced; e.g. ago | g | not before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, and not in the above contexts | [ɣ] | trigo; amargo; signo; mi gato | a sound between a light English ⟨g⟩ and the typical English ⟨h⟩ (between gold and ahold) | gu | before ⟨a⟩ or ⟨o⟩, and either word-initial after a pause, or after ⟨n⟩; but only in some dialects | [ɡw] | guante; lengua | a sound like the ⟨gu⟩ in English penguin | gu | before ⟨a⟩ or ⟨o⟩, and not in the above contexts | [ɣw] | agua; averiguar | similar to the typical English ⟨w⟩, but preceded by a soft guttural sound | gu | before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, and either word-initial after a pause, or after ⟨n⟩ | [ɡ] | guerra | practically the same as the typical English ⟨g⟩ sound, except that it is fully voiced; e.g. ago | gu | before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, and not in the above contexts | [ɣ] | sigue | a sound between a light English ⟨g⟩ and the typical English ⟨h⟩ (between gold and ahold) | gü | before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, and either word-initial after a pause, or after ⟨n⟩; but only in some dialects | [ɡw] | güero, pingüino | a sound like the ⟨gu⟩ in English penguin | gü | before ⟨e⟩ or ⟨i⟩, and not in the above contexts | [ɣw] | averigüe | similar to the typical English ⟨w⟩, but preceded by a soft guttural sound | h | everywhere | (silent) | hoy; hacer; prohibir; huevo; hielo | silent (like the English ⟨h⟩ in English honor or hour) | hi | before a vowel | [j] or [ʝ] | hierba; hielo | similar to or the same as the typical English ⟨y⟩; e.g. you (but often more strongly pronounced, sometimes resembling the English ⟨j⟩, as in jam) | hu | before a vowel | [w] | hueso; huevo | same as the typical English ⟨w⟩; we (sometimes sounds closer to the English ⟨gw⟩, like in Gwen, or ⟨bw⟩, like in cobweb) | j | everywhere | [x] or [h] | jamón; eje; reloj | similar to a "strong" English ⟨h⟩-sound; e.g. the ⟨ch⟩ in Scottish loch or in German Bach | y | as a semivowel (almost always in a diphthong) | [i] or [j] | hay, soy | same as the typical English ⟨y⟩ (but joined in a single syllable with another vowel sound); aye, boy | y | as a consonant | [j] or [ʝ] | ya; yelmo; ayuno | similar to the typical English ⟨y⟩, or ⟨j⟩ but softer; e.g. similar to yes or Jess https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_orthography#Consonants More on reddit.com

Oohhoohoo this is funny First off it’s not a “j sound”, the ‘y’ sound in Spanish is most often a /ʝ/, a sound many English speakers will mishear as a ‘j’ More on reddit.com

It has nothing to do with regional accents, the hard J sound for Jerry or Jacket doesn't really exist in Spanish so a lot of native Spanish speakers mispronounce it as Y like in yellow. More on reddit.com