Spanish spelling has the pleasant characteristic of being very phonetic, with only a few clearly-defined exceptions. This means that if you know how to pronounce the letters of a word, it’s relatively easy to sound out the word itself.
Besides having a very small number of vowel sounds and a high predictablity of exactly what sound is represented by each letter, Spanish has a very clear set of rules about where a stress normally falls, and exceptions are noted with an “acute accent mark” (“´ “) over the vowel of the stressed syllable. Normally, words that end in a vowel, or in n or s, have the stress on the next-to-last syllable (muchacho = “mu-CHA-cho”); all other words without an explicit accent mark are stressed on the final syllable (hospital = “os-pee-TAL”). There are no secondary stresses within words. We need to remember that English speaking people tend to drag out the letters especially the vowels. There are NO long vowels in Spanish, plus there is no ‘ay’ sound in the Spanish ‘e’ since its short like the ‘e’ in ‘met.’
Vowels
- a
- like ‘a’ in “father”.
- e
- like ‘e’ in “met”, although often taught as ‘a’ in “spain”.
- i
- like ‘ee’ in “see”.
- o
- like ‘o’ in “score”, especially when stressed.
- u
- like ‘oo’ in “hoop”.
- y
- like ‘ee’ in “see”. Very rarely used at the middle or ending of words.
Consonants
- b
- like ‘b’ in “bed” (but no aspiration) at the beginning of a word and after ‘m’: boca. A soft vibration sound almost like English ‘v’ elsewhere. See v below.
- c
- follows the same pronunciation pattern as in English. In most cases it is pronounced like ‘k’ in “kid”: calle, doctor. When followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’, it is like ’s’ in “supper” (Latin America) or ‘th’ in “thin” (Spain): cine.
- ch
- like ‘ch’ in “touch”: muchacho
- d
- like ‘d’ in “dog” at the beginning of a word; like ‘th’ is “this” between vowels: dedo, pronounced “De-tho”
- f
- like ‘f’ in “fine”: faro
- g
- when followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’, like a throaty ‘h’ (general = heh-neh-RAHL), otherwise like ‘g’ in “go” (gato). In the clusters “gue” and “gui”, the ‘u’ serves only to change the sound of the consonant and is silent (guitarra), unless it bears a diaeresis, as in “güe” and “güi” (pedigüeño). In between vowels, it tends to be voiced and not guturral.
- gu, gü
- like ‘Gu’ in McGuire or ‘w’ in “wire” (agua, agüita)
- h
- silent: hora= OR-ah. Pronounced like a softer ‘j’ only in foreign words.
- j
- like a throaty ‘h’ in “ha”: jamón;
- k
- like ‘k’ in “kid”: kilo The letter K is only used in foreign words (karate, kilo, Kiev, etc.).
- l
- like ‘l’ in “love”: lápiz
- ll
- like ‘y’ in “year”; pronounced like a Zh as in ‘Zhivago’ only in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay: llamar. In at least some parts of Costa Rica, pronounced as the English “j” or “g,” as in the words “ginger” or “ninja.” Also pronounced like ‘ly’ as in the English word “million” in northern Spain and in the Philippines.
- m
- like ‘m’ in “mother”: mano
- n
- like ‘n’ in “nice”, and like ‘n’ in “anchor”: noche, ancla
- ñ
- like ‘ny’ in “canyon”: cañón, piñata
- p
- like ‘p’ in “pig”: perro
- q
- like ‘q’ in “quiche” (always with a silent “u”): queso, pronounced KEH-so
- r, rr
- Spanish has two ‘r’ sounds both of which are different from their counterpart in English. Some effort should be made to approximate each of them, to help listeners distinguish between perro (“dog”) and pero (“but”)… or perhaps to understand you at all:
- single r: This sound is created by putting the tip of the tongue up against where the front of the roof of the mouth meets the upper teeth, very similar to the action English speakers make to pronounce l or d. To an English-speaking ear, it may sound a bit like a combined “d-r”. Take care to pronounce r separately when it follows a consonant; a blended English tr will not be recognized in the Spanish word otro (“other”), which should be pronouced more like “OHT-roh”.
- rolled r: Written “r” at the beginning of the word, or “rr” between vowels (cerro). It’s a multiply vibrating sound. Whereas most English speakers can learn to tap out a single r, many adults learning Spanish find this sound impossible to produce; in this case, pronouncing it like a Spanish r or fumbling out a d-r will be better understood than pronouncing it like a long English r.
- s
- like ’ss’ in “hiss”: sopa; in Spain, it is often pronounced like a soft, palatised “sh” at the end of a word or syllable.
- t
- like ‘t’ in “top”: tapa
- v
- like ‘b’ in “bed” (but no aspiration) at the beginning of a word and after ‘m’: vaca, pronounced BAH-kah. A soft vibration sound almost like English ‘v’ elsewhere. To distinguish v from b when spelling, one says “vay chica” or “bay grande” to indicate which; native Spanish speakers may not hear the difference between “vee” and “bee”.
- w
- like ‘w’ in “weight” in English words, whisky, pronounced “WEESS-kee”). Like ‘b’ in “bed” in Germanic words.
- x
- like ‘x’ in “flexible” (flexible). Like ’ss’ in “hiss” at beginning of a word (xilófono). Like a throaty ‘h’ in the words México, mexicano, Oaxaca, and oaxaqueño.
- y
- like ‘y’ in “yes”: payaso. Like ‘y’ in “boy”: hoy. Pronounced like a Zh ONLY in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay as in ‘Zhivago’, : yo no se, pronounced “zhoh noh say”.
- z
- like ’s’ in “supper” (Latin America), like ‘th’ in “thin” (Spain): zorro. See c above.
Diphthongs
Most diphthongs can be approximated by blending the first vowel into the second in a single syllable.
- ai, ay
- like ‘eye’: baile
- au
- like ‘ow’ in “cow”: causa
- ei, ey
- like ‘ay’ in “say”: reina, rey.
- eu
- pronounced ‘eh-oo’: euro = “eh-OO-roh”
- ia
- like ‘ya’ in “Kenya”: piano
- ie
- like ‘ye’ in “yes”: pie = “pyeh”
- io
- like ‘yo’: dio
- iu
- like ‘ew’ in “few”: ciudad = “see-you-THAHD”
- oi, oy
- like ‘oy’ in “boy”: soy
- ua
- like ‘wa’ in “wallet”: cuatro
- ue
- like ‘we’ in “well”: puedo
- ui, uy
- like ‘wee’ in “ween”: ruido
- ui
- like ‘ooy’: cuido = “coo-wee-dough”
- uo
- like “wa” in “water”: averiguo
Accents and stress
Word stress can affect the meaning of the word and generally follows these rules:
- If a word is marked with an accent, then that syllable receives the stress.
- Additionally, if the accent marks a diphthong a syllable break occurs between the two vowels of the diphthong.
- If a word is NOT marked with an accent, then
- if the word ends in a consonant other than N or S, the stress occurs on the last syllable.
- if the word ends in a vowel, N or S, the stress occurs on the next to last syllable.
- In Spain, a English ci/ce or z sound makes a English “TH”. In Latin America, it makes the same sound as English.
Examples: (1st pronunciation: Spanish; 2nd pronunciation: Latin America; when there is only one, it’s common)
- círculo (THEER-koo-loh/SEER-koo-loh) → circle
- circulo (theer-KOO-loh/seer-KOO-loh) → I circulate
- circuló (theer-koo-LOH/seer-koo-LOH) → he/she/it circulated
- estás (ehss-TAHSS) → you are
- estas (EHSS-tahss) → these
- origen (oh-REE-hehn) → origin
- orígenes (oh-REE-hehn-ehss) → origins
- ciudad (the-ooh-DAHD/syew-DAHD) → city
- ciudades (thyew-DAHD-dehss/syew-DAH-dehss) → cities
An accent can also be used to differentiate between words that are pronounced the same but have different meanings:
- él (he) el (the)
- té (tea) te (you) (ex: I can’t see you)
- tú (you) (ex: you want to go there) tu (your)
- mí (me) mi(my)
- dé (I give or he/she/it give; but in present of subjunctive) de (of)
- sí (yes) si (if)
- se (a pronoun; difficult to explain here) sé (I know or be imperative of the verb “to be”, spoken to the second person of singular)
- más (more/plus) mas (but)