A Guide to Spanish Pronunciation

THERE ARE A LOT FEWER sounds in Spanish than in English. Almost all Spanish words adhere to the following pronunciation rules.

Vowels

In Spanish, each vowel is pronounced separately. Auto (car) has four sounds, one for each letter.

A sounds like the a in far but shorter.

E sounds like the ay in play when stressed—e.g., médico (doctor). If not stressed, it sounds more like the e in bet—e.g., estudio (study).

I sounds like the e in be but shorter.

O is the same as the o in lock.

U sounds like oo but shorter. Before most vowels, it becomes a semivowel that sounds like the w in wall—e.g., fuego (fire). U is always silent after q, as in que. After g, u is generally silent—e.g., guerrilla. But if gu is followed by a consonant, the u is pronounced—e.g., gusto.

Y; when used as a vowel, sounds like the e in be but shorter—e.g., y (and). When used as a semivowel, it sounds like the y in yo-yo—e.g., hoy (today).

Consonants

B, D, F, K, L, M, N, P, and T: are pronounced the same way as they are in English.

C in front of a, o, and u is pronounced like k—e.g., canal. In front of e and i, there are variations. In the Americas and some parts of Spain, c is pronounced like s. In northern Spain, c is pronounced like th in path.

Ch: Until 1994, this was a distinct letter (in the dictionary) but not anymore. It is pronounced ch.

G is complicated. In front of e and i, it sounds like a throaty h—e.g., general. In front of a o, or any consonant, it is hard—e.g., gato (cat). The special case is in front of u. Then it may sound like gw—e.g., lengua (language), or it is hard g—e.g., guerrilla. Or it may disappear into wa—e.g., guardia (guard).

H is always silent.

J is called la jota. It sounds like a very throaty h.

Ll: Until 1994, this was a distinct letter (in the dictionary) but not anymore. Depending on the location, it sounds like the y in yo-yo (e.g., llama) or the soft j of measure or pleasure. But in some dialects, it may sound like the lli in million.

Ñ is a distinct letter in the dictionary that falls between n and o. It sounds like the English ng of sing—e.g., niño (child).

Q is always pronounced like k and is always combined with a silent u.

R at the beginning of words or when appearing as rr sounds like a long trill. A single r anywhere else is almost always pronounced like a very short trill, or a single tap of the tongue.

S sounds like s except when it comes in front of l, m, and d. In those cases, it sounds like z.

V sounds like b but slightly softer.

W is reserved for foreign terms. It sounds like w. In Spain, it may sound like b—e.g., wáter (toilet).

X before a vowel sounds like ks. Before a consonant it sounds like s. But in Mexico, in place names with an x, it sounds like a throaty h—e.g., México.

Z in the Americas sounds like s. In northern Spain, it sounds like th.

Accents

The trema indicates that the letter u after g is pronounced, like güiro (gourd).

The acute accent (´) on vowels indicates peculiar cases of stressing (but not a different sound, as in French).

Spanish stressing rules are simple. Stress is always on the next to last vowel in words that end with a vowel or with n or s—in other words, the large majority of Spanish words. For words ending in any other consonant, like merced (market), the stress is on the last vowel. Words that follow the rule do not have accents.

For words that don’t follow these rules, such as médico (doctor), león (lion), and fácil (easy), the accent shows where the stress is.

In some one-syllable words, the accent doesn’t indicate any stress at all. It is used to differentiate homonyms, like te (objective case of you) and té (tea).