Spanish Lesson- Alphabet and Pronunciation

Learning the proper way to pronounce letters in Spanish is the best way to start, in my opinion. If you are going to be learning lots of new words, it is best to start pronouncing them correctly from the very beginning. The Spanish alphabet consists of all 26 of the English letters, but it also includes "Ch", "ll", and "ñ". The double r's were considered a separate letter for some time as well, but now it has been reduced to these 29 letters. In this hub, I will show you the proper way to say each of these letters in Spanish.

Here I will show you how to pronounce each letter of the Spanish alphabet, remember, though, that this is how you say the letter, not necessarily how you pronounce them in words. Just like W is said double you, but you pronounce it as wuh.

A= ah

B= beh

C= seh

Ch= che

D=deh

E=eh

F= ef-e

G= heh

H= ah-cheh

I= ee

J= ho-ta

K= kah

L= eh leh

LL= eh-yeh

M= em-eh

N= en-eh

Ñ= en-yeh

O= oh

P= peh

Q= ku

R= er-eh

S= es-eh

T= teh

U= oo

V= veh

W= do-bleh veh

X= ek-ees

Y= ee-gree-ay-gah

Z= zet-ah

Learning how to pronounce vowels in Spanish words is the best place to begin studying Spanish. The Spanish alphabet is almost the same as the English alphabet, but there are a few different pronunciations of letters.

Now, I will show you the proper way to pronounce the vowels in Spanish conversation.

• The letter "A" in Spanish is always pronounced as "ah" or the "a" in father.

• The letter "E" in Spanish is usually pronounced as "eh" or the "e" in fed. In some words, though, it can sound much like the English "a" in made.
  

• The letter "I" in Spanish is always pronounced as "ee" or the "e" in me.

• The letter "O" in Spanish is always pronounced as "o" or the "o" in mode.

• The letter "U" in Spanish is always pronounced as "u" or the "oo" in boot.

Mastering the vowels is the first step to being able to pronounce Spanish correctly, and once you feel comfortable with these, you should move on to the next section.

Most of the consonants are pronounced in the same way in Spanish and English, but here I will show you the proper way to pronounce those that are different.

• The letter "G" in Spanish is pronounced as an "h" when it precedes an "e" or an "i" in a word. If it precedes an "a", "o", or "u" it is pronounced as the "g" in gum.

• The letter "H" in Spanish is always silent. The only time it makes a sound is when it is found after a "C" to make the conjunction "ch". The "Ch" in Spanish is pronounced the same as the "Ch" in English.

• The letter "J" in Spanish is always pronounced as "h" or the "h" in hose.

• The letter "V" in Spanish is commonly pronounced as a "b" or the "b" in boy; however, it can still be pronounced as the English "v" most of the time.

• The letter "Y" in Spanish can never be considered a vowel like in English. It always has the sound of "y" as in yolk. It never has the sound of "y" as in bury.
  

In Spanish, you will only find words containing double c, l, and r's. No where in the language will you find two of any other letter in a row.So now I will explain how to pronounce each of these double letters.

• The Spanish "CC" is pronounced as "x" or the "x" in x-ray.

• The Spanish "LL" is pronounced as "y" or the "y" in yolk. Or, in some parts of Latin America the "LL" can be pronounced as "j" or the "j" in jump.

• The famous Spanish "RR" does not have an English equivalent, but when you see an "rr" you should know that you must roll your r's.
  

The ñ in Spanish is widely used and is actually referred to as a separate letter from "n". The ~ above the "n" is called a tilde. Whenever you see a tilde above an "n" you should know that it should be pronounced as "ny" or the "ny" in canyon.

Although the Spanish alphabet technically has 29 letters, you really only have to worry about 27 of them. The letters "k" and "w" will never be found in any Spanish word. The few places where you may encounter them is in words that are adopted into Spanish from other languages such as kiosko (kiosk), kilómetro (kilometer), and whisky (whiskey). There are more than these, but I doubt you would encounter them in any-day conversation.

Accent marks can be placed above any of the vowels in Spanish. They are used to show that stress should be placed on a particular syllable in the word. In Spanish, this can make a large difference. For example, the Spanish word "esta" means "this", but the word "está" means "is".

Madre= mah-dray            (mother)

Hermano= er-mahn-oh    (brother)

Perro= peh-(roll r)o         (dog)

Agua= ah-gwah               (water)

Lección= lex-ee-ohn        (lesson)

Libro= lee-bro                 (book)

Mesa= may-sah              (table)

Queso= kay-so               (cheese)

Llamar= yah-mar            (to call)

Año= ahn-yo                   (year)

Once you are able to pronounce all of the words easily, you should have a good beginner's foundation for learning more Spanish. The next step for you after mastering this should be to learn the basics of Spanish verbs and begin expanding your Spanish vocabulary.

I have trouble with this sometimes myself. If you have an English keyboard, it can be very annoying to try to type a letter with an accent mark, an "ñ", and the upside down punctuation marks that are used in Spanish.

I hope that this website can help you understand how to type these symbols, but if not, you can always simply copy and paste ones that you find on the internet.

Here is a list of the symbols that you may have a hard time typing:

Á á

É é

Í í

Ó ó

Ú ú

Ü ü

Ñ ñ

¿ ¡