| The name and sounds of the letters in Spanish | |||||
| letter | name | sound | example | differences | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | a | /a/ | Argentina, adivinar | ----- | |
| B | be | /b/ | Bolivia, bien | ----- | |
| C | ce | /θ/ /k/ |
Cecilia Cuba, casa, cosa, cuando |
The letter C sounds like a "k" when it is followed by the vowels a, o and u: casa, cosa, cuchara. It is pronounced as an "s" when it is followed by the vowels i and e: ciudad, cebra. This occurs in English as well: carrot, cold and cucumber, but celery and city. | |
| Ch | che | /ts/ | Chile, chica, muchacha | ||
| D | de | /d/ | Don Quijote, decir | ----- | |
| E | e | /e/ | España, estudiante | ----- | |
| F | efe | /f/ | flamenco, feo | ----- | |
| G | ge | /h/ g/ |
Genaro, Gilberto Gana, Gonzalo, Guti guerra, guitarra, güiro |
The letter G is hard (like the English G in "gate") when it is followed by the vowels a, o and u: gato, gordo, gusto. It is soft (like the English 'H') when it is followed by the vowels i and e: gimnasio, general. (By the way, this occurs in English as well although with different "g" sounds: game, gone and gulp, but gentle and giraffe.) | |
| H | hache | /-/ | Honduras, ahora, alcohol | The letter H is always silent. You might try to pretend it is invisible too, when you see words with h's. For example, the verb hay is pronounced like the English word "eye", not like the horse-food! Alcohol is pronounced "al-col" as if there were no `h' in the middle. Don't forget that ch is a separate letter that cannot be split. Ch has the same pronunciation in Spanish as it does in English. | |
| I | i | /i/ | Ibiza, escribir | ----- | |
| J | jota | /h/ | Julio Iglesias, cajón | ||
| K | ka | /k/ | kárate | K is a foreign letter and used only in words borrowed from other languages. | |
| L | ele | /l/ | La Paz , Barcelona | ----- | |
| Ll | elle | /l/ | ¿Cómo te llamas? | ||
| M | eme | /m/ | México, Méjico | ----- | |
| N | ene | /n/ | Nicaragua | ----- | |
| Ñ | eñe | /ń/ | niños, diseñador | ||
| O | o | /o/ | olé, acento | ----- | |
| P | pe | /p/ | Paraguay, estupendo | ----- | |
| Q | cu /ku/ | /k/ | Quito, ¿qué? | Q never occurs without u, so think of Qu as one letter. Qu is always pronounced like a `k'. It never makes the `kw' sound as it does in English. Try to visualize a K every time you see Qu. | |
| R | erre | /rr/ | República Dominicana cerrar, Enrique, Rosa |
Rr is spelled r when beginning a word: rojo [red], but is spelled rr when it occurs within a word: pelirrojo [redhead]. | |
| R | ere | /r/ | pero, cera | ||
| S | ese | /s/ | El Salvador | ----- | |
| T | te | /t/ | Titicaca, trabajar | ----- | |
| U | u | /u/ | Uruguay, buen, bueno | ----- | |
| V | ve, uve | /b/ | Venezuela, vivir | V is pronounced the same as B. The names ve chica and be grande mean `little b' and `big b' respectively. A common native speaker error is to switch these letters when writing. Do not pronounce this letter like the English letter `v'. Both V and B are pronounced like a softened version of the English letter `b'. | |
| W | uve doble | /u/ | whiskey | W is a foreign letter and used only in words borrowed from other languages. | |
| X | equis | /ks/ /gs/ |
examen | ||
| Y | ye | /dź/ | Yucatán, Yo | ||
| Z | zeta | /θ/ | Zaragoza, zapato | Z occurs only in front of strong vowels (A, O, U.) The Z "time-shares" the vowels with C. C also has a soft "S" sound in front of the weak Vowels (I, E.) Therefore, when the Z is placed in a position where it is faced with a weak vowel, it changes into the letter C. (for example, we spell pencil "lápiz" but the plural form pencils needs to change the Z to C "lápices.") | |
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