Learning how to read and write Spanish can only get you so far, because if you don’t know how to pronounce your pero from your perro, you may get into many sticky situations! The good news is that Spanish is a phonetic language, which means that you can look at almost any word and immediately know how to pronounce it.

This blog post will go over how to pronounce the alphabet in Spanish:

Letter	Approximate pronunciation	Example	Pronunciation of example
a	Like ‘a’ in father	gato	gah-to
b	a) When the ‘b’ is between vowels, pronounce like the English ‘b’ but softer	bebiba	beh-bee-dah
	b)  When ‘b’ is not in between vowels, pronounce like the English ‘b	bueno	bweh-noh
c	Like ‘k’ in kite	cabra	kah-bra
ce / ci	Like ‘s’ in say	centro	sehn-troh
d	Like the English ‘d’	dar	dah-r
e	Like the ‘e’ in net	esta	eh-stah
f	Like the English ‘f’	feliz	feh-lis
g	Like ‘g’ in get	ninguno	neen-goo-noh
ge / gi	Like ‘k’ in lock	urgente	oor-kh-ehn-teh
h	Silent	¡hola!	ola
i	Like ‘ee’ in feet	sí	s-ee
j	Like ‘ch’ in Scottish loch	bajo	bah-khoh
k	Only found in foreign words. Pronounce like the English ‘k’	karate	kah-ratay
l	Like the ‘l’ in call	tal	ta-ll
m	Like the English ‘m’	mamá	mah-mah
n	Like the English ‘n’	nada	nah-da
o	Like the ‘o’ in no	dos	doh-s
p	Like the ‘p’ in English	pero	peh-ro
q	Like ‘k’ in kick	que	keh
r	Roll your tongue especially when the ‘r’ is at the beginning of the word	río	ree-oh
s	a) like ‘s’ in same	sus	s-oos
	b)When the ‘s’ is before ‘b/d/g/l/m/n’ pronounce like ‘z’	mismo	meez-moh
t	Like the English ‘t’ but make your tongue touch the back of your frontteeth	té	teh
u	a) Like ‘oo’ in food	uno	oo-noh
	b) Silent after ‘g’ and ‘q’	que	keh
v	Pronounced like ‘beh’	envase	en-ba-seh
w	Only found in foreign words. Pronounce like the English ‘w’	whisky	whisky
x	a) Like the “ks” in the word “talks”	examen	eks-amin
	b) The second is pronounced like the English letter “h” and used for certain proper nouns	México	Meh-hico
y	a) Depending upon the region, ‘y’ can sound like the English ‘y’ or the English ‘j’	ya	yah
	b) When alone, pronounced like ‘ee	y	ee
z	Like ‘s’ in same	brazo	brah-soh

 

Letters and sounds specific to the Spanish alphabet

 

Letter	Approximate pronunciation	Example	Pronunciation of example
ll	Like the ‘y’ in yellow	lleno	yeh-noh
ñ	Like the ‘n’ in onion	niño	nin-nyoh
rr	Really roll your tongue! Pronounce like ‘airrr-ay’	arriba	ah-rree-bah
ü	Like ‘we’ in well	antigüedad	ahn-tee-gweh-dahd

 

Pronunciation of Spanish spoken in Spain

 

Letter	Approximate pronunciation	Example	Pronunciation of example
ce/ci	Like ‘th’ in thin	centro	then-troh
d	Like the English ‘d’ apart from when the ‘d’ is in between vowels or at the end of the word. Then pronounce like ‘th’ in thin, but softer	usted	oos-teth
z	Like ‘th’ in thin	brazo	brah-thoh

 

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