If you’re fairly new to Español you’ve probably already started learning some phrases or the odd word. For example things like hola, adios, ¿que tal?, ¿cómo estás?’ Those are the kind of phrases and words that you would probably have started to learn so far but you need to build confidence to be able to actually speak those words when the time comes, and the best way to build that confidence, apart from obviously practising, is to have confidence knowing how they should sound when they come out of your mouth.
So, in this blog post you’re going to learn one of the secrets that will help you communicate with much more confidence in Español. ¿Listo? !Vamos!
The way to do that is to learn the letters and sounds of the Spanish alphabet.
So you might be thinking “oh gosh Kelly I’ve got to learn the alphabet?” Well yeah, you do because the great thing about Español is that the words are pronounced phonetically as each letter sounds so once you confidently know how each letter should sound you can put them all together to form the words.
Letters and sounds of the Spanish Alphabet
| Letter | Phonetic | Example | Notes |
| A | ah | Ambulancia, which translates to ambulance. | |
| B | Beh | Bbote which would translate into boat. | The b because the sound of the b in Español B is very similar to the V when we get to the V so to distinguish between the two, I’d like you to put in your notes, that the B is also known as a B alta. |
| C | theh / seh | coche – car | Pronunciation changes depending on whether you’re learning Spanish from Mainland Spain or from Central and South America. The c before an A a U and an O is like a hard c so, for example, coche, cucaracha and carnival it’s like a hard c. And then before an I and an E it’s a softer C like an s so for example cielo. So cielo and cero so it’s a softer c. |
| CH | |||
| D | deh | dedo, which means a finger. | to pronounce the letter D you put your tongue to the top of your mouth behind your teeth |
| E | eh | elefante, which translates to elephant. | the letter E in Español se dice, is pronounced like the letter A in English, |
| F | efey | fuego, which translates to fire. | |
| G | guh / he | gato – cat general, girasol, which means general and sunflower. | The G before an A an O or a U is kind of like it’s a harder G it’s like a guh, similar to the rules around the C. So for example gato, cat, but when it’s before an E or an I it’s a softer G so general, girasol, which means general and sunflower. |
| H | acheh | hola or hielo, which mean hello and ice. | You’re familiar with the word Hola, which I’m sure you are in Español, it means hello. At the beginning of that word there’s an H, but we never pronounce the h when it’s at the beginning of a word in Español it’s always silent so the the letter H is an acheh but we never pronounce it. So for example hola or hielo, which mean hello and ice. So never pronounce the h at the beginning of a word. |
| I | ee | íman which means magnet. | The letter I and in Español is pronounced the same as the English e so to avoid any confusion we call it an ee Latina (latin i) |
| J | jota | una jarra de cerveza a jar of beer a mug or a jug of beer. | This is the one where you kind of get the back of your throat. |
| K | kah | koala | there are no words in the Spanish dictionary that are originally Spanish that begin with the letter K so the words that you’ll find are all foreign, ( if you don’t believe me, go and check the dictionary). |
| L | eleh | libelula – dragonfly. | |
| LL | ayey | ella or calle, which mean her and street ( eje or caje) | The next letter is a letter in its own right in the Spanish alphabet and it’s the double L sound. If you’re from Buenos Aires in Argentina you pronounce the double L eje so instead of saying ella or calle you’ll hear people say eje or caje, it’s a very obvious way to recognize that somebody is from Buenos Aires. |
| M | emeh | Marciano marcian. | |
| N | eneh | ||
| Ñ | enyeh | Niña or Niño, girl and boy. | A letter in its own right again this time it’s still an N but it has a squiggle on the top. And it’s not just an N with a squiggle on the top (called a tilde) |
| O | oh | oveja – sheep | Pronounced like a shorter sound of the English O |
| P | peh | Planta, for example, means plant. | |
| Q | cu | queso – cheese | We don’t pronounce the u after a q so cheese would never be “qweso”. The U after a Q is always silent after a G. |
| R | ereh | Roca, hora which are rock and hour. | I’m not saying qweso the U after a Q is always silent after a G also so it’s queso, never qweso. |
| RR | erreh | arroz – rice | Then we have the double R this is the one that causes most people the most trouble the double R so it’s the thrilled one R. You put your tongue at the top of your mouth just behind your teeth and kind of blow. If you can’t do it, don’t worry, stick with it, it took me years to be able to roll my R, it’s just practice, practice, practise. And don’t be shy, have a go and you know just make it fun don’t take yourself too seriously. I’ve recorded a lesson on how to practice and improve rolling your R you can watch it HERE. |
| S | eseh | Saltamontes, which means grasshopper. | |
| T | teh | Tigre, tiger. | Similar to how you pronounce the d it’s teh, and rather than the tongue being at the back of your teeth it’s kind of in the middle of your mouth |
| U | Ooo | Uvas – grapes. | |
| V | Veh / Uve | video – video | There are a couple of different ways of pronouncing this or different ways that we pronounce this letter V. In America Latina se dice Veh which is why it’s very similar to the sound of the B the V can also be pronounced a Beh, so we call the B the B Alta and the Veh the Veh corta (short V) I have friends that call the Veh the Beh so if you need to spell something you need to know that the Beh is the Beh Alta and the Veh is the Veh corta. And just as a side note the other way of the other name I suppose for this letter is the Uve. |
| W | doble V / uve doble | windsurf – windsurf | Then we have the W. So if the V is a Veh the W is a doble V it’s not rocket science right? Doble v and much the same as the C in español the v doesn’t have any original Spanish words either so the word windsurf would be pronounced windswrf. Check the dictionary if you don’t believe me so the other way of the other name for the W if you’re calling the V and uve the W is a uve doble whereas for me the Vis a V corta and the W is doble V it’s much more simple. |
| X | ekis | xilofono – xylophone. | |
| Y | egriagah / yu | yema, which means the yolk of an egg. | And the Y is a tricky one so the Y is pronounced an egriaga (egriagah) and the sound of the letter in a word is very different so por ejemplo, yema, which means the yolk of an egg. However the letter Y on its own in a sentence is also a word it’s pronounced e and it means ‘and’. |
| Z | Theta / Seta | Zorro, which means fox. | And finally we have the Z again similar to the C. Spanish from Mainland Spain will pronounce the Zed as theta and in South America we pronounce it seta. |
So there we have it. The letters and sounds of the Spanish alphabet. I recorded a lesson to help with the pronunciation of each letter you can watch it below.
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