¡Hola y bienvenidos, dulcitos!
The very obvious way to dive into the Spanish language is by starting with the alphabet. Though, it may seem tempting to skip over because the Spanish alphabet looks so similar to the English one, it’s actually very important to spend time on it. Unlike English, Spanish is a phonetic language. What that means is that the words are pronounced as they are written, whereas in English, the pronunciation may differ drastically from the spelling. Further, English has multiple sounds associated with each vowel, while Spanish does not. (If you’re curious how many English has, check this out.)
Let’s take the letter O for instance:
English has 3 standard sounds for the letter O:
The Long O like in the words go, low, and only.
The Short O like in the words hot, on, and stop.
The Short O-2 like in the words love, done, and above.
Plus, outliers like the words two, lose, and move which make a Long U sound.
But, the Spanish O is always pronounced “oh”, which is very convenient. Here are a few examples:
Comer [koh-mehr] – to eat
Río [rree-oh] – river
Ahora [ah-oh-rah] – now
I say all of this because once you learn the pronunciation of each letter, you will be able to read (essentially) any Spanish word and know how to pronounce it. Below, I will show you a brief pronunciation guide to each letter sound, but I highly recommend you read through Mimic Method’s Spanish Pronunciation Guide. It’s extremely detailed and very comprehensive with many written examples as well as sound clips.
The Spanish Alphabet
[ Letter, Letter Name, Letter Sound]
A: a: ah
B: be: beh
C: ce: seh, k
D: de: deh (Pronounced with more of a th sound than a d sound)
E: e: eh
F: efe: ef
G: ge: heh, g
H: hache: Spanish h is typically silent in pronunciation
I: i: ee
J: jota: Pronounced like the English h
K: ca: kah
L: ele: eh-leh, leh
LL: elle: Depending on the region, can be pronounced y as in yellow, j as in jam, or s as in pleasure
M: eme: em
N: ene: en
Ñ: eñe: nyeh (As in onion)
O: o: oh (Long o)
P: pe: peh
Q: cu: koo
R: erre: Pronounced like the d sound that occurs in the word butter
RR: doble erre: trilled rr
S: ses: es
T: te: teh
U: u: oo
V: uve: Pronounced like English b, but softer (same sound as Spanish letter b)
W: uve doble: w
X: equis: ks (Also pronounced like English h in some cases)
Y: i griega: y
Z: zeta: Pronounced like English s
Ejercicio
Now that you have a foundation, try to pronounce these words out loud:
Aburrido – bored
Bien – well
Blanco – white
Casa – house
Divertido – fun
Dónde – where
Escritorio – desk
Estar – to be
Fuerza – strength
Gato – cat
Gente – people
Junto – together
Leche – milk
Llamar – to call
Miércoles – wednesday
Niño – boy
Nombre – name
Palabra – word
Perro – dog
Pregunta – question
Silla – chair
Taza – cup
