How To Pronounce Spanish

Easy guide on how to pronounce Spanish vocab and the letters of the alphabet.

NOTE: If you would like to start with letter A jump on over to my Spanish pronunciation page

The letter H (ah-cheh)

Is considered a silent letter because it is always silent, like in the English word for hour. Or oh, like in, oh that's how you say that.

For example: [por ejemplo]

• hola is pronounced (oh-lah) hello
• huevo (ooeh-bvoh) egg
• hora (o-rah) hour

The letter/vowel I (ee)

The letter i , one of the Spanish vowels resembles the "ee" sound in the word machine, or the "ee" in the word see. It is never pronounced as the English letter i in mint or time.

• piso (pee-soh) floor
• difícil (dee-fee-seal) difficult
• país (pah-yees) country

The letter J (hhoh-tah)

This letter sounds more like a guttural h. A method of how to pronounce Spanish letter h would be if you were to imitate a cat hissing by raising the back of your tongue and pushing the air out really hard, you would more or less be pronouncing the Spanish letter j correctly.

For example: [por ejemplo]

• jota (the letter j) is pronounced (HHOH-tah)
• julio (July) is pronounced (hoo-lyoh)
• ejemplo (example) is pronounce (eh-hhem-plo)

The letter K (kah)

The letter k shares the same sound as the English k, it also is only used in words that originate from other languages as in the word kilo (kee-loh) which means thousand in Greek, once again, what we refer to as a cognate. The way it is pronounced is a tiny bit different though, when you say k in English you add a little puff of air, but in Spanish, just don't do the "puff", you would sort of swallow it. karate (kah-rah-tay) karate kilómetro (kee-lom-eh-tro) kilometer kayak (kaiy-uk) kayak

Spanish Pronunciation DVD

 

The letter L (eh-leh)

The letter l sounds a lot like the English l, except it is not exactly like the ll in call, but more like if call only had one l, so it is a little shorter of a l in it's pronunciation. In English when you say l you place your tongue at the bottom of your top teeth when ending the l. But in Spanish your tongue would end up on the roof of your mouth just behind your top front teeth.

• futbol (fut-bol) soccer/european football
• sal (sahl) salt
• lujo (loo-hhoh) luxury

The letter M (eh-meh)

The letter m is very similar to that of English. The only exception is that the Spanish language does not use the double m, mm. The pronunciation is similar to the word mop.

• comercial (coh-mehr-syahl) commercial
• recomendar (reh-coh-mehn-dahr) to recommend
• mano (mah-noh) hand

The letter N ( eh-neh)

The letter n is much like the letter m in that the pronunciation sounds like the English pronunciation, and is pronounced like the words no or not.

• inocente (ee-noh-sehn-teh) innocent
• nada (nah-dah) nothing
• con (kohn) with

The letter ñ (eh-nyeh)

The letter ñ has what is called a tilde (teel-deh) on top of it. giving the sound of ny, much like the word canyon in English.

• niña (nee-nyah) girl
• año (ahn-nyo) year
• señor (seh-nyor) Sir or gentleman

For more ways on how to pronounce Spanish words and letters simply go over to my letters of the Spanish Alphabet page where you can find the letters o - t.