Spanish Vowels

Learn the Spanish vowels, how they are properly pronounced and the use of accent marks.

You are in luck!

This is so much easier than working with English vowels.

 

 

In English, there vowels can be pronounced in numerous ways. For example, the words cap and fat the a is pronounce one way but then the words cape and fate are pronounced a completely different way.

Spanish vowels when not accompanied by another vowel are pronounced the same no matter what.

Each of the five vowels a, e, i, o, and u can be placed in one of two categories. Open or closed. Meaning how you open your mouth.

a, e and o are considered open vowels. abierta (ah-byehr-tah) open. These may also be described as strong.

i and u are considered closed vowels. cerrada (seh-rrah-dah) closed. These also may be described as weak.

a (ah)

The a, the first letter in the Spanish alphabet, always sounds like "ah" like in father.

Just think you have had a ridiculously busy day at work, you finally get home and sit down, put your feet up and say, ahhh, if feel so much better now. That is exactly how the letter a is pronounced.

• ajo (ah-hhoh) garlic
• clavo (clah-voh) nail
• mano (mah-noh) hand

e (eh)

The Spanish pronunciation of the vowel e, is pronounced like the eh sound in get or pen.

• ser (sehr) to be
• joven (hhoh-vehn) young
• pelo (peh-loh) hair

NOTE: the combos of sa, se, si, so and su at the beginning of a word are not native to Spanish. Therefore, when a word begins with one of these combinations, an e is added to the beginning of the word. For example: Spain/España, to study/estudiar.

i (ee)

The vowel i is spoken through the smallest opening between the palate and the tongue and sounds like the ee in words like feet or sweet.

• piña (pee-nyah) pineapple
• fácil (fah-seel) easy
• bistec (bees-tehk) beef steak

o ( oh)

The letter o is pronounced similar to that of the English o, but a little bit shorter. Pretend like you are going to blow out a candle really slowly so that you don't get wax everywhere and you will have Spanish pronunciation of the letter o.

• coco (koh0koh) coconut
• oler (oh-lehr) to smell
• mortal (mohr-tahl) fatal

u (oo)

The last Spanish vowel u sounds like the oo in spoon or moon, it is a tiny bit shorter though. Imagine if you were to say "oo I got it", then you would have the correct Spanish pronunciation.

• uña (oo-nyah) fingernail
• usar (oo-sahr) to use
• útil (oo-teel) useful

As I mentioned earlier, Spanish vowels are relatively simple. You may have also noticed that some of them have accent marks. In Spanish, accent marks are often used to distinguish words. We will talk more about those on the next page.