Pronunciation of the Spanish Alphabet: 27 Letters, 33 Sounds, 37 Mouth Positions (with audio)

One of the first things we learn when we study a foreign language is the alphabet – perfect, we can spell but can you pronounce the letters of the alphabet accurately?

There are different reasons why you have a terrible accent but most of the mispronunciations are the consequence of reading a symbol (letter) and saying it as we’d do in our native language.

And it’s very tough to shut that association (letter-sound) off.

For example, most English natives pronounce the letter B in “la bota” (SP) as the English B in “a boat” (EN) (error!)

Your brain did the effort to learn this association a long time ago, and now, when you see the letter B, you don’t think how to pronounce it.

Your mouth produces the sound automatically.

The problem is that English, Vietnamese, or Spanish native speakers read and pronounce multiple letters in a different way so you’re likely to produce the wrong sound if you speak in Spanish or any other foreign language.

Spanish is not a phonetic language

You probably heard that, in Spanish, we pronounce the words as we spell them.
It’s a lie.

Some people may disagree and they will say “Spanish is a phonetic language” -and they’re quite right. Nonetheless, less than half of the letters of the Spanish alphabet are always pronounced the way they’re written.

It’s mathematics:

• The Spanish alfabeto has 27 letters.
• There are, at least, 33 sounds in (European/Castillian) Spanish, so
• Some letters are pronounced in 2 -or more- different ways, and
• Some letters are pronounced the same way.

There’s more than one way to pronounce most of the letters, like the letters B, C or N.

If you want to avoid boring people to tears, if you want to hold a fluent conversation and not forcing people to put too much effort into it (so that people pay attention to you), you should be able to speak clearly.

And that’s far easier if you know how to produce the Spanish sounds. And if you learn (it barely takes 1 or 2 days) the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) so that you can pronounce any word in Spanish, even if it’s the first time you see it.

Today you’re going to see the Spanish abecedario and how to pronounce it:

• Examples of Spanish words for each Spanish sound.
• Examples of English words that contain that specific Spanish sound (or a similar one).
• Audio. Because if we speak about sounds you should be able to listen to them.
• A final image to summarize all the info.

When you pronounce Spanish, usually your mouth muscles are tenser than when you speak in English.

Pronunciation of the Spanish alphabet

Learning how to pronounce every single dialect of Spanish would be confusing (and it would take a lot of time) so I’m going to focus on Castilian Spanish -the standard European Spanish.

In the second column, you’ll see a symbol from the IPA. Each of these symbols represents a specific sound – usually common in more than language.

In order to make it easier I’ve substituted some of the symbols of the IPA. For example, we’ll use [ñ] for the letter Ñ instead of [ɲ]. Let’s keep things simple.

In the third column, you may find this symbol [∼]. It means that the word in English contains a sound similar to the Spanish one (but not exactly the same one).

	IPA	EXAMPLES (Spanish & English)	HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE LETTER
Letter a (a)	[a]	alfabeto, casa, amiga ∼ fun, fine	Click to see how to pronounce the Spanish vowels.
Letter b (be)	[b]	barco, hambre, cambio   Vive en Barcelona. Lo hice con buena intención. ∼ bus, bean chamber, embrace	Click to see how to pronounce Spanish B and V. It has a dry sound and it’s softer than the English B -it doesn’t explode.
	[β]	abrir, hablar, abuelo   Me gustaría ir a Barcelona.	The lips are not hermetically sealed. The sound is produced by letting escape from the mouth a trickle of air.
Letter c (ce)	[k]	vaca, color, cuando ∼sock, fake	More info on how to pronounce Spanish C. It sounds a little bit softer than in English (it doesn’t explode).
	[θ]	hacer, cielo thing, tooth	The sound is produced by the air getting out of your mouth, between the teeth and the tongue.
	[ʧ]	ch ocho, chica, coche ∼ chair, coach	It sounds similar in English – not the same. In English, it sounds kind of “shhhh” (chshh), in Spanish it sounds more like “sssss” (chs). Try lifting the tip of your tongue.
Letter d (de)	[d]	¿De dónde vienes, Aldo?	More info on how to pronounce Spanish D and mouth positioning. Here I wrote only the 2 official sounds but in colloquial speech, we may pronounce it up to 4+1 different ways!
	[ð]	Tu padre viene después de desayunar. this, those	Your tongue should be in the same position as when you pronounce the Spanish C (like in abecedario) but the sound is produced by the throat. Touch it. You should notice that it vibrates. *Sometimes we don’t pronounce the letter D.
Letter e (e)	[e]	elefante, edad, este ∼ went, pay	More info on how to produce the sound of the Spanish vowels.
Letter f (efe)	[f]	feo, frío, África fox, affair
	[v]	Dafne, Afganistán, afgano fox, affair
Letter g (ge)	[X]	geografía, energía (raspier English H)	More info and tips to pronounce Spanish G. TIP: Pronounce the English H but lift your tongue a little bit, just as if you were going to pronounce the letter K.
	[g]	gas, gol, engrasar ∼ gas, go, gate engage, English	Throaty sound. It doesn’t have the touch of [k] -like the English G  in great.
	[ɣ]	pagar, algo, agua	Imagine you have hairs in your palate and you have to caress it. The sound is produced when your tongue moves away from the palate.
Letter h (hache)	No sound	ahora, hielo, humo	It only has a sound in words borrowed from other languages, like hamster or hockey.
Letter i (i)	[i]	indio, limón, mira ∼ need, you	Learn the 6 differences between English and Spanish vowels.
	[j]	In diphthongs. viuda, viento, Indio ∼ yellow, yes
Letter j (jota)	[X]	caja, traje, cojín, abajo, jugar	It sounds like the Spanish G in geografía.
Letter k (ka)	[k]	koala, kiwi, kilómetro ∼sock, fake	It sounds like the Spanish C in casa.
Letter l (ele)	[l]	luego, lila, ala	It doesn’t sound like in ball or cable. Your tongue doesn’t touch your front teeth at all.
	[l̪]	alto, aldea, oculta	Your tongue is closer to your front teeth than the previous [lʲ] and may (barely) touch them. Even though the position of your tongue is slightly different, it sounds like [l].
	[l̟]	alzar, calcio, calcetín	The tip of your tongue is placed where your upper teeth meet the gum. It sounds like [l] too.
	[ʝ̞]	-ll- lluvia, olla, calla   ∼ jeans, yes	The double L sounds like Spanish Y.
Letter m (eme)	[m]	montaña, mamá, comer mountain, mum
Letter n (ene)	[n]	nido, andar, nana name, now
	[n̟]	once, quince, concierto	The tip of your tongue appears between your teeth.
	[n̪]	andar, entrada, cantar	The tip of your tongue is placed where your upper teeth meet the gum.
	[ŋ]	ancla, encontrar, inglés bang, English
	[ɴ]	enjaular, ángel, injerto Guisantes con jamón.	You should put your tongue further back. Its position is the same when you pronounce the Spanish J but your throat must be closed so the air comes out through your nose.
	[ɱ]	enfriar, confiar, infravalorar	It is pronounced with your upper teeth and lower lip (like the letter F).
	[m]	envase, envidia, invitado moon, comb
Letter ñ (eñe)	[ñ]	uña, mañana, niño	The letter Ñ only exists in the Spanish language (however, it sounds like French “gn”).  It doesn’t sound as “ny” or “n+i” (two sounds). The middle part of the tongue touches the whole middle palate. The tip of the tongue doesn’t touch it. The sound is nasal and it’s produced when you separate your tongue from the upper palate*. Before the actual sound -when your tongue is still touching the palate- you will hear a nasal N. You should keep that nasal sound when your tongue moves away from the palate.
Letter o (o)	[o]	oso, color, oro ∼ mall, talk	More info and tips to pronounce Spanish O.
Letter p (pe)	[p]	pelo, pantalón, piano up, cap	It sounds close to English P -not the same. More info on how to pronounce Spanish P.
Letter q (cu)	[k]	que, qui queso, pequeño, quiero, aquí   ∼sock, fake	It sounds like the Spanish C in casa. It’s always followed by “ue” or “ui” but the letter U is never pronounced.
Letter r (erre)	[r]	caro, horno, arpa ∼bitter, butter (Am. EN)	It sounds like “tt” in butter (in American English).
	[R] (trilled sound)	rueda, rubio sonreir, alrevés carro, perro, turrrón	All you need to roll your R’s (step by step). TIP: Call me crazy but, for some people, it’s easier to get the sound of rolled R if they do a headstand. Well… actually, it’s enough if you look down. (Gravity helps to keep your tongue on your palate).
Letter s (ese)	[s]	seta, salir, fiesta see, soon
Letter t (te)	[t]	tener, tienda, tren ∼ football	More info on mouth positioning and how to pronounce Spanish T.
Letter u (u)	[u]	luna, cuerda, uno ∼ moon, wet	More info on mouth positioning and how to pronounce Spanish U.
	[w]	In diphthongs. abuelo, huevo, agua   ∼ kiwi, web
Letter v (uve)	[b]	vela, viejo, video envidia, envío, invitado ∼ bus, bean chamber, embrace	More info on how to pronounce the letters B and V.
	[β]	avión, uva, Eva	It sounds like a SOFT B.
Letter w (uve doble)	[w]	whisky, waterpolo, Hawai ∼ kiwi, web
	[b]	Wagner, Wamba ∼ brown, brave	It’s pronounced like the letters V and B.
Letter x (equis)	[s]	xilófono, xenofobia sea, saw	It sounds like S.
	[ks]	taxi, oxígeno, saxofón taxi	It’s the only Spanish letter that is pronounced like 2 sounds: [k] + [s]
Letter y (ye)	[ʝ̞] (stronger)	ya, cónyuge, inyección ∼jeans, yes	It sounds like Spanish “ll”. At the beginning of the sentence, after N, or when you want to emphasize, it’s pronounced stronger.
	[ʝ̞]	yoyó, vaya, ayer	TIP: Try to say jeans without crushing your tongue against the palate.
	[i]	jersey, buey, rey ∼ yes, me	It sounds like the Spanish vowel I.
Letter z (zeta)	[θ]	zapato, buzón, zumo throw	It is pronounced like a SOFT C.
	[ð]	hazme, hallazgo this, those	It sounds like a SOFT D.

The 33 sounds of Spanish in short

European Spanish has 33 sounds.

However, there are 38 IPA symbols. Why are 4 extra symbols?

There are 2 sounds that natives produce in different parts of their mouth – depending on the following sound – for better flow: the sound of the letters N and L (see the table below).

The letters N and L may have a small symbol below: “ᴨ” or “+”.

• n̪, l̪: Dental sound.
  “ᴨ” indicates that the sound is produced by placing your tongue where your upper teeth meet the gum.
• n̟, l̟: Advanced sound.
  “+” means that the letter is produced forward. For example, to pronounce [n̟] your tongue touches your lower teeth too (quince).

To practice the sounds of Spanish, you can follow the recommendations of these 5 experts to improve your pronunciation and listening.