Spanish and English both use the Latin alphabet, but learning your Spanish ABCs is more than just recognizing letters. You can sound more like a native speaker by getting a few key sounds of the abecedario (alphabet) just right. Spanish is a “shallow” language, meaning that there is a direct correspondence between pronunciation and spelling. So, learning Spanish is easy since the vowels are very consistent compared to English. With some helpful tips to pronounce consonants well in Spanish, you can communicate with confidence.
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How many letters are in the Spanish alphabet?
The official alfabeto español (Spanish alphabet) has a total of 27 letters. It includes the same 26 letters as the English alphabet, plus the letter: ñ.
Did you know that the Spanish alphabet used to have more letters? In 2010, the Real Academia Española decided that the letters “ch,” “ll,” and “rr” should be combined with the letters “c,” “l,” and “r.” As a result, Spanish dictionaries no longer have separate sections for words that begin with those letter pairings. There are also a few letters that vary by region, even though the official list has designated one name for each.
For example, the official name for the letter “y” is ye, but you’ll certainly still hear i griega for this letter in alphabet songs and spellings around the world. You’ll see some of these regional variations in our charts since you’re likely to still hear them in conversation.
How to pronounce the Spanish alphabet
How long does it take to learn Spanish pronunciation? The good news is that many Spanish letters sound similar to their English counterparts, so they’ll be easy to recognize right away. If you learn how to pronounce these letters, you can escribir (to write) and deletrear (spell out) new words with ease. You can also ask Spanish speakers to spell new words to help you comprehend them.
- ¿Cómo se escribe esta palabra? = How do you write/spell this word?
- ¿Puedes deletrear su nombre? = Can you spell out your name?
When you learn to pronounce the example words in this Spanish alphabet chart, notice how the consonants can sound a bit softer than in English, and how the vowels are clean and consistent. There are a few that differ from English. For instance, we teach “i” as in “sit,” but in Spanish it’s “i” as in “feet.”
| Letter | Name | Example |
| a | a | amigo (friend) |
| b | be (be larga/be alta) | bueno (good) |
| c | ce | cero (zero, Latin American) cero (zero, Spain) come (eat) |
| d | de | dentro (inside) |
| e | e | estrellas (stars) |
| f | efe | frio (cold) |
| g | ge | gusta (to like) gente (people) |
| h | hache | hambre (hunger) |
| i | i | idiomas (languages) |
| j | jota | jugo (juice) |
| k | ka | kilómetro (kilometer) |
| l | ele | luna (moon) |
| m | eme | mesas (tables) |
| n | ene | nuevo (new) |
| ñ | eñe | mañana (tomorrow) |
| o | o | octubre (October) |
| p | pe | parque (park) |
| q | cu | que (what/that) |
| r | erre (ere) | rojo (red) |
| s | ese | sopa (soup) |
| t | te | tres (three) |
| u | u | uno (one) |
| v | uve (ve corta/ve chica/ve baja)* | verde (green) |
| w | doble uve (uve doble/u doble) | web (website/internet) |
| x | equis | xilófono (xylophone) Méxicano (Mexican) |
| y | ye (i griega) | yo (I) |
| z | zeta | zapato (shoe, Latin American) zapato (shoe, Spain) |
*These mean “short v” or “small v” or “lowercase v” to help differentiate from the letter “b.”
Pronounce Spanish vowels with ease
Spanish vowels have only one sound each. Unlike English, there are no “short” and “long” vowel sounds. Each vowel sound is one single sound, pure and clean, without gliding between vowel sounds like you do with English diphthongs (blending the “ah” and “ee” sounds in the words “sky” and “cry”).
Spanish vowels are extraordinarily helpful as you’re learning common Spanish nouns and other parts of speech. If you practice by pronouncing a, e, i, o, u, you’re just a few consonant sounds away from being able to pronounce any Spanish word you can read, and vice-versa.
| Spanish Vowel | Sound | Examples |
| a | ah | madera (wood) |
| e | eh | esto (this) |
| i | ee | libro (book) |
| o | oh | obra (work) |
| u | oo | fruta (fruit) |
Tips for English speakers:
- The a is always “ah” and never like the “a” in cat. Try gato (cat), pronounced “GAH-toh.”
- Pay particular attention to the e, pronounced like “ey” and the i, pronounced like “ee.” These can be easy to confuse. Try the words español pronounced “ey-spah-NYOHL” and increíble, “een-krey-EE-bley.”
- Be sure to avoid a “y” sound in words with u like música pronounced “MOO-see-kah” and avoid a “uh” sound in words like cultura, pronounced “kool-TOO-rah”
- Practice a consistent “oh” sound and avoid “ah” in words like octubre (October), pronounced “ohk-TOO-brey”
Silent u in Spanish
The letter u can be silent in Spanish only when it’s part of the letter groups “gue,” “gui,” “que,” or “qui.” It’s pronounced if it has a diérisis, an accent mark consisting of two dots over the u, as in pingüino (penguin) or vergüenza (shame/embarrassment).
| Spanish Letter U | English |
| cuatro (not silent) | four |
| fuego | fire |
| quince | fifteen |
| química | chemistry |
Silent h in Spanish
In most words, the Spanish letter h is silent.
- ¡Hola! = Hello
- ¿Qué hora es? = What time is it?
- ¡Gracias y hasta luego! = Thank you and goodbye!
One of the first words you learned was hola (hi), and it’s pronounced exactly the same as ola (wave). There are only two exceptions to the h muda (silent “h”).
- The letter combination ch as in churro. It makes the same sound as the word “church.” Practice chocolate, chica (girl), noche (night), and leche (milk).
- Some borrowed words from other languages use the “h” sound, such as hobby or hockey.
The h is still important in spelling, however, and can affect pronunciation by breaking up two vowels. For instance, búho (owl) is pronounced “BOO-oh.”
Pairs of words with and without silent h and their meanings include:
- hecho (fact/done) vs echo (I throw/I kick out)
- hasta (until) vs asta (antler/flagpole)
- hora (hour) vs ora (he/she prays)
- ¡hala! (wow, come on!) vs ala (wing)
The Spanish ñ
Other than the upside down question mark and upside-down exclamation points, is there anything more uniquely Spanish than the letter ñ? Considered its own letter of the alphabet, the eñe has a unique accent mark. No other letter can use this particular tilde (which can refer to the other type of accent mark as well). You’ll find it on every English and Spanish keyboard.
To pronounce ñ, say it like the English words “canyon” or “onion.”
- Yo soy de España. = I am from Spain.
- Trabajo por la mañana. = I work in the morning.
Thousands of Spanish words have this sound. Practice some of the most common with this chart of words that have the letter ñ.
| Spanish Letter Ñ | Meaning |
| años | years |
| baño | bathroom |
| mañana | tomorrow/morning |
| niña | girl |
Consonants with more than one pronunciation in Spanish
As you can see in the chart above, most letters make the same sound consistently, with very few exceptions. The three exceptions in Spanish are the consonants c, g, and r. These consonants change according to the vowel that follows.
The letter c makes a “k” sound when followed by a, o, or u. But when followed by an e or i, the c makes an “s” sound in Latin American Spanish and a “th” sound (as in “thin”) in Peninsular Spanish.
| Spanish Letter C | English |
| casa | house |
| cerrado | closed |
| comprar | to buy |
| cuarenta | forty |
| el cielo | the sky |
The letter “g” makes a hard “g” sound as in “gravity” before a, o, and u, but an “h” sound as in “hear” before e and i.
| Spanish Letter G | English |
| agente | agent |
| egipto | Egypt |
| ganar | to win/earn |
| gota | drop (of liquid) |
| gusta | to like/taste |
The Spanish letter r is rolled or trilled when at the beginning of a word, when it’s a double rr, or after “l,” “n,” and prefixes like “des” “pos” o “tras.” Otherwise, it’s pronounced as a softer “d” sound, just one tap of the tongue.
| Spanish Letter R | English |
| barata | sale |
| caro | expensive |
| carro | car |
| pero | but/however |
| perro | dog |
| sonrían | smile |
How do accents affect Spanish alphabet pronunciation?
Accents are important in Spanish, affecting the stress on the syllable, but not changing the pronunciation of individual letters. Other than the ñ discussed above, vowels are the only letters of the Spanish alphabet that can have a tilde (accent mark). The Spanish tilde only goes in one direction: á, é, í, ó, ú.
The presence of a tilde over a vowel tells us to emphasize that syllable, placing the stress of the word there. There is only one stressed syllable per word, so there won’t be more than one of this type of accent mark.
But why do some words have accents and others do not? Accents mark where the word stress is irregular, meaning that it differs from the normal patterns. Most Spanish words are stressed on the penultimate (or second-to-last) syllable. When a word breaks these rules, they carry an accent.
Take, for instance, the días de la semana (days of the week).
- lunes (Monday)
- martes (Tuesday)
- miércoles (Wednesday)
- jueves (Thursday)
- viernes (Friday)
- sábado (Saturday)
- domingo (Sunday)
The only two that have an accent are miércoles and sábado because they break the expected pattern. All the rest stress the second-to-last syllable.
Note that Spanish accent marks also mark stress on a weak vowel like i or u when it’s in combination with a strong vowel like a, e, or o. Compare the difference between the words cafetería (cah-feh-teh-REE-ah) and familia (fah-MEE-lee-ah). In the first case, the accent indicates the stress falls on the í, but in the latter, the ia is pronounced as one syllable.
How do speakers from different regions pronounce words differently?
There are many Spanish dialects, each with their own vocabulary, Spanish slang, and accents. The difference in pronunciation is most pronounced between Latin American Spanish and Peninsular Spanish (spoken by many in Spain) with the letters c and z. It’s not a “lisp” as some describe it, but a specific pronunciation of these letters. “S” makes the “s” sound in all Spanish dialects.
| Spanish Word | Latin American Pronunciation | Peninsular Spanish Pronunciation |
| cerdos (pigs) cerdo (pork) |
SAIR-dohs | THAIR-doh |
| gracias (thank you) | GRAH-syahs | GRAH-thyahs |
| zapato (shoe) | zah-PAH-toh | thah-PAH-toh |
These are just a few of many regional variations found in Spanish dialects and pronunciations. These differences are part of the amazing linguistic diversity in the Spanish-speaking world.
Master the Spanish alphabet and beyond
Master how to pronounce the Spanish alphabet and you’re well on your way to being easy to understand when you speak Spanish. What you can pronounce correctly, you can spell, and vice-versa, so learning your sounds vale la pena (is worth it) times two. If you’d like real-time feedback on your pronunciation as you learn, Rosetta Stone’s TruAccent speech recognition technology can help you build confidence and correct any confusion as you practice.
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