Spanish Sounds

Accent Marks

Vowels in Spanish can have an accent mark, such as the "u" in "menú" (menu).

• to indicate which syllable should be stressed in the pronunciation ,for example, in "teléfono" (telephone), the second "e" has the most stress.

• to distinguish homophones , for example, "él" and "el" are homophones because they have the same pronunciation. However, "él" is a masculine pronoun (meaning "he" or "him") and "el" is a masculine article (meaning "the").

Spanish sounds

Spanish pronunciation is easier than you think! In general, Spanish vowels are always pronounced the same way.

vowels	In Spanish	In English
a	cama	father
e	leche	set
i	niño	Lisa
u	mucho gusto	dude
o	como	gold

.

h	hola	Silent, as in hour
j	jugo	As in help but raspier.
qu	queso	As in key.
b,v	boleto viernes	As English b
n	necesito banana	the letter nest in English
ñ	mañana cumpleaños	It almost sounds like ny in “canyon”.

b,v

In the middle of words or sentences, they often sound like a hybrid between b and v.

escribes, jueves

As in van but with the two lips touching (middle of word or sentence).

g

Heads up! In Spanish, the letter g has a special sound when followed by e or i.

gato, pregunta

• As in go.

mágico, inteligente

• That's right! It's the same sound as Spanish j!

ll

In Spanish, double l (ll) sounds similar to y in the English word “yes”, though you may hear some Spanish speakers pronounce ll as in “vision”, “shop”, or “jar.”

calle, llamo

Rr

In Spanish, r has a different sound depending on where it is in a word.

ropa: Rolled, as in marrón (beginning of word).

barato: Tap roof of mouth with tongue, as in water (middle or end of word).

Double r (rr) always has a rolled sound.

You can practice rr by placing the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth and exhaling forcefully across the surface of your tongue. As you do so, release the tip of your tongue so that it lightly flutters against the roof of your mouth. It takes some practice, but you'll get there!

Stress

All words in Spanish have one syllable that is pronounced with extra emphasis. This is called stress. An accent mark tells you which syllable should be stressed.

café - ca‑FE

teléfono - te‑LE‑fo‑no

If there is no accent mark, the second‑to‑last syllable usually receives the stress.

dinero - di‑NE‑ro

maleta - ma‑LE‑ta

When there is no accent mark and a word ends in a vowel, n, or s, the emphasis goes to the second‑to‑last syllable.

ensalada - en‑sa‑LA‑da

examen - e‑XA‑men

comes - CO‑mes

But! If there is no accent mark and a word ends in a consonant (other than n or s), the last syllable is stressed.

hotel - ho‑TEL

reloj - re‑LOJ

escribir - es‑cri‑BIR