Spanish is often described as a phonetic language and that's mostly true as long as you know the rules of pronunciation which are intertwined with spelling rules (orthography). Let's take a look at the Spanish alphabet and how different letters are pronounced when they are used in combination with vowels to form syllables.
The Spanish alphabet consists of 27 letters:
There are some geographical variations in the names given to the letters, you can see and listen to a full list here: The alphabet in Spanish
Spanish vowels
The Spanish alphabet has 5 vowels:
a e i o u
They are always pronounced the same way, regardless of what precedes them or what comes after.
In this lesson we will take a look at some Spanish consonants that may present some difficulty both orthographically (= spelling) and in pronunciation for Spanish language learners.
Pronunciation of some consonants in Spanish
Consonants b and v in Spanish
Consonants b and v are pronounced the same in Spanish: both with a "b" sound. Listen to these examples and notice how there is no distinction in their pronunciation:
Consonants c and z in Spanish
In Spanish we make the sound z [~th] combined with each of the vowels by spelling them like this:
za
ce
ci
zo
zu
Za, ce, ci, zo and zu are pronounced differently depending on whether you are in Latin America or Andalucía for example or you are in central and northern Spain.
See here some information about some of the different variants of Spanish:
Consonant c with sound k/q in Spanish
For the consonant c to have a hard k/q sound when combined with each vowel, it needs to be written as follows:
With the vowels e and i, ce and ci would make a soft c / [th] sound, and not a hard k/q sound. So, qu- is required with e and i to indicate the hard c sound.
Notice how the u in qu is silent.
Here are some examples to listen to:
ca
que
qui
co
cu
The number of words using the letter k in Spanish is very limited and most of these words have a foreign origin, for example:
Consonant g pronounced as hard g
Hard g refers to the sound that can be heard in the English words "gate", "golf" or "girl".
Here is how we write the hard g sound in Spanish with each vowel:
Some examples are:
ga
gue
gui
go
gu
If a word actually needs the "u" of "gue" or "gui" to be pronounced in the syllable gue or gui (instead of being silent), then we need to employ Diéresis which indicates that the sound of the u needs to be pronounced.
Here are some examples; pay attention at their pronunciation:
Be careful: if you omit the dieresis then it would be pronounced incorrectly:
Consonants g and j pronounced similarly to the English "h" sound
We are referring here to the equivalent (or the most approximate equivalent) of the English sound for "history", "Hannah" or "hello".
Depending on where you are in Spain and Latin America, the sounds of g and j are slightly different, but generally speaking, in Spanish the sound is similar to the sound of an English h and to write this sound with each of the vowels, it is written as follows:
The sounds of ge and je are identical as are the sounds of gi and ji.
Here are some examples:
Take a look at this video by Español con Hanane:
Consonant h in Spanish
The letter h is never pronounced in Spanish. Listen to these examples and notice how it's always silent:
Bear in mind though that in a similar way to English, if h follows the consonant c, they form a new sound together: "ch"
Consonant ñ in Spanish
The letter ñ is exclusively Spanish. It's written exactly the same way as the regular letter "n" but with a (sometimes wavy, sometimes flat) horizontal line above it. It can precede any vowel in Spanish, and it has a specific pronunciation.
Here are some examples; pay attention to their pronunciation:
Consonant r in Spanish
The letter r in Spanish has two pronunciations, as a soft r or a hard r. The hard r sound occurs when we make extra vibrations with our tongue, as oppossed to the soft/simple r where we only make a single vibration.
The sound of the soft/simple r
We pronounce the letter r as a soft r when it is:
- between two vowels
- at the end of a syllable
- placed after a consonant which is part of the same syllable
The sound of the hard/multiple r (rr)
We pronounce the letter r with multiple vibrations, when:
- the word is written with a double r
You can compare here how for example pero (but) and perro (dog) are pronounced differently, one with a simple r and another with a double r:
- the r is at the beginning of the word
Note that there aren't any Spanish words starting with a double r (written) , only one r is possible at the beginning of a word.
- the r is placed after n, l or s
Take a look at this video about the pronunciation of r/rr:
Consonant w in Spanish
There aren't many words in Spanish with the letter w. Generally, the sound of w in Spanish is "gu" (where the u is pronounced). Here are some examples:
If the word is of other foreign origin like German, we then pronounce that type of w the same way as the Spanish letter "b", for example:
Consonant x in Spanish
The letter x in Spanish has two different sounds. If the x is at the end or middle of the word, it's pronounced as "ks":
but if it is at the beginning of a word then the sound of x is "s":
Consonant y and ll in Spanish
Both y and the ll are pronounced the same, as in the English "yes", so, Spanish words like "ayer" and "paella" have the same sound. Pay attention to these examples:
Bear in mind that, although this pronunciation of y and ll has same sound is generalised in Spain and in most of Latin America, you will find specific areas in Spain and Latin American where there is a distinction - that is y and ll do not sound the same. In Argentina and Uruguay there is a pronunciation of these two letters called "yeísmo rehilado".
Have a look at this Kwiziq reading and listening exercise: Yeísmo
You can also view this video about yeísmo rehilado:
