Beginner: Pronunciation rules for the Spanish alphabet @spanish_newcast

1. R. Poncela
International House Newcastle
@spanish_newcast

2.  There are five vowels in the Spanish alphabet,
the same as in English: a, e, i, o and u.
However, we have only one possible
pronunciation each.
A, E, I, O, U

3.  To remember their sound, try this:
part, pet, pit, port, put
 Or also:
bath, bet, bit, bought, boot
Note: in Spanish there is no distinction
between short and long vowels as there is in
English (e.g., as in “bit”/”beat”).

4. The letter C:
 Sounds like the Spanish z /Ɵ/ when it comes
before e or i:
Cero / Cien
 Sounds like c /k/ when it comes before or
after a, o, u
Casa, Copa, Cuento, Calle, Simpático

5. The letter g:
 Sounds like the Spanish j /x/ when it comes
before e, I
Genio, Ginebra, Generoso,
 Sounds like the Spanish g /g/ in “got” when it
comes before a, o, u
Gato, gorro, gustar, gafas, bigote

6.  For g /g/ to sound like g in “got” before e/i, it
must be followed by a silent u, as in
guitarra (guitar) / guerra (war)
 If you want to force the pronunciation of the
u in gue/gui? Then, you must put a diaeresis
(¨) over it, as in:
pingüino (penguin) / lingüista (linguist)

7. The letter z:
 The letter z /Ɵ/ may sound like s in “see”
(Hispanic American accents) or like th in
“thin” (standard Spaniard accent).
Zapato ( shoe) / Rizado (curly)

8. The letter q:
 The letter q always sounds like c in “cat”.
 Almost always, it is followed by a silent u,
and is used with i or e only.
Queso (cheese) / pequeño (small) / Quito

9. The letter j :
 The letter j may sound like h in “hot”
(Hispanic America) or like ch in the Scottish
word “loch” (Spain).
Joven (young) / Jugar ( play)

10. Raúl R. Poncela
King James I Academy
MFL Department

11. The letter h:
 The letter h is always silent. So, Hola (hello)
and ola (wave) have exactly the same
pronunciation
Hablar (to speak) / Hijo (son)

12. The letter y:
 The letter y sounds like j in “jet” when it is
placed at the beginning of a syllable:
Yo (I) / Mayo (May)
 And like y in “very” in any other case:
Y (and) / muy (very)

13. The letter r:
 The letter r sounds like tt in “matter” (with
USA accent) when:
it is not at the beginning of a syllable, e.g., brazo
(arm), tren (train), or when
it is placed between two vowels: pero (but), Corea
(Korea).

14. The digraph rr:
 The digraph rr is used to force a strongly
trilled r betwee in two vowels, e.g:
Perro (dog), Correa (leash)

15. The letter ñ
 The letter ñ represents a nasal palatal
phoneme, which is a sound that does not
exist in English:
Años (years) / Niño ( boy)