Capítulo 01
Pronunciation
Nail the five vowels and you can read any Spanish word aloud.
Spanish spelling is almost perfectly phonetic — once you know the sounds, you can read any word aloud without guessing. That’s a huge advantage over English or French. This chapter covers everything that pronunciation-wise is different from English.
The five vowels
Spanish has exactly five vowel sounds. Each one is always the same — no long/short distinction, no diphthong drift like English.
- like the a in “father” — open, clear
- like the e in “bet” — never “ee”
- like the ee in “see” — short and crisp
- like the o in “more” — pure, not “oh-uh”
- like the oo in “food” — rounded
Practice the whole row:
Then try these words — just the vowels carry most of the sound:
- table
- child
- one
- cat
- but
Consonants that trip up English speakers
Most consonants are similar to English. These are the ones that aren’t:
h is silent
Always. Never pronounced. The letter is just there for spelling history.
- ”o-la”, not “ho-la”
- ”om-bre” — man
- ”oy” — today
j and g (before e, i) sound like English “h”
- ”ha-MON” — ham
- ”HWAHN” — a man’s name
- ”HEN-te” — people
- ”hi-TA-no” — gypsy
But g before a, o, u is hard, like English “g” in “go”:
- ”GA-to” — cat
- ”GRA-sias” — thank you
ñ is “ny”
Like the ny in “canyon” — it’s its own letter in Spanish.
- ”ma-NYA-na” — tomorrow / morning
- ”A-nyo” — year
- ”se-NYOR” — mister
ll and y sound the same (in Mexican Spanish)
Both sound like English y in “yes”. (In Argentina they sound like “sh”, but forget that — you’re going to Mexico.)
- ”YA-mo” — (I) call
- ”KA-ye” — street
- ”yo” — I
- ”tor-TEE-ya”
c / z before e, i sound like English “s”
In Mexico and all of Latin America. (Spain uses “th” — ignore that.)
- ”GRA-sias” — not “GRA-thias”
- ”ser-VE-sa” — beer
- ”SEEN-ko” — five
Before a, o, u, c is a hard “k”:
- ”KA-sa” — house
- ”ko-MEE-da” — food
qu = “k” (the u is silent)
- ”ke” — what
- ”KE-so” — cheese
- ”KEEN-se” — fifteen
The rolled r
Single r between vowels is a soft tap — like the tt in American English “butter”. Try:
- ”PE-ro” — but
- ”KA-ra” — face
Double rr or r at the start of a word is trilled — the classic rolled R. It’s hard for English speakers. Don’t stress about it — nobody will misunderstand you if you substitute a tap. Keep practicing with:
- ”PE-rro” — dog
- ”RRO-ho” — red
- ”a-RROS” — rice
Stress rules
Spanish words have one stressed syllable. There are three simple rules:
- Word ends in a vowel, n, or s → stress on the second-to-last syllable
- Word ends in any other consonant → stress on the last syllable
- Word has an accent mark (´) → ignore rules 1 and 2, stress where the mark is
- KA-sa (ends in vowel → 2nd to last)
- HA-blan (ends in n → 2nd to last)
- pa-PEL (ends in l → last)
- es-ta-SION (accent on ó → stress there)
- ME-hi-ko (accent on é)
Once these rules click, you can pronounce any Spanish word you see — even if you’ve never heard it before.
What Spanish does NOT have
As relief: Spanish has very few irregular pronunciations (unlike English), no silent vowels, and no spelling traps like through / though / tough / thought. You will almost never have to memorize how a word is pronounced separately from how it’s spelled.
Try it: read these aloud
Click each to check yourself — did you stress the right syllable?
Next chapter: politeness and register — the five lubricant words you’ll say hundreds of times, and the tú vs usted choice behind every verb you speak in Mexico.