Pronunciations

In this on-line version of Spanish of the Week, you can hear the proper pronunciation of a word or phrase simply by clicking on the word.

Spanish is a completely phonetic language, and therefore the pronunciation rules are quite simple and straight forward.  The vowels are pronounced as follows:

a — is short and soft, as in “ahh”  [“pan” is ‘bread’]
e — sounds like ‘eh’. as in “west”  [“centro” is ‘center’ or ‘central’]
i — sounds like a long ‘e’, as in “keep” [“vino” is ‘wine’]

o — is long as in “goat” [“rojo” is ‘red’]
u — sounds like a double ‘o’, as in “moo” [“punta” is ‘point’, as in a point of land along the
coast]

However, when more than two vowels are combined, the sounds change [“bueno” is ‘good’ or ‘fine’].  Other examples of will appear in later lessons.

All of the consonants are pronounced as in English, except for the following:

b and v — both are pronounced the same; to American ears, they may both sound like a ‘v’,
but the sound is actually a mix of the two letters ‘bv’ [“Otavalo” is a town that we will visit]
c –- pronounced like a ‘k’ before ‘a’, ‘o’, or ‘u’ [“casa” is ‘house’]
pronounced like an ‘s’ before an e or i [“ciudad” is ‘city’]
g — pronounced like the  ‘g’ in ‘go’ before ‘a’, ‘o’, or ‘u’ or any consonant [“iguana“]
pronounced like an ‘h’ before ‘e’ or ‘i’ [“Genovesa” is an island in the Galapagos.]
h -– always silent [“huevo” is ‘egg’]
j — pronounced like an ‘h’ [“jamon” is ‘ham’]
ll — a double ‘l’ is pronounced like a ‘y’, as in “yoke” [“me llamo ….” is ‘I am called ….’]
qu — is pronounced like a ‘k’  [“aqui” is ‘here’]
ñ — (n with a tilde) is pronounced like “ny”  [“mañana” is ‘tomorrow’]
rr –- double rr’s are said with a rolling tongue [“arriba” is a word most people have heard]
z –- pronounced like an ‘s’ [“diez” is ‘ten’]

A number of indigenous languages are spoken in the region, and names of places and streets may come from those languages.  The pronunciations may be irregular.