The Spanish alphabet
The alphabet
The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters:
A
B (be)
C (ce)
D (de)
E
F (efe)
G (ge)
H (hache)
I
J (jota)
K (ka)
L (ele)
M (eme)
N (ene)
Ñ (eñe)
O
P (pe)
Q (cu)
R (erre)
S (ese)
T (te)
U
V (uve)
W (uve doble)
X (equis)
Y (i griega)
Z (zeta)
Comments
- B & V sound the same, like a soft B. Beber = Vivir.
- CH & LL are consonants phonetically (they have their own sound: llave, chapa…)
- H is silent: hablar and hombre are pronounced /ablar/, /ombre/.
- K & W are not common; they are only used for borrowed words: whisky, katana…
- R has two sounds:
- Strong (rolling!), when it is either at the beginning of a word, doubled, or placed after N, L or S: Rata, carro, sonrisa…
- Soft, when it is in the middle or the end of a word and not doubled: cara, para, por…
- Y has two sounds:
- Vowel, when it is at the end of a word or by itself (y = and), it sounds like I: hoy, estoy…
- Consonant, in every other scenario: yo, hoyo…
Letters with special behaviors
C, Q, Z and S
- C sounds /k/ with A, O and U, and /θ/ or /s/ with E and I.
- We use QU to obtain the sound /k/ with E and I.
- The sound /θ/ is used only in Spain. In the rest of the world za, ce, ci, zo, zu would be pronounced /sa, se, si, so, su/. In Spain, it would be pronounced /θa, θe, θi, θo, θu/.
In Spanish, we don't really use Z with vowels E and I.
Some words to pronounce
Queso, cuco, zapato, cereza, zueco, caza, casa.
Translation: Cheese, cuckoo, shoe, cherry, clog, hunting, house.
J and G
- J sounds /x/ with all vowels, G sounds /g/ with A, O and U and /x/ with E and I.
- We place a U after the G to obtain the sound /g/ with E and I.
Some words to pronounce
Jarabe, jefe, gerente, gato, gente, ginebra, guerra, guitarra, jilguero.
Translation: Syrup, boss, manager, cat, people, gin, war, guitar, goldfinch.
Whenever we need the U between G and E or between G and I to be pronounced, we need to add a diéresis (¨) on top of it: pingüino, lingüística.
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