Spanish alphabet and
pronunciation guide: Letters
not listed have the same sounds as their English equivalents
a pronounced
like the “a” in “father”
c pronounced
like the “c” in “car” when followed by an “a”, “o” or “u”, and pronounced like
the “c” in
“censor” when followed by “e” or “i”
d pronounced
like the “d” in “dog”, except when it is placed between two vowels in which
case it is
pronounced like the “th” in “think”
e pronounced
like the “a” in “pay” or sometimes like the “e” in “met”
g pronounced
like the “g” in “goose” when followed by an “a”, “o” or “u”; however, “gue” is
pronounced
like the word “gay” and “gui” is pronounced like the
“gee” in the word “geek”, additionally, pronounced like the “h” in “house” when
followed by an “e” or “i”
h not pronounced in Spanish; it is always silent, except when it follows
a “c”
i pronounced
like the “e” in “Pete”
j pronounced
like the “h” in “house”
ll pronounced
like the “y” in “yell”
ñ pronounced
like the first “n” in “onion” or “canyon”
o pronounced
like the “o” in “tote”
q pronounced
like the “q” in “queen” and usually only ever followed by “ui” or “ue”, thus
“que” is
pronounced like the word “kay” and “qui” is
pronounced like the word “key”
r pronounced
like the “r” in “rope”, except when it comes between two vowels in which case
it is
pronounced like the “d” in “dog”, when it starts a
word it is rolled or trilled, and also at the end of a
word in some dialects.
rr this
is a trilled or rolled “r” sound
u pronounced like the “u” in “flute”
v pronounced
like the “b” in “boy”
x pronounced
like the “x” in “extra” or the
"s" in the word "sir" in all other circumstances, sometimes
pronounced like the Spanish "J" when used
in proper names (México, Javier, Texas, Oaxaca)
y pronounced
like the Spanish “i” and/or the Spanish “ll”
z pronounced
like the Spanish “s”
Strong vowels/weak vowels
A, E, and O are considered the strong vowels in Spanish and
U and I are considered the weak vowels in Spanish
Whenever 2 or more strong vowels follow each other, they are considered to be
separate syllables.
Whenever a weak vowel and a strong vowel appear side by side, the strong vowel
gets the emphasis.
Whenever two weak vowels appear side by side, the second weak vowel gets the
emphasis
~ This mark is called a tilde and only appears over an “n”
/ This mark is called an accent mark and is used to indicate when the spoken
stress is to be placed. It only appears over vowels
When using a exclamation mark or question mark, Spanish requires the use of one
at the beginning of the phrase and at the end of the phrase. The one at the
beginning of the phrase is written upside down:
Examples: ¿Cómo estás? ¡Ay Dios mío!
Rules for spoken stress:
1. If a word ends in a vowel, “n” or “s”, the spoken stress goes on the next to
the last syllable.
2.
If a word ends in a consonant, except “n” or “s”, the spoken stress goes on the
last syllable.
3.
If a word does not follow rule #1 or #2, it has an accent mark which will
indicate where to place the spoken stress
Dipthongs:
A
dipthong, or blended sound, is when a strong vowel (a, e, o) is preceded or
followed by a weak vowel (i, u, and the consonant y)
Possible
combinations:
AI / AY SOUNDS
LIKE THE "I" IN THE WORD
"TIME"
AU SOUNDS LIKE THE "OW"
IN THE WORD "NOW"
EI / EY SOUNDS LIKE THE "A" IN THE
WORD "DATE"
EU SOUNDS LIKE THE "EY" IN THE WORD
"HEY" FOLLOWED BY THE "O" SOUND IN THE WORD "WHO"
OI / OY SOUNDS LIKE THE "OY" IN THE
WORD "TOY"
OU SOUNDS LIKE THE "OW"
IN THE WORD "BLOW"
IA / YA SOUNDS LIKE THE "YA" IN THE
WORD "YACHT
IE / YE SOUNDS LIKE THE "YE" IN THE
WORD "YET"
IO / YO SOUNDS LIKE THE "YO" IN THE
WORD "YOGA"
IU / YU SOUNDS LIKE THE ENGLISH WORD
"YOU"
UA SOUNDS LIKE THE
"WA" IN THE WORD "WATT"
UE SOUNDS LIKE THE
"WA" IN THE WORD "WAIT"
UI SOUNDS LIKE THE
"WEE" IN THE WORD "WEEK"
UO SOUNDS LIKE THE "UO"
IN THE WORD "QUOTA"
Tripthongs:
A
tripthong is a combination of a stressed strong vowel in between two weak
vowels, forming a single syllable. Only
four combinations exist in Spanish:
1. IAI SOUNDS LIKE THE "YI" IN THE
WORD "YIPE" EX: ESTUDIÁIS
2. IEI SOUNDS LIKE THE WORD "YEA"
(RHYMES W/ "WAY") EX: ESTUDIÉIS
3. UAI
OR UAY SOUNDS LIKE THE "WI"
IN THE WORD "WIME" EX: CONTINUÁIS OR
PARAGUAY
4. UEI
OR UEY SOUNDS LIKE THE "WA" IN
THE WORD "WADE" EX: CONTINUÉIS OR
BUEY
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Name:
_______________________________________ Date:_____________________
Direcciones: Write the number of
syllables each word has on the line provided.
Then circle the syllable that receives the spoken stress.
___
hola ___
gracias ___
Hablar ___
toronja ___
adiós ___
Por favor ___
estás ___
tiburón ___
bien ___
lección ___
llamas ___
Miguel ___
mal ___
lecciones ___
te ___
María ___
cansado ___
regular ___
lápiz ___
sin ___
escritorio ___
señorita ___ frijoles ___ jalapeños ___ tortilla ___ arroz ___ flauta ___ burrito ___ mariscos ___ terciopelo ___ guantes ___
bufando ___ calcetines ___
maletín
___ Como ___
Quienes