Spanish Pronunciation - How to pronounce Spanish words (2023)

Spanish letters

Ready to get started? Here we go!

Spanish is such an easy language to speak. It's phonetic, which means you can read ANY word as long as you memorize the sounds of each letter!

You can form almost any sound in Spanish with English sounds you already know. Check out the Spanish alphabet below. Try to pick the letter that is NOT in the English alphabet.

Resources for further reading:

• Discover how the Spanish alphabet works
• Get a deeper Spanish lesson with a free Rocket Spanish trial

If you had saidN, you're right! theNSound is pronounced like an "N" followed by the sound "yeh".

At the end of this lesson you will find a list with the pronunciation of each letter of the alphabet. This can come in handy for practice if you ever need to spell your name!

First, let's talk about some very important letters: those that differ the most from English.

letters with different sounds

Here are some letters to watch out for when you start learning Spanish, as they may not sound the way you expect them to!

B and V

The letters in SpanishBandvsound more similar than in English: Spanishvis pronounced likeB.

This can make it difficult when trying to spell a word you've only heard spoken before and never seen written, such asLawyer"lawyer" orvague"vague/lazy."

Try these sounds now:

Practice your pronunciation with Rocket Record

Rocket Record will help you perfect your Spanish pronunciation. Just listen to the native speaker's audio, then use the microphone icon to record yourself. Once you're done, you'll get a pronunciation score out of 100 and can listen to your own audio playback. (Use a headset microphone for best results.)problems? Click here!

If you ask someone to spell a word for you in Spanish, that person can distinguish between youBandvby talking about itbe tall"big B" (i.e. the letterB) andgrow smallorve chica"small V" (i.e. the letterv).

G, H and J

You may also have trouble figuring out how to pronounce the lettersG,HandJ. This is because they generally sound quite different from their English counterparts.

The letter in SpanishJdoesn't sound like the letter "J" in English. In fact, it sounds more like the English "H" than in "hey".

The letterG, on the other hand, can sometimes sound very similar to a hard English "G" as in "great". When it comes in front of youEor aI, but as in the WordPeople"People", it actually just sounds like a SpaniardJ.

You can try bothGsounds in this word:

LL

You may also come across this structure:ll. His name isdouble them"double L"; At one point it was part of the alphabet and known asElle. Its pronunciation varies by region. It usually sounds like the English "Y" as in "Young" or "Yes"; However, you may also hear it pronounced similar to the English "J", as in "jump" or "junk". This is known asYeism, and it happens literallyYto.

Ultimately you can choose which sound you prefer or which sound is the most used in the region you are going to.

The first word below shows the "Y"-like pronunciation ofll, and the second shows the "J"-like pronunciation. Speech recognition in our course works with both.

R

The letterRin Spanish is another different one, and it has two possible sounds: the strong oneRand the softR.

The strongRused in a few different situations:

• if there are twoRs in a row;
• if there is oneRat the beginning of a word;
• if there is oneRafter the lettersL,NorS; and
• if there is oneRafter the prefixUnder-.

That seems like a lot to remember! However, for now, you can only focus on the first two instances in this list - these are the most important ones.

So starkRis a rollR- You do it by vibrating the tip of your tongue against the top of your mouth. It may take a little practice to master - trying to purr like a cat helps! - but once you have it, you have it for life.

Try it out with these words:

If you have trouble rollingRsound, you might want to practice by saying it softlyRfirst - this puts your tongue in the right place in your mouth. Once you've done that, all you have to do is work on that vibrating motion on the tip of your tongue. Imagining your tongue is a flag rippling in a strong breeze might help.

Don't be discouraged if you don't master your SpanishRgo down soon! The more Spanish you listen to and the more you practice, the better you'll become.

pronunciation training

Now that we've worked through the most difficult letters, it's time to see if you can pronounce the following words:

A

You may be wondering why there is no example of the letterWAbove. This is because this letter is actually only used in words or place names of foreign origin, such asWashington.

accent mark

Accent marks have two purposes: to indicate which syllable to stress and to distinguish between two words that look the same but have different meanings.

For example, the following two words are pronounced the same way but have different meanings, so the second example uses an accent mark to distinguish between the two:

That's enough pronunciation practice for now. Remember, the more you listen and practice saying things out loud, the better your understanding and pronunciation will become!

The alphabet

Below is the full alphabet, complete with audio for each individual letter so you can understand each sound.

And after that, there's your very first culture lesson and rocket boost activities - so don't forget to scroll all the way down!

Complete alphabet in Spanish

• The Spanish alphabet has one additional letter that English does not have:N.
• The lettersBandvsound similar.
• The lettersGandJcan sound like an English "H" and the SpanishHis quiet.
• The combination of lettersLLcan sound like an English "Y" or "J".
• Spanish has a strongRand a soft oneR.
• Accents are used to indicate emphasis and/or distinguish between words that otherwise look the same.

Culture: Spanish - more popular than you might think

How many people around the world do you think speak Spanish? Try to guess... In Mexico alone, over 120 million people speak Spanish. Around 40 million people in the United States now speak Spanish as their first language, and another 10 million claim Spanish as a second language. Taken together, some people have claimed that the US surprisingly has more Spanish speakers than Spain itself.

As you do the math, you need to factor in most of Central and South America, Equatorial Guinea, Western Sahara, the Philippines, and expats around the world... and you'll end up with about 430 million speakers. This makes Spanish the second or third most spoken language in the world. It's definitely spoken by fewer people than Mandarin Chinese, but whether there are more English or Spanish speakers depends on the rules you use for counting. If you only count native speakers, there are more Spanish speakers. If you count fluent native speakers and non-native speakers, then English has the numerical advantage.

If you haven't felt good enough about learning Spanish, you should know that Spanish is the official language of 21 countries, plus four "de facto" nations that don't have an official language. It has also become the second language of business in the European Union, and you'll find Spanish-speaking communities on each of the world's seven continents. Antarctica can even be said to have a Spanish-speaking population, as both Chile and Argentina maintain settlements in the Antarctic territories they claim.

Armed with this knowledge, there's definitely no excuse for not practicing your spoken Spanish!

Firm it up with rocket boosts

Reinforce what you learn from this lesson with the Rocket Reinforcement activities and earn points for your badges along the way!