1.4: El alfabeto

Letra	Nombre	Ejemplo	Pronunciación
A B C D E F G H I J K L LL M N Ñ O P Q R, RR S T U V W X Y Z	a be ce de e efe ge hache i jota ka Ele elle eme ene eñe o pe qu Ere, erre ese te u ve doble u equis i griega zeta	Ana Botas Campo, Cecilia Daniel, cortado Emocionante Filosofía Geografía Hola Ignacio Japaleño Kiosko Lupe Me llamo María Nicaragua Piñata Olga Picante Queso Pero, perro, rima Samuel Teatro Universidad Vamos Washington Examen Playa Lápiz	Ah C + a/o/u/consonante = kuh & C + e/i = suh “D” sound, softens between two vowels “Eyh” (like, “spray”) G + a/o/u/consonante = guh & G + e/i = huh The ‘h’ is SILENT (unless it’s a ch) “ee” sound Makes same sound as the English “H” Double L makes a “y” sound Makes the sound that you hear in “onion” Q absorbs the sound of the vowel that follows u The R is rolled if a word begins with R or if RR “OO” sound like “Boo!” NEVER “you” sound “B” sound, some countries a little softer “KS” sound, like “ek-samen” “S” sound

Some Variations

As with any language, regional variations exist within the Spanish language.

• Some countries call the letter V “uve” instead of “ve”
• W can be ve doble, doble ve, uve doble, or doble uve.
• Some countries call the double R “erre” and others call it “doble ere”
• In some countries, the letter Y is called “ye” instead of “i griega.”
• The Y and LL are pronounced like a “shuh” in Argentina and Uruguay
• In Spain, the letters Z and “ce” and “ci” make a “thuh” sound instead of the “S” sound
• For the letter X there are a few words that make a “huh” sound instead of the KS. They are older words (usually names), like México and Don Quixote.

Las Vocales

The key to your Spanish pronunciation and comprehension is mastery of the vowels.

There is only one way to pronounce each of these letters.

A - ah

E - eyh

I - ee

O - o

U - oo

Actividad 10

¿Cómo te llamas? Practice spelling out your full name using the Spanish alphabet.

¿Cómo se escribe? Next, practice out loud with three classmates using the following questions. Audio

¿Cuál es tu nombre? - What is your name?

¿Cuál es tu apellido? - What is your last name?

¿Cómo se escribe? - How is it written?

Actividad 11

La ortografía. With a partner, practice spelling some of our recent vocabulary words.

1. Hola ________

2. Señor ________

3. Soy ________

4. Bien ________

5. Chao ________

Actividad 12

La geografía. Fill in the blanks with the missing letter from the Latin American countries listed below. Then write out the name of the letter.