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Humanities LibreTexts

1.4: El alfabeto (el abecedario)

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    227648
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    The alphabet

    Pronunciation

    Alphabet chart

    Letra Nombre Ejemplo Pronunciación
    A a Argentina, América “ah” in “aloha”
    B be Bolivia, Belén bebé
    C ce Carlos, Cecilia C + a/o/u/consonante = kuh & C + e/i = suh
    Ch che China, chico "ch" (like "chair", "chin")
    D de Dolores, Dinamarca “d” sound, softens between two vowels
    E e Elena, elefante “ay” (like “may”)
    F efe Francia, Fabio  
    G ge Gustavo, gato, gente G + a/o/u/consonante = guh & G + e/i = hey, Himalaya
    H hache Humberto, hola The ‘h’ is SILENT, thus “hola” sounds the same as “ola”
    I i Isabel, iglesia “ee” (like “me”, “see”, “pea”)
    J jota Japón, jalapeño Like the sound “h” in English (as “home”)
    K ka Keiko, Kodac  
    L ele Laura, Lupita  
    Ll elle lleno, llanta The Ll makes a “y” sound
    M eme Marta, Martín  
    N ene Nicaragua, nada  
    Ñ eñe piña, años ñ = “ny” as in “opinion”
    O o Octavio, Olga “o” as in “Ohio”
    P pe Pablo, pasta  
    Qu cu queso, quince The vowel “u” goes with letter Q but not pronounced. The vowel(s) after ‘qu' is pronounced as in “keso” for "queso".
    R, RR ere, erre Ricardo, caro, carro The R is rolled if a word begins with R or if RR
    S ese Sergio, Suzana  
    T te Teresa, Tomás, té  
    U u Uruguay, último “oo” sound like “moon”
    V ve Valencia, verde “b” sound, some countries a little softer
    W doble ve Washington  
    X equis México, examen "h" sound as in México ("mé-hee-co"); and “ks” sound, like “ek-samen”
    Y i griega yogur, ya  
    Z zeta Zacatecas, lápiz “s” sound

    Some Variations

    As with any language, there are regional variations within the Spanish language.

    • The letter V can be pronounced “ve” or “uve”;
    • The letter W can be “doble ve”, “ve doble”, “doble uve” or “uve doble”
    • The letter Y can be “ye” or “i griega”
    • Some countries say the double R as “erre” while others say “doble ere”
    • The Y and LL are pronounced like a “shuh” or “zhuh” in Argentina and Uruguay.
    • For the letter X there are a few words that make a “huh” sound instead of the KS. They are older words (usually names Xavier = Javier, Ximena = Jimena), like México and Don Quixote.
    • In Spain, the letters Z and “ce” and “ci” make a “thuh” sound instead of the “S” sound. Thus “cinco” in Spain is pronounced as “thinko” (not as “sinko”).

    Pronunciación de 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 (in “aloha”)

    E – eh (in “elephant”)

    I – ee (in “eagle”)

    O – oh (in “Ohio”)

    U – oo (in “soup”)