I can name any letter of the Spanish alphabet in Spanish, spell a word aloud letter by letter, and pronounce the five Spanish vowels clearly and the same way, stressed or unstressed.
A letter's name is not its sound
27 letters and five vowels
The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters: the 26 you know plus ñ. The pairs ch and ll are not separate letters, but each is one sound with its own name: “che” and “elle”.
Spanish is read almost as it is written: one letter, one sound. Letter names are for spelling aloud: when someone asks “¿Cómo se escribe?”, they expect the Spanish letter NAMES, not the English ones.
Vowels are named the way they sound: a, e, i, o, u. Consonants have their own names; learn the unusual ones first: h — “hache”, j — “jota”, q — “cu”, v — “uve”, w — “uve doble”, x — “equis”, y — “ye”, z — “zeta”, ñ — “eñe”, r — “erre”. Hear them all on the alphabet chart that follows.
b and v sound the same, /b/, never the English v, so Spaniards ask: “¿con be o con uve?” (“with b or with v?”).
Five pure vowels: a /a/ “ah”, e /e/ “eh”, i /i/ “ee”, o /o/ “oh”, u /u/ “oo”. Short, clear, the same stressed or not: e is never “ay”, u is never “yoo”, and no vowel turns into “uh”.
s is always the s of “see”, even between vowels: la mesa — “MEH-sah”, el museo — “moo-SEH-oh”.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “tuh-MAH-tay” — unstressed vowels stay full: el tomate — “toh-MAH-teh”.
• NOT “mih-NOO-tuh” — i is “ee”, never the i of “sit”: el minuto.
• NOT “MEH-zah” — s never sounds like z: la mesa.
• NOT “eye-DEE-uh” — i is “ee”, never “eye”; e is “eh”: la idea — “ee-DEH-ah”.
Five pure vowels
A vowel sounds the same stressed or unstressed — it never weakens to “uh”.
| Letter | Sound | Word | NOT like this |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | /a/ | el mapa | not “MAP-uh” |
| e | /e/ | la mesa | not “MAY-suh” |
| i | /i/ | el minuto | not “mih-NOO-tuh” |
| o | /o/ | el tomate | not “tuh-MAH-tay” |
| u | /u/ | el museo | not “myoo-ZAY-oh” |
Lesson notes
27 letters and five vowels
The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters: the 26 you know plus ñ. The pairs ch and ll are not separate letters, but each is one sound with its own name: “che” and “elle”.
Spanish is read almost as it is written: one letter, one sound. Letter names are for spelling aloud: when someone asks “¿Cómo se escribe?”, they expect the Spanish letter NAMES, not the English ones.
Vowels are named the way they sound: a, e, i, o, u. Consonants have their own names; learn the unusual ones first: h — “hache”, j — “jota”, q — “cu”, v — “uve”, w — “uve doble”, x — “equis”, y — “ye”, z — “zeta”, ñ — “eñe”, r — “erre”. Hear them all on the alphabet chart that follows.
b and v sound the same, /b/, never the English v, so Spaniards ask: “¿con be o con uve?” (“with b or with v?”).
Five pure vowels: a /a/ “ah”, e /e/ “eh”, i /i/ “ee”, o /o/ “oh”, u /u/ “oo”. Short, clear, the same stressed or not: e is never “ay”, u is never “yoo”, and no vowel turns into “uh”.
s is always the s of “see”, even between vowels: la mesa — “MEH-sah”, el museo — “moo-SEH-oh”.
Common mistakes:
• NOT “tuh-MAH-tay” — unstressed vowels stay full: el tomate — “toh-MAH-teh”.
• NOT “mih-NOO-tuh” — i is “ee”, never the i of “sit”: el minuto.
• NOT “MEH-zah” — s never sounds like z: la mesa.
• NOT “eye-DEE-uh” — i is “ee”, never “eye”; e is “eh”: la idea — “ee-DEH-ah”.