Updated on February 3, 2024 by Lou Mac
“You’ve only been learning Spanish for a year? One year?”
This was a common thing for me to hear when I first went to Spain—people were often taken aback that I had so little experience learning the language, but could “speak so well” and had “learned so quickly.”
At this point I would usually try to exit the conversation, before they realized that I in fact didn’t speak as well as they thought…
It was true that I did speak better than most people would one year into learning a language, but the perception that I spoke better than I really did came from this: my pronunciation.
In this Spanish pronunciation guide I’ll show you exactly how you can master Spanish pronunciation, too!
If you prefer to listen to the content, below you can hear all about the different pronunciation rules in Spanish. It’s essentially everything you need to know about Spanish pronunciation in less than 15 minutes.
By the end of this article, you will:
- Understand all the basics of Spanish pronunciation
- Improve your current Spanish pronunciation
- Be able to pronounce almost every Spanish word
If you’re new to Spanish, it’s important to learn proper pronunciation from the get-go. For more help learning Spanish as a beginner, this free guidebook to self-learning Spanish is full of tips on what to learn and how to do it efficiently.
Now, let’s get started!
Spanish Pronunciation Rules
Luckily for us, Spanish pronunciation isn’t super difficult. Well, most Spanish pronunication (Chilean Spanish, for example, is notoriously difficult).
If you’re able to learn these points properly and apply them then you’ll pretty much be pronouncing everything correctly!
Of course, if you want to have a perfect accent or be perceived as a native speaker that will take a lot more work, but that will come in time—after you have nailed these basics.
Vowels
You probably remember learning the vowel sounds as a kid, the sounds for A E I O U.
Every time you come across a Spanish word you haven’t seen before (or you want to check your pronunciation), scan the word for any vowels and make sure your pronunciation matches that of the vowel sounds above.
As we see in the example in the video above, let’s focus on each vowel sound in the following words:
A Sound
Hablo (I speak). Think back to the AEIOU sound—how is A pronounced? Now say hablo keeping that sound in mind. We also have an O in this word, so we can apply the same process to the O!
E Sound
Centro (centre). Again, we think back to the AEIOU sound—how would we pronounce E? Now say centro keeping that sound in mind. We have another vowel at the end of the word, so again, we will apply the same process to pronouncing the O.
I Sound
País (country). You can see the pattern emerging here! Remember the I sound (and the A!) and apply it to this word.
O Sound
Comida (food). While this is an example of the O sound, it also has two more vowels—a great chance to put to use what we’ve been learning!
U Sound
Último (last). I’m sure by now you don’t need an explanation as to how to pronounce the U, so give it a go, keeping in mind that there are three vowel sounds to pay attention to here! Just one important point with the U sound in Spanish. If the U is preceded by a Q, the vowel sound won’t apply and it will be like a K sound! (More on this later in the article).
Just to really burn the process into your brain, try pronouncing these words with the correct vowel sounds:
- Hambre (two vowels)
- Comes (two vowels)
- Quiero (four vowels!)
- Voy (one vowel)
- Uno (two vowels)
R Sounds
There are two R sounds in Spanish: the RR sound, and the single R sound.
Both of these sounds are VERY different to the normal English R, so you could even think of it as a different letter altogether!
I will attempt to describe the two sounds here, but I highly encourage you to listen to the sounds in the podcast episode, at 5:17.
The RR sound: the RR sound in Spanish is the sound that is almost like a purr, where your tongue vibrates rapidly against the roof of your mouth. People often have trouble with this. Even some native speakers can’t do it so don’t beat yourself up if you can’t pronounce it properly!
When to use this sound: Use this sound whenever there are two Rs written side by side in a word. E.g: perro, torre, zorro. It is ALSO used when the R is at the beginning of a sentence. E.g: rojo, recuerdo, radio, rata.
The single R sound: This sound is a lot softer than the RR sound, it still involves your tongue touching the roof of your mouth but it’s not as intense. Again, please listen to the podcast episode for an example of this sound!
When to use this sound: whenever you’re not using the RR sound! E.g. pero, aprender, forma.
The Y and LL Sounds
The Y and LL sounds in Spanish make a similar sound to the Y in English—however this may change depending on the country or region you’re speaking Spanish in.
To play it safe, just pronounce all Ys and LLs that you see as you would a Y in English:
- Llamo would sound like yah-mo
- Pollo would sound like po-yoh
- Yo would sound like… yo 🤷♀️
And now to complicate things, here are two other main ways you may hear the Y and LL pronounced:
- Like a J sound: This is commonly heard in places in Colombia and other Latin American countries.
- Llamo would sound like jah-mo
- Pollo would sound like po-joh
- Yo would sound like joh
- Like a SH sound: This sound is heard in Argentina and Uruguay, and is very different to the Y and even J sounds.
- Llamo would sound like sha-mo
- Pollo would sound like po-sho
- Yo would sound like sho.
To hear these sounds, skip to 6.10 in the podcast episode.
Z, C and S Sounds
Depending on what kind of Spanish you’re speaking or listening to, there are three types of pronunciations:
- Seseo: This sort of pronunciation sees z, c and s pronounced with an “s” sound. This is most common in Latin America.
- Distinción: With this, z and c are pronounced like a “th,” with s still pronounced like an “s.” This is most common in Spain
- Ceceo: At the other end of the spectrum we have ceceo, which pronounces z, c and s all like a “th” sound. This is supposedly a feature of specific areas within Spain (though I’ve never heard it!)
J Sound
The J sound in Spanish is often a tough one for Spanish learners. It’s also a tough one to describe, so skip to 7.58 in the podcast episode to hear what it sounds like! It’s usually a throaty sound, kind of like you’re trying to cough something out of your throat…
If you struggle with the sound, don’t worry! The intensity of the J changes from place to place:
- In many parts of Spain, the J is quite strong.
- In parts of South America, for example Chile, the J is pronounced but not super strong.
- In other parts of South America, for example Colombia, it’s barely pronounced—it’s pronounced closer to the “h” in English!
QU Sound
The QU in Spanish is a nice and simple sound. It is pronounced like a K.
This is similar to English, however it is not the same: Where in English QU is like a KW (as in “queen”), the Spanish sound is more of a hard K.
Skip to 8.51 to hear it.
The H
Hopefully you guys already know that the H in Spanish is usually silent—and if you don’t know, now you do know!
Whenever you see an H at the beginning of a word, you can essentially just ignore it and pronounce the rest of the word:
Hola — helloHambre — hungerHombre — man
An exception to this is when you have a CH—in this case the pronunciation would be similar to the English CH sound:
The Ñ
The Ñ, aka the N with a hat, makes a sound that we don’t have in English (skip to 9.52 min in the podcast). I won’t attempt to describe the sound because I will fail miserably, so make sure you listen to that part in the podcast!
The Ñ features in several Spanish words which we use in English, though we choose to ignore the correct pronunciation and/or spelling.
The weather phenomenon El Niño and La Niña is one of them—people often just spell and pronounce them “El Nino and La Nina” which kind of hurts my ears but there you go. Piña colada (the cocktail) is another: people will often just say “pina colada” (side note: piña means ‘pineapple’!).
Usually people will understand what you’re saying if you forget to pronounce the ñ, however I can think of a specific case where you don’t want to forget it: If you forget the ñ in año (year), it will instead become ano, which means anus 🙃
B and V
The B and V pronunciation can also be a cause of struggle for Spanish learners. A common mistake is to pronounce the B and V sharply, like in English.
Unfortunately, this is not correct in Spanish! In Spanish the B and V are essentially the same: like a soft version of what a B would be in English.
Try pronouncing the letters without touching your lips together to achieve this “soft B” sound.
Word Stress
Last but not least, we have word stress. This seems minor but if you get the stress on the right syllable (or vice versa) it can really change your pronunciation, and it can also change the meaning of the word!
For example: hablo means “I speak,” whereas habló means “he/she spoke.”
There are rules for learning the stress on words which do not already have accents in them, however we’re just sticking to the simple stuff for now, which is to stress the accents.
This means, of course, that when you see an accent on a word, you will stress that syllable. The accents are seen over the five vowels: á, é, í, ó, ú.
Here are some examples:
- Hábito — habit
- Café — coffee
- País — country
- Habló — he/she spoke
- Actúa — acts
It’s pretty straightforward! Just remember that the “I” can also have an accent over it, as it might look slightly more unusual to Spanish learners.
Why Spanish Pronunciation Matters
There are those who say that you shouldn’t focus too much on pronunciation because people will understand you anyway.
While this is definitely true to an extent, in my opinion, Spanish pronunciation does matter: If you really make no effort to pronounce things properly, people will get confused.
I’ve heard stories of people trying to communicate something in Spanish, only to be told by the Spanish speaker “Sorry, I don’t speak English!”
It’s also just nice for native speakers to hear someone putting in effort to speak their language properly.
If those reasons aren’t enough, it’s worth remembering that if you have good pronunciation your level of Spanish will also be perceived as good—and it’s always nice to have your efforts recognized!
If you apply everything that you’ve just learnt in this Spanish pronunciation guide, you’ll be able to pronounce the vast majority of Spanish words.
Congratulations! It’s that simple.
Now to really take your pronunciation to the next level, your next step would be to decide which Spanish accent you want to have and practice that! Keep an eye out for future posts on the topic.