Alphabet and
Pronunciation
El Alfabeto y la
pronunciación
The Spanish Alphabet
The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters; 1
more than the English alphabet.
 The letter combinations of ch, ll, and rr
were once considered separate letters.
 For the purpose of this class, we will view
them as separate letters.
 The vowels in Spanish have one distinct
sound and are always pronounced the
same.

10 Rules for Pronunciation
 Rule
1: “b” and “v” are both
pronounced “be” but not as hard as in
English.
 Rule 2: If “c” comes before “a,” “o,” or
“u,” it is pronounced like the English
“k.”
 Rule 3: If “g” comes before “e” or “i,” it
is pronounced like the letter “h.” It is
pronounced like the letter “g” before an
“a”, “o,” or “u.”
 Rule 4: Never pronounce the letter “h.”
 Rule 5: The letter “j” is always
pronounced like “h” or a spitty “g.”
10 Rules For Pronunciation
 Rule
6: The letter “ll” is pronounced like
the English “y”.
 Rule 7: The “n” is pronounced “ny”.
 Rule 8: The letter “q” is pronounced “k”
but the “u” following the “q” is not
pronounced.
 Rule 9: The “rr” is trilled. The letter “r”
is trilled at the beginning of a word and
when it come after “l” or “n”.
 Rule 10: The letter “z” is always
pronounced like the letter “s”.
Practicing Pronunciation
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The best way to better your pronunciation is to
practice every day.
Find something written in Spanish and read it
along or record yourself to see how you improve.
Practice writing some sentences phonetically to
help with longer, harder words.
Listen to heritage speakers so you will know how
the words are suppose to sound. You can do this
by watching your favorite movie in Spanish, the
Spanish-speaking channels, or simply listening to
the many heritage speakers we have here in
school.
Phonetics
Phonetics can be defined as “the symbols
used to represent the speech sounds of a
language “.
 We will NOT use real phonetics but a
resemblance to guide us to almost perfect
pronunciations.
 The letter symbols will not change. The
same symbols will always be used to
represent the corresponding sound.

Examples
El gato es rojo
 /ehl-gah-toh-ehs-rroh-hoh/
Mi mama y mi padre caminan los domingos.
 /mee-mah-mah-ee-mee-pah-dreh-ka-meenahn-lohs-doh-meen-gohs/
Juan tiene dieciocho anos.
 /wahn-teeeh-neh-deeeh-see-oh-choh-ahnyos/
Laura busca el libro que esta debajo de sus
zapatos.
 /laoorah-boos-kah-ehl-lee-broh-kay-ehs-tahdeh-bah-ho-deh-soos-sah-pah-tohs/
Stress and Accent
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Where a word is stressed influences how it is
pronounced.
If a word ends in a vowel, n, or s, the natural
stress is on the next to last syllable.
If a word ends in a consonant, other than n or s,
the natural stress falls on the last syllable.
If a word does not follow the two above rules, the
word has a written accent to denote the stressed
syllable.
If the stress falls on the third or fourth to last
syllable, there is always a written accent.
Some words have accent marks to denote
meaning that is different from its counterpart
without an accent (ej. sí: yes; si:if)