- There are four extra letters in Spanish: ch, ll, ñ, rr - Tilde (till-day)- The squiggly line over the letter N. - Vowel sounds A- Ah (father) E- “A” I- “E” O- “O” (short) U- “OO” (tooth) *Every vowel in Spanish is pronounced.
Alphabet Pronunciation B, V- pronounced exactly the same way. At the beginning of a word they sound like an English “B”. In the middle of a word they sound somewhere between a “b” and “v”. *Bogotá, Valencia, burro, ventana *Eva, Sebastián,
C- before the letters “e” and “i” sounds like “s”. *Alicia, Galicia, Cecilia - before the letters “a, o, u” sounds like “k”. *Inca, Coco, Costa, Secreto
Ch-sounds the same as English *Chocolate, Chile, Cha-cha D- at the beginning of a word or after “L or N” sounds like a soft “d” with your tongue pushing on the back of your teeth. *Diego, Miranda, Matilde
D- All other positions, sounds like the English “th” as in the word “then. ” *Ricardo, estudiante, Eduardo
G- before E and I sounds like an English “H. ” *Jorge, región, - before A, O, U sounds like the Eng. “G” as in the word “gate. ” *amigo, amiga, gusto
H- Always silent *hotel, hospital, Hilda J- Sounds like “H”. Sometimes sounds like “WH. ” (usually before the letter “u”) *Jalisco, ejemplo, Juan
LL- Sounds like the English “Y. ” *llama, silla, Sevilla Ñ- sounds like the English “ny” as in the words canyon and Sonya. *señor, español, cañon
Q- always followed by a silent “U”. Sounds like the English “K”. *Quito, queso, R- at the beginning of a word and after the letter L, N, S it is trilled. *Rosa, Enrique, Israel, alrededor
R- elsewhere in the word it sounds like the English “TT” as in the words kitty and pretty. *tres, cuatro, profesor, tortilla RR-is always trilled *burro, terrible, perro
X- before a consonant, it sounds like an English “S”. *exterior, texto - before a vowel, it sounds like the English “GS” as in the word “eggs”. *examen, existencia Z- always pronounced like “S”. lápiz, zapato, pizarra