How to Pronounce the Spanish Language

Unlike English, Spanish is actually pretty simple to pronounce. Where English is rife with silent letters, complicated diphthongs, and contextual pronunciations, such phenomena are mostly absent in Spanish. With few exceptions, each Spanish letter represents one and only one sound.

How To Pronounce Spanish Consonants

Spanish consonants couldn't be simpler to pronounce. For the most part, you can get away with pronouncing Spanish consonants the same as their English counterparts with a few exceptions. In Castilian Spanish, initial c's and s's are often pronounced like an English 'th' rather than an English 's'. Likewise, the Spanish 'c' usually sounds like a hard 'k' when following certain consonants and an 's' when following vowels and at the beginning of the word, but these exceptions are limited and far simpler than in English.

How To Pronounce Spanish Vowels

The main thing to know about Spanish vowels is that they tend to be pronounced like their English equivalents only more "distinct," which means they are tenser, tighter, and more forcefully. Additionally, Spanish vowels for the most part always sound the same with two exceptions: the letters 'E' and 'U'.

At the beginning of a word, 'e' is pronounced like the 'e' in the English word "bet." At the end of the word, however, it is pronounced like the 'é' in the word "café."

The letter 'u' is silent after the letter 'q' and in the combinations "gui" and "gue." In every other situation, it is pronounced like the Spanish "oo" as in "boot."

Rules To Pronounce Spanish Accents

The rules are as follows:


1. If a word contains an explicit accent mark, that syllable is capitalized and super-cedes all other pronunciation rules.

2. If a word ends in a vowel and has no explicit accent mark, the penultimate (next to last) syllable gets the accent.

3. If a word ends in a consonant and has no explicit accent mark, the final syllable gets the accent.