Pronunciation Key for Spanish Letters

This chart is intended serve only as a reference for the pronunciation of individual Spanish letters. We recommend that you do not try to memorize this chart, but rather simply use it as a basic reference. To learn how to pronounce words in Spanish, we recommend that you complete the audio exercises in our Complete Guide to Spanish Pronunciation.

Letter	How to pronounce	Sounds like
a	ah	Sounds like the a in “father” or
b,v	beh	The letters b and v sound the same in Spanish. When found at the beginning of a word or following a consonant, they both make a sound like the English b in “ball”: and When found in the middle or end of word, they make a softer sound that falls somewhere in between the English b and v sounds, as in and
c	seh	Usually sounds like c in cartwheel or Before e or i, it makes an s sound like in the word
ch	cheh	Sounds like the ch in “church” or
d	deh	Sounds like the English d except between vowels and following l or n where pronounced almost like the th in “this”:
e	eh	For a syllable ending in a vowel, like the e in “they” or ; for a syllable ending in a consonant, like the e in “get” or
f	effe	Sounds like the f in “flute” or
g	ge	Usually like the ‘g’ in except before e or i, where it sounds like the English “h”, e.g.
h	hache	In general, the h sound is silent like in
i	i	Sounds like the i in machine or Before vowels a, e, and o, it forms a “y” sound like in
j	jota	Sounds like an English h sound but a bit stronger, like
k	kah	Like the k in
l	ele	Like the l in
ll	elle	Like the y in “you”, e.g.
m	eme	Sounds like the English m, as in “mom” or
n	ene	Sounds like an English n as in
ñ	eñe	Sounds like the n in “onion”or “canyon” e.g.
o	oh	For a syllable ending in a vowel, sounds like the o in “vote” or
p	peh	Sounds like an English p, but slightly softer, e.g.
q	koo	Sounds like a k; always followed by a silent u, e.g.
r	ere	Pronounced with a strong trill when at the beginning of a word like or and following an l, n, or s; medium trill in other positions, like and very little trill when at the end of a word like
rr	ere	Strongly trilled, as in
s	ese	Just like the English s, e.g.
t	te	Very close to the English t but softer, the tongue touches the teeth and there is no explosion of breath after moving the tongue away, e.g.
u	u	Sounds like the ur in rule. When paired with a vowel it makes a sound like the w in “well” as in or
v	veh	see b, v
w	doble veh	The letter w is somewhat rare in Spanish and mostly used for foreign words. When it appears, it usually makes the same sound as the English w.
x	equis	Usually sounds like the x in “box” or
y	y griega	Usually sounds like the y in “yes” or In many countries, y is pronounced with a soft j sound, as in
z	zeta	Mostly pronounced like the English z as in (but can sound like the th in “thin” in parts of Spain, e.g. )

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