| A | B |
|---|
| A | /ah/ as in “bar” usually clipped short: pronuncia: banana, abra, atar |
| accents | are only placed on vowels never placed on consonants |
| ah, eh, ee, oh, oo | sounds of the 5 vowels in Spanish always short and usually clipped at the end |
| aspirated | term referring to softer consonants (where air is pushed through lips or teeth) pronuncia: aventura, adiós alfabeto, |
| B | usually softer than an English B (the lips don’t touch). sometimes called “be grande” for “Big B” |
| B/V | closed (hard sound) after after m, n pronuncia: ambicioso, invitar, ambulancia, invocar |
| ca, co, cu | hard K sound pronuncia: casa, cabra cohete, comer cuchara |
| ce, ci | /seh/ /see/ pronuncia: cero, cigarro, cuchara |
| closed | term referring to consonants with a hard sound (air stopped before pronouncing) pronuncia: ambicioso, dime, |
| D | in “Adiós” it’s aspirated (softer) because it is in between vowels. Sounds like a ‘TH” in English pronuncia: adiós, adentro |
| D | closed consonant sound at beginning of words or after “n” pronuncia: damas, anda |
| e | /eh/ as in “get” pronuncia: elefante, era, ella, ellos |
| ga, go | /gah/ /goh/ pronuncia: garganta gol, agarrar |
| ge, gi | /Heh/ /Hee/ pronuncia: generoso, gente, gimnasio |
| H | always silent pronuncia: alcohol, el hotel, hormiga |
| I | /ee/ as in machine also referred to as Latin I, literally pronuncia: invitar, iglesia, imposible |
| J | sounds like an H sometimes and is silent other times pronuncia: Juan, reloj relojes, Juanita |
| LL | sounds like a Y in some countries and a J in others pronuncia: llegar, llamo, llanura |
| Ñ | sounds like NY in canyon prononcia: mañana, otoño, ñandú |
| O | /oh/ as in boat but clipped at the end pronuncia: voto, motor, loco |
| P | in English it is aspirated in Spanish it is not pronounce “Peter” without expulsing air Pedro, Paco |
| Q | always followed by “u” sounds like “k” in Keep pronuncia: queso, querer, quince |
| R at beginning or end of words | sounds like a trilled RR Roberto sounds like RRRRRoberto mirar sounds like miraRRRR |
| R between vowels | sounds more like the DD in EDDIE pronuncia: Perú, aventura, pura, mira |
| tilde | only placed on letter Ñ, then only letter that is different than the English alphabet |
| U | /oo/ as in flu pronuncia: museo, usar, urgente |
| V | sounds like a B sometimes called “be chica” for “small b” |
| X | usually sounds like /ks/ “examen” rarely sounds like /H/ as in “México” |
| Y | means Greek I, literally like English, can sound like a consonant (you) or a vowel (hey) pronuncia: yo, ya, hoy, ay |
