The Spanish alphabet: the letters, their names, their sounds, and spelling your name aloud
The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters, one more than English, and Spanish spelling matches the sound far more closely than English does. Once you know how each letter sounds, you can read any word aloud. Below: each letter’s name, how to make its sound, the pairs of letters you say as one sound, and how to spell your name to someone on the phone.
The letters and their names
| Letter | Name | Say the name like | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| A a | a | ah | as in “father”, shorter |
| B b | be | beh | b. See below |
| C c | ce | theh (Spain), seh (Latin America) | k, or s / th before e and i |
| D d | de | deh | d, softer between vowels |
| E e | e | eh | as in “met” |
| F f | efe | EH-feh | f |
| G g | ge | heh | g, or a throaty h before e and i |
| H h | hache | AH-cheh | silent |
| I i | i | ee | as in “see”, shorter |
| J j | jota | HOH-tah | a throaty h |
| K k | ka | kah | k. Only in borrowed words |
| L l | ele | EH-leh | l, always clear |
| M m | eme | EH-meh | m |
| N n | ene | EH-neh | n |
| Ñ ñ | eñe | EH-nyeh | ny, as in “canyon” |
| O o | o | oh | as in “or”, with no w at the end |
| P p | pe | peh | p, with no puff of air |
| Q q | cu | koo | k. Always followed by a silent u |
| R r | erre | EH-rreh | a tap, or a trill |
| S s | ese | EH-seh | s |
| T t | te | teh | t, with the tongue on the teeth |
| U u | u | oo | as in “food”, shorter |
| V v | uve | OO-beh | the same as b |
| W w | uve doble | OO-beh DOH-bleh | w. Only in borrowed words |
| X x | equis | EH-kees | ks, sometimes h or s |
| Y y | ye | yeh | y as in “yes”, or ee |
| Z z | zeta | THEH-tah (Spain), SEH-tah (Latin America) | th (Spain), s (Latin America) |
The Real Academia Española fixed these names in 2010. You will still hear older names every day: i griega for y, and be larga or ve corta for b and v in Latin America. See the regional table below.
The letter pairs: ch, ll, rr
Ch sounds like “ch” in “church”: chico, noche, chocolate. It was counted as a separate letter until 1994 in dictionaries and until 2010 in the alphabet, so older people may recite it.
Ll was also counted as a letter until 2010. In most places today it sounds like the y in “yes”: llamar is ya-MAR, calle is KA-yeh. In Argentina it sounds like “sh” or the s in “measure”. See the regional notes.
Rr was never a separate letter. It is two r’s, said as a trill, and it only appears between vowels: perro, carro, tierra. There is a separate guide to rolling the r.
Qu and gu before e and i are also pairs. The u is silent: queso is KEH-soh, guerra is GEH-rrah. When the u is spoken, you write two dots on it: pingüino, vergüenza.
How to make each sound
The vowels
Spanish has five vowel sounds, and each is short and pure. English speakers tend to slide a vowel into another one: “no” in English ends in a w, “day” ends in a y. In Spanish, hold the mouth still for the whole vowel.
- a is open, the mouth wide: casa, mapa.
- e is like the e in “bed”, never “ay”: mesa, peso.
- i is like “ee”, short: sí, vino.
- o is rounded, and it stops without a w: no, todo.
- u is like “oo”, lips rounded: luna, uno.
Spanish vowels do not weaken when they are not stressed. In banana, all three a’s are the same full a. The English habit of turning unstressed vowels into “uh” is one of the things by which people hear an English accent.
B and V
B and v are the same sound in Spanish. Vaca, cow, and baca, a roof rack in Spain, sound identical. At the start of a phrase and after m or n, both are a full b, lips pressed together: bueno, vino, un vaso. Between vowels, the lips come close but do not touch, giving a soft buzzing b: cabo, uva, la vaca. Spanish has no English v sound, with the top teeth on the lip.
C, Z and S
C before a, o and u is a k: casa, cosa, cuna. Before e and i it is soft: cena, cine.
In most of Spain, soft c and every z are said like “th” in “think”, tongue between the teeth: cena is THEH-nah, zapato is tha-PAH-toh. The s stays an s. So casa, house, and caza, hunting, sound different.
In Latin America and in parts of southern Spain and the Canary Islands, soft c and z are an s. Cena is SEH-nah, and casa and caza sound the same.
S is a hissed s, as in “see”. Casa is KA-sah, not KA-zah.
D
At the start of a word or after n or l, d is like English d, but with the tongue touching the back of the upper teeth: dos, donde. Between vowels it softens to the “th” in “this”: cada, nada, todo. At the end of a word it is very light: usted, Madrid. In casual speech in Spain it often disappears in -ado: cansado can sound like cansao.
G and J
G before a, o and u is a hard g, as in “go”: gato, gota, gusto. Between vowels it softens: lago, agua. Before e and i it is the same sound as j: gente, gira.
J is made at the back of the mouth. In most of Spain it is a strong, scraped sound, like the ch in the Scottish “loch”: jamón, ajo. In Mexico and Argentina it is softer than in Spain, and in Colombia it is close to an English h: jota sounds like HOH-tah.
H
H is silent, always: hola is OH-lah, hacer is ah-SER, ahora is ah-OH-rah. The only exception is ch, where it is part of a different sound.
L and Ñ
L is always the clear l at the start of “leaf”, with the tongue tip on the ridge behind the teeth. Never the dark, swallowed l at the end of “full”. Sol and mil end in a clear l.
Ñ is the “ny” in “canyon” or “onion”: año, España, mañana. Press the middle of the tongue against the roof of the mouth. Ano without the tilde is a different word, anus.
P, T and K
P, t and k have no puff of air after them. Hold your hand in front of your mouth and say “pin”. You feel a puff. Say the p in “spin” and there is none. Spanish p, t and k are always the “spin” kind: pan, todo, casa. T is also made with the tongue touching the back of the teeth, not the ridge behind them.
R and RR
A single r between vowels is a quick tap of the tongue on the ridge behind the teeth. It is the same sound as the tt in American English “butter”: pero, caro, hora. Rr, and an r at the start of a word or after n, l or s, is a trill, several taps in a row: perro, rojo, Enrique, alrededor.
X
X is usually “ks”: taxi, examen, éxito. In some Mexican names it is the old spelling of the j sound: México, Oaxaca, Texas. In a few Nahuatl names it is s or sh: Xochimilco starts with an s sound.
Y
Y is the consonant in “yes”: yo, ayer, playa. On its own or at the end of a word it is a vowel, ee: y (and), hoy, muy. In Argentina the consonant y sounds like “sh” or the s in “measure”.
Regional differences
| Mexico | Spain | Colombia | Argentina | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soft c and z | s | th (most of Spain) | s | s |
| ll and y | y as in “yes” | y as in “yes” | y as in “yes” | sh, or s in “measure” |
| j | softer than in Spain | strong, like “loch” | soft, like h | softer than in Spain |
| s at the end of a syllable | kept in the centre | kept in the north and centre, h-like in the south | kept in Bogotá, h-like on the coast | often an h: ehtá for está |
| Name of b | be grande or be | be | be | be larga |
| Name of v | ve chica | uve | ve | ve corta |
| Name of w | doble u or doble ve | uve doble | doble ve or doble u | doble ve |
| Name of y | ye or i griega | i griega or ye | ye or i griega | ye or i griega |
The Argentine sh for ll and y is easy to hear: yo me llamo sounds like “sho me shamo”. Younger speakers in Buenos Aires use the “sh” of “shoe”. Older speakers and people from other regions often have the softer sound in “measure”.
The th in Spain is not a lisp. Spaniards say casa with an s and caza with a th. Someone with a lisp would say th in both.
Common mistakes
Pronouncing the h. Hola with an English h sounds foreign at once. Start the word on the o.
English v. Vino with the teeth on the lip. Say it with a b.
Buzzed s. Casa and presidente with a z sound, as in English “rose”. Spanish s between vowels is hissed.
Sliding vowels. No said as “noh-w”, de as “day”. Keep each vowel still.
Unstressed vowels turned into “uh”. Chocolate is choh-koh-LAH-teh, with four full vowels.
Spelling e and i. The letter e is called “eh” and the letter i is called “ee”. English speakers spelling their names aloud swap them, and then the name is wrong. The same happens with g (“heh”) and j (“HOH-tah”).
Minimal pairs to practise
Read each pair aloud. The difference is one sound, or where the stress falls.
| Pair | Meanings | The difference |
|---|---|---|
| pero / perro | but / dog | tap and trill |
| caro / carro | expensive / car | tap and trill |
| coro / corro | choir / I run | tap and trill |
| casa / caza | house / hunting | s and th in Spain, the same in Latin America |
| pollo / polo | chicken / pole | y and l |
| año / ano | year / anus | ñ and n |
| papa / papá | potato / dad | the stress |
| peso / piso | weight / floor | e and i |
| bello / vello | beautiful / body hair | none: b and v sound the same |
Spelling your name aloud
| You want to say | Spanish | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| How do you spell it? | ¿Cómo se escribe? | Everywhere |
| Could you spell it for me? | ¿Me lo puede deletrear? (usted) / ¿Me lo deletreas? (tú) | ¿Me lo deletreás? with vos |
| B for Barcelona | Be de Barcelona. | To make a letter clear, add a word |
| V for Valencia | Uve de Valencia. / Ve de vaca. | Spain / Latin America |
| With an h | Con hache. | |
| Double l | Doble ele. or Elle. | |
| Capital / lower case | mayúscula / minúscula | |
| With an accent on the a | Con tilde en la a. or Con acento en la a. | |
| All one word | Todo junto. | |
| Hyphen | guion | |
| Underscore | guion bajo | |
| @ | arroba | |
| dot | punto | punto com |
| slash | barra |
A name like Stephen would go: ese, te, e, pe, hache, e, ene. Say it slowly, one letter at a time, and use a word for the letters that sound alike: be de Bogotá, ve de vaca, ese de sol, zeta de zapato.
For an email address: ana punto lopez arroba gmail punto com. People often say the part before the @ as a word if it reads like one, then spell it if asked.
Questions people ask
How many letters are in the Spanish alphabet? Twenty-seven. The 26 English letters plus ñ. Ch and ll were counted as letters until 2010 and no longer are.
Is ll a letter in Spanish? Not since 2010. It is a pair of letters with one sound, like ch. Dictionaries have sorted it under l since 1994.
How do you pronounce ñ? Like “ny” in “canyon”: año is AH-nyoh.
Why do Spaniards pronounce z as th? It is a separate sound in the Spanish of most of Spain, kept apart from s. Speakers in Latin America and parts of southern Spain merged the two into s.
Is the h silent in Spanish? Yes, apart from a few borrowed words such as hámster. The pair ch is a separate sound.
What is the difference between b and v in Spanish? In sound, none. They are two spellings of the same sound. That is why people say be de Barcelona or ve de vaca when spelling.
How do you say the letter y in Spanish? Ye is the official name since 2010, and i griega, “Greek i”, is still what many people say.
What does “deletrear” mean? To spell out, letter by letter, letra por letra. ¿Me lo puede deletrear? is what a receptionist asks when they need your name.
Practise these words
letra, escribir, acento, mayúscula, punto, perro, caro, casa, año, vaca, sol, hora, llamar. Vozelu is a free website for practising Spanish, and it has each of these. You see a sentence with one word missing, you type the word, and a native voice reads the sentence back. Practise the words on this page.