Spanish Alphabet and Basic Pronunciation Rules

¿Cómo se escribe? (How is it spelled?)

The following is the Spanish alphabet. It has 29 letters of which 5 are vocals (a, e, i, o, u). The name of each letter is given in the brackets.

EL ALFABETO

Vocales

a   e   i   o   u

Consonantes

b (be)   c (ce)    ch (che)    d (de)    f (efe)  g (ge)   h (hache)   j (jota)   

k (ka)     l (ele)  ll (elle)   m (eme)   n (ene)         ñ (eñe)     p (pe)   q (cu)  

r (erre)    s (ese)   t (te)   v (uve)     w (uve doble)    x (equis)   y (i griega) 

z (zeta)

If your mother language has some letters with umlaut such as Ö, Ü-----we have those letters in Turkish, some other languages like German have them as well-----or other special letters like Ç, Ş, I  you may express them as follows while spelling

• Ö: o con puntos
• Ü: u con puntos

"con" means with and "punto" means point. So, you simply say o with points. Our teacher told us that technically it is correct to use "diéresis" instead of "puntos" but in conversations one should use puntos

• Ç: c con cedilla
• Ş: s con cedilla
• I: i sin punto (sin:without)

¿Cómo se pronuncia? (How is it pronounced?)

In Spanish, there are basically nineletters whose pronunciations need special attention: j, h, b, v, g, c, ch, ll, ñ

1. j: make a strong h sound coming from the throat
2. h: it is not at all pronounced in Spanish
3. b: as we are used to pronounce it in English if it is the first letter of the word (lips touch each other). If b is not the first letter of the word make a sound as if you are going to say "b" but don't touch the lips with each other
4. there is no v sound in Spanish. When you see "v" in a word, apply the rules for the pronunciation of  "b". (see 3)
5. g: 

• if "e" or "i" follows "g" then it is pronounced as j in Spanish (example in Spanish: general)
• if "a" or "u" or "o" follows "g" then it is pronounced as guitar in English  (examples in Spanish: gorila, guitarra)

    6.  c:

• if "e" or "i" follows c, then it is pronounced as "z" (ex. cinko)
• if "a", "o", "u" follows c, then it is pronounced as "k" in  kilo in English (ex. casa)

     7. ch: pronounce it like you pronounce chair in English.

     8. ll: make "y" sound

     9. ñ: make an n-y sound one after the other. (If on the keyboard there is no ñ letter, it is written as ny)