El Alfabeto

The alphabet (alfabeto)was named after the Greek letters alpha and beta “a” and “b” that it begins with. The Phoenicians designed it and invented the alphabetic writing, but it was Cadmo from Phoenicia who took it to Greece and passed it onto the Romans, who transmitted it to the European languages. 

The alphabet and its form, content, names and pronunciation  had, as the Spanish language, many changes through its evolution. Originally from Latin, Greek and Arabic, the Spanish alphabet took some letters and combinations of them to support the blend of languages, overall, when having to adapt to the language of the natives. An example of this is the letter X becoming important to support indigenous words; also with time the form of the letter “V” changed into “U” but the “V” remained as another letter, too.     

The pronunciation of single letters

The following chart shows the current alphabet. Read carefully.

- The first column has the symbol or what we know as letter.
- The pronunciation  of the name of the letter, in Spanish, is in the second column.
- The third column has a guide to the sound of the letter considering a similar English sound as a preparatory starting point. This means that the sound will be very close to the one emitted in English.
To make a real sound you may need to open your mouth at the same time that you let the air and sound flow strongly.
- The fourth column shows words in English that have a similar sound in English to the sound in Spanish.
- The fifth column has an example of a word in Spanish with a letter in turn. The parenthesis shows a representation of how to read and pronounce the Spanish word written above.

      Use this chart to practice, review and learn the sound of each letter.

The Alphabet

Listen how to pronounce it

 

Letter	Name of the letter (pronunciation)	Letter Sound	Similar English Pronunciation	Example
A	ah	ah	Same as English. bat	Arco (Ahr-koh)
B	beh	v	Same as bus	Barco (Bahr-koh)
C	seh	k	Same as a strong "k" Before "a", "o", "u"	Casa (Kahr-sa)
		s	Before "e" or "i" sounds like  Center   In some parts of Spain same as "th" that	Circo (seer-koh)   Centro (then-tro)
CH	cheh	ch	Same as Chance	Chico (chee-koh)
D	deh		Same as Donut	Dedo (deh-doh)

E	eh	eh	Same as a long “a” Day	Seco (Seh-koh)
F	ehfe		Same as Fish	Foco (foh-coh)
G	heh	g	Sounds like “g”  before "a", "o" or "u" Gas	Gato (gah-toh)
		h	sounds like “h” before "e" or "i"  General	Gente (Hehn-te)
H	acheh	silent	No sound	Huevo (oo-e-voh)
I	ee	ee	Long ee sound teeth	Risa (rree-sah)
J	jotah	h	Same as "h" hat	justicia joos-tee-seeah
K	kah	k	Same as "k" Kilo	kilo kee-loh

L	eleh	l	Same as "l" Last	lupa loo-pah
LL	ehjeh	y	Same as "y"  Yatch	llanto yahn-toh
M	ehmeh	m	Same as "m"  Mother	Mamá mah-mah
N	ehneh	n	Same as "n"  Name	nombre nohm-breh
Ñ	eñieh	ny	Same as "ny"  Canyon	niño nee-nyoh
O	oh	oh	Long “o” Horse	Foco (Foh-koh)

P	peh	P	Same as "p" Patch	Papa (pah-pah)
Q (qu)	Coo	k	Same as "k", useful only before "e" or "i" Ketchup	Qué (keh)
R	ereh	r	Same as "r" if there is only one “r” Three   If written at the beginning of the word, with strong “r”	Barco (Bahr-koh)     Rosa (rroh-sah)
RR	Doble ereh	rr	With a strong “r”	Perro (Peh-rroh)
S	ehseh	s	Same as "s"  Sand	sandía (sahn-dee-ah)
T	teh	t	Same as "t" Tent	taco (tah-coh)

U	oo	oo	Double "o" Look	Usar oo-sahr
V	oobeh	b	Same as a soft "v" Vector	vector (vehk-tohr)
W	doble-beh	w	Same as "w" Oswald	Oswaldo (Ohs-wahl-doh)
X	Eh-kiss	S,   cks   sh	Similar to s   Similar to cks before a vowel   Similar to sh	Xochitl (Soh-chee-tl)   examen (eks-ah-mehn)   xocolatl (xoh-coh-lah-tl)
Y	eegreeehga	Y     e	When in a word same as "y" Yes   If alone then same as ee Eel	yoyo (yoh-yoh)   y (ee)
Z	sehtah	S     C     th	Same as "s" Sounds like "See"   (in Latin America)   Same as "c" before "e" and "i"   Same as "th" (in Spain) Thin	Zapato (sah-pah-toh)     zig-zag (cig-zag)   Zimbabue (thim-bah-bueh)