Spanish Pronunciation Rules

More information on the pronunciation of Spanish letters

Most letters in Spanish have only one pronunciation, and thus, spelling can be said to be easier in Spanish than in English. However, there are some exceptions. Review the next few slides to study these exceptions.

go!

1. When c appears before a, o, u and the consonants l and r, it sounds like /k/.

crema

cultura

clima

Costa Rica

2. When c is followed by e or i, it sounds like /s/ (e.g., centro, emocional)

emoción

centro

Tooltip

3. When c is followed by h, it is pronounced like the ch in cheese (e.g., China).

China

1. When g appears before a, o, u and the consonants l and r, it sounds like an English hard /g/.

gracias

gusto

globo

amigo

arrogante

2. When g is followed by e or i, it sounds like the English /h/.

ágil

generoso

3. If a u is between g and e or i, g is pronounced like a hard /g/, and the u is NOT pronounced.

Tooltip

espagueti

guía

4. Sometimes, in the combinations gue and gui, the u is pronounced if it is marked with a diéresis (ü). In these cases, the g in combination with the u is pronounced /w/.

lingüística

bilingüe

1. Double l (ll) is pronounced like English /y/ in yes.

pollo

calle

amarillo

Me llamo

2. In some parts of Argentina and Uruguay, this sound is pronounced like /sh/.

Tooltip

calle

llama

1. Q can only be found in the combinations ¨que¨ and ¨qui¨. In these cases, the u is silent, and the q is pronounced /k/.

quiero

pequeño

quinto

¿Qué?

Tooltip

Q cannot be followed by a, o, or u (unless u is followed by e or i).

1. When r is at the beginning or in the middle of a word and appears as a double r (rr), it is pronounced like a rolling r.

guitarra

Rosa

Río Grande

Tooltip

Licensing

Licensing: Created by Amanda Hadley, Spanish Instructor at Butler Community College “Spanish Pronunciation Rules” by Amanda Hadley is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license (CC BY-SA) All audio taken from Forvo.com