Pronunciation and the alphabet

The Spanish alphabet (el alfabeto) has 27 letters: the regular Latin alphabet plus ñ (pronounced like the 'ny' in 'canyon'). Every letter has a fixed sound — unlike Dutch or English, a Spanish letter is pronounced almost the same way every time.

• The letters k and w only appear in loanwords (kilo, whisky).
• ch and ll are pronounced as single sounds but are no longer counted as separate letters since 2010.

Spanish has only five vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u. They are always short and clear — never a diphthong like in the Dutch 'ei' or the English 'name'.

• a = like 'a' in 'father'
• e = like 'e' in 'bed'
• i = like 'ee' in 'see'
• o = like 'o' in 'more'
• u = like 'oo' in 'boot'

These sounds never change, even in unstressed syllables.

A few letters sound different from what you might expect:

• ñ: sounds like 'ny' — niño (boy), año (year).
• ll: in most regions sounds like an English 'y' — llamar (to call), lluvia (rain).
• j and g (before e/i): a raspy throat sound, like the Dutch hard 'g' — jardín, gente.
• g (before a/o/u): sounds like a normal English 'g' — gato, amigo.
• c and z: before e/i, c sounds like English 'th' in Spain or 's' in Latin America — cielo, cinco. z sounds the same — zapato.
• c (before a/o/u) and qu: sound like 'k' — casa, queso.
• h: is always silent — hola, hora.

Spanish has three simple stress rules:

1. If the word ends in a vowel, n or s → stress falls on the second-to-last syllable. ca-SA, ha-BLAN, li-BROS.
2. If the word ends in any other consonant (not n/s) → stress falls on the last syllable. ho-TEL, re-LOJ, es-pa-ÑOL.
3. If the stress breaks rule 1 or 2 → a written accent mark (tilde) is added over the stressed vowel. ár-bol, ja-PÓN, mú-si-ca.

The accent marks are always á é í ó ú. Note: they can change the meaning of a word, e.g. si (if) vs. sí (yes).