Learning the Spanish Alphabet

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Now that we've looked at a few basic greeting in Spanish, let's go over the Spanish Alphabet.

The Spanish alphabet is composed of 30 letters. The letters have different names than they do in English. The table below will tell you how to say the name of the letter and how the letter itself sounds. I have used Latin American pronunciations that will be understood anywhere - there are some regional differences.

Alphabet Pronounce It!
A [ah] /ah/ as in English "tall"
B [beh grahn-de] /b/ as in English "boy
C [seh] /k/ as in English "cup" (when followed by the vowels a, o, u)
/s/ as in English "sit" (when followed by vowels i, e)
Ch [cheh] /ch/ as in English child
D [deh] /d/ as is English doll
E [eh] /eh/ as in English let
F [eh-feh] /f/ as in English fan
G [keh] /g/ as in English gift (when followed by a, o, u)
/ch/ as in German "Bach" when followed by e, i
H [ah-cheh] the letter h is always silent in Spanish
I [ee] /ee/ as in English "sweet"
J [hoh-tah] /ch/ as in German Bach
K [kah] /k/ as in English kite
L [eh-leh] /l/ as in English light
Ll [eh-yeh] /y/ as in English yellow
M [eh-meh] /m/ as in English money
N [eh-neh] /n/ as in English net
Ñ [eh-nyeh] /ny/ as in English canyon
O [oh] /o/ as in English hotel
P [peh] /p/ as in English party
Q [ku] /k/ as in English kite
R [eh-reh] R is pronounced by trilling the tongue against the roof of the mouth, like a cat purr sound.
Rr rr [ehr-reh] Similar to R above, but the trill is more pronounced.
S s [eh-seh] /s/ as in English son
T [teh] /t/ as in English time
U [oo] /oo/ as in English toot
V [veh chica] a soft /b/ sound - pronounced by forming the letter b, but not closing the lips completely.
W w [veh dobleh] /w/ as in English water
X x [eh-kis] /ch/ as in German Bach when used in the start of a word
/ks/ as in English taxi when placed inside a word
Y y [i-gri-yeh-gah] /ee/ as in English ski
Z z [zeh-tah] /s/ as in English sit

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