Everything you need to know about the Spanish Alphabet and its Pronunciation

Learn the Spanish Alphabet

One of the first things that we must learn while studying the Spanish alphabet is the pronunciation of each symbol, known as letters. A letter is a graphic representation, or symbol, of the phonemes of a certain language. Phonemes are sets of sounds distinguished by speakers of a particular language.

The Spanish language is derived from ancient Latin and therefore the Spanish alphabet and Latin alphabet have much in common. The Spanish alphabet letters are represented as 27 letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y and Z. The grouped letters “CH” and “LL” are considered single letters that represent the Spanish alphabet pronunciation /ĉ/ and /ʎ/. These are called digraphs, two successive letters that represent a single sound.

The letters “K” and “W” are scarce in Spanish and are usually only found in foreign or learned words that have been incorporated into the Spanish alphabet in modern times.

The symbol “Ñ” represents the palatal nasal sound /ɲ/ in the Spanish alphabet. This sound, which exists in Romance languages, is represented in other languages with digraphs. This phoneme appears as “nh” in Portuguese, “gn” in French, and “ny” in Catalan.

The “Q” is always accompanied by the “U.” In this combination, the latter is always silent and never pronounced, producing a /K/ sound that is found in “QU + E” and “QU + I” combinations. Examples: qué, quién, and queso.

The “C” symbol is associated with two phonemes in Spanish alphabet pronunciation. If the letter is accompanied by A, O or U, the sound is /K/ which is plosive, velar and voiceless. If accompanied by E or I, the sound produced is /θ/ which is fricative, dental and voiceless.

One of the letters in the Spanish alphabet with a unique sound is the “J,” which represents the /X/ phoneme. The sound is phonetically defined as a fricative, velar, and voiceless. The “J” is generally accompanied by the A, O or U, but there are some exceptions to this rule such as the word for giraffe: jirafa.

The “G” also graphically represents 2 phonemes in Spanish pronunciation: the /X/ sound if accompanied by the E or I, and the /G/ sound if accompanied by A, O or U. Additionally, if the “G” appears as GUE or GUI, the U is silent and the sounds are pronounced as /GE/ and /GI/.

The vowel system in the Spanish alphabet and Spanish pronunciation is quite simple and straightforward. There are 5 vowels: A, E, I, O and U that always represent the same sounds except for in the exceptions mentioned previously in which the U becomes silent in combination with the G and the Q.

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Here you can find more information about the Spanish alphabet and the Spanish alphabet pronunciation.

The A in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Greek alpha, which came from the Phoenician alpha.

Example of usage: Abeja

The letter “A” is, like in most Indo-European alphabets, the first letter and the first vowel in the Spanish alphabet. Its form originates from an Egyptian hieroglyph that represented the god Apis. His first name was Ahom.

The Phoenicians called this letter alph (“ox”), given its resemblance to the head and horns of this animal. The Hebrews called it aleph. In the ancient Greek alphabet it became the letter alpha which later developed to the letter “A” in the Roman alphabet of which many alphabets stem from today.

Today the Spanish “A” represents the sound that occurs when you open your mouth, separate your lips and slightly curve your tongue while you let your vocal cords vibrate. The sound of “A” as in “mama”, “cuál” and “par” is slightly different in the countries where Spanish is spoken.

The B in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Greek beta, which came from the Phoenician beth.

Example of usage: Barco

“B” is the second letter and the first consonant of the Spanish alphabet. There is an equivalent symbol which is used in the Greek, Hebrew and Arabic alphabet. Its name is “be”. Nowadays we use the Greek name of “B”, “beta” (from the Phoenician “beth”) to form the word alphabet. The Phoenicians used this letter, which originates from an Egyptian hieroglyph used to represent a crane, and called it beth, “house”.

The letter “B” in “cabeza”, “bruma” or “Bogotá” represents the sound produced when you put your lips together to create an implosion, closing the soft palate and vibrating the vocal cords. In Spanish, there are not many variations in the pronunciation of this consonant. When the letter comes at the end of a word, such as in “club”, it is pronounced very quickly.

The sound of the letter “B” and the letter “V” are undistinguished, there is no difference between both.

The C in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin C, derived from the Phoenician gimel

Example of usage: Caballo

C is the third letter of the Spanish alphabet and of other Romance Languages. The name of this letter in Spanish is “ce”. The symbol comes from the Latin C by curving the Greek letter Γ(gamma)that originated from the Phoenician symbol called gimel, or camel, which came from an Egyptian symbol.

The letter C that comes from archaic Latin was pronounced in two different ways: one was similar to the current GA, GUE, GUI, GO and GU, which disappeared in classical times and the other was equivalent to CA which would eventually make its way into the Romance Languages. Since the 16th century the letter C in Spanish has represented two sounds. The first of which is the C sound as represented in the words “cama”, “copa”, “cuna”, “clima” and “cráneo” and is used in all Spanish speaking countries. The sound is produced by bringing the back of the tongue to the soft palate and releasing air in a small implosion without vibrating the vocal cords. This sound is made when the letter C is followed by the vowels A, O or U, before the consonants L and Y, and when part of a consonant cluster such as in the word “pacto”.

The second sound is like the Z sound and is produced by bringing the front of the tongue to the upper teeth and forcing air through the barrier without vibrating the vocal cords as heard in the words “cena” and “cine”. In most of the Spanish speaking countries of the Americas and some regions of Spain the C sound in these words is actually pronounced as an S. This tendency is referred to as pronounced with a “seseo”.

In Spanish, the letter C can be combined with the letter H to form the digraph CH, read “CHE”. The letter is made by placing the tip of the tongue to the palate and quickly releasing the tongue as you force air quickly through the barrier without vibrating the vocal cords. This sound is found in words like “chocolate” and “corcho” as well as in other words from the diverse dialects found throughout the Spanish world.

The D in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin D which originated from the Phoenician Daleth.

Example of usage: Delfín

The letter D represents the fourth letter of the alphabets that come from Greek and Latin. The name of the letter in Spanish is “DE”. The letter originated from an Egyptian hieroglyph that represented a hand. When the Phoenicians adopted this sign it received the name daleth (“door”) because its symbol resembled the opening of a tent. Such a similarity can be seen in the Greek letter Δ whose name is delta which was also derived from the daleth. In Spanish, the D sound is made by resting the tip of the tongue on the upper teeth, forming a barrier and forcing air through in a small explosion while allowing the vocal cords to vibrate.

The D sound is found in Spanish words like “dedo” or “drama”. There are very few regional variations to the sound. A more relaxed pronunciation does exist when the letter is in the intervocalic position such as in the words “sobrevalorado” or “Madrid”. When the D is found in these positions it may be pronounced differently for dialectal reasons.

The E in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin E which came from the Greek epsilon

Example of usage: Elefante

The fifth letter and second vowel of the Spanish alphabet is the most used letter. Its name in Spanish is simply E. Its form, without alteration, comes from the fifth letter of the classic Roman alphabet which was a variation of the Greek epsilon(Ε, ε). The Greek letter originated from the Semitic he which in turn was an adaptation of an Egyptian hieroglyph, which ultimately is the origin of the letter.

The letter E represents a sound that is pronounced by opening up the mouth (less than you would pronounce the letter A) and lifting your slightly curved tongue towards the front of the palate while slightly stretching open the lips.

Appreciable differences in the pronunciation of the E do not currently exist in the Spanish language. The E acquires a nasal tone when it comes in contact with a nasal consonant such as in the words “ven”, “menta”, and “peña”. At the unaccented end of some words, the E sound relaxes, but is never unvoiced, such as in the word “cómplice”.

The F in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin F which originated from the Greek digamma

Example of usage: Fresas

The letter F is the sixth letter and fourth consonant of the current Spanish, ancient Greek and Latin alphabets. Its name is pronounced “EFE”. In Greek, the letter was the digamma, because of its two interposed capital gammas and made the G sound. Later, the pronunciation would evolve into a W sound, much like that of the English Was pronounced in the word “Washington”. Finally, in Latin, the letter V was assigned to this W sound and the letter F went on to represent the same sound it does in Spanish, as heard for example, in the word “fin”.

The sound of the letter F is produced by touching the upper teeth to the lower lip and forming a narrow passage to allow air to pass as it skims over the lower soft palate without vibrating the vocal cords.

The G in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

The capital letter G came from the Latin C. In the third century BC the letter would acquire a horizontal line to represent a phoneme that was a variant of the C sound which did not exist in Latin.

Example of usage: Girasol

The letter G, the seventh letter of the alphabets originated from Latin. Its name is “GE”. The capital letter G comes from the Latin letter C which in turns comes from the Greek letter gamma Γwhich became rounded in the seventh century BC. The Latin C letter represented two sounds, /g/ and /k/, until the third century BC when a letter was modified to distinguish the /g/ sound. Once the differentiation was made, the new letter took the place of the Z in the Greek alphabet but was not incorporated into Latin. The modern lowercase g evolved from a form of the letter that emerged in the seventh century.

In Spanish, the letter G represents two different sounds: one when used before an A, O or U that is produced by touching the back of the tongue to the soft palate creating a barrier through which air will pass creating a small explosion while the vocal cords vibrate. The sound created is like that heard in the word “gato”, “cargo” and “Paraguay”. It also has this sound when behind a consonant, such as in the word “gracias”.

The other sound made by the G occurs when the letter appears before an E or an I when it is pronounced like the Castilian letter J such as in the words “gente” or “girar”. An unvoiced U letter is found between the G and the vowels E and I to create the same voiced sound as when it is located before an A, O, U or a consonant, as seen in the words “sigue” and “siguiente”.

Origin of the letter:

From the Semitic cheth, which represented in Greece and Rome an aspirated sound. In Latin, the sound disappeared over time.

Example of usage: Helado

The H in Spanish

The letter H is the eighth letter in the Spanish alphabet and in other Latin-based alphabets. It is called hache in Spanish. The letter comes from the Semitic H, cheth, which represented in both the Greek and Latin alphabets an aspirated sound similar to the one that exists in Arabic and in English. In spoken Latin, it gradually disappeared. It remained in use to represent some sounds from Greek. It was also used in combination with certain letters to reproduce aspirated sounds pronounced in words that originated in other languages. As a result, the letter H today remains unvoiced in Romance languages. In Spanish, the H is generally unvoiced, however, it is aspirated in some dialect

The I in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin I which came from the Greek iota

Example of usage: Iceberg

The letter I is the ninth letter and the third vowel in the Spanish, Greek, and Roman alphabets. The Greeks called it iota, based on its Semitic name yodh, which means “hand”. It comes from the form the sign had in the Egyptian hieratic alphabet, which resembles a hand with a stretched open thumb. The dot over the lowercase i entered general usage in the 11th century.

The dot was originally an accent that first signified a long vowel and later was used to differentiate the double i used to write the u, and to mark the letter in the combinations iu and ui.

The J in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

It appeared in the 18th century and it is interchangeable with the letter X

Example of usage: Jamón

The letter J is the tenth letter and the seventh consonant in the Castilian alphabet. Its name in Spanish is JOTA, because it comes from the Greek letter iota. It was the last letter to be added to the Spanish alphabet. The “J” symbol appeared for the first time in the Roman alphabet, it was simply used as a capital “I”. In the middle ages, the elongated shape (J) was often used for ornamental reasons as well as for writing numbers. The letter “J” wasn’t used until the second half of the seventeenth century. It took almost a century and a half for it to appear in European printed books. Therefore, long after the invention of printing, the letter “J” was a mere variation of a calligraphic “I”. In Latin and Old Spanish, the letter “J” was considered a “semi-vowel”.

The j sound in Spanish is relatively new to the language, coming into use around the 17th century. Previously there were many sounds from different origins that were pronounced similarly to the “sh” sound in English that were represented by many different letters such as the x, j, g, etc. This sound eventually evolved into the actual Spanish j sound. It was in the 18th century that it was decided that the letter x would be used to represent the k + s sound combination, as with in other European languages, such as seen in the words: tóxico, excepto and máximo. It is at the same time that the j in Spanish takes on the sound that we know today.

Since in the past the Spanish j sound was also represented with the letter x, today there are some exceptions to the rules. For example, the Spanish word for the country of Mexico can be written with either the j or the x: Méjico or México. Another example is with the city of Jerez which can also be spelled Xerez. Even if some countries may prefer to write these words with the original spelling (with an X) they still pronounce the sound like a Spanish j. Why change the spelling just because the Spaniards adopted a new method?

In Spain, there are many regions where languages other than Spanish exist. These regional languages also offer a wide range of linguistic curiosities to discover. In fact, the Spanish j sound does not exist, except for in words that have been adopted from their Castilian neighbors. As a result, there are several Spanish cities that can be written in more than one way, either maintaining the regional language spellings of the cities or following the Spanish spellings: the city of Sanjenjo or Sanxenxo in Galicia, Gijón or Xixón in Asturias, Játiva or Xátiva in Valencia, among other examples.

The use of the letter “J” as a consonant was restricted in terms of where it may be positioned in a word. In modern Spanish, this letter represents the sound that is produced by bringing the curved part at the back of the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth so that the air brushes past without vibrating the vocal cords like in the Spanish words, “caja”, “rojo”, “julio”. There is a relaxed “J” sound in the final letter of the Spanish word “reloj”.

Apparently is one of the most difficult letters for Spanish students to write and pronounce.

In the majority of languages that use the Roman alphabet, the letter “j” has a different sound than in Spanish. The Spanish pronunciation of the “j” is more like the Scottish word “loch” or the German words “Bach” or “kuchen”. Many other languages use a similar sound as that of the j in Spanish such as Dutch, Greek, Irish, Welsh, Russian, Serbian, Croatian, Bulgarian, Arabic, Lithuanian and even some Italian dialects. If you are a native speaker of any of these languages, then the Spanish j will not be difficult for you to reproduce. If not, you can easily aspire to pronounce the j in Spanish.

Great, up until now everything seems very simple. Right? Spanish pronunciation is famous for being simple as most words are written exactly as they are pronounced. Isn’t that right?

Well, unfortunately that is not always the case, as with most languages, there are some exceptions. The sound that the j in Spanish makes can be represented in two different ways:

• The Spanish j + a vowel

Examples:

Jabón , caja

Jefe , garaje

Jirafa , ojitos

Joroba, ajo

Juntos, ajustado

• The G + e / i also makes the Spanish j sound.

General, agente

Gibraltar, mágico

A bit complicated? Maybe, but when you get used to it you will see how easy it becomes.

In order to remember the characteristic J sound in Spanish, from a country famous for its “jinetes” (horse riders), that incorporates “ajo” (garlic) and “jamón” (ham) into its Mediterranean cuisine and introduced the game of “ajedrez” (chess) to Europe… we challenge you to repeat the following tongue-twister several times as fast as you can:

“El que pasa pisa paja, el que pasó paja pisó.”

The K in Spanish

Origin of the letter: From the Greek kappa

Example of usage: Kilo

The letter K is the eleventh letter of the Spanish alphabet. It appears in its current form in the Roman alphabet, corresponding to the Greek letter “kappa” from which it came, which in turn stemmed from an Egyptian hieroglyphics. In the Spanish alphabet, the letter “K” was only used to translate words from other languages: words of Greek origin like kilómetro or kilowatt krausismo, words of Germanic origin like krausismo and words of Japanese origin such as kermes, kurdo and kárate.

In many cases, the Royal Spanish Academy allows the letter “K” to be written as a “C” or a “QU”. This is common in America. However, names of foreign origin such as Kant, Keppler, Okinawa or Kelvin continue to be spelled in the same way.

“K” is a velar unvoiced consonant phoneme sound that is pronounced the same in Spanish as the letter combination “QU” when placed before the letters “E” or “I”. When placed before the letters “A”, “O” or “U”, the letter “C” is also pronounced as a “QU”.

“QU” seems to be the most universal sound corresponding to the letter “K”. There is a silent “K” in English when followed by the letter “N” as in know.

The L in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin ‘L’ and the Greek lambda.

Example of usage: Loro

“L” is the twelfth letter in the Spanish alphabet. Its name is ELE. The letter “L” first appeared in Latin from the Greek letter lambda. This, in turn, stemmed from an Egyptian hieroglyphics.

In Spanish, the letter “L” sound phonetically described as an alveolar lateral consonant sound is made by pressing the tongue against the alveolar ridge, the bumpy part of the roof of the mouth immediately behind the upper front teeth, so that the air passes on both sides of the “barrier”. In this way, we pronounce the “L” in Spanish words like “lado”, “mal” and “doble”.

In Spanish, a digraph consisting of two consecutive ELES, represents the sound of a different consonant. This sound is generated by pressing the central part of the curved tongue against the roof of the mouth, while the air passes by the sides in a slight implosion. That is the sound of the Spanish words “calle”, “lluvia” and “cuello”. There are important differences in the pronunciation of this consonant, depending on the different dialect areas.

There is also a fairly widespread use of the letter ELLE pronounced like the “Y”. This phenomenon is called yeísmo. In Catalan, it is possible to write “LL” to represent the sound of two L’s, that despite being together each belongs to a separate syllable, as in the Catalan word il·luminació; this letter combination, which makes use of the interpoint, is known in Spanish as the ele geminada.

The M in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin ‘M’ and the Greek mu.

Example of usage:

Mariposa

“M” is the thirteenth letter of the Spanish alphabet. Its name is EME. It comes from the Latin that was taken from the Greek letter mu, which in turn stemmed from an Egyptian hieroglyph depicting an owl.

When the letter “M” sound is uttered, the exit of air from the mouth is prevented using the lips. The “M” sound receives a nasal resonance due to the airflow emitted by the nose.

This sound is the M in “mama” or “cambio”. When placed before the sounds “p” and “b” as in “campo” or “hombre” it sounds more like an “n”. It sounds similar to an “n” when it’s the last letter of a word too as in “album” and “ultimatum”. The letter is not pronounced when it appears in the letter combination “mn” and comes at the beginning of a word as in “mnemotécnico”.

The N in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin ‘N’ which came from the Greek ‘N’

Example of usage:

Nubes

The letter N is the fourteenth letter of the Spanish alphabet. It comes from Latin which in turn comes from Greek. Its name is ENE. The Greeks called it “nu” from the word “nun” meaning fish. The image of the fish is taken from the Egyptian Hieroglyphic depicting a line of water. The letter’s sound is emitted through the nose with the vibration of the vocal cords while the tongue supported in the alveoli prevents the passage of air through the mouth.

In this way, we pronounce the “N” in Spanish words like “nena” and “son”. There is such a thing as a “dental N” produced by the position of the tongue in contact with the back part of the teeth; it goes before “T” or “D” like in the Spanish words “Antes” and “Andar” and it’s easier to detect in French. The letter “N” is pronounced as a letter “M” when accompanied by the letter “V” as in the Spanish word “envidia”. Words in the “NM” group such as “inmenso” carry a more relaxed “N” sound.

The Ñ in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the seventeenth century, transcribers added a ‘~’ to signify ‘NN’ or ‘Ñ’. In the fifteenth century, Antonio de Nebrija recognized the ‘Ñ’ as an original element of Castilian. In 1492, Antonio de Nebrija wrote Gramática de la lengua castellana (‘Grammar of the Castilian Language’, originally titled in Latin: Grammatica Antonii Nebrissensis).

Example of usage: Ñu

España, puertorriqueño, limeño, año, montaña, peña… and many other Spanish words contain the letter “ñ”. It is a letter that is a Hispanic symbol that has survived the stand of time and its share of problems, being ultimately the same issues that have reinforced the “n” as a Hispanic symbol.

Contrary to popular belief, the letter is not exclusive to the Spanish alphabet. The “ñ” is found in many others, although it is true that in many cases it is due to their contact with the Spanish language. The languages that use the written “ñ” are Bretón, Extremaduran, Astur-Leonese, Basque, Galician, Chamorro, Mapudungun, Filipino, Quechua, Wuarani, Crimean Tatar, Tetum, and Wolof.

The “ñ” is the graphic representation of the palatal nasal sound, which is represented by the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) as / ɲ /. The sound is made by exhaling air through the nose and making the vocal cords vibrate while the tongue presses against the hard palate of the mouth.

The different Romance languages adopted this sound of speech into their spelling in different ways: – nh – in Portuguese, – ny – in Aragonese and Catalan, – gn – in French and Italian, among many other linguistic solutions. In Spanish, the sound was incorporated into the alphabet with the symbol “ñ”.

What is the origin of this strange symbol? As in all languages, Spanish has evolved throughout history and has changed many of its written symbols from their Latin form in order to adapt to new sounds that appeared over the years. The letters: “W”, “J”, and “LL”, to name a few, were created for sounds that did not exist in Latin.

In the Middle Ages, there was a scarcity of parchment in the Benedictine Monasteries where books were copied. The monks, who were dedicated to this labor, found it necessary to save space in their work. In order to do so, the words that contained – nn – in Latin began to appear with a single “n” topped with a smaller “n”, or swung dash, appearing as the symbol (~). This is how the “ñ” came to be and, for example, how the Latin word annus evolved into año. This short-cut was also common in other languages such as Portuguese. The swung dash was adopted to represent vocal nasalization and, as a result, the word cão (dog) evolved from the Latin word canem (canine).

The letter Ñ is the fifteenth letter in the Spanish alphabet. Its name is EÑE and it’s only used in Spanish. Its shape comes from the consonant “N”. The tilde on top was originally used by medieval transcribers in the twelfth century to symbolize repeated letters such as Ñ = NN or Õ = OO. Two centuries later, the use of the tilde was restricted to the letter “N”. In the fifteenth century, Nebrija identified this letter and its sound as native elements in Castilian, having no precedent either in Greek or Latin, or Arabic.

The sound of the “Ñ” can be heard in Spanish words such as ñu, caña, ñora, ñandú and puño. In other Romance languages, this sound is represented by digraphs (pairs of letters representing single sounds).

The O in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin ‘O’, which includes the Greek Omicron and Omega

Example of usage: Ojo

O, the sixteenth letter in the Spanish alphabet and the fourth vowel of this and many other alphabets of European languages. It was first a Phoenician symbol representing a guttural (throaty) intake of breath.

The Greeks adopted this sign to represent the Omicron (short “O”) and added a different symbol to represent the long “O” (the omega = Ω).

In the Latin alphabet, a single letter was incorporated for both sounds. The Spanish letter “O”often originates from the Latin “U”, “O” and the diphthong “AU”. The Spanish words: “hoja”, “lobo” and “pobre” come from the Latin words: “folia”, “lupum” and “pauperem”. The Spanish “O” has no noticeable differences in pronunciation. The “O” sound can only be represented by this letter. In other European romance languages, the sound “o” can be represented by the letter combination “AU”.

The P in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin ‘P’ and the Greek ‘RO’.

Example of usage: Plátanos

P, the seventeenth letter of the Spanish alphabet, comes from the Latin as an adaptation of the Greek letter PI which in turn came from an Egyptian hieroglyphics. Its name is PE.

In Spanish, the consonant “P” has no noticeable differences in pronunciation. Phonetically, the letter “P” is described as an “unvoiced, occlusive consonant”. It has the same point of articulation as the letter “B” because it is bilabial.

In the Spanish words that are borrowed from other languages, when the “P” sound appears at the beginning of a word, it corresponds to a “P” used in its language of origin. For example, “pala” from the Latin word “pala”, “paradigm” from the Greek word “paradeigma”, “patata” which was taken from America and “papaya”, a word of Filipino origin.

The letter “P” is silent in letter combinations such as “PS” and “PN” like in the Spanish words “psicólogo” and “pneumólogo”. The Royal Spanish Academy allows the elimination of the letter “P” in words which pertain to the “PN” group; but it is more common to eliminate the “P” in words belonging to the “PS” group. The letter combination “PH” to represent the letter “F” does not appear in Spanish as it does in other romance languages, and it is only accepted in spellings of brand names.

The Q in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin ‘Q’ which is from the Phoenician Qoph

Example of usage: Queso

Q, the eighteenth letter of the Spanish alphabet, from the Latin, the Greek and the Phoenician letter Qoph, which was in turn developed from an Egyptian hieroglyphics. In the Semitic languages, the Qoph represents an explosive sound, very different from the less energetic Greek consonant.

In the romance languages and other modern languages, the letter “Q” always precedes the letter “U” except in the transcripts of the Semitic qoph, as in the word “Iraq” from which the word “Iraqi” evolved. Although in written Spanish, as in other languages, spelling varies from “Iraq” to “Irak”, the Royal Spanish Academy recommends “Irac” as the correct spelling.

In Spanish, the letter is called CU and, as in the rest of the Latin languages, the letter combination “QU” is only used in conjunction with the vowels “E” and “I” as in the Spanish words: “queso”, “pequeño”, “quién” and “mantequilla”. It has the same consonant sound as the letter “C” when placed before the vowels, “A”, “O” and “U”.

The R in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin R which is from the Greek ro

Example of usage:

Rosa

“R” is the nineteenth letter in the Spanish alphabet. Its name in Spanish is pronounced as “erre”, with a rolling “r”. In its modern form, the capital letter “R” first appeared in the Roman alphabet as an adaptation of the Greek ro. This Greek character corresponded to the Phoenician resh, which originated from an Egyptian hieroglyph.

The letter “R” has a great variety of sounds, depending on the language in which it is used. The most common are the trilled “R”, often used in Spanish and Italian, and the consonant uvular “R”, as used in French in the name “Paris”. In several other languages, including Sanskrit, Czech, and Serbo-Croatian, the “R” is used as a vowel and as a consonant: for example Trst for “Trieste”.

The sound /r/ is pronounced in several ways in Spanish; depending on its position within a word. The tongue may vibrate once or twice, as in the words “caro”, “roca”, “croar”, “enredar” and “drama”. There are also differences in the pronunciation of the “R” among Spanish-speaking countries. While pronouncing the “R” as an “L” is standard in Puerto Rico, this would sound unusual for Mexicans. The “R” as used in Bolivia and certain areas of Peru and Chile is not produced in Venezuela or Spain Andalusia.

In writing, a single letter is used when a single vibration of the tongue should be produced in a word (Caracas); when two or more vibrations should be produced, a single “R” is written in the beginning of a word or before or after a consonant, like in “Roma”, “Amor”, “Cárdenas” and “Andrés”. The rolling “R” sound is written as “RR”, double “R”, when it is situated in the middle of a word and in an intervocalic position, like in “perro”.

The S in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin S

Example of usage: Salvavidas

“S” is the twentieth letter of the Spanish alphabet. In its modern form the letter first appeared in the Roman alphabet as an adaptation of the Greek letter sigma, which originated from an Egyptian hieroglyph that represented a flooded garden.

The sound /s/, technically known as a sibilant consonant, can be voiced and unvoiced. In Spanish, the letter “S” represents a consonant sound with two basic varieties of pronunciation: One is produced by placing the tip of your tongue almost on the alveolus and leaving an air passage without vibrating the vocal cords. Due to the position of the tongue, this sound has the name “apico-alveolar S”. This pronunciation is predominant in Spain and some parts of America. The other variety, called predorsal, is pronounced by placing the bottom side of the slightly curved tongue so that it is almost resting on the back of the incisors, which lets air pass through this channel. This is the most frequent “S” sound among Spanish speakers, given that it exists in most parts of Latin America and some parts of Spain.

The letter “S” may be pronounced like a “Z” in certain dialects such as in Andalusia. The voiced “S” is used in Spanish when the letter is next to another voiced consonant, such as in “desde”. In other languages, the letter “S” has other phonetic values, like in English or in Portuguese, where the letter may sound like “SH”, like in “sure” and “portugués”.

The T in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin T which came from the Greek tau

Example of usage: Tarta

“T” is the twenty-first letter of the Spanish alphabet. Its name in Spanish is pronounced “te”. It originates from a Roman letter with the same name, which corresponds to the Greek letter tau. This comes from taw, the last letter of the Phoenician alphabet and has its origin in an Egyptian hieroglyph.

The letter “T” represents the sound produced when the airway is hit by the tip of the tongue on the inside of the teeth. The vocal cords stay inactive. The consonant “T” shows only little variation in the Spanish language. In Chilean Spanish, the pronunciation of “T” is very similar to the pronunciation of the letter in American English.

The U in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Greek epsilon, it reflects the vowel sound of the Latin V

Example of usage: Uvas

“U” is the twenty-second letter of the Spanish alphabet and the last of its vocals. Its name is “U” and it evolved from the Semitic vau. The letter vau itself originates from an Egyptian hieroglyph. The symbol the Phoenicians used was somewhere in between today’s “F” and “Y”.

The Greeks produced two characters from this symbol: the digamma, which looked like today’s “F” and the upsilon (υ), which had the value of the letter U and was pronounced in classical Greek like the modern French “U”, so much so that the vowel sound in Spanish was represented with the diphthong OU as it is in modern French. The form “V” spread to Rome, where the sound “U” was used like the “U” in today’s Spanish.

The V in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin V, adapted from the Greek epsilon. It was interchangeable with the U until the 17th century.

Example of usage: Vino

“V” is the twenty-third letter of the Spanish alphabet. Its Spanish name is “uve”. The letter V appeared for the first time in Latin as an adaption of the Greek upsilon, which originated from an Egyptian hieroglyph. In Spanish, the letters “U” and “V” were used interchangeably until at least the seventeenth century.

In modern Spanish, there is no difference between the sound of the letter “V “and the letter “B”, except for some countries in Latin America and in bilingual areas of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, and Valencia. In these areas, the V is pronounced as a consonant sound produced by pressing the lower lip against the upper teeth and exhaling through the mouth while the vocal cords vibrate.

The W in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

The graphical joining of two Vs

Example of usage: Kiwi

“W” is the twenty-fourth letter of the Spanish alphabet. In Spanish, the letter is called “uve doble” or also “doble u”. This letter can rather be seen as a combination of other letters than as a letter in itself. In Spanish, the letter w is only used for words from other languages. If the loanword originates from Gothic or from German, it is pronounced like a “V”, as in words like “Wamba”, “Wagner”, “Westfalia”.

If the origin of the word is modern English, the letter is pronounced with a semi-consonant U sound, like in “Washington”.

The X in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Latin X. In old Spanish, it represented a sound like the English SH, which evolved into an unvoiced fricative velar (J).

Example of usage: Xilófono

X is the twenty-fifth letter of the Spanish alphabet. In Spanish, it is called “equis”. Its shape, name and phonetic value come from Latin, which came from Greek, and finally from an Egyptian hieroglyph.

The letter “X” represents a compound consonant made up of the voiced /g/ or unvoiced /k/ sounds, followed by the /s/, as in “examen” and “éxito”. If the letter is followed by a consonant, the sound is reduced to “S”, as in “excepto”. However, in some Latin American countries, this rule is not followed, and an “X” is pronounced as “ks”. In old Castilian, the letter represented a sound which is similar to the English “sh” or the French “ch”, a sound which over time evolved to be represented by the letter J.

In the words of Nahuatl origin, the “X” is pronounced as “S”, like in “Xochimilco” or “Xochitl”, as “J”, like in Mexico or Oaxaca or also as “sh”, like in “Xocoyote” or “Xixiote”. Today, words that start with “X”, like “Xeroftalmia”, originate from Greek.

The Y in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

From the Roman transliteration of the Greek epsilon

Example of usage: Yema

“Y” is the twenty-sixth letter of the Spanish alphabet. It comes from the Roman transliteration of the Greek letter upsilon (υ). In Spanish, it is called “i griega”.

Today, the “Y” stands for two different phonetic values: The vowel /i/ and the voiced palatal consonant /y/, a phonetic value that coincides with the pronunciation of the Spanish letter “elle” and can be found in Latin American countries and in some areas of Spain. The confusion of the two sounds is called yeísmo.

There also exists an important variation in the pronunciation of the palatal consonant, which originates from the old Spanish. The tip of the tongue touches the palate and the vocal cords are vibrated. This sound coincides with the sound of today’s “J” in English or “French” and has only been preserved in a few central regions of Spain. In Uruguay and Argentina another variation exists, a special vibration, that recalls the “ch” sound. In the Middle Ages, the letter was often used as a vowel, as it was popular among writers to replace it with the letter “I”.

The letter “Y” has the phonetic value /i/ when it is placed before a pause or in a final position, such as in Monterrey, and when it is used as a conjunction between two words, in which the first word ends in a consonant and the second starts with a consonant, as in “mujeres y niños”. When “Y” is used as a conjunction before a word that starts with a vowel, it becomes a semivowel, as in “vecino y amigo”.

The Z in Spanish

Origin of the letter:

De la Z romana

Example of usage:

Zapatillas

The letter Z is the twenty-seventh and last letter of the Spanish alphabet. Its name is “Zeda” or “Zeta”. The letter comes from the Roman alphabet, which derives from Greek and has its origin in an Egyptian hieroglyph.

The regular sound of “Z” appears in words such as “zafiro”, “pozo” and “feliz”. It is pronounced as “C” when it is written before an “E” or “I”, however, the pronunciation is not changed with other vowels.

The consonant “Z” is produced by placing the tip of the tongue between the teeth, leaving room for air to pass with friction but without vibrating the vocal cords. This pronunciation is specifically characteristic of Spain. There also exists another variety of the sound, which is produced by placing the folded tongue on the palate which creates a sound similar to “S”. This way of pronouncing “Z” is common in Andalusia, the Canary Islands and in nearly all Spanish-speaking countries in America.