Let's Practice!

Beginners learning Spanish often have difficulties learning the proper way to pronounce the letters of the alphabet and especially the vowels. Before we get into pronouncing them, here's a bit of information you need to know.

The alphabet has 28 letters since the Spanish Royal Academy ratified this change back in 2010 by removing two letters. Spanish still has words that begin with these letters. They were removed because in the dictionary, it helped to merge them with their preceding letter. So, all words starting with Ll merged alphabetically with words starting with L and all words beginning with Ch blended with words in the C category. These removed letters; however, still have a distinct pronunciation when it comes to speaking words that begin with them. I include them in their regular spot within the alphabet because it is important to learn their pronunciations too.

Besides Ll and Ch, there are just two other letters you must know that are different from the English alphabet. They are the Ñ and the RR. They have specific sounds too.

Here are all 30 letters of the Spanish alphabet:

A	B	C	CH	D	E	F	G	H	I
J	K	L	LL	M	N	Ñ	O	P	Q
R	RR	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z

I've included an MP3 file where you may practice pronouncing the Spanish alphabet.

There are just 5 vowels that you need to learn in Spanish. Unlike English, they are pure and not clouded with various ways to say them. For example in English, the A in apple sounds quite different than the A in father. Try saying both words very slowly and feel where your jaw is located and how your mouth is shaped when you are speaking the A sound. There is only one way to say each of the 5 vowels in Spanish. Because of that, it makes them pure sounds.

Here are the 5 vowels in Spanish:

A

E

I

O

U

I've included a separate MP3 file where you may practice pronouncing the Spanish vowels. Remember to keep them pure. Try exaggerating them.

If you would like to practice both MP3 files in the car, on your MP3 player or elsewhere, feel free to right-mouse click on the files and select Save Link As to download them to your computer.

¡Hasta luego!
~Keith