Spanish Alphabet
Spanish alphabet is actually very similar to the alphabet we use, however, there are some letters that have the different pronunciation in Spanish, and there is one special letter we do not have in our alphabet. Let’s take a look at the alphabet especially the ones that have the different pronunciation and ñ.
*LL and RR are not officially in the Spanish alphabet, however, I put them on the table since they have a different sound when presented in words.
A (a)
B (be)
C (ce)
D (de)
E (e)
F (efe)
G (ge) if the letter comes after front vowel like e or i, “G” is pronounced like “H” in English. (E.g. gente pronounced like “hente”)
H (hache) is never pronounced (ache). (E.g. hambre pronounced like “ambre”)
I (i)
J (jota) is pronounced like “H” in English (hota). (E.g. José pronounced “hose”)
K (ka)
L (ele)
LL (elle) pronounced like “Y” in English. (E.g. llamar pronounced like “yammar”)
M (eme)
N (ene)
Ñ (eñe) is pronounced “ENYE”. (E.g. español pronounced “espanyol”)
O (o)
P (pe)
Q (ke)
R (ere) if r is used at the beginning of a word, r is rolled as well.
RR (erre) is rolled “r”
S (ese)
T (te)
U (u)
V (v) is pronounced like letter “B”. (E.g. vaso glass pronounced like “baso”)
W (doble v)
X (equis)
Y (y griega) *y griega literally means “Greek i”
Z (zeta) is pronounced like letter “S” (E.g. zoo pronounced like ”suu”). However, in Spain, it is pronounced like “TH” (E.g. zoo pronounced like “thuu”)
As you could see above, because we have the almost exact same alphabet, which is basically latin alphabet (with an additional letter ñ in Spanish alphabet), it is very confusing to pronounce them in Spanish way. So, please be aware that these letters (G,H,J,LL,R, and V) could be pronounced differently in Spanish.