The Spanish Alphabet: Pronunciation and Orthography

The Spanish Alphabet

The Spanish Alphabet

The Spanish alphabet is currently made up of the following 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, z.

The orthography used in the Spanish language also includes the following 5 digraphs: ch, ll, rr, gu, qu.

A digraph is a combination of two letters that represents one sound. For example, the digraph “ch” represents the sound /tʃ/, as in “chip.”

Digraphs continue to be used in the Spanish language. The novelty here is that they are not considered letters of the Spanish alphabet anymore. Before 1994, the digraphs “ch” and “ll” were part of it.

In today’s lesson, we will learn the names of the letters of the Spanish alphabet, their pronunciation and some rules to read Spanish texts correctly. Let’s go!

Spanish Alphabet Pronunciation

To listen to the pronunciation of the letter names of the Spanish alphabet, watch the video below.

These are the lowercase and uppercase forms of each of the letters of the Spanish alphabet. Next to each letter, you will see its recommended name.

Would you rather have the pronunciation of the letter names of the Spanish alphabet in .mp3 format? Download the audio below.

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Uppercase	Lowercase	Name
A	a	a
B	b	be
C	c	ce
D	d	de
E	e	e
F	f	efe
G	g	ge
H	h	hache
I	i	i
J	j	jota
K	k	ka
L	l	ele
M	m	eme
N	n	ene
Ñ	ñ	eñe
O	o	o
P	p	pe
Q	q	cu
R	r	erre
S	s	ese
T	t	te
U	u	u
V	v	uve
W	w	uve doble
X	x	equis
Y	y	ye
Z	z	zeta

Interesting Fact: The letters of the Spanish Alphabet are feminine: la a, la be, la ce, la de…

Letters With More Than One Name

The following letters of the Spanish alphabet have more than one valid name in areas where Spanish is spoken: b, v, w, y, i.

In a congress held in 1994, the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language decided to promote the use of one unique name for each letter of the Spanish alphabet.


Letter	Name After 1994	Other Names
b	be	be larga be grande be alta
i	i	i latina
y	ye	i griega
v	uve	ve ve corta ve chica o chiquita ve pequeña ve baja
w	uve doble	ve doble doble ve doble u doble uve

Pronunciation and Orthography Tips

In general, in the Spanish language, every letter has a sound and every sound has a letter. However, there are some exceptions.


letter	letter name	English pronunciation tips
A	a	like the "a" in "father"
B	be	like the "b" in "about"
C	ce	before e and i, like the "c" in "cent" in Latin America, or like the "th" in "think" in some regions of Spain
C		before a, o, u, like the "c" in "car"
D	de	like the "d" in "today"
E	e	like the "e" in "vet"
F	efe	like the "f" in "face"
G	ge	like the "h" in "hot" before e, i
G		like the "g" in "again" before a, o, u
H	hache	always silent
I	i	like the "ee" in "see"
J	jota	like the "h" in "hot"
K	ka	like the "c" in "car"
L	ele	like the "l" in "leg"
M	eme	like the "m" in "mother"
N	ene	like the "n" in "need"
Ñ	eñe	like the "ny" in "canyon"
O	o	like the "o" in "more"
P	pe	like the "p" in "spouse"
Q	cu	like the "c" in "car"
R	erre	strongly trilled at the beginning of a word, after n, s or l, and when there is a double r in the middle of a word
R		otherwise, r makes a softer sound
S	ese	like the "s" in "sack"
T	te	like the "t" in "stand"
U	u	like the "oo" in "food"
V	uve	like the "b" in "about"
W	uve doble	like the "w" in "web"
X	equis	like the "x" in "taxy" when it appears between vowels or at the end of a word
X		like the "s" in "sack" at the beginning of a word or before a consonant
Y	ye	like the "y" in "yes"
Z	zeta	like the "s" in "sack" in Latin America, or like the "th" in "think" in some regions of Spain

Would you like to put your Spanish reading skills to the test? Check out the post called 7 Common Spanish Words You Are (Probably) Mispronouncing.

Digraphs Pronunciation

The orthography of the Spanish language has 5 digraphs: ch, ll, rr, gu, qu.

A digraph is a combination of two letters that represents a sound. Here are the sounds the Spanish digraphs represent.


digraph	English approximation
ch	like the "ch" in "chocolate"
ll	like the "y" in "yes"
rr	strongly trilled
gu	like the "g" in "guitar"
qu	like the "c" in "car"

Bibliography:

Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española. (2012). Uso de las letras, pages 1 – 32. In Ortografía básica de la lengua española. book.

Exclusión de “ch” y “ll” del abecedario. Real Academia Española. (n.d.). https://www.rae.es/espanol-al-dia/exclusion-de-ch-y-ll-del-abecedario.

Un solo nombre para cada letra. Real Academia Española. (n.d.). https://www.rae.es/espanol-al-dia/un-solo-nombre-para-cada-letra.

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The Spanish Alphabet: Pronunciation and Orthography

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