​The Spanish alphabet is made up of consonants and vowels and is very similar to the English alphabet; However, there is one letter that English does not have.

​Did you spot it in the list?

​The Spanish alphabet, with 27 letters, is the same as the English alphabet with the addition of the ñ.

​

Although English does not have the letter ñ, there are English words that have the sound, like “canyon” and “onion.”

Las vocales

A La letra A is similar to the sound in the English father (amor, mal)
E La letra E is similar to the sound in the English word met (tele, es)
I La letra I is similar to the sound in the English word see (si, mi)
O La letra O is similar to the sound in the English word woke (hola)
ULa letra U is similar to the sound in the English word cook (tu, usted)

I is actually ee

This is the hardest sound for English
speakers to get used to. The Spanish i
sounds like the long e (as in bee) You will
have to train your brain to think "ee" when
you see i.

LL, Ch, RR

LL while the L in Spanish is

very similar to the L in English,

the LL makes a Y or J sound.

llave, llorar

Ch is pronounced like the English
ch.

chico, leche


RR is always a rolled r

perro, carro

Consonants with different sounds

C The Spanish “c” has two separate
sounds, hard and soft.

The hard “c”
closely resembles the English “k”
sound, and the soft “c” is like the “s”.
casa, cena

Q You will only see the letter “Q” in
two ways: QUE and QUI.
Queso, quince

Y Depending upon the region, the y
might sound like the English “y” in
the word “yes” or the j in the English
word “joy.”

The letter “y” is a word in Spanish
and it means “and”.
It is always pronounced “ee”.
yate, playa , voy

Consonants with different sounds

H The H is always silent in
Spanish.
hola, hasta

JThe Spanish J closely
resembles the “h” sound in
English.
jugar, juez

GThe Spanish G has a soft
and a hard sound. The hard
sound closely resembles the
“g” in the word “good.” The
soft sound resembles the “h”
sound in English.
gato, gente

To ask how do you write or
spell something in
Spanish you say:

¿Cómo se escribe…?
Se escribe ...

To ask how do you say
something in Spanish
you say:


¿Cómo se dice… en
español?

Se dice ...

​¿Cómo se dice “thank you” en español?

Se dice "gracias".​

​

​¿Cómo se escribe?

Se escribe G-r-a-c-i-a-s​

​

​For example:

​

by Ruth Beltran

​El alfabeto/El abecedario