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Spanish grammar: Pronunciation

Part of SpanishLanguage skills: Knowledge about language

There are some letters and groups of letters in Spanish that you need to look out for as they change the way you pronounce a word.

Learn about pronunciation in Spanish with Burt Bessington

Have a go at practising some of the sounds from the video:

LetterSoundExample
ñmakes a 'ny' sound - Spain
llmakes a 'y' sound - yellow
jmakes a 'h' sound - red
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Same sounds

There are some letters in Spanish that share the same sound.

lettersoundexample
zmakes a 'th' sound - ten
cemakes a 'th' sound - twelve
cimakes a 'th' sound -five

For example:

  • - I am ten years old
  • - I am twelve years old
  • - I am five years old
lettersoundexample
gamakes a 'g' sound - garage
gomakes a 'g' sound - rubber
gumakes a 'g' sound - I like

For example:

  • - My car is in the garage
  • - I have an eraser
  • - I like chips
LetterSoundExample
gemakes a 'j' sound - people
gimakes a 'j' sound - gigantic

For example:

  • - There is a lot of people in the park

  • - The giant lives in the forest

LetterSoundExample
camakes a 'k' sound - hot
comakes a 'k' sound - car
cumakes a 'k' sound - cockroach
qumakes a 'k' sound - cheese

For example:

  • - My food is hot

  • - I go to the supermarket by car

  • - I don't like the cockroach

  • - I don’t like cheese

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More sounds

LetterSoundExample
rrmakes a rolling 'r' sound - dog
hthis is a silent sound - brother

For example:

  • - I have a black dog
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Pronunciation of questions

When asking a question in Spanish the intonation in your voice usually goes higher - this means that it goes up at the end.

When writing questions in Spanish, you need to include an accent on the question word, eg 'who', 'what', 'where' and 'how'.

Take a look at these examples:

- What’s your name?

- What’s this?

- Where do you live?

- Where are you from?

- How old are you?

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