A QUICK GUIDE TO THE SPANISH ALPHABET, ACCENTS IN SPANISH AND SPANISH PRONUNCIATION.

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First, the alphabet:

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

 Ah / beh / theh / theh-atcheh / deh / eh /effeh / ghheh / atcheh / ee / ghhottah / kah / elleh / ellieh / emmeh / enneh / enyeh / 'o' / peh / coo / ereh / esseh / teh / oo / oobeh / dob-leh-oobeh / eck-ees / ee-gree-egah / theta

SPANISH PRONOUNCIATION

            A             Always pronounced as in a pple

            E             Always pronounced as in e gg

            I             Always pronounced as in Ferrar i

           O             Always pronounced as in o range

           U           Always pronounced like the double ‘o' in ball oo n

C             Hard sound (as in c at) when in front of A, O or U

            ‘th' sound when in front of E or I

G             Soft sound (as in g irl) when in front of A, O or U

            Hard throaty ‘g' when in front of E or I

H             Always silent (except when used after C as in 4 th letter of the Spanish alphabet)

J             Always the same sound as the throaty ‘g'

LL             Sounds like an ‘l' closely followed by a ‘y' as in million

Ñ             Sounds like an ‘n' closely followed by a ‘y' as in Enya

Q             Only used in front of UE or UI

Z             Always pronounced like a ‘th' sound

All remaining letters are pronounced as in English.

STRESS & ACCENTS

If the last syllable of the word is stressed, then the last vowel in that syllable only carries an accent if the word ends with a vowel, an N or an S

            e.g.             Ra t ón

                               Yo g ur

When the penultimate syllable is stressed the vowel in that syllable will only carry an accent if the word ends with a consonant other than N or S

            e.g.             Án gel

                               Co che

If the stress falls on the antepenultimate syllable, then that syllable is always accented

            e.g.             Plá tano

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