Video:Learn the Spanish Alphabet
with Milo De PrietoLearn the Spanish alphabet so that you can correctly speak Spanish and build your vocabulary from there. Here is the Spanish alphabet, along with pronunciation tips.See Transcript
Transcript:Learn the Spanish Alphabet
Hola, I'm Milo for About.com and today we're talking about how to say the alphabet in Spanish.
General Information on the Spanish Alphabet
The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters. as there is ñ as well. Most of the letters are actually the sounds they make, which is convenient; however a few have names, like the H which is hache. Also H is silent in Spanish so it makes sense it has a name. To be clear, many of the letters sound they way they do in use in words. This makes them generally easier to remember.
Recent Changes to the Spanish Alphabet
Languages that are alive are in constant flux. To manage this flux Spanish has the Real Academia Española, which has recently made some adjustments to the alphabet so as to clear up confusion. One adjustment was changing the letter V which was identical to B, as it makes the same sound in Spanish, to uve. There have been other changes like removing the double L as a distinct letter; it's pronounced like a y in Spanish as in "llave."
They have also dropped the "ch" as a separate consonant. Also note that the y is called ye as it is pronounced, or also i Griega, Greek I, to differentiate it from i, I Latina. Some authorities say the double R is also a separate letter as it is pronounced differently than the single R. It is rolled, however so is the single R at the beginning of words. Letters such as K, and W are rarely used in proper Spanish but come from foreign words.
The Letters of the Spanish Alphabet
The letters as they are pronounced in Spanish are:
- A: a, amigo
- B: be, Barcelona
- C: ce, cuidad
- D: de, domingo
- E: e, España
- F: efe, familia
- G: ge, guitarra
- H: hache, hotel
- I: i, invierno
- J: jota, jamón
- K: ka, kilo
- L: ele, limón
- M: eme, Madrid
- N: ene, noviembre
- Ñ: eñe, mañana
- O: o, ocho
- P: pe, papá
- Q: cu, queso
- R: ere (or erre), rana
- S: ese, sol
- T: te, tomate
- U: u, uva
- V: uve, vaca
- W: uve doble, windsurfista
- X: equis, xilófono
- Y: ye, i Griega, yogur
- Z: zeta, zapato
Practicing these letters is a great way of beginning to learn Spanish. For more information, check us out at About.com.