Learning Spanish is becoming incredibly popular for both adults and children wanting to obtain a second language. There are several different ways that you can learn a new language, and Spanish is considered to be one of the easier languages to grasp. Spanish is an incredibly popular language to learn, and more people than ever before are choosing this to learn.

There are now over 40 million people who speak Spanish, which is an incredible percentage of the world. Whether you want to benefit from learning Spanish for work or travel, there are several different ways you can enjoy the language. You can choose to attend a class, have a private tutor, or use the online language programs.

Immersion is considered the best technique, when searching for the correct way, to learn a new language. Many people find that traveling to a country, and speaking to the locals is the ideal way to pick up the native tongue. However, if you want to learn basic Spanish before traveling, there are several different techniques, which you can use.

Courses, books and tutors, can be incredibly beneficial to learn Spanish, depending on your circumstances and budget. Attending a class at your local educational institution can provide you with the ultimate way to learn Spanish. However, if you find that home and work commitments become an issue, online courses may be an ideal solution.

A Tutor Can Make it Very Easy!

You may also consider a tutor, who will come to your home and speak to you on a one to one basis in their native language. This can help you when learning Spanish, as often you will not be able to speak English for the whole class. Some people prefer to learn at home, and enjoy the online classes that are available.

This style of learning Spanish is ideal for some people as you can set what speed you learn the new language. However, some people lack motivation, which can cause an issue when you need to motivate yourself to learn. Planning a trip to Spain can often be the motivation that you need and you will feel an accomplishment, when you can speak to the locals whilst on vacation.

Practice Makes Perfect

Practicing as much as possible will ensure that your grammar improves and that you are confident to speak your new language. Once your confidence begins to grow, you will find that you enjoy speaking and learning Spanish. Studying can be hard, and learning a new language daunting. Therefore, you need to ensure that you reward yourself when you have learned different elements of the language.

Learning Spanish should be done for fun, and never feel as if it is a chore, as this is often when people give up. Repetition is essential, and repeating words and phrases over and over, can help with your learning. Everyone learns at a different pace, and you will find that you may struggle at first; however, once you begin to understand the language, it will become easier.

If you want to go through the entire Spanish alphabet and learn how to pronounce every letter, and the most common combinations the video below is exactly what you need:

Spanish lessons with professor Jason my topic today is the Spanish alphabet and pronunciation.

I’m guessing you’ve arrived at this video because you’re interested in learning Spanish and understanding how this sounds the language are pronounced.

What I am doing in this lesson is to provide a fairly comprehensive explanation of the Spanish alphabet including a discussion about the recent changes made by the Real Academia in Spain.

Here you will hear the sequence and the names in the letters the Spanish ABC so to speak.

First let’s take a look at the recent changes from the 2010 spelling reform approved by the Spanish Royal Academy.

By the way, in terms of gender, letters are feminine in Spanish. So when we’re talking about individual letters we use feminine. That means use la or las when speaking about letters.

We will get to our basic introduction to the Spanish alphabet in good time. But, I do have quite a bit more to say about the letters themselves as well as their condensations. You can use some additional information, so I have included lots of examples.

I’m guessing that many of you have learnt the alphabet in Spanish as children or in some, almost forgotten, high school or college Spanish course. If so you probably remember certain curious letters. Likely the n yea or the double rolled rs that are a big feature of the Spanish alphabet. So you might be surprised to learn that there have been a few changes to the official alphabet over the years.

These changes are dictated by the Spanish Royal Academy, and its sister organisations in the Americas, from time to time update the grammar and spelling rules as well as the official lexicon or dictionary. In the mid 1990s they agreed to treat ch, double l (ll), and some other letter combinations, as regular letter pairs for alphabetising purposes. Prior to that point, they had been treated as separate letters in their own right, in all senses. For example, words beginning with CH came in a completely different section after all the words beginning with C.

Now the Spanish Royal Academy’s orthographic, or spelling reform, of 2010 it’s just the opposite. Let’s take a quick look at some of what’s different after the 2010 spelling reform.

There are now 27 letters in the Spanish alphabet, down two letters. With the official elimination of ch and ll. These are no longer considered letters in their own right.

The letter B is now be, there is no be larga or be alta anymore.

The letter V is now simply uve, there is no be corta or be chica anymore.

The letter W is now just doble uve, so you do not have to worry about ve doble, uve doble, doble ve or doble u anymore.

The letter Y is no ye, so i griega has been completely dropped.

The letter Z has also been standardized to ceta.

The Spanish alphabet is the same as the English alphabet, plus one extra, nee ya.

There are other changes that affect the written form of the language, and grammar, but they do not affect the pronunciation of the alphabet, so are not covered by the Professor’s video.

It is important to keep in mind that these kinds of officially mandated changes are not necessarily accepted right away by all speakers of the language. The old ways of saying things will have its die-hards. As a result, people will no doubt continue to use the old way of saying and doing things.

It’s probably better to think that the reforms as recommendations going forward so with those changes in mind let’s take one more look at the twenty seven letters that the official Spanish alphabet along with their recommended names.

Go to 5 min 58 second point of the video to hear the entire Spanish alphabet spoken in the correct way.

Let’s talk a little bit about how their pronounced when they appear in actual words in Spanish. When it comes to the alphabet and pronunciation there are few important points to keep in mind

First of all, letters should not be confused with sounds letters are graphic symbols used to represent the sounds of speech in writing ,and they do so only approximately.

Second, contrary to what you might have heard Spanish is not a phonemic alphabet. One in which each letter corresponds to a single sound in Spanish.

The same sound can be represented by multiple letters. In addition, a single letter can represent more than one sound.

Third, the pronunciation or certain sounds or sound combinations can vary significantly due to variations in dialect, corresponding to factors such as geographic region and the social class the speaker.

Fourth, the vowel sounds in Spanish are quite stable. These vary only slightly in actual speech. In writing, they’re always represented by the corresponding letters. You can easily hear them, and most English speakers can pick them out because they sound very similar to the English vowels.

Letters can represent different sounds depending on where they occur.

If you really want to better understand pronunciation, you need to look at these variations and learn them. For example, the letter d is pronounced differently when it appears at the start of a word than it does when it appears at the end of a word, or in the middle of the word alongside other letters.

We will post a more detailed video that explains the sounds of Spanish consonants and letter combinations in more detail.

There are a few examples of positional pronunciation from the 9 minutes 31 seconds point of this video.

The professor presents the most common combinations, which helps you to get a sense of the relationship between the positions of the letters in syllables, words and word groups and their sounds. Spending a few minutes reviewing what is in this video. If you do so, you will be able to pretty easily, and reliably, predict which sounds the letters are meant to represent.

Focus on the letter C in particular. This sound is heard a lot in Spanish, and there are some slightly unusual sounds like the ch and cc combinations that are very different. If you learn these well you will immediately sound far more like a native.

You should also note what happens with words that are borrowed from other languages. Their pronunciation is slightly different than what you would expect. Another issue that trips up a lot of Spanish learners.

If you would like to hear more videos by Professor Jason. Go to his YouTube channel, by clicking the link.

Practice your Spanish alphabet pronunciation

If you want to put what you learn from this video into action, and get your accent right Rosetta Stone is perfect. Another great way to do it is to book yourself some lessons with a Spanish speaker via Skype.

The best thing about the Spanish language is the fact that the pronunciation rules are very consistent. You just need to learn about 30 different sounds to be able to be able to almost immediately be able to read any passage of text out loud. Of course, your pronunciation will not be perfect, but most native speakers will be able to understand what you are reading.

This is something you cannot do in any other language. It is another reason, Spanish is far easier to learn than you think.

Spanish Pronunciation Tips and Tricks – D’s and R’s

In this video you learn all about how to pronounce the letters D and R in Spanish.

 Spanish Pronunciation of D

Sounds of Spanish How to learn a language in superfast time

Summer – the season of impulsive trips is a great time of the year. However, as exciting as flying off on unplanned breaks is, the language barrier is a bit of an issue for most people.

Most travellers simply do not have enough time available to learn the lingo, or the money to buy a practical phrasebook. Sadly, without doing so, you might be left looking like a dumb tourist even when trying to do something relatively simple like order a drink or book into your hotel room.

So, what can you do to make your next trip abroad go smoothly, especially if you are booking last minute? Is it really possible to learn a foreign language in superfast time?

Educating yourself in another language is an invaluable skill, and not only for holidaying, it can improve your employability. In addition, numerous studies show that learning a new language also improves mental health and intellect.

So how can you speed up your language learning?

A sure-fire way to do it is to follow the news in a foreign language. News is reported in all of the languages of the world. The fact that you already know the storyline means that you can often follow the story, and while doing so pick up a lot of the language that you are trying to learn.

The exact same thing can be said about reading, watching and listening to marketing materials and advertising. Everything from national television advertisements to adverts in local newspapers can help you to pick up essential vocabulary and grammar, and reinforce what you have already learnt.

Take advantage of new technology

There are some truly fantastic apps, software programmes and video programmes out there that you can easily use to quickly improve your language skills. Programmes like Duolingo can be used to learn all to the most widely spoken languages in the world including Spanish.

Spanish Pronunciation Mistakes to Avoid – The Top 5

This is a great video that quickly and easily explains the 5 biggest pronunciation mistakes people make when learning Spanish.

• Pronouncing the letter H, which is silent in Spanish – 048 secs in the video
• How to say ñ – go to 1 min point to learn how to pronounce ñ
• Mispronouncing the letter J in Spanish – explained at the 1.58 point of the video
• Pronouncing vowels in Spanish in the wrong way – the correct way is explained at the 2.30 time point
• How to pronounce double L in Spanish – listen to the correct sound at the 4 minute point in the video

How to pronounce the letter H in Spanish

How to say ñ in Spanish

How to pronounce J in Spanish

Pronouncing Spanish vowels

Spanish pronunciation: C & Z

If you want to sound like a native you really do have to get the letter c and z right. Trickier than you may think. Because if you are an English speaker the sounds used to pronounce these letters is a bit different from what you are used to.

The video below is a huge help.

It is mostly in Spanish, but is perfectly easy to follow. Using this video to learn how to pronounce z and c in Spanish is a great way to improve your Spanish comprehension at the same time. The visuals used in this video are particularly good, so if you like learning Spanish with mnemonics this short film is ideal for you.

 Pronouncing the Spanish letters C and Z

For many non-native Spanish speakers the pronunciation of the letters C and Z are quite hard to master. In some situations, they sound similar to the way they do in English, however, in others they sound very different.

In addition, there are a lot of sound combinations to learn for these two letters. This makes it all too easy to miss something and end up mis-pronouncing certain words as a result.

There is also the added complication that the way certain c sounds are pronounced varies depending on where you are in the Spanish speaking world. For example, in certain parts of Spain the ch or ce sound is pronounced with almost a lisping sound.

Fortunately, the video above sorts that all out for you. Play it to learn everything you need to know about pronouncing c and z in Spanish.

If you want to practice what you learn, and test it, get yourself a copy of Rosetta Stone. There is a section in their Spanish course that allows you to practice each letter of the alphabet separately.

The software taps into your device’s  microphone. You listen to each letter, then say it back. Your voice is picked up by the microphone and a recording of what you say is made. The Rosetta Stone software then goes onto check what you said to make sure that you pronounced it right.

If you did the next letter is played to you and you repeat that one. However, if you do not quiet get the pronunciation right the software tells you this. You can then listen to what you said and quickly work out where you are going wrong and correct it.

This way of learning the sounds of Spanish is effective, and if you use a good quality noise cancelling microphone like this one you can actually practice your Spanish pronunciation anywhere.

Introduction to Perfect Spanish Pronunciation

In this  video series, you really can learn how to master Spanish pronunciation. This teacher takes a slightly different and refreshing approach to learning, which we think you will really enjoy.

With Spanish, proper pronunciation is essential, but fortunately it can be learn fast. You only need to get a handle on the basics to be able to get a comprehensive understanding of how to speak Spanish in a way that is easy for people to follow.

In this first lesson, students learn the building blocks of Spanish pronunciation. What you learn here will help you to get more out of future lessons.

OK let’s get started.

The letters used in the Spanish language are exactly the same as the letters used in English. There is just one exception, which you need to learn separately. You also need to take not of the fact that in some Spanish words accents are used, which affect how you pronounce the words.

The consonants and vowel sounds of Spanish

There are 27 consonant sounds that you need to learn, and 5 vowel sounds. That means you actually going to need to learn 31 sounds to speak Spanish properly.

You can see a chart of these displayed at the 53 second point of the video.

Each symbol that you see displayed there, represents a single sound that has been determined by the IPA. This organization works internationally to produce a standardized way to represent sounds from any language. The Spanish language uses 31 of those standardized sounds.

The IPA is called the International Phonetic Alphabet.

Don’t be daunted by the fact you do not recognize the symbols in this chart it is far easier to understand than you think. Follow the video to see what we mean.

The 27 Spanish consonant sounds

You already know most of the 27 consonant sounds in Spanish. In fact you regularly use 18 of them if you are a native English speaker. You make these sounds every day, so are already more than halfway there when it comes to learning and using the 27 Spanish consonants.

The 5 Spanish vowel sounds

There are 5 vowel sounds to learn. You already know how to say 2 of them, so only have to learn 3 more Spanish vowel sounds to be able to speak the language perfectly.

This means that you only have to learn the following to be able to pronounce Spanish properly:

• 9 new consonant sounds

• 3 new vowel sounds

Most English speakers can manage to learn these 12 new sounds in just a couple of hours.

Examples of the sounds you need to learn

Simply go to the 1 minute 53 second point of the video and listen to Alex, a native Spanish speaker, pronounce the words containing those Spanish sounds that are new to English speakers.
obtuso (obtuse)
trigo (wheat)

pollo (chicken)
cañón (canyon)

rumbo (course)
bravo (brave)

Tláhuac (proper name)

quetzal (quetzal bird)

ayuno (fasting)

rata (rat)

vehemente (eager)

boscoso (forested)

Watch this section of the video a few times to get you ear in. That’s it you are now familiar with all of the sounds you need to be able to speak and read Spanish with a perfect accent.
Where to get more help

This video is a part of a series called The Ultimate Spanish Pronunciation Guide. It uses a slightly different teaching style from other providers, but it is one that I really like. If you have found some pronunciation guides hard to follow, or a bit, uninspiring give this one a go. You can get access to all of their videos via this link.

This video is a bit longer than the majority of the ones on this site. That is because it is a more in depth discussion of how you pronounce things in Spanish.

My advice it to break your learning from this video up into sections.

Start by watching from the start to the 3 minute point of the video and go through to the 4 minute 10 second point of the video. That will take you through from the letter a to the letter k.

In this video you are going to see how each letter is pronounced as a standalone letter in the alphabet, but also see how they sound when used in a word.

As with many languages the sounds are different in the two situations. When you are spelling a word you use different sounds than you would if you were using those letters to pronounce a word.

I know this sounds confusing, but do not let it bother you. In reality, you already understand this concept, because you are actually doing it every day when speaking your own language.

Once you have mastered a to k, go on to the rest of the alphabet. L to z is covered by the portion of the video that runs from the 4 minutes 35 second point of the video to the 10 minute 20 second point of the video.

You can watch the rest of this girl’s Spanish videos on her YouTube channel just click this link to be taken there.

Spanish Pronunciation Guide

In this video, Jordan presents some easy to use pronunciation techniques for students that have a hard time pronouncing words to use to make quick progress.

Follow the video to find out all you need to know about Spanish pronunciation in just five minutes.

He also takes you through the things everyone mentions, that are actually not that important to save you sweating over a detail that is basically not that important.

Here he just covers the basic Spanish pronunciation techniques. The ones that he knows are big problem areas for most students.

Watch the video to learn how to pronounce everything you need to in Spanish. If you watch it through a few times and practice what you learn out-loud, you will be pronouncing perfect Spanish after just one day.

He put together this video after his experience of studying Hebrew in college taught him the importance of learning pronunciation at an early stage . His entire class was able to read Hebrew
fluently after just one week. Amazing right?

However, don’t get too excited just yet. It turns out that they had no idea what the were reading because they did not know what the words meant.

Think about that for a moment. Over half of  the class had absolutely no  experience with Hebrew, many had not been exposed to the language at home. A lot of the pupils had never seen a Hebrew character or letter before.

With Hebrew once you have learnt what sound each letter makes, you can use that to work out the pronunciation of each word.This is not the case with every single language, but it is not dissimilar in Spanish.

Pretty much once you have learnt the Spanish alphabet you have learnt how to pronounce most words. Learning how to say the Spanish alphabet is easy, most people can do it in just one day.

In fact, in most cases, if you can read English, you can probably already read most Spanish words. Many of the words in the Spanish language are almost the same in English.

However, there are a few sounds in Spanish that you do not find in the English language. So, you will need to spend a little extra time learning those too.

There is list of these, along with the audio, in this video.

The Spanish rolling R

There are a few key sounds that you really need to learn fast. First, the rolling r’s. If you can make this sound that is awesome.

Go to the 1 min 45 point in the above video to find out when you need to use the rolling R and how to say it.

Try it. If you can do it great, But if you can’t do the rolling r, don’t worry. Most Spanish speakers will still understand you even if you use the normal r in place of the rolling r. Fortunately, the rolling r is not that common in Spanish. Very few of the language’s important words have the double rr in them.

Saying the Spanish I

Okay, the next tricky one i. That’s actually called e in Spanish and makes an eeeeee sound. You can listen to and practice that sound at the 1 minute 52 second point in the above video.

Basically, when you see an i, it’s an e in Spanish. So, you have to make the ee sound when you see an I in a Spanish word.

The Spanish pronunciation of E

In Spanish the e makes an eh sound. Similar to the sound in the English word Hello. You can hear that at the 2 minute point of the video.

How to pronounce Y in Spanish

Then there’s the y in Spanish. In the alphabet the letter Y is called something that is practically unpronounceable. Here we are looking at how a y actually sounds when used in a word and day to day speech not at how the letter y is spoken when reciting the alphabet.

Confusingly, y makes the eee sound just like the i does in Spanish.

How to say ñ in Spanish

In Spanish there are two kinds of N. The plain one and one with a squiggly line over the top. That little squiggly line is called a virgulilla.

This special letter, the ñ is what makes the nya sound in words like “señor” or “señora”.

Listen to this sound at the 2 minute 43 seconds point of the video.

How to pronounce the double l in Spanish

The other unusual sound in Spanish is the ll. When you see two l’s alongside each other, you need to make the sound of an English. So the word llamar is pronounced yamar.

You can hear this sound pronounced at the 3 minute 14 seconds point.

Pronouncing accents in Spanish

Don’t worry about accents too much. Occasionally, they come
into play, but often when you see them, all you need to do is to say the word as you would normally.

It is true that you are supposed to stress the syllable with the accent in it, but, honestly, it won’t matter most of the time. Your time and energy is better spent on mastering other aspects of the language.

Learn to pronounce Spanish fast

If you want to learn to pronounce every Spanish word and do it in just one day find a song that you really like. Now listen to it over and over. At the same time read the lyrics. This allows you to associate the sounds with the letter groupings.

At first, it will be difficult to follow along. It is likely to sound like complete gibberish. But by the time you have listened to it twice, you will be amazed by how much better you follow it and understand the song.

With language learning repetition is the key to getting the pronunciation sorted. It is the way we learn to speak our native language, which is why it is such an effective learning mechanism for adults. with everything in language learning. Therefore, resist the temptation to jump from one song to another.

If you feel overwhelmed. Try focusing on just one verse, or better still learn the chorus first.

Once you feel confident enough try singing along with the song. Doing so will be fun and give you more confidence.

What to do next

Go to this page, and pick one of the songs.

Click the link to bring up the lyrics

Play the song three times and read along

You will be pronouncing Spanish like a native after a few hours. It will also help you to learn the rhythm and musicality of the Spanish language.

English is a very flat and even sounding language. Whereas Spanish is a more lilting, up and down language, something that takes a bit of getting used to, but not if you use music to help you with your pronunciation.

Here we focus only only one aspect of learning the Spanish language. Quite literally the sounds of Spanish.

Our aim is to help you to get your ear in tune with the way Spanish is spoken. Something that you can actually do with just a few hours work.

Learning how to pronounce the language is a great first step. If you take a few hours to go through the videos on this site you will save yourself weeks of work because you will be laying the foundation you need to learn Spanish fast.