Pronunciation Cheat Sheet

Every sound, how to make it, and the traps English speakers fall into.

A Space in Spanishaspaceinspanish.com

The 5 Vowels — always the same, short & crisp

Letter	Sound	Like in English	Example
A	ah	father	casa, mamá
E	eh	bet	mesa, café
I	ee	see	sí, vivir
O	oh	more	hola, ojo
U	oo	food	luna, tú

💡 Spanish vowels never «reduce» to a lazy uh sound like in English. Keep every vowel pure, even in long words.

Tricky Consonants

Letter	Sound	Example
C	k before a/o/u • s before e/i	casa • cena
G	hard g before a/o/u • like English h before e/i	gato • gente
J	strong h (from the throat)	jamón, hijo
H	completely silent	hola, hay
LL	like English y	llamar, calle
Ñ	ny (like canyon)	mañana, niño
R	a single tap of the tongue	pero, cara
RR	a strong rolled trill	perro, rojo
V / B	identical — a soft b	vaca = boca
Z	s (in Latin America)	zapato
QU	k (the u is silent)	queso, quién
GU	hard g before e/i (u silent)	guitarra

Where's the stress?

Rule	Stress
Ends in vowel, n or s	2nd-to-last syllable ca-sa, ha-blan
Ends in other consonant	last syllable ha-blar, ciu-dad
Has an accent mark	on that vowel ma-má, ár-bol

Top Mistakes to Avoid