Accents

Spanish accentsAccents may look strange to anyone whose native language doesn’t have any, but they are extremely important in Spanish. Leaving off the accent on a word is a spelling mistake, and may cause confusion. There are three different Spanish accents

   

   

Advanced Pronunciation

Spanish pronunciation is phonemic, meaning that according to the pronunciation rules, in a given use, each letter is always pronounced a certain way. Many Spanish letters have only one pronunciation, making them especially easy to learn. But certain consonants have two pronunciations depending on where/how they are used. That's what this lesson is about. Take a look at this summary of "dual-pronunciation" letters, and then click on the individual letters for more in-depth explanations.

   

Alphabet

Spanish alphabetThe traditional Spanish alphabet has 30 letters: the 26 letters you already know from the English alphabet, plus 4 others. The letters that are the same are pronounced differently, so take a moment to learn the Spanish alphabet.

   

And + Or

And or in SpanishThe words "and" and "or" are coordinating conjunctions. In Spanish, these two words have a few different forms depending on what they’re used with.

   

B

Spanish letters bThe Spanish letter B has two pronunciations, depending on where it’s found in the word.

   

   

CH

Spanish letters chIn Spanish, CH was traditionally considered a single letter. It’s pronounced like the ch in the English words "chat" and "chess."

   

Contractions

Spanish contractionsContractions in Spanish and English are very different, because English contractions, such as it is > it’s, are considered somewhat informal and are optional. In Spanish, however, contractions are required, and there are essentially 3 types.