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Just like in English, Spanish has its own sounds and ways to pronounce letters.

Vowels

Spanish uses the same five vowels as English: a, e, i, o and u.

Listen to the clips below to hear how the vowels are pronounced in Spanish.

Here are some examples of how to use the vowel sounds when pronouncing Spanish words:

Exception sounds

Spanish is an exciting language to learn but there are a few exception sounds you need to be aware of:

ñ - This is pronounced as ‘ny’

España - Spain

ll - This is pronounced as a ‘y’

me llamo - my name is…

v - This is pronounced as a ‘b’

veinte - twenty

j - This is pronounced as a ‘h’

junio - June

h - This letter is always silent

hamburguesa - hamburger

Cognates

You might have also noticed that in Spanish many of the words look or sound like they would in English.

Here are some examples:

garaje - garage

guitarra - guitar

chocolate - chocolate

The Spanish alphabet

The Spanish alphabet has many of the same letters as the English alphabet but some are pronounced differently.

Have a look at the table to see Spanish alphabet in full:

You can learn about Spanish pronunciation here.