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¡Hola! Let's explore the Spanish alphabet together. It is very similar to English, but with some fun new sounds!
The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters. That is just one more letter than English! The extra letter is ñ (enye), which makes a sound like the 'ny' in canyon.
In Spanish, letters usually make only one sound. This makes reading very easy! For example, the letter 'a' always sounds like 'ah' as in father.
Let's look at the letter 'c'. Before the letters 'a', 'o', or 'u', it makes a hard 'k' sound. In the word casa (house) — KAH-sah, the 'c' sounds like a 'k'.
✏️ Worked example
How do you pronounce the Spanish word gato (cat)? Let's use our new Spanish letter rules to say it out loud step by step.
- Look at the first letter, 'g'. Before the letter 'a', 'g' makes a hard sound like the 'g' in goat.
- Look at the second letter, 'a'. In Spanish, 'a' always sounds like the 'ah' sound in father.
- Look at the third letter, 't'. It sounds like a normal English 't', but you put your tongue against your teeth.
- Look at the last letter, 'o'. In Spanish, 'o' sounds like the 'oh' sound in bone.
- Put the sounds together slowly: gah-toh.
- Say it fast: gato (cat) — GAH-toh! You just read a Spanish word perfectly!
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