Basics
Spanish from the start
Learn to read Spanish spelling, hear every letter, and read short guides to how Spanish works.
43Letters to learn
2Charts
31Guides
Vowels and accents
Spanish has five vowels, and each keeps one short, clear sound wherever it stands, stressed or not: none glides into another sound as the vowels of English go and day do. An accent mark on a vowel shows the stressed syllable where the usual rule doesn't; the vowel sounds the same.
Read the guide: Vowels and stressReview these lettersSign up to learn them with spaced repetition, as you do words.
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Vowels
5 lettersEvery vowel is said short and clear, the same in stressed and unstressed syllables. The example words have only that vowel.
Accent marks
5 lettersAn accent mark shows the stressed syllable where the usual rule would put it elsewhere: café is ca-FE. The vowel sounds the same. On short words it also tells two words apart: sí "yes" and si "if", él "he" and el "the".