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

Consonants

Most Spanish consonants sound as they do in English. These are the ones that don't: letters English lacks, like ñ and rr, letters said differently, like j, h and v, and c, g and z, whose sound depends on the vowel after them. Before e and i, Spanish writes qu and gu to keep a hard k and g.

Read the guide: Consonants

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Letters and pairs

10 letters

ll and y sound alike for most speakers, and b and v always do: only the word tells you which to write.

C, Z and QU

10 letters

c is k before a, o and u, and th (s in Latin America) before e and i. To write k before e and i, Spanish uses qu; to write th before a, o and u, it uses z.

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G, GU and J

13 letters

g is hard before a, o and u, and before e and i it's the rasped kh that j always is. To keep a hard g before e and i, Spanish writes gu, its u silent; to say that u, it puts two dots on it: gü.

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