Summary:
This is an overview of the Spanish alphabet and also some basic conversational and introductory forms.
General characteristics:
- Consists of 27 letters
- Highly phonemic: the written language corresponds very much to the spoken language
- Derives from the Latin alphabet
- It has some “quasi letters” like “ch”, “ll”
- Some consonants have different pronunciations (allophones), like “c”, “d”, “g”, “n”, “r”, “s”, etc.
Detailed alphabet:
| Letter | Name | Phonetic value |
|---|---|---|
| A | A | /a/ |
| B | Be | /b/, /β/ |
| C | Ce | /k/, /θ/, /s/ |
| D | De | /d/, /ð/ |
| E | E | /e/ |
| F | Efe | /f/ |
| G | Ge | /ɡ/, /ɣ/, /x/ |
| H | Hache | – |
| I | I | /i/ |
| J | Jota | /x/, /h/ |
| K | Ka | /k/ |
| L | Ele | /l/ |
| M | Eme | /m/ |
| N | Ene | /n/, /ɱ/, /ɲ/ |
| Ñ | Eñe | /ɲ/ |
| O | O | /o/ |
| P | Pe | /p/ |
| Q(u) | Cu | /k/ |
| R | Erre | /ɾ/, /r/ |
| S | Ese | /s/ |
| T | Te | /t/ |
| U | U | /u/ |
| V | Uve / Ve corta | /b/, /β/ |
| W | Doble uve / doble ve | /ɡw/, /b/ |
| X | Equis | /ks/, /x/, /s/ |
| Y | Y griega / ye | /ʝ/, /i/ |
| Z | Zeta | /θ/, /s/ |
Special cases:
| Letter | Phonetic value | Example |
|---|---|---|
| b, v | /b/ | bestia |
| /β/ | bebé, mi vaca | |
| ce, ci | /θ/, /s/ | cielo |
| ca, co, cu | [k] | casa |
| d | /d/ | doy |
| /ð/ | dado | |
| ch | /tʃ/ | ocho |
| gu | /ɡw/ | guante |
| /ɣw/ | agua | |
| /ɡ/ | guerra | |
| /ɣ/ | sigue | |
| gü | /ɡw/ | pingüino |
| /ɣw/ | averigüe | |
| hi | /j/, /ʝ/ | hielo |
| hu | /w/ | huevo |
| ll | /ʎ/, /ʝ/ | llave |
| r | /r/ | ropa, honra |
| /ɾ/ | caro, bravo | |
| rr | /r/ | perro |
| s | /z/ | mismo |
| /s/ | sapo |
Video links for more about pronunciation:
R and RR – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2YpUZFsZzcw
Ll – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEd3P-juQuQ
Ñ – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKh9vaJmxh8
G – http://youtu.be/uReWxUQSFzg
H – http://youtu.be/oFvdRREGQVw
Basic conversation:
Saying hello:
- Hola (Hello)
- Buenos días / Buen día (good morning)
- Buenas tardes (good afternoon /evening)
- Buenas noches (good evening / good night)
Saying goodbye:
- Adiós (good bye)
- Chau [from Italian “ciao”]
- Hasta luego (See you soon)
- Hasta ahora (See you later)
- ¡Que te vaya bien! (Take care!)
- ¡Cuídate! (Take care!)
Video: http://youtu.be/jvJIKEvEij8
Presenting yourself:
- Hola, soy + NAME, NOUN (Hello, I’m…)
- Hola, me llamo + NAME (Hello, I’m) [literally “I am called …”]
- Soy de… (I’m from)
- Tengo X años (I’m X years old) [literally “I have X years”]
Asking how someone is doing:
- Hola ¿Qué tal? (Hello, how are you?)
- ¿Cómo estás? (How are you?)
- Bien, ¿y tú? (Good, and you?)
- Estoy muy bien (I’m doing fine)
- Estoy X (I’m X)
- Bien, mal, cansado, enfermo, content, feliz, triste
- ¿Y qué tal estás tú? (And how are you doing?)
Video: http://youtu.be/Pczy8dLCMCc
Some Vocabulary:
Professions: estudiante (student), periodista (journalist), profesor, (professor), médico (physician), policía (police officer)
Countries: China, Serbia, Baréin, Estados Unidos, Corea, Argentina, España
Demonyms: chino/a, serbio/a, bareiní, estadounidense, coreano/a, argentine/a, español/a
Download class material:
Audio files: Download
Transcripts to audio files: Download