Spanish IPA Chart & Cheat Sheet: All 24 Sounds

Spanish is the language people point to when they want an example of spelling that matches sound. Mostly it does. Five vowel letters make five vowels, and a written accent appears wherever the stress breaks the rules.

The spelling still leaves three things to you. It writes pero (but) and perro (dog) as if the difference were a doubled letter, when it is two different sounds. It writes the same d twice in dedo (finger) for what are, in speech, a hard d and something close to the th of this. And whether the z in zapato (shoe) is an /s/ or a /θ/ depends on which side of the Atlantic you are standing.

This cheat sheet lists all 24 sounds of Latin American Spanish with an example word for each. After the tables come stress, the split between Latin America and Spain, and five sounds that English habits get wrong.

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How the 24 sounds are counted

The inventory follows Wikipedia's Help:IPA/Spanish key. The key lists 5 vowels, 2 semivowels and 26 consonant symbols. The tables below keep all the vowels and semivowels and 17 of the consonants, one row each: 5 + 2 + 17 = 24.

The nine consonant symbols left out fall into three groups:

• Predictable variants. [β], [ð] and [ɣ] are the soft forms of /b/, /d/ and /ɡ/. [ŋ] and [ɱ] are /n/ before a k or g sound and before f. [ɟʝ] is the harder, j-like form of the y sound after a pause, as in ya. The surrounding sounds decide each of these, so they are not separate sounds, and the soft b, d and g get their own section after the consonant tables.
• Regional sounds. /θ/, the th of thing, is how northern and central Spain say z and soft c. /ʎ/ is the ll of the minority of speakers who keep it apart from y. Both are covered in the section on Latin America and Spain.
• A loanword sound. /ʃ/ turns up only in borrowings such as show.

The semivowels are a judgment call. The key itself notes that [j] and [w] are what /i/ and /u/ become when they are unstressed and next to another vowel, so some descriptions fold them into the vowels. They get rows here because transcriptions write them with their own symbols, and you need to recognize them.

Two notes on the transcriptions. They come from a Spanish pronunciation lexicon IPAtics maintains, which is broad: it follows Latin American pronunciation, writes /b d ɡ/ whether the sound is hard or soft, and marks no stress. The stress section shows where stress falls, and phonemic vs phonetic transcription explains why a transcription between slashes leaves such details out. The affricate also carries a tie bar, /t͡ʃ/, where the Wikipedia key writes /tʃ/.

Vowels (5)

The five example words differ in one vowel and nothing else: paso (step), peso (weight), piso (floor), poso (sediment), puso (he put). Read them down the column and your mouth moves through the whole system.

Each vowel is short and holds still from start to finish. There are no long and short pairs, and unlike French, Italian or Portuguese, Spanish has no split between an open and a closed e or o. Five symbols really are all the vowels you need.

Semivowels (2)

These are the letters i and u when they are unstressed and next to another vowel. Bien is one syllable, not "bee-en", and bueno has two, not three. A written accent pulls the pair apart again: día (day) has two syllables, because the accent keeps the i a full vowel.

Consonants (17)

The consonants split into four groups by how they are made.

Stops (6)

English /p t k/ start a stressed syllable with a small puff of air. Spanish ones have almost none. Measured from the release of the consonant to the start of the voice, Spanish /p t k/ take about 5, 10 and 30 milliseconds and English ones about 60, 70 and 80. That is why the comparison words are spin, stand and scan: after /s/, English drops the puff as well. Spanish /t/ and /d/ are also made with the tongue against the back of the upper teeth, not on the ridge behind them.

B and v are the same sound. Vaca (cow) starts with the same /b/ as boca (mouth), and Spanish has no /v/ at all. In native words the letter q appears only in que and qui, where the u is silent: queso (cheese) is /keso/.

Fricatives and the affricate (5)

/x/ is written j, and g before e or i: gente /xente/ (people), ojo /oxo/ (eye). In native words the letter h is silent everywhere except in ch, so hablar (to speak) is /ablaɾ/.

For most speakers y and ll are the same sound, /ʝ/: calle (street) and playa (beach) have the same consonant in the middle. This merger is called yeísmo. In Argentina and Uruguay the same letters are [ʒ], the s of measure, or, more and more among younger speakers, [ʃ], the sh of shoe.

Nasals (3)

Ñ is one sound: the middle of the tongue presses flat against the hard palate. English canyon gets you close, but there it is two sounds, an /n/ followed by a /j/.

An n also takes on the position of the consonant after it. Before a k or g sound it becomes the [ŋ] of English sing, as in tengo (I have), and before b or p it becomes [m]. The dictionary writes it as /n/ anyway: tengo /tenɡo/.

l and the two r's (3)

A single r between vowels is a tap: the tip of the tongue strikes the ridge behind the upper teeth once. A double rr is a trill: several strikes in quick succession. The two contrast only between vowels, as in pero and perro, or caro /kaɾo/ (expensive) and carro /karo/ (car). At the start of a word, and after l, n or s, a single r is always a trill: rosa /rosa/ (rose).

The soft b, d and g

/b/, /d/ and /ɡ/ are full stops only after a pause and after m or n, and /d/ also after l. Everywhere else, including between vowels, the lips or tongue come close without closing, and the sounds soften into [β], [ð] and [ɣ].

That is why the two d's in dedo differ: the first is a stop, and the second is [ð], the th in this. Nada (nothing) and todo (all) end the same way. In lago (lake) the g is [ɣ], a g with a gap where the tongue would touch, and in haba (broad bean) the b is [β], a b with the lips not quite closed.

The lexicon writes /dedo/, /laɡo/ and /aba/, because the rule predicts the soft form. When you read a broad transcription, you apply the rule yourself.

Latin America or Spain: z, c and ll

The transcriptions on this page follow Latin American Spanish, because the lexicon behind them does. The biggest difference from Spain is one sound.

In Latin America, the Canary Islands and parts of Andalusia, z, and c before e or i, are pronounced /s/, exactly like s. This is called seseo: zapato /sapato/, cielo /sjelo/ (sky), cena /sena/ (dinner).

Northern and central Spain use /θ/ for those letters, the th of thing, and keep it apart from /s/. This is called distinción. A speaker from Madrid starts zapato, cielo and cena with /θ/ and keeps casa (house) and caza (hunt) apart; a speaker from Mexico City says those two words the same way. If you are learning the Spanish of Spain, read /θ/ wherever the spelling has z, or c before e or i. Everything else in the tables still holds.

Three smaller differences are worth knowing:

• Where Spain has /θ/, its /s/ is also made further back, so it sounds somewhere between the s of sip and the sh of ship.
• A minority of speakers, in the Andes, Paraguay and parts of Spain, still say ll as /ʎ/, close to the lli in million, and keep it apart from y.
• The j sound is a soft [h] in the Caribbean, Central America, Colombia, Andalusia and the Canary Islands, and a harsher [χ], made even further back, in northern Spain.

Stress: where it falls, and why vowels stay full

The written accent tells you

Spanish spelling marks stress without ambiguity. Two defaults cover most words, and a written accent marks every word that breaks them:

Stress never falls earlier than the third-to-last syllable, except in verb forms with pronouns attached, such as dígamelo (tell it to me), stressed on DÍ.

Stress can change what a word means, and the accent is how you see it. Hablo is "I speak" and habló is "he spoke". Papa is a potato and papá is dad. The transcriptions on this page leave stress to the spelling, which is why they carry no stress marks.

A handful of short words take an accent that has nothing to do with stress. It tells two words apart: si (if) and sí (yes), tu (your) and tú (you).

No vowel reduction

English turns most unstressed vowels into schwa, the "uh" at the start of about. Our guide to the English schwa explains how deep that habit runs. Spanish does not do it. Each of the five vowels keeps its full quality whether the syllable is stressed or not.

Banana /banana/ has three identical /a/ vowels. Say it the English way, with a schwa at each end, and it stops sounding Spanish. Chocolate /t͡ʃokolate/ has four full vowels, where English squeezes the same word into two or three syllables.

This is also why Spanish sounds so even to English ears. Unstressed syllables keep their full vowels and do not shrink, so linguists usually describe Spanish as syllable-timed.

The five sounds English speakers miss

José Ignacio Hualde's The Sounds of Spanish (Cambridge University Press, 2005) is a textbook written for English-speaking students, and it compares Spanish sounds with English ones as it goes. These five are the places where English habits lead you wrong: either English lacks the sound, or it has the sound and uses it somewhere else.

1. The tap in pero

American English already makes /ɾ/. It is the tt in butter and the t in atom. What English speakers do instead is use their own r, where the tongue bunches or curls toward the roof of the mouth and touches nothing. Say butter quickly, keep that flick of the tongue, and put it between the vowels of pero /peɾo/. If your t in butter is a full t, a very quick, light d gets you close.

2. The trill in perro

English has no trill. The tip of the tongue rests loosely against the ridge behind the teeth, and the air sets it vibrating. It takes practice, and the difference is not optional: pero /peɾo/ is "but", perro /pero/ is "dog". Our guide to the IPA symbols English speakers get wrong in Spanish has drills for both r sounds.

3. The j of jamón

English speakers tend to replace /x/ with the /h/ of hat. In the Caribbean, Colombia and southern Spain that is close to what native speakers say. In Mexico and in central and northern Spain, the sound is made further back: raise the back of your tongue toward the soft palate as if for a /k/, leave a narrow gap, and push air through it. The result is the ch of Scottish loch. Practise on jamón /xamon/, gente /xente/ and ojo /oxo/.

4. The soft d of nada

English has [ð]. It is the th in this. The problem is using it for the letter d. Read nada and todo with a full English d, tongue pressed against the ridge, and the words come out stiff. Apply the rule from the consonant section: after a vowel, the d goes soft. The same goes for the b in haba and the g in lago.

5. Pure e and o

The vowels of English say and go slide toward another vowel at the end. Spanish /e/ and /o/ do not. Say peso as "pay-so" and the glide gives you away. Keep your jaw and lips still until the next consonant arrives: mesa /mesa/, foto /foto/, todo /todo/. And keep every unstressed vowel one of the five; a schwa in banana is the same habit from the other direction.

Convert your own text

The tables give you the sounds; your own reading gives you the words. Paste any Spanish word or sentence into the Spanish to IPA converter and read the result against the rows above.

IPAtics shows the IPA for any text you select, in any app.

Sources: the inventory, the English comparisons in the tables and the regional notes follow Wikipedia's Help:IPA/Spanish; seseo, yeísmo, the Argentine and Uruguayan [ʒ] and [ʃ], the rhotics, unreduced vowels and syllable timing follow Wikipedia's Spanish phonology; the stress and accent rules follow Wikipedia's Spanish orthography; the voice-onset figures are Lisker and Abramson's, as cited in Wikipedia's Aspirated consonant. For a full treatment written for English-speaking students, see Hualde, The Sounds of Spanish (Cambridge University Press, 2005).