How many letters are in the Spanish alphabet?

27 — the 26 English letters plus ñ. The digraphs ch and ll are no longer counted as separate letters, though their sounds remain.

Is Spanish pronunciation hard for English speakers?

No, it's one of the easier parts. Spanish is phonetic and the five vowels never change. The main challenges are rolling the rr and remembering that h is silent and j is a raspy h.

What is the ñ and how do you pronounce it?

ñ (eñe) is a separate letter pronounced like the 'ny' in canyon. It appears in common words like mañana (tomorrow/morning) and España (Spain).

Do accent marks change how a word sounds?

Spanish accent marks (á, é, í, ó, ú) mark which syllable is stressed; they don't change the vowel sound itself. The ñ tilde is different — it's part of a distinct letter.

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The Spanish Alphabet & Pronunciation: A Beginner's Guide

Good news: Spanish uses the same Latin alphabet as English and is almost perfectly phonetic — once you know a handful of rules, you can read any word aloud correctly. Here's the alphabet, the few letters that differ, and the pronunciation points that matter most.

The alphabet at a glance

The modern Spanish alphabet has 27 letters: the 26 English letters plus ñ. (The old letters ch and ll are no longer counted separately, though the sounds still exist.)

Spanish is phonetic: words are spelled the way they sound and read the way they're spelled. Master the vowels and a few consonant rules and your pronunciation will be understood anywhere.

The five vowels (always the same)

Unlike English, Spanish vowels are short, crisp, and never change. This is the key to a clear accent.

'ah' as in father — casa (KAH-sah).

'eh' as in bet — mesa (MEH-sah).

'ee' as in see — sí (see).

'oh' as in for — hola (OH-lah).

'oo' as in food — tú (too).

Letters that trip up English speakers

'ny' as in canyon — mañana (mah-NYAH-nah). The one extra letter.

rr / r

A rolled/trilled r — perro (dog) vs. pero (but). The trill takes practice.

Always silent — hola is 'OH-lah', hospital is 'os-pee-TAHL'.

j / g

j is a raspy 'h' (jamón); g before e/i sounds the same (gente).

Usually a 'y' sound — llamar (yah-MAR), me llamo (meh YAH-moh).

v / b

Pronounced almost identically, a soft b — vino and bino sound alike.

Accent marks

á é í ó ú

The accent simply marks the stressed syllable — café is stressed on the last syllable. It doesn't change the vowel sound.

The tilde here is part of the letter, not a stress mark — a different letter from n.

¿ ¡

Inverted marks open questions and exclamations: ¿Cómo estás? ¡Hola!

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