Spanish Pronunciation: The Five Pure Vowels

Spanish is one of the most regular languages to read aloud. A large part of that comes from its five pure vowels.

The five sounds

Letter	Sound	Example
a	like a in "father"	casa (house)
e	like e in "bed", without the glide	mesa (table)
i	like ee in "see"	sí (yes)
o	like o in "more", without the glide	moto (motorbike)
u	like oo in "moon"	uno (one)

No gliding

English vowels often slide into a second sound. In English, "no" ends with a slight oo. In Spanish, no stays a clean o. Keep each vowel steady and short.

Vowel combinations

When two vowels sit together, a, e and o are strong, while i and u are weak. A weak vowel next to a strong one usually joins it into a single syllable, a diphthong:

• bueno (bweh-no), good
• aire (ai-reh), air
• tiempo (tyem-po), time

Two strong vowels stay in separate syllables, as in museo (mu-seh-o), museum.

The silent u

After q, the u is silent: que is keh, and quiero is kyeh-ro. After g, u is silent before e or i, as in guerra (geh-rra), war. A dieresis, ü, makes it sound, as in pingüino.

Practice

1. Say the five vowels in order, keeping each pure.
2. Read a word list such as mamá, papá, Mario, mula.
3. Listen to a native speaker, then repeat.
4. Use a dictionary to check the spelling and accent of new words.

Look up any Spanish word with English Spanish Dictionary →