Primera lección

Spanish IPA Examples Notes

A [a] manzana, amar, alta, azafata Salz
E [e] gente, peces, este, defender denken
I [i] iris, hierro, hija, dividir immer
O [o] otro, monólogo, ojos, gótico doch
U [u] útil, uña, suero, justo Zucker
B [b] bebé, bicicleta, bomba, banco Birne
V [b] virus, ver, verde, vegetales
C + e/i [Θ] cerrar, cementerio, cien, cebra think
Z [Θ] zapato, zoo, zumo, zarigüeya
C + a/o/u [k] cabeza, cuello, collar, corazón Kopf
K [k] kárate, kilo, koala, Kenia (just for foreign words)
Q + ue/ui [k] qué, quiosco, querer, quién
D [d] dedo, dormir, deber, diente dein
F [f] fuego, femenino, fiera, feria vier
G + ue/ui [g] guerra, guía, guepardo, guillotina wiegen
G + üe/üi [g] pingüino, cigüeña, agüero, güisqui
G + a/o/u [g] ganar, gorila, gustar, gato
G + e/i [x] gente, gigante, gesticular, girasol sprache
J [x] justo, jaula, joven, jirafa
H hola, huevo, alcohol, haber -

L [l] listo, libro, león, lavar lesen

M [m] morir, misterio, monje, madre Mutter
N [n] novio, nube, necesitar, niño nein
Ñ [ɲ] ñoño, España, español, año espagnol
P [p] pie, pregunta, persona, poder perfekt
R [ɾ]/[r] enriquecer, rico, rey, arquero three ([r] when -nr-, -lr- o r-)
RR [r] perro, aburrirse, carretera, cigarra Rot (Bayern dialect)
S [s] solo, siesta, seis, sueño sehr
T [t] teléfono, tú, tener, tonto Tor
W [w] kiwi, Taiwán, darwinista, wolframio Taiwan (Just for foreign words.)
X [ks] taxi, xilófono, homosexual, sexo Oxid
Y [j]/[i] ya, ayudar, yo, ley jeden
LL [j] llamarse, llaves, lluvia, llorar
CH [͡tʃ] chica, charlar, chocolate, chulo Chips

Audio clips are recorded by a non Spanish native speaker.

If two consecutive characters have the same background color it means they have same pronunciation.
Accent mark

Kind of word (%) Stressed syllable When to write accent Examples

mark
Agudas (17,68%) Last syllable When it ends with: Café, acción, japonés,
Vowel, -n or -s reptil
When it ends with a Árbol, lápiz, volumen,
Llanas (79,5%) Next-to-last syllable consonant, except -n or casa
-s.

Esdrújulas (2,76%) Second-to-last syllable Always Pájaro, simpático,

América, análisis
Llévatelo, quítaselo,
Sobresdrújulas
Third-to-last syllable Always recuérdamelo,
(0,06%)
comámonoslo

Diphthongs and hiatus

* Diphthongs have at least 1 close vowel (i or u), if not, that's a hiatus.

- Diphthongs: cuento (cuen-to), confusión (con-fu-sión), lenguaje (len-gua-je), hiato (hia-to)
- Hiatus: héroe (hé-ro-e), poeta (po-e-ta), aéreo (a-é-re-o), boa (boa)

*As h is not pronounced, we can have a diphthong with “vowel + h + vowel”.

- Examples: buhardilla (buhar-di-lla), prohibido (prohi-bi-do), ahumar (ahu-mar), ahijar
(ahi-jar)

*When y is the last character of a word, it is pronounced as [i], so it also may work as diphthong.
- Examples: rey (rey), estoy (es-toy), convoy (con-voy), hay (hay)

* If the close vowel of a stressed syllable is the syllable's core, it must have an accent mark and
becomes hiatus.
- Examples: sabía (sa-bí-a), búho (bú-ho), río (rí-o), países (pa-í-ses)

*Monosyllabic words never have an accent mark, just in case of confusion between two words.
That's so called diacritic accent mark.
- Examples: el (article)-él (pronoun), de (preposition)-dé (verb), te (pronoun)-té
(sustantive),si (conjunction)-sí (adverb)

*There are also triphthongs, which follows the same rules, and must have the structure: “close
vowel + open vowel + close vowel”.
- Examples: buey (buey), cambiáis (cam-biáis), Uruguay (U-ru-guay), miau (miau)
Vocabulario

…y medio – …and a half | mitad – half | cuarto – quarter | doble - double

Los colores
Blanco/a Colorido – Colourful
Gris Incoloro – Colourless
Oscuro – Dark
Violeta Claro – Pale
Chillón – Loud
Morado/a
Apagado – Dull
Azul Fuerte – Strong
Débil – Light
Celeste Difuminado – Blurry
Verde Saturado – Saturated
Blanquecino – Whitish
Amarillo/a Grisáceo – Greyish
Amoratado – Purplish
Naranja
Azulado – Bluish
Rojo/a Verdoso – Greenish
Amarillento – Yellowish
Rosa Anaranjado – Orangish
Beis Colorado – Reddish
Rosado – Pinkish
Marrón Amarronado – Brownish
Negro/a Negruzco – Blackish
Pastel - Pastel