Most words are spoken exactly as they appear. Spanish is a phonetic language. With few exceptions, the words are said as they appear.

Exceptions:

H is normally silent

LL sounds like a Y

J sounds like an H

N with a ~ above it sounds like NY or "nyuh"

Vowels: always pronounced exactly the same way. There are no multiple sounding verbs in Spanish.

a - "ah" sounds like Mom or Dog

e - "eh" like Ted or Head

i - "ee" like geek or speak

o - "oh" like toe or no, but said very fast cutting off the ow sound at the end.

u - " oo" like shoe or two

y - "ee" not used very much except as AND like "perro y gato" ( dog and cat )

Letter Combinations:

ue as in que ( what ). Sounds like hay or may. There is no W sound here. It is not " KWAY "

ui as in izquierda ( left ) sounds like key or me There is no W sound here. It is not " KWEY "

If you practice the above rules, you can pronounce most any Spanish word you see.

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Months

Black - Negro

Useful Terms