¡A, B, C! Meet the Spanish Alphabet

Quick — sing or say the English alphabet in your head. How many letters are there? There are 26. Now here is the twist: Spanish has 27 letters! Spanish speakers use almost the same alphabet as English, but with one extra letter hiding in the middle. Can you guess what it might be? Keep that question in mind as we explore the Spanish alphabet together.

The Spanish alphabet is called 'el alfabeto' (say: el al-fah-BEH-toh). It has 27 letters. Most of them look exactly like English letters, but several are pronounced differently. Here are all 27 letters with their Spanish names and a pronunciation guide: • A (ah) — B (beh) — C (seh) — D (deh) — E (eh) — F (EH-feh) — G (heh) — H (AH-cheh) — I (ee) — J (HOH-tah) — K (kah) — L (EH-leh) — M (EH-meh) — N (EH-neh) — Ñ (EH-nyeh) — O (oh) — P (peh) — Q (koo) — R (EH-reh) — S (EH-seh) — T (teh) — U (oo) — V (oo-veh) — W (DOH-bleh oo) — X (EH-kees) — Y (ee-GRYEH-gah) — Z (SEH-tah) The extra letter is Ñ. It sits between N and O. The little squiggle above the N is called a tilde (say: TEEL-deh). The Ñ makes an 'ny' sound, like the 'ny' in 'canyon'. Watch out for these letters — they sound very different from English: • H is silent in Spanish! 'Hola' (hello) is said OH-lah, not HOH-lah. • J sounds like a strong English 'h'. 'Jugo' (juice) sounds like HOO-goh. • V and B sound almost the same in Spanish — both are a soft 'b' sound. • G before e or i sounds like the Spanish J — a strong 'h'. Here is a handy fact: once you know how Spanish letters sound, you can read almost any Spanish word out loud — Spanish is a very regular language, meaning letters nearly always make the same sound.