
Letra “g” es fuerte cuando (strong sound): Like “go” sound.
G + a: gato, gana, gasta
G + o: gol, goma, Gonzalo
G + u: guru, agua, igual
Letra g suave cuando (soft sound): Like “h” sound.
G + i: gitana, agitar, gimnasio
G + e: gente, géminis, gerente
C como sonido de ‘s’ cuando:
C + i: cima, ciruela, ciudad, cinco
C + e: cena, celos, centro, cancelar
The “U”, is silencein the following cases:
Gu + e: Guerra, juguete, regué
Gu + i: Guión, águila, guitarra
Qu + e: Queso, querer, quema
Qu + i: Quién, quiero, poquito
Soft R vs Hard R
The soft “r” in Spanish has a similar sound to the English “dd” in words such as “added” or “tt” in words such as “butter.” You pronounce it this way when you find an r in the middle of a word.
For example:
Carolina ~ female name
Pero ~ (but)
Marina ~ (Marine)
Marido ~ (Spouse)
The hard “r”, also known as the rolling “r” in Spanish, is the one that most English speakers associate with the Spanish r, and the one that can cause some pronunciation issues. You must pronounce the hard r sound in words that start with r in Spanish, or in words with a double “rr” in the middle of a word. Also, sound strong r before any consonant letter.
For example:
Ratón (mouse)
Ruido (noise)
Carmen (it’s female name)
Dormir (to sleep)
Perro (dog)
Carro (car)
Practice reading long Spanish words, pronouncing them syllable by syllable.
- Constitución: cons-ti-tu-ción ~ constitution
- Electrónico: e-lec-tró-ni-co ~ electronic
- Enciclopedia: en-ci-clo-pe-dia ~ encyclopedia
- Independencia: in-de-pen-den-cia ~ independence
- Maravilloso: ma-ra-vi-llo-so ~ wonderful
- Fotografía: fo-to-gra-fí-a ~ photography
- Hospitalario: hos-pi-ta-la-rio ~ hospitable
- Universitario: u-ni-ver-si-ta-rio ~ universitary
- Administración: ad-mi-nis-tra-ción ~ administration
- Simultáneamente: si-mul-tá-nea-men-te ~ simultaneously
- Murciélago: mur-cie-la-go ~ bat
- Aurelio: Au-re-lio ~ Aurelio (male name)
- Educación: e-du-ca-ción ~ education
- Abuelito: a-bue-li-to ~ grandfather/ grandpa’
- Cuestionario: cues-tio-na-rio ~ questionnaire








