Spanish pronunciation · free · with feedback

Practise Spanish pronunciation, with feedback on your own voice

Spanish is spelled almost as it sounds, so the work is in a few sounds: the tapped and rolled r, the j, a soft b and d, and five short vowels. Read sentences aloud, see which words came through, and drill the sounds that didn't.

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What's in Speak for Spanish

Read aloud

Level-by-level sentences, with the words recognised, your pitch and pace against the model, and a note on what to practise.

10 mouth maps

rolled rr, tap r, z and ce, ci (Spain), j in jamón, soft b / v, dental d (soft between vowels), ñ in año, pure e, pure o, pure u, with the tongue and lips drawn next to the English habit they replace.

Vowel lab

Record three vowels so the chart fits your voice, then check the 5 Spanish vowels (sí, té, ya, yo, tú) stay where they should instead of sliding.

8 sets of minimal pairs

Pero and perro, paso and peso, caro and carro: hear the one sound that changes.

The sounds to work on

/e/ e as in mesa, spelled e, é
/o/ o as in todo, spelled o, ó
/u/ u as in uno, spelled u, ú, ü (u is silent in que, qui, gue, gui; ü is spoken: pingüino)
/ɾ/ single r (tap) as in pero, spelled r between vowels, after a consonant other than n, l, s (tres, otro), and at the end of a syllable
/r/ rolled r (trill) as in perro, spelled rr between vowels; r at the start of a word and after n, l, s (Enrique, alrededor, Israel)
/b/ [b ~ β] b and v (the same sound), spelled b, v
/d/ [d̪ ~ ð] d (dental, soft between vowels), spelled d
/g/ [g ~ ɣ] hard g (and its soft version), spelled g before a, o, u; gu before e, i (guerra, guitarra)
/x/ j as in jamón, spelled j; g before e, i (gente, girar); x in México, Oaxaca, Texas

Voices from Spain, Mexico and Argentina

The course speaks Castilian Spanish, with the “th” of zapato and cielo. In Settings you can switch the voices to a Mexican or an Argentine accent. In both, z and soft c sound like s, and in Argentina ll and y often sound like “sh”. Speaking with seseo is never marked wrong.

What the feedback can't tell you

The recogniser hears words, not sounds. If it writes a word that sounds identical, such as ola for hola, that counts as correct, since the h is silent. It cannot tell you whether your rr rolled. Recognition needs Chrome, Edge or Safari (Firefox doesn't have it), and Chrome sends the audio to Google to do it.

10 rules that make Spanish spelling predictable

c, qu and z: the k and th sounds

ca, co, cu = k; que, qui = k (the u is silent); ce, ci and za, zo, zu = /θ/ (s with seseo). Spelling changes to keep the sound: lápiz → lápices, sacar → saqué, empezar → empecé. K only appears in loanwords (kilo, kiosco).

g, gu and j: the g and throat sounds

ga, go, gu = hard g; gue, gui = hard g (the u is silent); ge, gi and ja, je, ji, jo, ju = /x/. Spelling changes to keep the sound: pagar → pagué, coger → cojo, seguir → sigo.

ü: when the u in güe, güi is spoken

Two dots on the u (diéresis) mean it is pronounced: pingüino = “peen-GWEE-no”. Without them, gue and gui have a silent u. The dots come and go to keep the sound: agua → agüita, averiguar → averigüé.

h is always silent

H is only spelling: hola = “ola”, and hecho (done) sounds the same as echo (I throw). Words starting with hie- and hue- begin with a glide: hielo (“YE-lo”), huevo (“WE-bo”). Ch is a separate sound, not c + h.

Stress and the written accent

Words ending in a vowel, n or s stress the second-to-last syllable (llanas: casa, hablan, lunes). Words ending in any other consonant stress the last syllable (agudas: ciudad, hablar, español). A word that breaks this rule carries a written accent (café, canción, árbol, lápiz), and every word stressed on the third-to-last syllable has one (esdrújulas: teléfono, música, sábado). Accents also separate words that sound alike (tú/tu, él/el, sí/si, más/mas) and split a vowel pair (día, país, río).

ll and y sound the same (yeísmo)

For most speakers ll and y are one sound, so you have to learn which letter a word takes: valla (fence) and vaya (go, subjunctive), halla (finds) and haya (there may be) sound identical. Y alone or at the end of a word is the vowel i: y (and), muy, hoy, rey.

r or rr: tap or trill

Rr is only written between vowels and is always trilled (perro). A single r is also trilled at the start of a word and after n, l or s (rosa, Enrique, alrededor, Israel). When a word starting with r is joined to another, it doubles to keep the trill: pelo + rojo → pelirrojo. Everywhere else r is a single tap: pero, tres, hablar.

b and v are the same sound

B and v are pronounced identically: a full b after a pause or after m or n, a soft b (lips almost touching) elsewhere. So spelling is memory, with two safe rules: always m before b (también, cambiar) and always n before v (enviar, invierno), and nv sounds like “mb”.

x: ks, s, or j in México

Between vowels x = “ks” (taxi, examen, éxito). Before a consonant it is often just s in normal speech (explicar, extranjero). At the start of a word it is s (xilófono). In México, mexicano, Oaxaca and Texas it is the j sound: an old spelling kept in these names, and for México the spelling the Real Academia recommends.

ñ is its own letter

Ñ comes after n in the alphabet and in dictionaries, and is one sound, like the ny of canyon. It is not the same as n + i: compare año (one sound) with Antonio or demonio (n, then a short i). Never write n for ñ: the word changes (cana/caña, una/uña).

The first three lessons of the course teach this from zero: Spanish pronunciation and accent marks.

Questions

How can I practise Spanish pronunciation for free?

Open Speak in SparkAI and read a Spanish sentence aloud. It shows the words the recogniser understood, compares your rhythm and pitch with the model, and suggests which sound to practise. It's free.

Which Spanish sounds are hardest for English speakers?

Usually e as in mesa, o as in todo, u as in uno, single r (tap) as in pero, rolled r (trill) as in perro, b and v (the same sound), d (dental, soft between vowels), hard g (and its soft version), j as in jamón. Most English speakers also stretch the vowels into glides (“no” as “noh-oo”); Spanish keeps each one short and pure.

How do I roll my r in Spanish?

Start with the single r of pero: one quick tap of the tongue tip behind the upper teeth, like the tt in American “butter”. The rolled rr of perro is several of those taps in a row, with the tongue relaxed so the air makes it flutter. The app's mouth map shows the tongue position.

Should I learn the Spain or the Latin American accent?

The course uses Spain's pronunciation, with z and soft c as “th”. Seseo, the s sound used across Latin America and in parts of Spain, is equally correct, and you can choose a Mexican or Argentine voice for listening.

How accurate is the feedback?

Reasonable for whole words, weak on single sounds. Your browser's speech recognition turns what you said into words, and it can write perro after a single tap of the tongue if perro makes more sense in the sentence. For the r sounds, trust the minimal pairs and mouth maps more than the recognised words.

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