Pronunciation
The rules of pronunciation are pretty straightforward and, once you get to know them, strictly observed. Unless there's an accent, words ending in d, l, r, and z are stressed on the last syllable, all others on the second last. All vowels are pure and short. A somewhere between the "a" sound of back and that of father E as in get I as in police O as in hot U as in rule C is soft before E and I, hard otherwise: cerca is pronounced "serka". G works the same way, a guttural "h" sound (like the ch in loch) before E or I, a hard G elsewhere - gigante becomes "higante". H is always silent J is the same sound as a guttural G: jamon is pronounced "hamon". LL sounds like an English Y: tortilla is pronounced "torteeya". N is as in English unless it has a tilde over it, as with manana , when it's pronounced like the "n" in onion or menu. QU is pronounced like an English K. R is rolled, RR doubly so. V sounds more like B, vino becoming "beano". X is slightly softer than in English - sometimes almost SH - except between vowels in place names where it has an "H" sound - for example Mexico (Meh-Hee-Ko). Z is the same as a soft "C", so cerveza becomes "servesa". We've listed a few essential words and phrases, though if you're travelling for any length of time a dictionary or phrase book is obviously a worthwhile investment. If you're using a dictionary , bear in mind that in Spanish CH, LL, and N count as separate letters and are listed after the Cs, Ls, and Ns respectively.
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