Teaching Tip: The Spanish Alphabet
Posted by PLB Registrar · 3 Comments
The Spanish alphabet once had 30 letters. In addition to the 26 letters of the English alphabet, Spanish also included the CH, LL, RR and the Ñ.
But, several years ago three of these letters were eliminated from the alphabet and today only the Ñ remains. The post-1994 Spanish alphabet is made up of a total of 27 letters, the same 26 we have in English plus the letter Ñ.
Practice pronouncing the name of each Spanish letter of the alphabet (el alfabeto or el abecedario).
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Note that as an introduction to the language, proper pronunciation of the sounds made by each letter, NOT the name of the Spanish letter itself, will set the strongest foundation for your success.
Interested in how to pronounce the actual letter names of the Spanish alphabet? See below.
| A: ah | H: achay | Ñ: en yay | U: ooh |
| B: bay | I: e | O: oh | V: bay |
| C: say | J: hota | P: pay | W: doblay bay |
| D: day | K: ka | Q: koo | X: e-kees |
| E: ay | L: ellay | R: erray | Y: e-gree-ay-ga |
| F: effay | M: emmay | S: essay | Z: setta |
| G: hay | N: ennay | T: tay |
From Professional Learning Board’s online continuing education course for teachers: Spanish for Educators
Thanks for the reminder that the norms of Spanish do change! It can be hard to keep up-to-date, and a surprise to see that ch, for example, is not a separate letter in new dictionaries.
I just wrote a post on teaching the letter names on Spanish Playground, but I agree with you, it is the letter sounds that matter most. Of course, the sound is the name for the vowels.
Thanks for the post!
Gracias Jennifer!
Hola! This is a video we’ve made to help to learn Spanish alphabet! We hope It will be helpful and you like it! Best! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3EyBIXvfHc