Spelling: ll or y

Ortografía: ll o y

Native Spanish speakers don't struggle much with spelling because Spanish is a mainly phonetic language: it's pronounced the way it's written. Each letter has a specific sound, so it's relatively easy to write the words when you hear them.  

However one of the difficulties for Spanish language learners and even Spanish-speakers is knowing when to write a word with ll or - why? because nowadays both are pronounced the same way: they both sound like y. This is called Yeísmo in Spanish.

For example:

la playabeach

la paellapaella

Bear in mind that the pronunciation of ll and y in Argentina and Uruguay is different. See Yeísmo rehilado

 

There are a number of rules that are followed to know whether you need to write a word with ll or y. Let's see the rules for each letter.

Which Spanish words are written with "ll"?

  • Spanish words that start with fa-, fo-, or fu-. For example: fallar, follaje, fuelle.
  • Spanish words that end in -alle, -ella, -elle, -ello, -illa and -illo.  For example: muelle, calle, cabello, molinillo, parrilla,  except for epopeya, plebeyo, zarigüeya,  and omeya.
  • Spanish words that end in -ellar, -illar, -ullar , -ullir and the verb hallar (to find). For example: brillar, maquillar, embullir, sellar.

Which Spanish words are written with "y"?

  • Spanish words with prefixes ad-, des-, dis- and sub-. For example: adyacente, desmayarse, disyuntiva, subyugar.
  • Spanish words that end with dyphthongs -ay, ey,-oy, -uy and their plurals, except for the verbal form fui. For example: rey, cuy, buey, or convoy.  Note that for words ending in -y, the y is pronounced the same way as the vowel "i". See some examples below.
  • Spanish verbal forms/conjugations of verbs that do not contain the y in their infinitive form, for example: distribuir, contribuir; their conjugations in the preterite contain the y: distrubuyó, contribuyó, distribuyeron, contribuyeron.
  • Spanish verbs ayunar (to fast), desayunar (to have breakfast), desmayarse (to faint), and subrayar (to underline).

Although these rules don't cover every word that contains ll and y in Spanish, they are a great help!

Look at some words containing ll and y. Pay attention at how they are pronounced:

ballena, lluvia, cebolla, cuchillo, muellewhale, rain, onion, knife, dock

embotellar, zambullirse, desatornillarto bottle, to dive in, to unscrew

yoga, yeso, yogur, yegua, yateyoga, plaster cast, yoghurt, mare, yacht

rey, muy, buey, proyecto, joya, ayuntamientoking, very, ox, project, jewel, town hall

Be careful not to pronounce the ll  like the letter L  or like two Ls  together. This pronounciation is incorrect:

pollochicken

See also Spelling: b or v and Spelling: h or no h

 

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