Learn about the letters of the alphabet in Spanish
In Spanish, the letters of the alphabet are feminine.
Read and listen to these examples:
Note that when you are spelling a word you do not need to use articles (la or una). For example, to spell "Antonio" you would say:
There are 27 letters in the Spanish alphabet. Here you can see how they are written out in full and listen to the audio to hear how they are pronounced:
Note: Depending on when you learned Spanish, you may have learned about two letters that are no longer considered as letters in their own right. However, you may still hear people use them when they are spelling a word so it is useful to know about them. These letters are:
- the letter "ch"
- the letter "ll"
In addition, some letters are known by more than one name. Here are the most notable cases:
- the letter "v"
Some people call this letter "la ve baja" (low v) or "la ve pequeña" (little v). This is because "la ve" (the letter V) and "la be" (letter B) are pronounced identically for the majority of Spanish speakers.
- the letter "b"
Some people call this letter "la be alta" to differenciate it from "la ve baja/pequeña" (letter v)
- the letter "y"
In some regions of Latin America, some people call this letter "la ye" (instead of i griega) to completely distinguish the letter y from the letter i.
- the letter "i"
Some people call this letter "la i latina" to differentiate it from the letter "y" when it is known as "la i griega".
-
the letter "w"
In some regions in Latin America the letter w is also called “la doble ve”, because it looks like to two “v”s together.
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