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 y - why? because nowadays both are pronounced the same way: they both sound like y. This is called Yeísmo in Spanish.
For example:
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:
Be careful not to pronounce the ll like the letter L or like two Ls together. This pronounciation is incorrect:
See also Spelling: b or v and Spelling: h or no h
