Learning the Spanish alphabet—called el alfabeto or el abecedario in Spanish—is essential to learning the language. In addition to knowing the letters themselves, you’ll need to know what they’re called (yes, each letter has a name, just like in the English alphabet!), and when and how to use them.
This simple guide covers all of that and more!
What is the Spanish alphabet?
The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters: The same 26 letters that make up the English alphabet, plus “ñ,” which is pronounced a little like the gn in lasagna.
| Letter | Letter name | Example word |
|---|---|---|
| A, a | a | azul blue |
| B, b | be (or be grande, be larga, or be de burro to distinguish it from “v”) | barco boat |
| C, c | ce | carro car |
| D, d | de | diente tooth |
| E, e | e | elefante elephant |
| F, f | efe | familia family |
| G, g | ge | gato cat |
| H, h | hache | hielo ice |
| I, i | i (or i latina to distinguish it from “y”) | iguana iguana |
| J, j | jota | jirafa giraffe |
| K, k | ka | kiwi kiwi |
| L, l | ele | libro book |
| M, m | eme | mano hand |
| N, n | ene | nieve snow |
| Ñ, ñ | eñe | pequeño small |
| O, o | o | ojo eye |
| P, p | pe | perro dog |
| Q, q | cu | queso cheese |
| R, r | erre | reloj clock |
| S, s | ese | sombrero hat |
| T, t | te | tigre tiger |
| U, u | u | uva grape |
| V, v | uve or ve (or ve chica, ve corta, or ve de vaca to distinguish it from “b”) | ventana window |
| W, w | uve doble | wifi wifi |
| X, x | equis | examen test |
| Y, y | i griega | yo I |
| Z, z | zeta | zapato shoe |
The letters “k,” “ñ,” “w,” and “x” are the most rarely-used letters in Spanish. Most words with “k” and “w” are loanwords (like the examples kiwi and wifi above), and even though “ñ” and “x” are a little more frequent, you’ll rarely find them at the beginning of a word!
Just like in English, each Spanish letter has an uppercase, or mayúscula form, as well as a lowercase, or minúscula form. Also, all letters in Spanish are feminine, which is why you’ll see ve chica and i griega—not chico or griego!
Spanish also has two diacritics, or accent marks, that tell you something about how a word is pronounced. The most common one is the acute accent, and any vowel can have it: á, é, í, ó, ú. When you see this accent mark, it means that the vowel that has it is the stressed vowel in the word, and it can sometimes change the word’s meaning and pronunciation! Look at the examples below:
| Word and meaning without accent | Word and meaning with accent |
|---|---|
| bailo I dance |
bailó he/she danced |
| cortes cuts when masculine, (as in “los cortes”) or courts when feminine (as in “las cortes”) |
cortés courteous |
| hacia towards |
hacía I/he/she made |
The second kind of accent mark (called a dieresis) is less common, and it only appears above one letter: ü. Normally, “u” is silent between “g” and “e” or “g” and “i”—like in the words guepardo (cheetah) and and águila (eagle)—but the dieresis is used to show that the “u” is pronounced between these letters. You can find it in words like nicaragüense (Nicaraguan), pingüino (penguin), or a personal favorite, lingüística (linguistics).
How to use the Spanish alphabet
When spelling a name or a word in Spanish, you may sometimes need to clarify which letter you mean by using an example word, especially if you’re on the phone or in a noisy place. For example, you might spell the word guitarra (guitar) by saying g de Gerardo, u de Úrsula, i latina, t de Tomás, a de Alicia, doble r, a de Alicia. Notice how you can just say doble before the letter if it appears twice in a row, instead of saying the letter twice!
Fun facts about the Spanish alphabet
You may have noticed that a few letters in the Spanish alphabet have more than one name, like “b” and “v.” Since these two sounds are pronounced the same in Spanish (like in bate, “baseball bat” and vate, “prophet”), just calling them “be” and “ve” would get confusing! Different names for these letters have cropped up in different parts of the Spanish-speaking world: Some people say “uve” instead of “ve,” while others distinguish them by size—“be grande” (“big b”) or “be larga” (“long b”), and “ve chica” (“little v”) or “ve corta” (“short v”). Others use an example word, like “be de burro” (“b for donkey”) and “ve de vaca” (“v for cow”).
The names “i latina” and “i griega” can also get confusing! In the early days of Spanish, the alphabet only had “i,” and “y” was borrowed from Greek later. Since they can sometimes make the same sound (you might see old texts use the spelling yglesia for “church” instead of the modern spelling iglesia), people needed a way to tell them apart and thus the names i latina (“Latin i”) and i griega (“Greek i”) were born.
There are two other letters you won’t see here: the two-letter segments (also called “diagraphs”) ch and ll, which used to be considered letters of the alphabet because they make a different sound than when the individual letters are used alone. Because of this, you’ll find that older dictionaries list the word charlar (to chat) after the word color (color), and llamar (to call) after the word luz (light)!
There are many dialects of Spanish around the world, and in one dialect, two letters have a different pronunciation! In Latin America, “z,” “ce,” and “ci” are pronounced like the English “s,”, while in Spain they sound like the “th” in think. That means that the letter names of “c” and “z” are ce and zeta in Spain but ce and zeta in Latin America!
Start with the ABCs!
Learning the alphabet is important for learning a new language, but that’s just the beginning! For more tips to help you along your Spanish journey, check out these other guides:
- A beginner’s guide to learning Spanish
- When to use “por” vs “para”
- “Ser” vs. “estar”: What’s the difference?
- Using the preterite and imperfect for past tense
