The Spanish Alphabet

According to La Real Academia, which is considered the arbiter of what's official Spanish, the following 29 letters make up the Spanish alphabet: In 2010, the REA decided to remove ch and ll are to letter to make a sound as in the table bellow. They also decided that the letters should have one sound even though  there are different ones in others countries.

a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z

Letter Sounds

Letter	Sound	Examples:
A a	a	Antonio	Ana
B b	be	Benito	Bolivia
C c	ce	Carlos	Cecilia
Ch ch  (removed from the alphabet by REA)	che	Pancho	Concha
D d	de	Domingo	Dolores
E e	e	Eduardo	Elena
F f	efe	Fernando	Francisca
G g	ge	Gerardo	Guatemala
H h	Hache	Héctor	Hortensia
I i	I	Ignacio	Inés
J j	Jota	José	Juana
K k	Ka	Kilometro	Kansas
L l	ele	Luis	Lola
LL ll  (removed from the alphabet by REA)	Elle	Guillermo	Sevilla
M m	Eme	Manuel	María
N n	Ene	Nicolás	Nación
Ñ ñ	Eñe	España	Begoña
O o	O	Octavio	Olivia
P p	Pe	Pablo	Pilar
Q q	cu	Enrique	Raquel
R r	Ere, erre (only acceptable pronunciation per REA)	Alvaro	El Perú
S s	Ese	Salvador	San Juan
T t	Te	Teresa	Tomas
U u	U	Agustin	Lucia
V v	Ve , uve (España)	Victor	Venezuela
W w	Uve Double	Oswaldo	Wilma
X x	Equis	Extremadura	Xavier
Y y	I griega, ye ( to simplify)	Yolanda	Pelayo
Z z	zeta	Gonzalo	Esperanza

 

  






PRONUNCIATION

Spanish and English consonants are generally pronounced the same, with a few exceptions.

B and V have the exact same pronunciation.

The sound is similar to the English "b", but softer and with more of a “bv” combination sound. (vivir, beber).

C is pronounced as the English “k” when followed by “a”, “o”, or “u” (caja, color and culebra). However, "c" is pronounced as the English “s” when followed by an “e” or an “i” (cerveza, cinta)

CH is pronounced as "ch" in "church".

D is pronounced softer in Spanish than in English. "D" after a vowel or at the end of the word is pronounced like the English "d", only much lighter (encarnado, Madrid).

G can be pronounced hard as in the English words goose or game, or soft as in the English words “gem” or “giraffe”. Different "g" sounds occur in the English language as well, according to the letters following the "g". As in English, the Spanish "g" is generally soft when followed by an “e” or an “i” and hard when followed by an “a”, “o” or “u”. The hard "g" pronunciation is the same in Spanish and English, whereas the soft "g" sound differs. The "g" in ganar (to win, earn) is the same as the English version in grape or gain. However, the soft "g" in Spanish is pronounced like the English letter “h”. For example, the soft "g" in gente (people) or gimnasio (gymnasium) is pronounced like the English “h” in head or hello.      
  EXCEPTION

An exception to the Spanish pronunciation rule exists when the letter "g" precedes the letters “ue” or “ui”. The Spanish g is a hard sound before the letters “e” or “i” if the letter “u” is placed after the "g" and before the “e” or “i”. The intent of the “u” after the "g" is to make the hard "g" sound and thus the “u” is not pronounced. The hard "g" sound exists and the “u” is silent as in the words guerilla and guitarra (guitar). H in Spanish is always silent and not pronounced. J in Spanish is pronounced like the English “h” as in hello or hurry. Ñ The Spanish letter ñ is pronounced like the “ny” in the word canyon or the “ni” in opinion (niño). It is listed after the letter "n" in the dictionary. Qu is pronounced like the English “k” (química). T as in “tea” is pronounced softer than the English equivalent (texto).

 
  DOUBLE CONSONANTS

Spanish differs from English in that consonants are rarely doubled. In English, letters such as “t”, “s”, and “f” can be used singly or doubled to produce the same sound (attention, professor).

The two Spanish letters, "ll" and "rr" appear to be doubled consonants, but are actually letters of the Spanish alphabet (before1994).  The letter "ll" is pronounced like the English “y” in “yard”. The letter "rr" is pronounced with a rolling "r" sound. The tongue should be rolled to produce the rolling "r" sound for an "r" at the beginning of a word or when the letter "rr" is found within a word (pelirrojo).


 This is my old video which includes letters not longer in the Spanish alphabet.

     



 New Video with tthe changes from the Real Academia Española   


   



This what The Real Academia had to say about the letter "r"

Loosely translated:

" In the academic grammar has been habitual until now to use two names for this letter, /erre/ and /ere/, reserving this last one when there was a wish to represent the vibrant phoneme simple as in "coro" in opposition to the phoneme vibrant multiple in "ramo" or "enredo". In some grammar instances of the XIX century, this names were distributed in different ways, because the letter "r" was named /ere/- independent of its phonological value-and /erre/ rr, distribution which was logic,but added more confusion to the use of those two letters. the double denomination of the "r" in function of its phonological value constitutes in reality an anomaly, because none of the other letters that represent also various phonemes received more than one name. As consequence,and to prevent more confusions that could arrive to more double denominations, it is recommended to remove definitively  the name /ere/ for this letter, that from now on will be called only /erre/.

In perfect coherence with the name /erre/ for the "r", the digraph rr will be called /erre doble/ or /doble erre/."

(§ 5.4.3.1) Ortografía de la lengua española ©.
Real Academia Española.   

What does it mean?

It means that from now on the sound of the letter "r" is /erre/ as in the video.