There are only 2 regular silent letters in the Spanish language.
But, you’ll need to be careful with both of these letters because they are silent in some words and pronounced in others.
In addition, when I say ‘regular’ silent letters I’m referring to the pronunciation of traditional Spanish words, not words that have been adopted from Greek or other languages.
In this post, I’ll give an overview of the two silent letters in Spanish including where and how you need to use them.
Since this post is about pronunciation, I’ll also include some short mp3 recordings to demonstrate what the words sound like to avoid any confusion with phonetic spelling.
The letter H
The first silent letter in Spanish is the letter H. This letter is always silent unless it is next to the letter C.
When we see the letter C next to an H we need to make a ch sound. This sound is just like the English ‘ch’ sound in words like ‘cheek’ or ‘beach’.
In the Spanish alphabet, the word that represents the letter H is hache. Since this word starts with an H and has a ch, it makes for a great first example to demonstrate the pronunciation of H and ch.
Hache (aitch)
Here are two more examples of words that also start with H:
Hasta (until)
Haber (to have)
Here are two examples with the letter H in the middle of the word:
Ahora (now)
(notice how the H creates a ‘gap’ between the A and the O)
Alcohol (alcohol)
(similarly, notice the H creates an elongation between the two middle O’s) https://rfs-post-audio-2.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/alcohol.mp3
To finish the section on the letter H, here are two examples with a ch:
Echar (to throw)
Hecho (fact)
The letter U
In the majority of Spanish words with a U, the sound you need to make to represent the U is like a double “oo” in English and rhymes with the English word “too”.
Here are two examples of words with the typical pronunciation of the Spanish letter U:
Lugar (place)
Mucho (a lot)
In contrast, the letter U is silent in Spanish words when it is next to a Q or sandwiched in between a G and an E or a G and an I as gui and gue.
Here are some examples with U after a Q:
Porque (because)
Pequeño (small)
Here are some examples with a gui:
Guión (script)
Seguir (to follow)
Here are some examples with a gue:
Guerra (war)
Llegué (I arrived)
(the tilde on the E means you need to pronounce this word with an emphasis on the second syllable)
To make things slightly more confusing, whenever you see a Ü in Spanish with a double dot, you need to pronounce the U sound. You will see this letter in situations like the last two examples as either a güe or a güi.
Here are some examples with a güi:
Pingüino (penguin)
(Notice how the güi sounds like “gwee”)
Lingüística (linguistics)
Here are some examples with a güe:
Vergüenza (embarrassment)
(Notice how the güe here sounds like “gwen”)
Bilingüe (bilingual)
(Notice how the güe here sounds like “gwe”)
Adopted silent letters from other languages
At the start of the post, I mentioned that there are silent letters that occur in words that have been adopted from other languages such as Greek.
Here are a few examples:
- The m in mnemotecnia (mnemonics).
- The p in pterodáctilo (pterodactyl).
- The p in psicólogo (psychologist).
These are fairly low use words so I don’t recommend you spend too much time on them (unless you are a psychologist and need this word to explain what you do).
Your Turn
Choose some examples from this post and practice the pronunciation by copying recordings. Also, try them out with a Spanish native in a language exchange or with a teacher.
As a bonus for reading this post, if you sign up to the Real Fast Spanish School and mention this post in an email, I will offer you a free one-on-one Skype lesson as another opportunity to practice your pronunciation.
If you would like to learn more about pronunciation check out this podcast episode.
How can you remember the silent letters in Spanish?
Podcast: Play in new window
Why is the “g” in “guapo” and “paraguay” silent? Is it only in Latin America or does Spain drop the “g” in those two words as well?
Hola Garry, we need to pronounce the “g” in “guapo” and in “paraguay”. This applies to both Latin America and Spain.
Hola Andrew. I am having such a difficult time pronouncing ahora correctly. I have listened over and over to your recording above. Is it correct to break the sounds down into ah- or- ah (with the accent on the “or”? Thanks!
Hola Amy, there are 3 syllables “ah” – “o” – “ra”, with the emphasis on the middle syllable, so you can think “ah” – “O” – “ra” (with the “h” being silent).
Andrew, you are the best! Thanks so much for your speedy reply. I just practiced with your tips. It is a subtle difference, but I think it sounds better already! BTW, I am going to continue practice with your whole list of words. Many of them are ones that I have trouble with!
Hola, do we pronounce the H in “he” as in “I have”?
It’s silent, we simply need to say only the Spanish “e” sound for this word.
Thank you so much Andrew. This article has taught me all I needed to know about silent letters in Spanish. You’re really the best👍
Thanks for the kind words Nana 🙂
My comment is not related to this post, but rather a youtube that I saw. So, since I’m here…
In your video, you gave the conventional advice as to how to pronounce dipthongs. This conventional wisdom is to “prounce each vowel” in Spanish and run dipthongs together.
But this did not work for me in Chile for the eclipse last year. For example, I tried to say that something was making noise. But it came out ruh-EE-do. Three syllables. Not two. (I still say media with three syllables. because of this false start.)
And the w and y sound is not obvious when you learn dipthongs the conventional way.
Since then I decided that the better way to learn Spanish pronunciation is to memorize the dipthongs, so that they can be recognized and pronounced as one syllable.
It takes a little more time than learning just 5 vowel sounds. But Ay, ay, ay! is it better in the long run.
Thanks for sharing Mike. Yes, I agree, it is useful to pronounce diphthongs naturally. That said, I have worked closely with many Spanish students over the last 7 years of teaching Spanish online and I can say that mistakes with vowels are very common and mistakes with diphthongs are not a big deal. Specifically, if a student says a word in 3 syllables when it is commonly pronounced with 2, but the student gets the vowels correct, every Spanish native will understand exactly what they are saying. But, if the student gets a vowel wrong, natives may not understand.
For example, in your example, if you pronounce “ruh-EE-do” where the “ruh” sounds like the “ru” in the English word “run”, then natives won’t understand this word. But, if you say “roo-EE-do” where “roo” sounds like the “roo” in “roof”, then Spanish natives will understand exactly what you are saying. This is why it is so important to get the vowels right. Then, when you are speaking quickly, again if you are being accurate with your vowels, it can be difficult to distinguish between the 3-syllable and 2-syllable forms.
First, thanks for your reply. I’m honored. Second, I agree that vowel sounds are important and this English speaker has found how lazy I am at paying attention to the vowels themselves, let alone their sounds. (Have found that there’s a difference between “tanto” and “tonto.” Or “hacienda” and “haciendo.” Some Mexican speakers here in Phx laughed at me when I said “cahn permiso” at the grocery store. Not to mention those pesky past tense accents. This exercise in trying to learn Spanish is making me a better listener. (Or it should be. Sometimes I wonder.)) Third, I can see your point (from your Spanish speaking ear) about diphthongs. Perhaps ruido wasn’t the best example then. I’ll give you another that prevented me from being understood in Chile. “Hay.” There is no way that it came out “eye” when I said it before knowing about diphthongs. It was always “ah-ee.” With confused looks. (They could figure out my “desayuno” even tho it came out “des-ah-ee-un-o. (Which brings up another topic. Syllable breaks. I only now found some rules about them and, as you can see from my previous example, I have been doing them wrong. It’s not something that I have seen on yt or other Intro sites when I started trying to learn the basics of Spanish.) Anyway, I appreciate your time. We are somewhat kindred in that I’m a former flight instructor who loved to teach. (And to understand why my students were having trouble in certain areas.)
Hola Mike, your example with “desayuno” is an important one because we can see that if “y” sounded like a Spanish ‘i’ there would be three vowel sounds in a row. In this word, the “y” is the consonant sound similar to the Spanish “ll” which is somewhere between an English “j” and an English “y”.
This example may be elementary, but I’m still confused. How to pronounce “yo”? Isn’t it two syllables: ee-o said quickly?
Hola Bruce, the Spanish word “yo” is only one syllable. In Spanish, the letter ‘y’ is a strange sound for English natives, it is somewhere between an English ‘y’ and an English ‘j’. So, you can think of the Spanish word “yo” like the English name “Jo” except the ‘j’ sound needs to be much softer and the ‘o’ needs to be short and sharp.
What in heaven’s name is a diphthong? No
Hola Leif, a diphthong a sound formed by the combination of two vowels pronounced in one syllable. For example, the “ue” in “puedo” is a diphthong, and we could compare this to the “ue” sound in “guerra” which is not a diphthong because the “u” is silent after a “g”.
Great article and comments as usual, but my big problem on the pronouniation is with the rolling R and especially th RR. Ihave always had trouble with this even i english,eg “around the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran”. Are there any exercises to help with thi pronounciation? I just feel without it my oral spanish will not be understood.
Hola Peter, you absolutely do not need to be able to roll your r’s to be understood. I have a Spanish native friend with a tongue defect and he cannot roll his r’s but everyone understands him just fine. In order of importance, the Spanish vowels are the most important sounds to get right and then the emphasis of syllables in words. If you get your vowels right and your emphasis right, you’ll be understood by every Spanish native in the world, and your Spanish will sound pretty good too!!! 🙂
Hi! Andrew in word “después” in some songs and also while speaking people silent “s” and “u”. Tell me can we really drop the sound of these alphabet in this word.
Hola Muhammad, yes, the “s” will often be silenced in Spanish. But the “u” will generally still be there the “pués” syllable will sound like “pwe”, so the “u” will sound similar to an English “w”.
Hi: I am teaching Spanish sounds to my prek students. How can I explain the sound of the g in gigante. I’m trying to make pictures for them to understand the sounds in English as well as in Spanish and I have encounter some problems. I can’t recalled any words with the sound j (jugo) that have the same sound in English. Does this makes sense?
Hola Sonia, I’m not sure how you are planning to represent the sounds visually, the sound is produced using the back part of the tongue again the soft palate, so you could use an image of the mouth and point to this area. This sound only exists in Scottish English (loch).
Hi.can you please clarify when the s is silent in spanish?which region of hispano mundo does not pronounce t; for example is it eh-ta or estas?
Thanks
There are no “official” rules that tell us when an ‘s’ should be silent. But, natives throughout the Spanish-speaking world will often not produce the ‘s’ sound because of a local accent. I understand that this could happen in any Spanish country.
Hi! Just seeing this now, as we are discussing the word “huevos” at the moment. If you look it up, Huevos Rancheros is commonly misspelled as “Juevos Rancheros” (and huevos as juevos), as apparently this silent /h/ situation isn’t always explained to Spanish learners (I would say this is probably a US school system flaw, as that’s where we are).
So, just to double check, we’re all just pronouncing huevos incorrectly, right? It should really sound something like /ˈwaˌvəʊs/?
Hola Brianna, yes, in the vast majority of Spanish-speaking countries we should pronounce “huevo” as /’we.βo/ where the “h” is silent and the “ue” creates a /we/ sound similar to the “ue” in “puedo”. I understand that in a few sub-regions that this isn’t always true and the “h” could be pronounced in a different way but I would strongly recommend that Spanish students avoid this because it’s uncommon and would sound strange outside of these sub-regions.
Profesor, gracias por tu sitio web. Es muy util para mi. Me pareció interesante tu discusión sobre la pronunciación de los diptongos. No tengo dificultad con la mayoría de los díptongos, pero hay varias palabras que encuentro más difíciles de pronunciar que otras. Uno en particular es la palabra, traería. Cuando hablo con hablantes nativos, lo pronuncian con 3 sílabas. Lo hago con cuatro, pero sigo practicando. Gracias de nuevo.
¡Muchas gracias David! 🙂