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Spanish Alphabet

SPANISH:

El abecedario español está formado por las veintinueve letras siguientes:

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.

Esta variante española del alfabeto latino universal ha sido utilizada por la Academia desde 1803 (sexta edición del Diccionario académico) en la confección de todas sus listas alfabéticas. No obstante, en el X Congreso de la Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, celebrado en 1994, se acordó adoptar para los diccionarios académicos, a petición de varios organismos internacionales, el orden alfabético latino universal, en el que la ch y la ll no se consideran letras independientes. En consecuencia, estas dos letras pasan a alfabetizarse en los lugares que les corresponden dentro de la C (entre -cg- y -ci-) y dentro de la L (entre -lk- y -lm-), respectivamente.

ENGLISH:

The Spanish alphabet is formed by the following twenty-nine letters:

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.

This Spanish variant of the universal Latin alphabet has been used by the Academy since 1803 (sixth edition of the Academic Dictionary) in the preparation of all its alphabetical lists. Nevertheless, at the Tenth Congress of the Association of Spanish Language Academies, held in 1994, it was agreed to adopt for academic dictionaries, at the request of various international organizations, the universal Latin alphabetical order, in which the ch and the ll are not considered independent letters. As a result, these two letters come to be alphabetized in the places which correspond to them within the letter C (between -cg- and -ci-) and within the letter L (between -lk- and -lm-), respectively.


LETTERS

The names for the Spanish letters, in order, are the following:

a (a), be (b), ce (c), che (ch), de (d), e (e), efe (f), ge (g), hache (h), i (i), jota (j), ka (k), ele (l), elle (ll), eme (m), ene (n), eñe (ñ), o (o), pe (p), cu (q), ere (r), erre (rr), ese (s), te (t), u (u), uve (v), uve doble (w)*, equis (x), i griega (y), zeta/zeda (z)

*The Oxford Spanish Dictionary, second edition, lists four ways to say "w" in Spanish: "doble ve," "doble u," or, in Spain: "doble uve" or "uve doble." The Real Academia Española uses "uve doble," but "doble u" seems more common in Latin America.

These letter names are, of course, prounounced with Spanish pronunciation; not "ay," "bee," "cee," (as in English), but:
"ah," "bay," "say" ("thay," in Spain), "chay," "day," "ay," "AY-fay," "hay," "AH-chay," "ee," "HOH-ta," "kah," "AY-lay," "AY-lyay," "AY-may," "AY-nay," "AY-nyay," "oh," "pay," "coo," "AY-ray," "AY-rray," "AY-say," "tay," "oo," "OO-vay," "OO-vay DOH-blay" (or "DOH-blay OO"), "AY-kees," "EE gree-AY-gah," and "SAY-tah" ("THAY-tah," in Spain).

ALPHABET:  use this table and pronounce them as if you were speaking English.
TIP:  For all the letters that end in "y" stop the pronunciation at the last sillable before the"y"
for example:  for B=bay, stop at ba- don't pronounce the "y" for closer Spanish sound.

A

ah 
Bbay   
Csay   
CHchay  
Dday   
Eay 
Fay-fay 
Ghay 
Hah-chayalways silent!
Iee, 
JHOH-ta 
KKah 
LAY-lay 
LLAY-yay 
MAY-may 
NAY-nay 
ŇAY-nyay 
OOh 
Ppay   
Qcoo 
RAY-ray 
RR*AY-rray 
SAY-say 
Ttay 
Uoo 
Vvay 
WDOH-blay bayor: DOH-blay OO
XAY-kees    
Yyayor: EE gree-AY-gah
ZSAY-tah" THAY-tah,  in Spain
* For those who want to know more:  There is some controvery about how many letters are there in the 
   Spanish Alphabet (29 is the accepted number)
Alphabet Letters In Spanish - Inclusions/Exclusions:
Traditionally, there was a separate letter rr in the Spanish alphabet.
However, this is no longer the case and the Real Academia Española no longer considers it a letter.
In addition, in 1994, the Association of Spanish Language Academies agreed to sort ch and ll as ordinary pairs of letters by request of UNESCO and other international organizations - while keeping them as distinct letters for other purposes.
 
In other words, if looking up the word chorizo in a dictionary, it will now be listed between ce and ci and 
NOT between c and d, as it was formerly listed.
To sum up:  ch and ll are considered separate letters, but are not treated that way for alphabetizing,  
and rr is considered a separate letter by many.
Confused?  Don't be, just learn to pronounce them appropiately and leave the specifics for others to worry about…. ☺

    

           

A website we recommend for questions about Spanish expressions/words:  www.wordreference.com

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