Now you are ready to learn the names of the letters of the Spanish alphabet. All of them are feminine.

Why do we say that the letters are feminine?

For euphony we say that nouns ending in o are masculine, and nouns ending in a are feminine. Of course we have exceptions. Now the word "letra" means "letter". Please divide it into syllables, repeat it, and memorize it. you see that the word "letra" ends in "a", so it is a feminine noun: la letra, las letras.

In the first lesson, we studied some syllables with more than one vowel, for instance: gua, mie, viu, vuel, etc., and some with only one vowel. Is there any rule about the number of vowels that each syllable ought to have?

Yes. When one strong vowel is combined with one weak one (remember the strong vowels are a, e, and o, and the weak vowels are i and u), and the strong one has the accent, that is to say, when the stress falls on one of the vowels a, e or o (and never on i or u), we do not separate them; together they form a syllable with the consonants which accompany them. This is what we call a diphthong. When a strong vowel comes between two weak ones, and the strong one has the accent, we do not separate them either. They form what we call a triphthong. Only in these cases can a syllable have two or three vowels together. The vowels of a diphthong or a triphthong must never be separated. When the accent falls on one of the weak vowels, i or u, no diphthong is formed, and the vowels must be pronounced separately.

At all stages of this study, we must continue our exercises in pronunciation. Please repeat three times each: a, e, i, o, u; sa, se, si, so, su; pa, pe, pi, po, pu; la, le, li, lo, lu; gra, gre, gri, gro, gru; fla, fle, fli, flo, flu.

The Spanish Accent

We still have several letters that we need to explain: The letter y (or i griega) has two different sounds. Sometimes it is a consonant. When it is a vowel, it sounds exactly like the Spanish vowel "i latina" or "i" in English, and when it is a consonant, it is like the English "y" in the word "you". Y or Y griega is a vowel when it appears alone: y. In that case it is a word which means "and". Y is also a vowel when it comes at the end of a word, after a vowel.

 

In these exercises we've given you only those consonants which have the same sound in English and in Spanish. Now, we are going to give those consonants which have different pronunciations. We have in Spanish three consonants that English does not have at all: elle, written ll, che, written ch, and eñe (ñ). Also the consonant "h" is never sounded, it is always silent: For example, Spanish words spelled ha, he, hi, ho, hu would be pronounced a, e, i, o, u.