Getting Started

Spanish is spelt the way it sounds: learn the few letters that differ from English and you can read any word aloud and spell what you hear.

Each vowel keeps one short, pure sound in every word, so once you know the five you can read casa, mesa or libro straight off the page. Ñ is a separate letter (like "ny" in canyon), ll sounds like the "y" in yes, and h is always silent (hola). The usual mistake is carrying English vowels across: no is one short "o", not "noh-oo". To spell a word aloud, use the letter names (a, be, ce, de, e, efe, ge, hache, i, jota...) and say con tilde for an accent: i con tilde.

Exam tip: The dictation and the read-aloud task both test these sounds.

Practise every GCSE sound with short dictations →

A few consonants don't sound as they do in English, and these are the ones the dictation and the read-aloud task check.

J is a breathy "h" (jugar), and so is g before e or i (gente, página). A single r between vowels is one quick tap (pero, but), while rr is rolled (perro, dog), so the two words sound different. In Spain, z and c before e or i sound like the "th" in think (zapato, cine). B and v sound the same (vale, bien), and in que, qui, gue and gui the u is silent (queso, guitarra).

Exam tip: In the dictation, a "th" sound is written z or c, and a breathy "h" sound is j or g: never h, which is silent.

An accent shows where the stress falls when a word breaks the normal rule; it also tells apart pairs like el (the) and él (he).

Two rules cover most words. If a word ends in a vowel, n or s, stress the second-to-last syllable (hablo, examen); if it ends in any other consonant, stress the last one (hablar, español). A written accent marks a word that breaks these rules (teléfono, canción), so stress the accented syllable, and keep accents when you write: el (the) and él (he) are different words.

Every noun is masculine or feminine, and the article and adjectives follow it, so learn each noun with el or la.

Most nouns ending in -o are masculine and most ending in -a are feminine, but common ones break the pattern (el día, la mano), so the ending alone isn't enough. For nouns ending in -e or a consonant (la calle, el pan) you simply have to learn the article. Learning mesa on its own is the usual mistake: learn la mesa, because the article tells you which form of each adjective to use.

You need them to read verb tables; in sentences Spanish usually leaves them out, because the verb ending shows who it is (hablo: I speak).

Each verb ending already shows who is doing it (hablo, hablas, habla), so Spanish adds the pronoun only for emphasis or contrast: yo juego al fútbol, pero él no. Putting yo before every verb is a common mistake and sounds translated. Tú is for friends and family and usted is the polite "you", which takes the same verb form as él and ella; in Spain, vosotros is the everyday "you all".