Spanish alphabet facts for kids

The Spanish alphabet is the set of letters used to write the Spanish language. It's based on the Latin alphabet, which is the same one used for English and many other languages. The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters. It's almost the same as the English alphabet, but it has one special extra letter: the letter ñ. This letter is called "eñe" (pronounced EN-yay).

Spanish also uses special marks called "accent marks" on some letters. These marks help you know which part of a word to emphasize when you say it. One cool thing about Spanish is that it's very "phonemic." This means that words are usually spelled exactly how they sound. So, once you learn the sounds of the letters, it's pretty easy to read Spanish words! Even though people might have different accents when they speak Spanish, just like in English, the spelling usually matches the sound very well.

The Letters of the Spanish Alphabet

The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters. Most of them are the same as in the English alphabet. Here are all the letters:

• A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, Ñ, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

The Special Letter: Ñ

The letter ñ is unique to the Spanish alphabet. It's not found in the basic English alphabet. It makes a sound similar to the "ny" in "canyon" or "onion." For example, the Spanish word for "year" is año (pronounced AH-nyo). This letter has been part of the Spanish alphabet for a very long time.

Letters and Their Sounds

One of the best things about learning Spanish is how consistent the letter sounds are. Unlike English, where a letter can have many different sounds (think of the 'a' in "cat," "car," and "call"), most Spanish letters have only one sound. This makes it much easier to read and pronounce new words.

For example:

• The letter 'a' always sounds like the 'a' in "father."
• The letter 'e' always sounds like the 'e' in "bed."
• The letter 'i' always sounds like the 'ee' in "see."
• The letter 'o' always sounds like the 'o' in "go."
• The letter 'u' always sounds like the 'oo' in "moon."

This clear relationship between letters and sounds is why Spanish is called a "phonemic" language.

Accent Marks and Diacritics

Besides the 27 letters, Spanish also uses special marks called "diacritics." The most common one is the acute accent (´), like in é or ó. These accents are very important because they tell you which syllable in a word should be stressed or emphasized when you say it.

For example:

• papa (PAH-pah) means "potato."
• papá (pah-PAH) means "dad."

As you can see, the accent mark changes the meaning of the word by changing where the stress falls.

Another diacritic used in Spanish is the diaeresis (¨), which looks like two dots over a letter, like in ü. This mark is used on the letter 'u' after 'g' and before 'e' or 'i'. It tells you that the 'u' should be pronounced separately, not silently. For example, in the word pingüino (penguin), the 'u' is pronounced. Without the diaeresis, the 'u' would be silent, as in guerra (war).

History of the Spanish Alphabet

The Spanish alphabet has developed over many centuries. It comes from the Latin alphabet, which was used by the ancient Romans. As the Latin language evolved into what we now know as Spanish, some letters were added, and some sounds changed.

The Royal Spanish Academy (Real Academia Española), which is the official institution responsible for regulating the Spanish language, has made decisions about the alphabet over time. For example, the letters 'ch' and 'll' used to be considered single letters of the alphabet. However, in 1994, the Academy decided that they should be treated as combinations of 'c' and 'h', and 'l' and 'l', just like in English. This change made the Spanish alphabet more similar to other Latin-based alphabets.

Why is the Spanish Alphabet Important?

Understanding the Spanish alphabet is the first step to learning the Spanish language. Because Spanish is so phonemic, once you know the sounds of the letters and the rules for accent marks, you can read almost any Spanish word correctly. This makes it much easier to learn to speak and understand Spanish, which is spoken by millions of people around the world!

Images for kids

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  Ortografía de la lengua española (2010)

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  Cover of the first volume of the Diccionario de autoridades, showing obsolete usages like "Phelipe", "eſta", "Impreſsór".