Of many languages, I would have to say that Spanish pronunciation is much easier than most. It is very phonetic and there are not many silent letters or strange combinations of letters that sound nothing like they look. Before you complain about how hard it is to pronounce Spanish words, think a little about English. For instance, in English we have many words like that are spelled virtually the same but sound completely different like “laughter” and “slaughter” with just the one letter being different.

Another example, if you are learning English phonetically, why would anyone spell “would” with an “l” (or “u” for that matter)? Or “rough” with “gh” instead of “f”? Plus you have to know that sometimes the “k” does not sound like a “k” as in “know”, “knife” “knight”. Or that “Ch” can be a hard “k” sound like “chameleon”, a soft “sh” sound like “champagne” or the sound we most often think of as in “chair” or “cheese”.

Spanish is much, much simpler. And the vowels are the most important.

a= ahh
e= A (like the English letter A)
i– E (like the English letter E)
o =Oh
u= ooh (like ooh la la)

When they are combined together they blend those sounds. For instance:

Hay (ai) ahh ee = I (sounds like the letter I in English)
agua (ua) ooh ah =wah  

Once you know the vowels, pronunciation is pretty much done. There are a few things to know about the other letters in the alphabet.

b and v -sound the same, so if you are getting an email address from someone make sure you find out if it is v de Victor or b de boca.

c and z can both be “s” sounds. For the c it is only if the next letter is “e” or “i”.  In Spain the z (zeta) is pronounced with a lisp, but not in most other countries. However, “c” is a hard “c”  if the next letter is an “o” “u” or “a”.  This is similar in English. For instance: “Century” (s sound)  vs “cat” (hard c sound). In Spanish “cisne” (s sound) vs “carne” (hard c).

ch- is alway the “chair” sound in Spanish, as in the word “chimenea”

  f- anytime you would use “ph” in English, use f  in Spanish (telephone =teléfono)

g- the same rules as the c. If the next letter is an “i” or “e” it sounds like an H in English (jota in Spanish). If the next letter is an “o”, “u” or “a” it is hard.  For instance “gigante” has both soft and hard g= Hee Gant ay. In Puerto Rico I’ve heard some people  use “w” sound with their “gs” as in “Gua gua” (wow wow) or “Mayagüez”. In normative Spanish the “güez” part of the would be “goowez”, but some people say “wez”. Notice the two dots over the u. That signifies a change in pronunciation. If it did not have the two dots it would be “gez”. The two dots add a “w” sound to it. Another example is the word “bilingüe”. It is prononced “Bee Leeng way”. Without the dots it would be “Bee Leeng gay”

h= is silent. It is virtually useless in the spoken word. But has some uses when writing to distinguish meanings (as in “honda” and “onda” or “hay” and “Ay” or “hola” and “ola”)

j= h sound in English. Remember the jalapeño, here.

ll= y sound. Remember, tortillas.

ñ= this adds a “y” to the “n”. So “canon” is “cannon”. But “cañon” is “canyon” with very similar English/Spanish pronunciation.

r = if the r is the first letter in a word it may have a trill. If there is a double r, it will as well. (“Perro” vs “pero” for instance)

w= w is not used in Spanish except when they borrow from another language like English. For instance “whiskey”.

x = can be used like “x” in English or it could be “j” which is the “h” in English. For example: México (may hee ko). Sometimes it goes both ways. I have heard the word “flexible” said both “flake see blay” and “flay hee blay”.

With those basic rules, you can phonetically pronounce nearly any Spanish word! It is much harder to explain in written form than orally, so check out some videos and give it a try for yourself.