Exploring Spanish and Spanish words.

The English word for the language is "Spanish". The Spanish word for the language outside of Spain is español. Within Spain, the name of the language is dependent upon context: When contrasted with languages of other countries, the name is español, but when contrasted with other languages of Spain (EG: Catalan), the name is castellano (after the Castile region).

The ISO 639 codes for Spanish are es and spa.

Alphabet and Pronunciation

The Spanish alphabet is a superset of the English alphabet. 30 letters, equivalent to the 26 letter English alphabet + 4 letters (ch, ll, ñ, and rr). Spanish pronunciation is so easy and systematic, that a computer reading Spanish text out loud sounds natural (in contrast English spoken by a computer sounds unnatural).

  letra ("letter") EGs: English EGs: español Notes
1 a a father padre  
2 b be baby bebé Pronounced same as v.
3 c ce car
a>id (if before e or i)		 carro
ácido		  
4 ch che church chico ("little boy")  
5 d de devil diablo  
6 e e met (if starting)
café (if ending)		 efe
efe		  
7 f efe freeze frío  
8 g ge ghost
host (if before e or i)		 gordo ("fat")
mágico		  
9 h hache (silent) hacer ("to do/make")  
10 i i tiara, feet si ("yes")  
11 j jota harden jardin ("garden")  
12 k ka kilometer kilómetro Mostly foreign words.
13 l ele little (not little) los ("the")  
14 ll elle yellow (not yellow) amarillo  
15 m eme mother madre  
16 n ene nice
mice (if before b, v, f, or p)		 no
en vez de ("instead of")		  
17 ñ eñe canyon cañón  
18 o o bone    
19 p pe spot (softer than pot) padre ("father")  
20 q cu quit que (u is silent following q) Pronounced like k. Mostly foreign words.
21 r ere   pero ("but") Single-flap trill.
22 rr erre   perro ("dog") Multi-flapping trill.
23 s ese Susan Susana  
24 t tu stop (softer than top) todo ("all")  
25 u u tune universo ("universe")
que (u is silent following q)		  
26 v ve bouncer vencer ("to vanquish") Pronounced same as b.
27 w doble u Watt Watt  
28 x equis exit éxito ("success")  
29 y i griega ray
sexy		 rey ("king")
sexy		  
30 z zeta sorrow zorro ("fox)  

 

Glossary

cognados
similar words in Eng-Esp
cosa
thing
bebida
n drink
deportes
sports
soy
I am
eres
you are
es
you/he/she is
de nada
you're welcome
mucho gusto
pleased to meet you
encantada
delighted (to meet you)
igualmente
likewise
juego
game
me/te/le gusta
I/you/you like...
comer
to eat
librería
bookstore
residencia
dorm
biblioteca
library
esquiar
to ski
jugar
to play (sports)
nadar
to swim
¿Por que no te callas?
Why don't you shut up?
querencia
From the verb querer = to want, to desire. The word querencia is most associated with bull fighting. Querencia is where a bull feels at home, safe, in charge, in control, grounded. The matador does not want the bull to fight the bull in the bull's querencia because there the bull is most dangerous.
tocar
to play (music)
ir a
to go to
seny
Common sense; the ability to make money, arrange things, and get things done.
rauxa
Raucous; reckless; a redeeming touch of madness.

Links

Here are links that lead to off-site pages about Spanish.

Page Modified: (Hand noted: 2008-01-30 14:59:46Z) (Auto noted: 2010-12-24 22:58:45Z)