Costa Rica Pronunciation

Spanish pronunciation is very simple. Each vowel is pronounced only one way: a (“ah” in father); e (“e” in “convey”); i (“ee” in “beet”); o (“oh” in “tote”); u (“oo” in “boot”); y, by itself, is pronounced like the English “ee.” Most consonants are pronounced the same as in English. Important exceptions are: j (“h” in “hello”), ll (“y” in “yes”); ñ (“ny” in “canyon”); rr (trilled “r”); h (always silent); x (either “h” when in the middle of a word or like in English when at the end). The letter c is pronounced like an English “s” before “soft vowels”—e and i—and like the English “k” before “hard vowels”—a, o, and u. Z sounds like the English “s.”

By rule, the stress of a Spanish word falls on the second-to-last syllable if the word ends in a vowel, n, or s. If the word ends in any other consonant, the stress is on the last syllable. Any word in which the accent does not follow the rule carries an accent mark over the stressed syllable.

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