Transliteration of Spanish
A correspondence table between the Spanish script and Latin letters: 30 letters, with names and sounds. The rendering is practical — it exists so you can read aloud and be understood, not to meet a scholarly standard.
Spanish character → Latin
| Character | Name | In Latin | How it sounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| A a | a | ah | A clean 'ah'. Unstressed, it never fades toward 'uh' the way English vowels do |
| B b | be | b | Between vowels it softens: the lips barely close, halfway to the v-sound of very |
| C c | ce | k, and s before e and i | K before a, o, u; 's' before e and i. In Spain that 's' is interdental, like the English th in 'think' |
| D d | de | d | At the end of a word it almost disappears: 'Madrid' comes out close to 'Madri' |
| E e | e | eh | Always 'eh', never the muffled English schwa or 'yeh' |
| F f | efe | f | An ordinary 'f' |
| G g | ge | g, but a harsh h before e and i | G before a, o, u; a harsh, throaty 'h' before e and i |
| H h | hache | silent | Never pronounced. The letter is there, the sound is not |
| I i | i | ee | A clean 'ee', never the diphthong of English 'eye' |
| J j | jota | harsh h | A harsh 'h' with a scrape from the throat, stronger than the English one |
| K k | ka | k (loanwords only) | An ordinary 'k' |
| L l | ele | l | Like the 'l' in 'light', never the dark 'l' at the end of 'full' |
| M m | eme | m | An ordinary 'm' |
| N n | ene | n | An ordinary 'n' |
| Ñ ñ | eñe | ny | A soft 'ny' in one sound, as in the middle of 'onion' or 'canyon' |
| O o | o | oh | A clean 'oh' even without stress: 'Toledo' stays 'toh-LEH-doh', not 'tuh-LEH-doh' |
| P p | pe | p | An ordinary 'p', with no puff of air after it |
| Q q | cu | k (only in que and qui) | Always paired with a silent u: que — 'keh', qui — 'kee' |
| R r | erre | tapped r | A single tap of the tongue inside a word. At the start of a word and after n, l, s it is rolled, like rr |
| S s | ese | s | Always a hissing 's'; between vowels it never buzzes into 'z' the way it does in English 'roses' |
| T t | te | t | An ordinary 't', tongue tip against the teeth |
| U u | u | oo | A clean 'oo'. Silent in que, qui, gue, gui |
| V v | uve | b (same sound as b) | Sounds exactly like b. There is no English-style v-sound in Spanish at all |
| W w | uve doble | v or w (loanwords only) | In borrowings either sound turns up: 'Wagner' with a v, 'wifi' with a w |
| X x | equis | ks | Usually 'ks'. In words of Native American origin — 'h' |
| Y y | i griega | y, or ee as a standalone word | Y before a vowel. On its own the word 'y' (and) is read 'ee' |
| Z z | zeta | s (interdental in Spain) | In Latin America — an ordinary 's'. In Spain — interdental, like the English th in 'think' |
| Ch ch | che | ch | An ordinary 'ch' as in 'church' |
| Ll ll | elle | y (as in 'yes') | Y. In Argentina and Uruguay — 'zh' |
| Rr rr | erre doble | rolled rr | A long rolled r — the tongue flutters several times |
How practical transliteration differs from the scholarly kind
Any script has several Latin renderings, and they solve different problems. The scholarly one (ISO, GOST) is reversible: the original spelling can be restored character for character — which is why it is full of marks that are not on any keyboard and that nobody ever reads aloud correctly.
The practical one solves the reverse problem: a person reads it aloud and is understood. That is what the table above uses, and that is what our courses use.
What to watch out for
A letter of its own and three combinations. ñ is the only letter Latin does not have by default. ch and ll stopped being letters in 2010 but stayed sounds; rr was never a letter at all.
The letters that mislead. This is where Spanish departs most sharply from what an English reader expects — and where its most frequent beginner mistakes live.
Five vowels — and exactly five sounds. Spanish's main gift: only five vowels, they never reduce, and they sound the same stressed and unstressed.
Read exactly as they look. Nothing to learn here: the sound is exactly the one you expect.
Frequently asked
How to write Spanish text in Latin letters?
Using the table above, character by character. The practical rendering records sound, not spelling, so the original text cannot always be restored from it backwards.
Why do transliterations differ across sources?
Because they solve different problems: the scholarly one is reversible and precise, the practical one is readable, the passport one is fixed by the country's rules. They are not required to agree.