Spanish Vowels: Examples And Exercises To Improve Your Pronunciation

If we ask any Spanish speaker how many vowels there are or how many vowels Spanish has, the immediate answer and without hesitation will be that it has five vowels, as everyone knows: a, e, i, o, u. It is something basic for learning the Spanish language in an appropriate way.

Spanish vowels are something every Spanish learner needs to know very clearly from the beginning. That is why in this article we will see:

• How to learn to pronounce the Spanish vowels
• Examples of vowel pronunciation.
• Spanish vowel pronunciation exercises.
• Learn Spanish fast online with the General Español course.

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How to learn to pronounce vowels in Spanish?

Improving your pronunciation in Spanish is essential, and learning the pronunciation of the letters of the aphabet is the first step to being able to speak and read in Spanish correctly. In this article, as mentioned, we will talk about vowels in Spanish and their pronunciation. Let’s get started!

Perhaps the biggest difference between English and Spanish is that Spanish has only five vowel sounds while English has more than 14, according to regional dialects. You should know that in Spanish the vowels are always pronounced the same way, but in English, this changes, for example: “I live in that house” vs “I saw the band at a live show”. The short English sounds for “A” and for “I” do not exist in Spanish. This is the reason why Spanish speakers may find it difficult to differentiate between words like “sat” or “sit”.

#1 The vowels are always pronounced the same way

There are only five vowels in Spanish and will always be pronounced the same way. This is very important to remember, because if you restrict the number of vowels to 5, as opposed to the 14 possible vowel sounds in English, you will be able to pronounce the words correctly in Spanish.

Unlike what happens in English, where the context of the words in the sentence affects the pronunciation of a word (for example: “I live in that house” [I live in that house] vs. “I saw the band at a live show” [I saw the band at a live show]), in Spanish the position of the word does not affect the pronunciation of the vowel it contains.

Spanish has 5 vowels: A – E – I – O – U, which always correspond to the five sounds or phonemes / a /, / e /, / i /, / o / and / u / regardless of position in which the vowel is within a word or the consonants that accompany it, so its pronunciation is very simple. Vowels are the only 5 letters with accents in Spanish.

You just must consider that all the vowels are pronounced clearly and without the mouth relaxing, and that they always have the same duration, whether they have an accent or not.

#2 Spanish vowels are shorter than English vowels

It is important to keep in mind that vowels in Spanish are much shorter than vowels in English. For example, take the letter “O”. When you say the letter “O” in English, it may sound like “Oooohwa”. In Spanish, it’s much shorter and choppy and sounds like: “Oh.”

Although this is not a fundamental detail to learn to pronounce as a beginner, it is important to understand and apply this verbal rule if you want to reach a level of ability like a native to speak Spanish.

#3 Associate the pronunciation of vowels with English terms

Write vowel sounds based on English words and pronounce them out loud. Doing so will provide you with a guide that they can refer to when practicing correct pronunciation of vowel sounds and will make it sound more natural.

• The A will always sound like the “a” in “dad”.
• The E will always sound like the “e” for “elephant”.
• The I will always sound like the “e” in “be” (to be or to be). This letter can be confusing as it sounds the same as the letter “e” in English.
• The O will always sound like the “o” in “oh” or “October” (October). It always has a short sound, and the “u” sound should not be added at the end.
• The U will always sound like the “u” in “flute” (flute) or the Spanish word, “uno”.

#4 Learn the pronunciation of vowels first, then diphthongs

Once you have a better understanding of the five vowel sounds, you will be able to pronounce the combinations of these vowels aloud.

When two vowels are next to each other, a strong one (“a”, “e”, “o”) and a weak one (“I”, “u”), or two weak vowels (“ui”), you need to learn to combine the two vowels into a single syllable forming a diphthong.

The sound begins on the first vowel, then progressively moves toward the sound of the second vowel. Some examples of diphthongs in English can be found in the words “loud,” “foil,” “boy” and “say.”

When talking about Spanish diphthongs, we need to bear in mind a very important thing: a Spanish diphthong can only be formed if we have at least one unaccented weak vowel (the word unaccented is very important here, as you will see in the hiatuses section).

Diphthongs’ pronunciation

• “ai” or “ay” should sound like “eye” in English. Just like the word “air” in Spanish.
• “ei” or “ey” must rhyme with “hay” in English (interjection “ey” in Spanish). Just like the word “king” in Spanish.
• “oi” or “oy” should sound like “oy” in English. Just like in the word “voy” in Spanish.
• “ui” or “uy“, for example, as in the words “muy” or “Luis” in Spanish.
• “ia” should sound like “piano” in English. Just like in the word “media” in Spanish.
• “ie” should sound like “eh” in English. Just like the word “heaven” in Spanish.
• “io” for example, as in the word “delicious” in Spanish.
• “iu” for example, as in the word “widow” in Spanish.
• “au” for example, as in the word “ow” in English. Just like the word “auto” in Spanish.
• “eu” for example, as in the word “Europe” in Spanish.
• “ua” for example, as in the word “box” in Spanish.
• “ue” for example, as in the word “cost” in Spanish.
• “uo” for example, as in the word “fee” in Spanish

Examples of vowels pronunciation

VOWEL	PRONUNCIATION	LIP POSITION	EXAMPLE
/A/ - Opened vowel	Pronounced by placing the tongue away from the palate and in an intermediate position inside the mouth.	Lips must be wide opened and stretched.	Casa, Ana, Vaca.
/E/ - Middle vowel	Pronounced by bringing the tongue a little closer to the palate and placing it in the front of the mouth.	Lips must be slightly opened and stretched.	Elefante, Enfermero, Escritor.
/I/ - Closed vowel	Pronounced by bringing the tongue very close to the palate and placing it in the front of the mouth.	Lips must be separated and stretched.	Icono, Idioma, Iceberg.
/O/ - Middle vowel	Pronounced by approaching the back part of the tongue to the veil of the palate in the back of the mouth.	Lips are closed and a bit rounded.	Octubre, Hola, Móvil.
/U/ - Closed vowel	Pronounced approaching the back part of the tongue to the veil of the palate in the back of the mouth.	Lips close a lot and are rounded.	Iglú, Uva, Uña.

In addition to the vowel I, the letter Y also has the same /i/ sound on some occasions: when it is part of diphthongs and triphthongs and when it is alone in conjunction.

Spanish vowel pronunciation exercise

Complete the following Spanish vowel exercises. At the end of the worksheet, you will find the answers to them.

EXERCISE 1

Fill in each gap with the missing vowel to complete the word:

Caball___ U

Serpi___nte A

T___gre O

G___sano I

Cebr___ E

EXERCISE 2

Practice the following sentences. Fill in the missing vowel.

1. ¿C__ándo vienes?
2. Tengo h__mbre
3. Est__ chico tiene ve___nte años.
4. Me encanta mi nu__vo colegio.
5. He sacado un 10 __n el ex__men
6. ¿Qu___ harías tú?
7. Madrid es la c__pital de España.
8. Me g___sta salir con m__s amigos.
9. El domingo __s el cumpleaños de mi m___dre
10. Me duele l__ c__beza.
11. ¿Tú cr__es que Ana vendrá a l__ fi__sta?

ANSWERS 1

Caballo

Serpiente

Tigre

Gusano

Cebra

ANSWERS 2

1. ¿Cuándo vienes?
2. Tengo hambre.
3. Este chico tiene veinte años.
4. Me encanta mi nuevo colegio.
5. He sacado un 10 en el examen.
6. ¿Qué harías tú?
7. Madrid es la capital de España.
8. Me gusta salir con mis amigos.
9. El domingo es el cumpleaños de mi madre.
10. Me duele la cabeza.
11. ¿Tú crees que Ana vendrá a la fiesta?

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