The Spanish alphabet is very similar to English except for 'ñ'. Some years ago the alphabet also included as letters; 'll' and 'ch', but it is no longer the case.

I have pronounced each letter for you. Click each star to hear the sound of that letter above it. Click on the star with 'All' above it to hear the whole alphabet.

You may wish to practice this over and over again. You may download the sound files this into your own computer for later reference, but you may not distribute it or place it on your web site. Thanks.

All

The first thing you should learn about Spanish is that it is a very expressive language. You don't only use words to communicate with people but you use expressions in your face, hands and body. Some countries are more expressive than others, such is the case of Argentina, having a big population with a Italian background makes their expressions even stronger than other Latin-American countries.

If you're in a situation and you don't know how to say something, don't be afraid to use your hands to point to something or use other kinds of expression to show what you want to say. Spanish and Castellano are very similar languages, we are going to learn which are the most common differences and how to apply these differences in daily conversations.

1) What's your name? /Cuál es tu nombre?
2) How old are you?/ Cuántos años tienes? (Español) Cuántos años tenés? (Castellano)
3) What do you do?/A que te dedicas? (Español) A que te dedicás? (Castellano)
4) Where are you from?/De donder eres? (Español) De donde sos? (Castellano)

In these examples you can see that some letters has a little sign over them. This is called "tilde or acento" and means that you have to give emphasis to that syllable.

Now, lets study the pronounces and see the differences:

*Vosotros sois only is applied in Spain.

Note: Even if in some Latin-American countries the people speak Castellano, in the schools they teach the conjugations in Spanish but the people don't talk like that.

The big difference between Spanish and Castellano is that in Spanish we say "Tú" (You) but in Castellano we say "Vos" (you). Both of them has the same meaning but since they are different, the conjugation of verbs change too.

Example: Tú eres un maestro (Español) / Tú tienes 25 años (Español)
Vos sos un maestro (Castellano) / Vos tenés 25 años (Castellano)

If this is the first time you heard about Castellano then you probably think it is quite different to Spanish. It seems so but it's not. In a period of time you'll have to learn Spanish, you'll see how easy you can learn Castellano too. You'll talk two different languages and you will be able to communicate with anybody in any Spanish-speaking country.

Numbers are a very important part in the process of learning any language. Probably are one of the basic things you learn in Spanish.

one - uno
two - dos
three - tres
four - cuatro
five - cinco
six - seis
seven - siete
eight - ocho
nine - nueve
ten - diez
eleven - once
twelve - doce
thirteen - trece
fourteen - catorce
fifteen - quince
sixteen - dieciséis
seventeen - diecisiete
eighteen - dieciocho
nineteen - diecinueve
twenty - veinte