 Spanish Orthography |
The Spanish Alphabet
The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters: the 26 letters of English plus ñ, which is alphabetized after n. The combinations ch, ll, and rr are no longer considered letters and are not alphabetized separately, though they retain their distinctive sound and cannot be divided in syllabication.
| a |
a
|
j |
jota
|
r |
ere
|
| b |
be
|
k |
ka
|
s |
ese
|
| c |
ce
|
l |
ele
|
t |
te
|
| d |
de
|
m |
eme
|
u |
u
|
| e |
e
|
n |
ene
|
v |
ve, uve
|
| f |
efe
|
ñ |
eñe
|
w |
doble u
|
| g |
ge
|
o |
o
|
x |
equis
|
| h |
hache
|
p |
pe
|
y |
i griega
|
| i |
i
|
q |
cu
|
z |
zeta
|
Stress and Accentuation
Words ending in a vowel or the consonants -n or -s are stressed on the next to last syllable <cerrado, comieron, naranjas>. Words ending in any other consonant are stressed on the last syllable <cerrar, estoy, ferrocarril>. Exceptions to these rules are marked with a written accent over the vowel of the stressed syllable <rubí, noción, francés, árbol, pájaro>. When a diphthong or triphthong requires an accent, it is placed over the strong vowel <cantáis, evaluéis>.
Stress remains on the same syllable in the singular and plural forms. If necessary the written accent is added or dropped to preserve stress <nación, naciones>. The first element of a compound word drops the accent <décimo, decimocuarto>. Adjectives retain the accent when adding -mente to form the adverb even though the stress shifts to the next to the last syllable <útil, útilmente>.
The written accent is used with the weak vowels (i, u) in cases when they do not form diphthongs <hacía, baúl>. It is no longer used with monosyllabic verbs according to rules set by the Spanish Academy in 1952 <dio, fue, vio>.
Capitalization and Punctuation
Capitalization is used less frequently in Spanish than in English. Capital letters are not used with days of the week or months of the year <lunes Monday> <marzo March>. The subject pronoun <yo I> is not capitalized. Names of countries are capitalized but adjectives of nationality and names of languages are not <el rey francés the French king> <estudio español I study Spanish>.
Spanish punctuation differs from English in the use of inverted exclamation and question marks at the start of the exclamation or question <¡qué lástima! what a pity!>. Dialogue is set off by the use of dashes. In numbers, Spanish uses a comma for the English decimal point and a period for the English comma. Thus the English 6,482.83 would be 6.482,83 in Spanish.
Syllabication
Single consonants between vowels join the following vowel <pa[dot]re[dot]ci[dot]do>. The combinations ch, ll, and rr are never separated <te[dot]cho, si[dot]lla, pe[dot]rro>. The letter y is considered a consonant when followed by a vowel <o[dot]ye[dot]ra> but as a vowel in other cases.
Two consonants between vowels are divided <lec[dot]ción, ges[dot]to, gim[dot]na[dot]sia> unless the second consonant is an l or r <a[dot]blan[dot]dar, a[dot]pro[dot]bar>. When more than two consonants occur between vowels, the last consonant joins the following vowel <trans[dot]pa[dot]ren[dot]te> unless it is an l or r <sor[dot]pren[dot]der>.
Two adjacent strong vowels (a, e, o) split into two syllables <ca[dot]er, ro[dot]er>. Diphthongs count as one syllable <tien[dot]da, vue[dot]lo, ra[dot]cio[dot]nal>. An accent over the weak vowel (i, u) makes it strong <ca[dot]í[dot]da, re[dot]ú[dot]ne>. Triphthongs always form one syllable <a[dot]pre[dot]ciáis>.
