Lesson 1. ¡Hola! First words

How Spanish is read

Spanish is spelled almost the way it sounds — good news for a beginner. A few rules you’ll need in this lesson:

Letters	Example	How it sounds
h	hola	silent — the word starts with the vowel sound
ll	calle	in most regions, like the y in yes
c before e, i; z	gracias	in most of Spain, like the th in think; in Latin America and the Canary Islands, like s
b and v	por favor	sound the same; between vowels the lips don’t fully close

Spanish vowels are short and clear: a as in father, e like the vowel in say without the glide, o as in note without the glide at the end. A mark over a vowel (adiós, café) shows the stressed syllable.

Tap 🔊 to hear each word and repeat it out loud. The audio uses the pronunciation of central Spain.

Gender: el and la

English nouns have no grammatical gender — a table is just “it.” In Spanish every noun is either masculine or feminine, and the word for “the” shows which: el for masculine, la for feminine.

That’s why you should learn every noun together with its article: not “mesa,” but “la mesa.” The ending usually gives you a hint:

Ending	Usually	Examples
-o	masculine, el	el libro
-a	feminine, la	la casa, la mesa
-e or a consonant	either	el café, la calle

“Usually” matters: there are exceptions. You’ve already met one — in the greeting buenos días, the word día is masculine even though it ends in -a. For now, learn the greeting as a whole.

Three ready-made phrases

Don’t take these apart word by word — learn them as they are:

• Me llamo… — “My name is…”
• ¿Cómo te llamas? — “What’s your name?”
• Mucho gusto. — “Nice to meet you.”

In Spain, Encantado (said by a man) and Encantada (said by a woman) are also very common when you meet someone. You can use Mucho gusto too.

A Spanish question starts with an upside-down ¿ and ends with a normal ?, so you can see where the question begins.