To the untrained ear, it appears that many Spanish and English pronunciations are very similar.  It is true that English and Spanish both have some of the same influences from Latin as well as an alphabet that contains almost the same characters.  English speakers who are learning Spanish as a second language will usually pronounce Spanish words just as they would pronounce the word in English.  Fortunately, this is close enough to communicate in most instances.  When new Spanish speakers get more practice with the language, their ear is able to distinguish minor differences in pronunciation and they learn to speak Spanish with a much less noticeable accent.

That being said, many Spanish consonants actually do sound very similar to the way they are pronounced in English. For this reason, it is often pretty easy for English speakers who are studying Spanish to learn how to spell words in Spanish.  Here are some examples of consonant pronunciations:

C- can be pronounced two different ways.  It has an ?s? sound when it comes before an ?e? or an ?i?, and a stronger, harsher ?k? sound when it is placed near other letters.

Spanish examples: carro, caso, cebolla, cena

Ch- the ?ch? was actually a separate letter in the Spanish alphabet, but now many modern Spanish books have revised the alphabet to be more similar to English and have omitted the ?ch? as a letter.  It is pronounced almost identically in English and Spanish and sounds like the ?ch? in ?chug? or ?church?.

Spanish examples: churro, chofer, chico, chiste

F- another letter that sounds almost like the English equivalent.  It sounds like the ?f? in the English word ?four?.

Spanish examples: futuro, fresca, fresa

K- is a letter that is not used very much in Spanish words.  In Spanish, you mostly see a ?k? in a word that is of foreign origin like ?kleenex?.  The ?k? sounds just slightly softer than the ?k? in the English word ?keen?.

L- sounds very similar to the ?l? in the word ?lion?

Spanish examples: la, luego, león

M- is very easy for native English speakers to pronounce because it sounds almost identical to the English pronunciation of the ?m? in ?mall?.

Spanish examples: madre, mucho, mesa

N- sounds like the ?n? in ?not?

Spanish examples: noche, nota, andando

P- this is a letter that has a slight difference from the way ?p? is pronounced in English.  It is slightly softer than many words that contain the letter ?p? in English.  It sounds more like the second ?p? in the word ?pop? than the first.  Can you distinguish the difference?

Spanish examples:  pareja, Japón, panza.

Q- as in English, ?q? often combines with ?u? and the ?u? becomes silent.  It sounds like the ?k? in the English word ?kite?.

Spanish examples: que, quizas, Quito

S- pronounced a little more softly than many English words that contain an ?s?.  It sounds more like the ?s? in ?swell? than the buzzing ?z? sound that comes in at the end of the word ?cheese?.

Spanish examples: simple, queso, salsa

T- is similar to the above explanation of the difference between the English and Spanish pronunciations of the letter ?p?.  In Spanish the ?t? is a little softer and sounds more like the second ?t? in the word ?tot? than the first.

Spanish examples: todo, total, tener

W- is a letter that is not used very often in Spanish.  It is found mostly in words that originate in a foreign language.  When native speakers pronounce a ?w? sound it often comes out sounding like a ?gua? sound.

Y- this letter can be either a consonant or a vowel in Spanish.  When it is a vowel it sounds like the ?ee? in ?sheep?.  When it is a consonant as in the word ?yerba? it sounds more like the ?y? in the English word ?yarn?.

Spanish examples: yo, ya, yerba

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