About This Quiz
Spelling in Spanish can be trickier than in English. Even though the alphabet is basically the same (plus one letter; which you can find out about by taking the quiz), there are several types of accents, and misplacing them can change the entire meaning of a word. For example, “el†means “the,†but “él†means “he.â€
Accents aside, entire consonants and vowels are pronounced differently, and if you don’t know the rules, it’s hard to guess the spelling of a word. Sounding it out phonetically may take you entirely in the wrong direction. Do you know what the letter J sounds like in Spanish? You will by the end of this quiz. What about two Rs in a row? How is that different than one R? What about two Ls in a row? What about a Y standing by itself? Is that a word?
If you’re going to learn a second language, some would contend that Spanish is the best choice. It originated in Spain, but it’s also the official language across the vast majority of central and South America. It’s the second-most spoken language in the U.S., second only to English.
Mastering a language’s spelling is a great way to hone your pronunciation and improve your vocabulary. Scroll down to start this quiz and test your knowledge!
The "h" is silent, so the word is pronounced "OH-la." Not to be confused with "¡olé!" That's an interjection commonly used by riled up Spanish bullfighters (matadores) in the ring. Did you notice that punctuation? When a sentence ends with an exclamation point or a question mark, it's also preceded by the same punctuation mark, upside down.
Naranja is pronounced "nah-RAHN-ha," so if you guessed the first option, you were close. This is the name for the orange fruit. The color orange, if you were wondering, is anaranjado ("ah-nah-rahn-ha-do"), otherwise known as the five-syllable bane of every elementary school language learner's existence.
In Spanish, "dog" is "perro," pronounced "PAY-roh"... Well, sort of like that. Every time you see two Rs in a row, you roll them. Learning to roll your Rs in speech is a big part of speaking like a native. The word "pero," as you might remember from before, means "but."
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Pronounced "ess-pahn-yole." The wiggly line over the N is called a "tilde" (till-day). However, don't think of Ñ as a regular N with an accent; it's a whole separate letter. As you see above, it makes a sound like N and Y combined. Spanish uses the letter N too, and it's pronounced within a word the same as our letter N. Confused yet? One more thing: in English, we always capitalize language names. En español, language names are only capitalized at the beginning of a sentence.
¡El tÃo! "The uncle." Maybe you have a favorite uncle, maybe you have a creepy uncle, maybe you don't have any uncles at all. Either way, it's a good word to know. "The aunt" is "la tÃa." When uncle and aunt are plurals, you use "los" and "las" instead of "el" and "la."
In Spanish, the verb "to sing" is "cantar." Spanish verbs can be confusing for native English speakers, because they're conjugated differently for different subject pronouns. "I sing" is "canto," but you/we/he/she/you all/they all have different endings.
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Starting with Monday, the other days of the week are lunes, martes, miércoles, jueves, viernes and sábado. (Well, "y sabado," if we want to keep it all in Spanish.) Remember how we said that language names aren't capitalized in Spanish? The days of the week aren't either. Same goes with months and names of religions.
In Spain, a car is a coche (pronounced "CO-chay.") In Latin America, it's more common to hear the term "carro." As is English, the word auto (pronounced "OW-toe") works too, although it's not as common.
Pronounced "say-BOY-a," cebolla is the Spanish word for onion. When a word contains two Ls in a row, they're pronounced like the letter Y in English. When Y is behaving as a consonant, that is.
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La escuela is how you say "the school" in Spanish. Here, your profesores might have taught you all about las matemáticas, la sciencia, la historia y el inglés. Maybe you studied a little español, or perhaps el francés was the foreign language you learned.
The word for "and" is pretty simple. It's just "y" (pronounced "ee"), but (pero), there are lots of other conjunctions you should know if (si) you want to speak Spanish like a pro. You can learn mientras (while) you're taking this quiz if you're paying attention, o (or) you can let it all go in one ear and out the other.
"The motorcycle" is "la motocicleta" in Spanish, or "la moto" for short. Typically, nouns that end in "o" are masculine and take on the masculine form of "the," which is "el." In this case, moto uses the feminine "la," as it's a shortened version of a feminine noun.
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The word for "night" in Spanish is pronounced "NO-chay." If you chose the last option, come on now — that's Italian for potato pasta. Mamma mia! Let's stick to one language at a time. The Spanish word for "day" is "dÃa," pronounced "DEE-ah."
The Spanish word for tree is another one with the stress in an unusual place, hence the accent on the A. The plural is "árboles." The word for "forest" is "bosque," "leaf" is "hoja" and "flower" is "flor."
You can borrow un libro (a book) from la biblioteca (the library.) Now it gets a little confusing: if you'd prefer to own your libro, you'd visit la librarÃa (the bookstore) instead. They're easy to confuse for English speakers, but librarÃa doesn't mean "library"!
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¡Tus amigos! I.e. your friends. The word is pronounced "ah-MEE-gos." If all the friends you're referring to are female, you can use the word "amigas" instead. "Amigos" can refer to an all-male group or a group of mixed genders.
Agua, agua everywhere. If you want "to drink" it, that's "beber." If you'd prefer "to swim," that verb's "nadar." A bathtub is a bañera, and a shower is a ducha. Agua is an unusual word because it's masculine but ends in "a."
Ah, good old café. Most of us would be zombies without it. ("Zombi," by the way, is how you spell zombie in Spanish.) In Spain, a pitcher of hot milk is usually served alongside a pot of coffee and people will fill their cups with half of each.
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That's right; the word is spelled exactly the same in Spanish as it is in English. When speaking though, the "h" is silent. If you're traveling on a budget, hostels can be a cheaper option. That's spelled the same way too.
Spanish guitar, in addition to being a specific type of guitar, refers to the distinctive and much-admired playing style often synonymous with flamenco guitar. Flamenco is an art-form involving song, dance, clapping, snapping and guitar. It originated in southern Spain from a fusion of Iberian, Moorish, Jewish and Romani cultures.
That's right, in Spanish, "soccer" is fútbol, pronounced "foo-t-bowl." Soccer is huge in the Spanish-speaking world. Football, on the other hand, is called "fútbol americano" in Spanish. (I'm sure you can guess that this translates to "American football.")
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The verb "hablar" is pronounced "ah-BLAR." If you want to say "I speak Spanish," you'd say "Hablo español." If you wish to convey the opposite, say: "No hablo español." If you want to say that you only speak a little Spanish, you'd say "Solo hablo un poco español."
Pronounced "ahn-DAR," this is one of the necessary verbs for a Spanish student to learn. "Caminar" is a synonym, and both words are used frequently. Like all Spanish verbs, they're conjugated differently depending on the subject pronoun: I, you, he, she, etc.
"Dinero" is the Spanish word for the green stuff, pronounced "dee-NAYR-oh." Hopefully, you didn't choose De Niro, he's an actor, and if you said Daenerys, c'mon guys. Game of Thrones is over. Time to move on. Unless somebody's come out with a Spanish version ... El Juego de Tronos would probably be a great way to beef up your vocabulary.
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That's right, "leer" is how you spell the verb "to read" in Spanish. It doesn't have anything to do with the creepy, malevolent or lusty look the word refers to in English, nor is it pronounced the same. In Spanish, it's pronounced "lay-AIR."
"Comer" is the Spanish word "to eat," pronounced "koh-MAYR." ¿Te gustas comer (do you like to eat) Spanish dishes? Paella, flan, tortillas, gazpacho, tacos and enchiladas are some popular foods from Spain and Latin America.
The word aprender (ah-pren-DAYR) is "to learn" in Spanish. "To teach" is enseñar. Both things happen en la escuela, a word you might remember from earlier, and they continue after high school at la universidad.
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This word is pronounced "MOO-see-ka," with the emphasis (as indicated by the accent) on the first syllable. The verb "to play" (as in, "to play an instrument") is "tocar," and the verb "to listen" is "escuchar".
"Trabajar" is pronounced "tra-ba-HAR," as the letter J is pronounced like an H in English. Typically a bit stronger and harsher than our English H though; you'll need to expel a little more air. Arabic has similarly strong H sounds.
Puerta, or "door," is pronounced "PWAYR-tah." It's a typical, female-gendered word, so "the door" is "la puerta." Not to be confused with "puerto," which means port. The US territory of Puerto Rico translates to "rich port."
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Pronounced "tee-YEN-dah," this word is a common one. You might see a tienda de ropa (clothing store) or a tienda de regalos (gift shop). This usually refers to smaller establishments, whereas large department stores would be referred to as grandes almacenes.
The Spanish way to say "the sun" is "el sol," pronounced like our word "soul" in English. The moon is "la luna," and the stars are "las estrellas." All these things are up in el cielo, which is also the word for "heaven" in the religious sense.
El invierno is the winter. It's pronounced "in-vee-AYR-no." If you live somewhere cold enough, this is the time of year you'll see la nieve falling from the sky. Summer is "verano," spring is "primavera" and fall is "otoño."
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"La gente" is Spanish for "the people." The G is pronounced like an H, so gente sounds like "HEN-tay." "Mujer" is the Spanish word for woman and "hombre" is man. However, if you're in a Mexican restaurant looking for the bathroom, the signs will probably say "Damas" and "Caballeros" for "ladies" and "gentlemen."
"Hola" is hello, "adiós" is goodbye. There's always an accent on the "O" in this word, because the final syllable is stressed, and this breaks the default pronunciation convention. Anyway, ¡adiós! Hopefully, you learned a little bit about Spanish spelling. If you weren't already a whiz, that is.