/ˈaɪ.pə/

Spanish

Family: Indo-European · Eurasia · ISO spa · Glottolog · 485,000,000 speakers
19
Consonants
26
Vowels

The phoneme inventory below shows every sound that functions as a meaningful unit in Spanish — a Indo-European language spoken in Eurasia . With 45 phonemes, it has a relatively large inventory compared to the world's languages. Sounds marked with a dashed border (*) are marginal: they appear only in loanwords or highly specialized contexts and are not part of the core phonological system.

Consonants

affricate

t̠ʃ ~

fricative

θ ~ f ~ x ~

lateral fricative

l ~ ʎ ~

nasal

n̪ ~ m ~ ɲ ~

sibilant fricative

s ~

stop

d̪ ~ t̪ ~ b ~ p ~ ɟ ~ ɡ ~ k ~

tap

ɾ ~

trill

r ~

Vowels

u ~ o ~ ɔ ~ i ~ u̯ɛi ~ a ~ e ~ æ ~ ɛ ~ ai ~ au ~ ɔi ~ ɛi ~ æi ~ oi ~ ei ~ i̯a ~ i̯ɔ ~ i̯e ~ i̯o ~ u̯a ~ i̯ɛ ~ i̯æ ~ i̯æi ~ i̯ɛi ~ u̯æi ~

* Marginal phoneme — occurs only in loanwords or rare contexts.

How large is this inventory?

Smaller (11) Average (36) Larger (141)
45
phonemes

Spanish has 45 phonemes, placing it in the 75th percentile of languages by inventory size — larger than most languages.

Compared to English

For English speakers learning Spanish, these are the sounds that will require the most focused practice.

In Spanish, not in English (34)

These sounds don't exist in English — English speakers will need to learn them from scratch.

x ʎ n̪ ɲ d̪ t̪ p ɟ k ɾ r u o ɔ u̯ɛi a æ ai au ɔi ɛi æi oi ei i̯a i̯ɔ i̯e i̯o u̯a i̯ɛ i̯æ i̯æi i̯ɛi u̯æi

In English, not in Spanish (34)

English speakers learning Spanish won't use these sounds — they'll need to suppress them.

h j n pʰ w ŋ iː oː d ʊ z ʃ ʒ v ts d̠ʒ ɒ ɐ ð ɘ ɹ kx ɐː ʉː iə eə oe æe ɑe ɵː æo ɐʉ ɒɯ ʉə
Full phoneme comparison: English vs Spanish →

Most phonologically similar languages

Ranked by Jaccard similarity — the proportion of phonemes shared relative to the combined inventory of both languages.

Catalan 42%
Compare →
Portuguese (European) 35%
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Croatian 33%
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Javanese 32%
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Slovene 32%
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Compare Spanish with another language

See which sounds are shared and which are unique.

vs Hakka Chinese vs SEDANG vs Kharia vs Bhumij vs Kota vs Burushaski vs Kabardian vs Lak vs Ket vs Yao