Spanish For Dummies
Book image
Explore Book Buy On Amazon

The consonant ñ gives the Spanish alphabet one more letter than the English alphabet. When you see a wiggly line — called a tilde (teel-deh) — on top of the letter n that looks like ñ, use the ny sound that you use for the English word canyon.

In pronunciation brackets, this sound is shown as ny. Following are some examples:

  • cuñado (koo-nyah-doh) (brother-in-law)

  • mañana (mah-nyah-nah) (tomorrow)

  • niña (nee-nyah) (girl)

When you need to pronounce the letter ñ, you say eh-nyeh. When you’re reciting the alphabet, ñ comes after n.

About This Article

This article can be found in the category: