Why do Spanish speakers spelling a word aloud say *be grande* and *ve chica*?

Because B and V are one sound, so the sound cannot tell you which letter it is

Because V is written far more often than B

Because both letters share the same name in the alphabet

In *hola*, *hombre* and *hacer*, the H is:

silent, as it is in every Spanish word

a light breath before the vowel

pronounced only at the start of a word

pronounced when the syllable is stressed

In Peru, *casa* and *caza*:

differ, because Z is a *th* sound

differ, because the Z is held longer

Why does Spanish write a U in *guitarra*?

To keep the G hard before the I — the U itself is silent

Because the word was borrowed from Italian

Because the U is pronounced as a short *oo*

*Pollo* and *poyo* in Lima:

sound identical, because coastal Spanish merged LL and Y

B and V, C and G, and the silent H in Spanish

Short answer

In Spanish, B and V are the same sound. H is silent in every word. C is /k/ before a, o, u but /s/ before e and i. G is hard before a, o, u but a throaty /h/ before e and i. Those four rules cover nearly every consonant mistake beginners make.

Course · Unit: Sounds CEFR A1 Reviewed by Jhoslyn Updated 2026-09-11

Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.

B and V are one sound

Not similar. The same. Bota and vota are pronounced identically, and Spanish speakers who have to spell a word out loud say be grande and ve chica precisely because the sound cannot tell you which letter it is.

Ba – be – bi – bo – bu
Va – ve – vi – vo – vu

Read those two rows aloud. If they sound different, you are importing the English v — teeth on lip. Spanish has no such sound.

H is silent. Always.

Hola is ola. Hombre is ombre. Hacer is acer. There is no exception worth learning at this level — the only place an H makes noise is in the pair ch, which is its own sound, as in chico.

C has two jobs

Before	Sound	Example
a, o, u	/k/	casa, como, cuna
e, i	/s/	cena, cine

In Spain, that second row is a th sound. In Peru and across Latin America it is a plain /s/, identical to the letter S. This is called seseo, and it means casa and caza sound the same here.

G has two jobs too

Before	Sound	Example
a, o, u	hard /g/, as in go	gato, gota, gusto
e, i	a throaty /h/	gente, gimnasio

To get the hard sound back before an E or an I, Spanish slips in a silent U: guerra, guitarra. That U is not pronounced — it is a spelling device whose only job is to protect the G.

The Lima specifics

Two things a learner notices in Peru quickly.

LL and Y are the same sound. Pollo and poyo, calló and cayó — identical in Lima. The distinction still lives in parts of the Andes, but coastal Spanish merged them, so you can safely learn one sound for both.

The final S softens. In relaxed speech an S closing a syllable can thin out toward a breath: los patas lands closer to loh patas. Nobody teaches this and everybody does it. Understanding it matters far more than copying it — say your S clearly and you will simply sound careful, which is fine.

For what a pata is, see the glossary: pata.

→ Spanish noun gender and plurals, without the guessing

Topics Pronunciation Peruvian Spanish

B, V, C, G and the silent H

Seven questions on the four consonant rules that cause most beginner errors — all answerable from the spelling.

1Why do Spanish speakers spelling a word aloud say *be grande* and *ve chica*?
Answer

Because B and V are one sound, so the sound cannot tell you which letter it is — *Bota* and *vota* are pronounced identically, so a speaker has to name the letter another way. If your two rows *ba-be-bi-bo-bu* and *va-ve-vi-vo-vu* sound different, you are importing the English V.
2In *hola*, *hombre* and *hacer*, the H is:
Answer

silent, as it is in every Spanish word — *Hola* is *ola*, *hombre* is *ombre*. The only place an H makes any noise is in the pair **ch**, as in *chico*, which is a sound of its own.
3Which pair shows C doing both of its jobs?
Answer

*casa* and *cena* — C is /k/ before a, o, u and /s/ before e and i — so *casa* has the hard one and *cena* the soft one. *Cine* and *cena* are both soft, so they show only half the rule.
4In Peru, *casa* and *caza*:
Answer

sound exactly the same — Latin America has *seseo*: C before e or i, and Z, are a plain /s/ identical to the letter S. The *th* sound belongs to Spain, not to Lima.
5Why does Spanish write a U in *guitarra*?
Answer

To keep the G hard before the I — the U itself is silent — Without it, *gitarra* would give the throaty /h/ that G takes before e and i. The U is a spelling device whose only job is protecting the G, as in *guerra* too.
6Which of these words has the throaty /h/ sound for its G?
Answer

*gente* — G is throaty before e and i — *gente*, *gimnasio* — and hard before a, o and u. The other three all have the hard /g/ of English *go*.
7*Pollo* and *poyo* in Lima:
Answer

sound identical, because coastal Spanish merged LL and Y — *Calló* and *cayó* are the same sound here as well. The distinction still lives in parts of the Andes, so you can safely learn one sound for both on the coast.