In Spanish, nouns are gendered, generally masculine or feminine. This is true of inanimate objects (the table = la mesa), animals (the fly = la mosca), and people. However, as there is a spectrum of gender identities and gender expressions, Spanish is still figuring out how to best represent those who might not fall into the masculine/feminine binary. While there are some competing ideas on how to represent non-binary identities in Spanish, the most common usage is the pronoun “elle”. In this textbook, we will occasionally use “elle” to represent people who are non-binary.
Letters and Spelling
The Spanish alphabet
A
B
C
D
E
F
la a
la be
la ce
la de
la e
la efe
G
H
I
J
K
L
la ge
la hache
la i
la jota
la ka
la ele
M
N
Ñ
O
P
Q
la eme
la ene
la eñe
la o
la pe
la cu
R
S
T
U
V
W
la erre
la ese
la te
la u
la ve
la ve doble
X
Y
Z
la equis
la i griega
la zeta
To ask how to spell a word, you use:
¿Cómo se escribe…? How do you spell…?
¿Como se escribe libro? How do you spell book?
Libro se escribe ele-i-be-ere-o. Book is spelled l-i-b-r-o.
To ask how to spell your name, you use:
¿Cómo se escribe tu nombre? How do you spell your name?
Mi nombre se escribe ese-o-pe-hache-i-a. My name is spelled S-o-p-h-i-a.