Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "abrir" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce abrir in Spanish?

abrir is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /aˈβɾiɾ/. It means “to open.” ah-BREER, stressed at the end, with a soft b and two tapped r's.

ah-BREER, stressed at the end, with a soft b and two tapped r's.

abrir /aˈβɾiɾ/

Two syllables, a-BRIR, beat at the end thanks to the r. Regular in the present — A-bro, A-bres, A-bre — but like "escribir", it has an irregular past participle: "abierto", which grows an extra syllable and a stem change. The everyday adjective "abierto" (open) comes straight from it.

Listen: abrir

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Sound it out

a A wide-open "ah" opening the word. Unstressed but at full value — English would crush this into "uh".

br The b comes after a vowel, so it is soft: the lips approach without meeting. It runs straight into a single tap of the r with no vowel between them.

ir A tight "ee" as in "see" carrying the stress, closed by a second single tap.

Hear it in a sentence

Abre la ventana, por favor.

Open the window, please.

Listen: Abre la ventana, por favor.

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"Abre la ventana, por favor" uses the bare command form, stressed A-bre on the first syllable per the default rule for a word ending in a vowel. "Ventana" starts with a v pronounced as a b — ben-TA-na — and "por favor" gives you another b-sound where the spelling says v. Three v-letters in one sentence, none of them made with the teeth.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers reduce the opening a into a schwa and then curl both r's, producing something like "uh-BRIRR". Keep the first vowel wide open and make each r a single forward flick. The b also needs softening, since it follows a vowel. And in writing, learners often reach for "abrido" as the participle, when Spanish uses the irregular "abierto".