Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "asustado" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce asustado in Spanish?

asustado is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a.susˈta.ðo/. It means “scared.” ah-soos-TAH-thoh, four beats with two hissing s sounds and a soft d.

ah-soos-TAH-thoh, four beats with two hissing s sounds and a soft d.

asustado /a.susˈta.ðo/

Four syllables: a-sus-TA-do, stressed on the second-to-last, as the rule for this ending requires for a vowel-final word. All four forms keep the placement. The verb it comes from, "asustar", puts its beat on the final syllable because of the r ending — participle and infinitive on opposite rhythms.

Listen: asustado

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Sound it out

a A wide-open "ah" opening the word, unstressed but at full value.

sus A voiceless hiss, a pure "oo" as in "boot", and a second hiss. Neither s buzzes, even between voiced sounds.

ta A dental t with no puff of air and a wide-open "ah", carrying the stress.

do A soft d between vowels, close to the th of "those", plus a final pure "oh".

Hear it in a sentence

El niño está asustado.

The child is scared.

Listen: El niño está asustado.

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"El niño está asustado" uses estar, since fear is a passing state. "Niño" needs its ñ as one fused sound. Say "está asustado" and the final á merges with the opening a of the adjective into a single longer vowel — a linking effect Spanish applies automatically.

Where English speakers slip

English "suspect" supplies a flat vowel for that middle syllable, and the rounding Spanish wants disappears. Both s sounds then get voiced into z's, which English does automatically between voiced sounds. And the d near the end gets hardened. Note also that Spanish prefers "tengo miedo" for I am scared as an ongoing feeling.