Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "bien" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce bien in Spanish?

bien is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /bjen/. It means “well / fine.” byen, one syllable — the ie glides together, so it is not "bee-en".

byen, one syllable — the ie glides together, so it is not "bee-en".

bien /bjen/

A single beat, and the ie diphthong is what keeps it that way. Its close relative "bueno" is two syllables with the beat on BUE, and the comparative "mejor" moves it to the end because of the r ending. Three related words, three different rhythms.

Listen: bien

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Sound it out

b A b with the lips meeting gently rather than popping apart. The voice starts almost as soon as they part.

ie The i glides straight into the e as a y sound, making a single beat: "yeh". This is a diphthong, not two vowels.

n A fully released n at the upper teeth. Spanish never nasalizes the vowel and swallows the n the way French does.

Hear it in a sentence

¿Estás bien?

Are you okay?

Listen: ¿Estás bien?

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"¿Estás bien?" is two words and three syllables in total, with the accent on "estás" holding the beat on the final syllable against its s ending. Say the pair quickly and the s links straight into the b, giving es-TAS-byen as one run. The rising question intonation does the work that English would do with word order.

Where English speakers slip

"Bee-EN", with the ie split into two beats, is the single most common version of this word among learners. Compress it into one glide. The b then wants popping, English-style, when it should be soft. And a usage note: "bien" is the adverb, so "estoy bien" is correct, while "soy bien" is not — the adjective for a good person is "bueno".