How to Pronounce 'Buenos Días': Spanish Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce buenos días in Spanish?

buenos días is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈbwe.nos ˈdi.as/. It means “good morning.” BWEH-nohs DEE-ahs. The accent on "días" splits the i and a into two separate syllables.

How do you pronounce "buenos días" in Spanish?

BWEH-nohs DEE-ahs. The accent on "días" splits the i and a into two separate syllables.

buenos días /ˈbwe.nos ˈdi.as/

Two words, two beats: BUE-nos and DÍ-as. "Buenos" ends in s, so the default rule stresses the second-to-last syllable — no accent needed. "Días" also ends in s, and by default would be pronounced "DYAS" as a single syllable; the written accent on the í breaks the i-a into a two-syllable hiatus, DÍ-as, which is the whole reason it is there.

Listen: buenos días

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Sound it out

bue The b is soft here at the start of a phrase — lips barely closing, no explosive burst like the English b in "boy". Then "ue" is a quick "weh" glide, one beat: bweh, not boo-eh.

nos A clean n, a pure "oh", and a hissing s. Keep the o full even though it's unstressed; English wants to shrink it to "nuhs".

dí The d is dental — tongue tip against the upper teeth, softer than the English d. Then "ee" as in "see", and this is the stressed beat.

as A separate syllable of its own, "ahs". The accent on the í is what forces this split; without it the letters would fuse into one "dyas".

Hear it in a sentence

Buenos días a todos.

Good morning, everyone.

Listen: Buenos días a todos.

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"Buenos días a todos" is plural in Spanish where English says a singular "good morning" — the greeting is literally "good days". That plural s ending on both words is what triggers the accent on "días" in the first place. Say "días a" without a pause and the final s links into the following vowel, giving DEE-ah-sah.

Where English speakers slip

Most learners collapse "días" into one syllable, "DYAHS", because English reads "ia" as a glide. The accent exists precisely to stop that: it is DEE-ahs, two clear beats. The other giveaway is the b in "buenos", hammered out as a hard English B with the lips popping apart. In Spanish the lips come together loosely and the air keeps flowing, so the word starts softer than you expect.