Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "cerrado" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce cerrado in Spanish?

cerrado is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /seˈra.ðo/. It means “closed.” seh-RRAH-thoh — the double r is a full rolled trill, and the d near the end is soft.

seh-RRAH-thoh — the double r is a full rolled trill, and the d near the end is soft.

cerrado /seˈra.ðo/

Three syllables: ce-RRA-do, stressed on the second-to-last, the placement the default rule gives. The rr counts as one consonant for syllable division, so the split falls before it. As a past participle of "cerrar", it also functions as an adjective, and all four forms keep the same stress placement.

Listen: cerrado

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Sound it out

ce Before an e, the c is a plain "s" in Latin American Spanish, followed by a short "eh". Unstressed.

rr A full trill: the tongue tip sits loosely behind the upper teeth and flutters several times as air passes. This is a genuinely different sound from the single tap, not just a longer one.

a A wide-open "ah" carrying the stress.

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

Hear it in a sentence

El parque está cerrado los lunes.

The park is closed on Mondays.

Listen: El parque está cerrado los lunes.

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"El parque está cerrado los lunes" uses estar for a temporary state and "los lunes" for a repeating weekly event — the plural article is what turns Monday into every Monday. "Parque" has a hard qu with a silent u, PAR-keh, and a single tapped r, contrasting with the trill in "cerrado".

Where English speakers slip

The trill defeats most beginners, and substituting an English r produces something closer to "seh-RAH-doh" with the tongue in entirely the wrong place. A doubled tap is a better temporary fix. The c also gets hardened into a k, and the d between vowels gets popped when it should nearly become a th — in casual speech you will often hear it disappear altogether, giving "cerrao".