LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "como" in Spanish?
KOH-moh — identical in sound to the accented "cómo", but this one means like or as.
Two syllables, CO-mo, with the weight on the first, which is where the default rule puts it for a vowel-final word. The accented "cómo" is pronounced exactly the same way — the mark identifies a question word rather than moving stress. In a sentence, though, the interrogative carries more emphasis, so the two do differ in weight even though the syllables do not move.
Listen: como
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Habla como su madre.
She talks like her mother.
Listen: Habla como su madre.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"Habla como su madre" uses "como" for comparison, and the silent h in "habla" means the sentence opens on a vowel. "Madre" is two beats with a soft d and a fully pronounced final e. Note this same word is also the I form of "comer" — "como pan" means I eat bread, and only context tells you which is meant.
Where English speakers slip
The two o vowels get differentiated — English glides the first and reduces the second — when they should be twins. That is the sound issue. The written one is more consequential: forgetting the accent on "cómo" turns a question into a comparison, and adding one to "como" does the reverse. Since the pronunciation is identical, only your writing can betray you.