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Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "de hecho" in Spanish?
deh EH-choh — the h is silent, so the two words run straight into each other.
One peak in the phrase, on the E of "hecho". That word ends in a vowel, so the default rule puts its beat on the second-to-last syllable with no accent needed. "De" is a preposition and never takes stress, so the whole two-word phrase has a single rhythmic centre.
Listen: de hecho
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
De hecho, ya lo sabía.
In fact, I already knew it.
Listen: De hecho, ya lo sabía.
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"De hecho, ya lo sabía" opens with the phrase as a discourse marker, which is where it almost always sits. "Sabía" carries an accent that breaks the i from the a, giving three beats — sa-BEE-a — and marks the imperfect past. The object pronoun "lo" comes before the verb, as Spanish requires.
Where English speakers slip
Voicing the h produces "deh HEH-cho" with a breathy break between the words, when they should flow together. The ch is one of the few Spanish sounds English readers get right instinctively, so the real work is the silent h and the linking. Note also that "hecho" on its own is the past participle of "hacer" — the phrase literally means in fact, or in the done thing.