Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "dos" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce dos in Spanish?

dos is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /dos/. It means “two.” dohs, one syllable, with a dental d and an s that hisses rather than buzzes.

dohs, one syllable, with a dental d and an s that hisses rather than buzzes.

dos /dos/

Just one beat, so the whole word carries it. Worth noticing anyway: "dos" ends in s, and if it had a second syllable the default rule would put stress on the second-to-last. That same rule is why "doscientos" comes out dos-CIEN-tos.

Listen: dos

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Sound it out

d The tongue tip touches the back of the upper front teeth, not the ridge behind them as in English. At the start of a word the contact is firm, but the sound is still softer and quieter than an English d.

o A pure "oh", short and unmoving. English "dose" glides toward a w at the end; this does not.

s A voiceless hiss. Even at the end of a word, and even next to a voiced vowel, Spanish s stays out of the throat — no z buzz.

Hear it in a sentence

Somos dos personas.

There are two of us.

Listen: Somos dos personas.

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"Somos dos personas" literally says "we are two people" where English prefers "there are two of us" — Spanish counts the speaker into the verb. Notice "personas" is stressed per-SO-nas on the second syllable, and that the s at the end of "dos" links straight into the p of "personas" without a pause.

Where English speakers slip

The final s is the one to watch. English routinely voices s between or after voiced sounds — think of the s in "boys" or "dogs" — and speakers carry that over, producing "dohz". Spanish holds the hiss clean. The vowel is the other slip: reading it as English "dose" adds a glide the Spanish word does not have, so keep the lips still through the "oh".