Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "dónde" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce dónde in Spanish?

dónde is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈdon.de/. It means “where.” DOHN-deh, stress on the first syllable — the accent marks it as a question word.

DOHN-deh, stress on the first syllable — the accent marks it as a question word.

dónde /ˈdon.de/

Two syllables, DÓN-de, and the accent is not moving the stress — the word ends in a vowel, so the default rule would already put the beat on the first syllable. The mark identifies it as an interrogative. Its unaccented twin "donde" means where as a plain relative word and sounds exactly the same.

Listen: dónde

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Sound it out

dón A dental d with the tongue on the upper front teeth, a pure "oh" carrying the accent, and a released n.

de A second d, softened here because an n precedes it, plus a short "eh". Fully pronounced, which makes the word two syllables.

Hear it in a sentence

¿Dónde está el baño?

Where is the bathroom?

Listen: ¿Dónde está el baño?

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"¿Dónde está el baño?" is the traveler's essential question. "Baño" needs its ñ — one fused palatal sound — and "está" carries an accent to hold the stress on the final syllable. Say "está el" and the á links straight into the article, giving es-TA-el as one run.

Where English speakers slip

English readers give the final e no value, producing a one-syllable "dond". It is a full short "eh". Both d's then get the hard English treatment when they should be dental and light. On paper, the accent is what learners forget — and it matters in indirect questions too, as in "no sé dónde está", where the mark stays even though there is no question mark in sight.