LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "el final" in Spanish?
el fee-NAHL — the stress falls at the end, the reverse of English FI-nal.
Two syllables, fi-NAL, beat at the end. The word finishes in l, a consonant that is not n or s, so the default rule places the stress on the final syllable and no accent is needed. The plural "finales" now ends in s, and the beat slides back to fi-NA-les — still second-to-last, still unmarked.
Listen: el final
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Hear it in a sentence
Al final todo salió bien.
In the end everything turned out well.
Listen: Al final todo salió bien.
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"Al final todo salió bien" uses "al final" for in the end, with the compulsory contraction of a plus el. "Salió" needs its accent to hold the stress on the final ó and mark the past tense, and its io fuses into one syllable.
Where English speakers slip
The English "final" front-stresses the word and reduces the ending to "nul", giving "FY-nul". Spanish puts the beat at the end with a wide-open "ah" and a bright l. The opening i also wants slackening toward "ih" — it should be a tight "ee". Getting the stress right is what makes the difference audible.