Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "el mes" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce el mes in Spanish?

el mes is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /el mes/. It means “month.” el mess — one syllable, with the vowel of "bed" and a hissing s.

el mess — one syllable, with the vowel of "bed" and a hissing s.

el mes /el mes/

Just one syllable in the noun, so nothing needs placing. The plural is where it gets interesting: "meses" adds a syllable and lands its beat on ME, the second-to-last, straight from the default rule — so the singular ends in s and the plural adds another one, with an e appearing between them for pronounceability.

Listen: el mes

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Sound it out

el A short "eh" and a bright forward l, unstressed and leaning onto the noun.

me A normal m and a short "eh" as in "bed". Not the "ee" of English "me" — Spanish e has one value only.

s A voiceless hiss. It stays a clean s even after a voiced vowel, and it is part of the word rather than a plural marker.

Hear it in a sentence

Este mes tengo mucho trabajo.

This month I have a lot of work.

Listen: Este mes tengo mucho trabajo.

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"Este mes tengo mucho trabajo" uses the demonstrative agreeing with a masculine noun. Say "este mes" and the final e of "este" links straight into the m. "Mucho" modifies a noun here, which is exactly when you use it rather than "muy", and "trabajo" has the throaty j.

Where English speakers slip

English readers see those two letters and reach for their own word "me", producing "mees". Spanish e is the short vowel of "bed". The final s then gets voiced into a z. And when pluralizing, learners reach for "mess" by simply adding an s — the correct form is "meses", with a vowel inserted before the plural ending.