Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "el otoño" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce el otoño in Spanish?

el otoño is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /el oˈto.ɲo/. It means “autumn / fall.” e-loh-TOH-nyoh — the ñ is one fused sound and all three o vowels match.

e-loh-TOH-nyoh — the ñ is one fused sound and all three o vowels match.

el otoño /el oˈto.ɲo/

Three syllables, o-TO-ño, beat on the second-to-last, which is the default placement. The ñ counts as one consonant for syllable division. The plural "otoños" keeps the stress, and like "verano" and "invierno" this season is masculine.

Listen: el otoño

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Sound it out

el A short "eh" and a bright l. The noun starts with a vowel, so the l links straight in: e-lo-TO-nyo.

o A pure "oh", unstressed but fully rounded.

to A dental t with no puff of air and a second pure "oh", carrying the stress.

ño A single palatal nasal — flat middle of the tongue against the roof of the mouth — plus a third "oh", identical to the others.

Hear it in a sentence

En otoño llueve mucho.

In autumn it rains a lot.

Listen: En otoño llueve mucho.

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"En otoño llueve mucho" drops the article after "en" and uses "llover" impersonally — no subject, just the verb. "Llueve" opens with the double l as a y sound and glides its ue into one beat: YWEH-beh. Three of the sentence's five words contain sounds English does not have.

Where English speakers slip

Two sounds where one belongs is the usual outcome: "o-TON-yo", with the ñ broken apart. Say the middle of English "canyon" and freeze there. All three o vowels then want differentiating, when they should be identical. And the t wants an English puff of air in the stressed syllable, which is where it is most audible.