LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "el padre" in Spanish?
el PAH-threh — an unaspirated p, a soft d, and a single tapped r.
Two syllables, PA-dre, with the weight on the first, as the rule for this ending requires. The plural "padres" keeps the stress and, following the usual masculine-default convention, means parents rather than fathers — so "mis padres" is my mum and dad, not two fathers.
Listen: el padre
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Hear it in a sentence
Mi padre trabaja en un banco.
My father works at a bank.
Listen: Mi padre trabaja en un banco.
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"Mi padre trabaja en un banco" uses "trabaja", stressed tra-BA-ja, with a throaty j and a soft b. "Banco" backs its n into an "ng" before the hard c. Say "en un banco" and all three words link into one flow: e-noon-BAN-ko.
Where English speakers slip
What gives this away is the p, released with a puff of air that Spanish never allows. The dr cluster then gets the English treatment, with the tongue retracting. And a vocabulary note: "padre" also means priest, which is why context matters — "el padre Juan" is Father Juan, not somebody's dad. Everyday speech usually prefers "papá".