LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "el pan" in Spanish?
el pahn — one syllable, with a wide-open "ah" and no puff after the p.
A single beat, so stress is not in play. The plural "panes" adds a syllable and lands its beat on PA, the second-to-last, as the rule for this ending requires. Note the diminutive "panecito" and the compound "panadería" both keep the same stem but move the stress a long way to the right.
Listen: el pan
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
El pan está muy fresco.
The bread is very fresh.
Listen: El pan está muy fresco.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"El pan está muy fresco" uses estar because freshness is a current state. "Fresco" is two beats with a hard c before o: FRES-ko, containing a single tapped r in its opening cluster. Say "el pan está" and all three words link into one flow.
Where English speakers slip
Reach for the vowel of English "pan" — tighter and further forward — and the open "ah" Spanish wants disappears. The p then wants an English puff of air. And French speakers or learners with French habits sometimes nasalize the vowel and drop the n, which Spanish never does: the n must be fully sounded.