Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "el país" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce el país in Spanish?

el país is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /el paˈis/. It means “country (nation).” el pah-EES, two beats in the noun — the accent splits the a from the i.

el pah-EES, two beats in the noun — the accent splits the a from the i.

el país /el paˈis/

Two syllables, pa-ÍS, and the accent is structural. A strong a beside a weak i would normally form a diphthong, giving a one-syllable "pais" that rhymed with English "price". The mark forces a hiatus and fixes the stress on the i. The plural "países" keeps the accent for the same reason, now spread over three beats.

Listen: el país

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Sound it out

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

pa An unaspirated p and a wide-open "ah" as in "father". This is its own syllable, kept separate from what follows.

ís A tight "ee" carrying the accent and the stress, closed by a hissing s. The mark is what stops the a and i fusing into a single gliding beat.

Hear it in a sentence

México es un país grande.

Mexico is a big country.

Listen: México es un país grande.

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"México es un país grande" places the adjective after the noun. "México" has an x that is historically the throaty j sound, so it is MEH-hee-ko — a spelling preserved for words tied to the country. "Grande" is two beats with a fully pronounced final e.

Where English speakers slip

Readers collapse the vowels into one syllable, producing something that rhymes with English "nice". The accent exists precisely to prevent that: say "pah" and "ees" as two distinct beats. The final s then gets voiced into a z. And in the plural, learners write "paises" without the accent, which would shift the beat and merge the vowels all over again.