Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "el policía" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce el policía in Spanish?

el policía is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /el po.liˈsi.a/. It means “police officer.” el poh-lee-SEE-ah, four beats — the accent splits the i from the final a.

el poh-lee-SEE-ah, four beats — the accent splits the i from the final a.

el policía /el po.liˈsi.a/

Four syllables, po-li-CÍ-a, and the accent forces a hiatus. A weak i beside a strong a would normally form a diphthong; the mark splits them and pins the stress on the i. The gender is the other oddity: "el policía" is a male officer, while "la policía" is the police force as an institution.

Listen: el policía

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Sound it out

po An unaspirated p and a pure "oh", unstressed but fully rounded.

li A bright forward l and a tight "ee" as in "see".

cí Before an i, the c is a plain "s", followed by another tight "ee" carrying the accent and the stress.

a A wide-open "ah" standing as its own separate syllable. Without the accent, the i and a would fuse into a single gliding beat.

Hear it in a sentence

El policía dirige el tráfico.

The police officer directs traffic.

Listen: El policía dirige el tráfico.

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"El policía dirige el tráfico" uses the masculine article for an individual officer. "Dirige" has a g before an e, which makes it the throaty j sound: dee-REE-heh. And "tráfico" carries an accent pulling the beat three syllables from the end.

Where English speakers slip

The ía gets collapsed into one syllable, giving "po-li-SYA", which the accent forbids. Say "SEE" and "ah" as two beats. The c then gets hardened into a k. And the article distinction matters practically: saying "la policía" when you mean one officer will be understood, but it literally names the whole force.