Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "el pájaro" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce el pájaro in Spanish?

el pájaro is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /el ˈpa.xa.ɾo/. It means “bird.” el PAH-hah-roh — the accent pulls the stress three syllables back, and the j is a throat rasp.

el PAH-hah-roh — the accent pulls the stress three syllables back, and the j is a throat rasp.

el pájaro /el ˈpa.xa.ɾo/

Three syllables, PÁ-ja-ro, and the accent is mandatory. The word ends in a vowel, so the default would give pa-JA-ro. The mark pulls the beat back to the third-from-last syllable — a placement Spanish always writes. The plural "pájaros" keeps the accent for the same reason.

Listen: el pájaro

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Sound it out

el A short "eh" and a bright forward l, unstressed.

pá An unaspirated p and a wide-open "ah", carrying the accent and the stress.

ja A raspy back-of-the-mouth sound, like the ch in Scottish "loch", plus a second wide "ah".

ro A single tap of the tongue tip and a pure "oh". One flick, not a roll.

Hear it in a sentence

Hay un pájaro en el árbol.

There's a bird in the tree.

Listen: Hay un pájaro en el árbol.

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"Hay un pájaro en el árbol" has two accented words doing opposite jobs: "pájaro" pulls its beat back three syllables, while "árbol" pulls its beat back one against an l ending that would otherwise stress the last. Both marks are load-bearing. "Hay" has a silent h.

Where English speakers slip

An English j in the middle and an ignored accent at the front do the damage together, giving "pa-HA-ro". Both matter. The two a vowels then want differentiating, when they should be identical. Note also that "ave" is the more formal word for bird, and "pájaro" specifically suggests a small one.