LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "el restaurante" in Spanish?
el res-tow-RAHN-teh, four beats with the stress third and a fully pronounced final e.
Four syllables — res-tau-RAN-te — with the stress on the second-to-last, as the default rule prescribes. The au counts as one diphthong, which keeps the count at four rather than five. The plural "restaurantes" keeps the same placement.
Listen: el restaurante
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
Ese restaurante abre a las siete.
That restaurant opens at seven.
Listen: Ese restaurante abre a las siete.
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"Ese restaurante abre a las siete" links "restaurante abre" across the final e and opening a with no break. "Abre" is stressed A-bre with a soft b, and "siete" glides its ie into one beat. The whole sentence is a chain of linked vowels typical of natural Spanish.
Where English speakers slip
The English "restaurant" pulls hard: speakers drop the final syllable, reduce every unstressed vowel, and use an English r throughout. Spanish has four full beats ending in a clear "eh", a trilled r at the front and a tapped one in the middle. Getting those two r's different from each other is what makes the word sound Spanish rather than borrowed.