Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "el taxi" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce el taxi in Spanish?

el taxi is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /el ˈtak.si/. It means “taxi.” el TAHK-see — the x is a clean ks cluster and the final i is a tight "ee".

el TAHK-see — the x is a clean ks cluster and the final i is a tight "ee".

el taxi /el ˈtak.si/

Two syllables: TA-xi, stressed on the first, which is the default placement for a vowel-final word. The plural "taxis" keeps it. The related "taxista" — taxi driver — adds a syllable and shifts the beat to XIS, still second-to-last and still unmarked.

Listen: el taxi

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Sound it out

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

ta A dental t with no puff of air and a wide-open "ah" carrying the stress. Not the flat vowel of English "tax".

xi The x here is a straightforward "ks" — a k sound then an s sound — followed by a tight "ee" as in "see". Spanish x is usually ks, though in words tied to Mexico it can be the throaty j sound instead.

Hear it in a sentence

¿Puede llamarme un taxi?

Could you call me a taxi?

Listen: ¿Puede llamarme un taxi?

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"¿Puede llamarme un taxi?" attaches the pronoun to the infinitive, making one word: lla-MAR-me, with the double l as a y sound and the stress still on MAR. "Puede" glides its ue into one beat, PWEH-deh. The question uses the formal "usted" form.

Where English speakers slip

Flatten the stressed vowel toward English "tax" and the wide-open "ah" disappears. The final i then gets slackened toward "ih" or, worse, read as the English "-ee" with a glide. And the t wants an English puff of air. Short as it is, this word exposes three separate habits.