How to Pronounce 'Gracias': Spanish Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce gracias in Spanish?

gracias is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈɡɾa.sjas/. It means “thank you.” GRAH-syahs, with a single flicked r and an s sound for the c — not "grassy-us".

How do you pronounce "gracias" in Spanish?

GRAH-syahs, with a single flicked r and an s sound for the c — not "grassy-us".

gracias /ˈɡɾa.sjas/

Two syllables, GRA-cias, with the weight on the first. The word ends in s, so the default rule places stress on the second-to-last syllable — and it does, so no accent is written. The "-ias" ending counts as one syllable because i and a form a diphthong here, unlike in "días" where an accent breaks them apart.

Listen: gracias

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Sound it out

gr A hard g as in "go", followed immediately by a single tap of the tongue tip against the roof of the mouth — the same flick as the tt in American "butter". This is not a trill and not the English bunched r.

a An open "ah", the stressed beat of the word.

ci In Latin American Spanish, c before i or e is a plain "s". So this is "see" — never the "sh" or "ch" that English spelling instincts suggest.

as The i and a fuse into one gliding syllable, "syahs". The whole ending is a single quick beat, not two.

Hear it in a sentence

Muchas gracias por la comida.

Thank you very much for the meal.

Listen: Muchas gracias por la comida.

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"Muchas gracias por la comida" shows that "gracias" is grammatically plural and feminine, which is why the intensifier is "muchas" and not "mucho". You cannot say "mucho gracias" — the adjective has to agree. Notice also how the s at the end of "muchas" runs straight into the g of "gracias" with no break.

Where English speakers slip

The most audible error is turning the ending into three syllables, "GRAH-see-us", as if reading the English name Gracie. Spanish packs "-cias" into one beat: syahs. Right behind that is the r, which English speakers curl the tongue back for; the Spanish r here is a single forward tap, so quick it almost disappears. And a warning for travelers: in Spain that c is a "th" sound, but the Latin American "s" pronunciation you are learning here is understood everywhere.