Spanish · Pronunciation Guide

How do you pronounce "importante" in Spanish?

Q: How do you pronounce importante in Spanish?

importante is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /im.poɾˈtan.te/. It means “important.” eem-por-TAHN-teh, four beats with the stress third and a fully pronounced final e.

eem-por-TAHN-teh, four beats with the stress third and a fully pronounced final e.

importante /im.poɾˈtan.te/

Four syllables: im-por-TAN-te, stressed on the second-to-last, precisely as the default rule prescribes for a word ending in a vowel. The adjective has a single form for both genders, so only the plural "importantes" changes, and that keeps the same stress. The related noun "importancia" moves the beat to TAN as well, so the family is rhythmically consistent.

Listen: importante

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Sound it out

im A tight "ee" as in "see" and an m. Spanish i is never the lax "ih" that English gives to "important".

por An unaspirated p, a pure "oh", and a single tap of the r. The vowel stays rounded and clean — the r does not colour it.

tan A dry dental t, a wide-open "ah" carrying the stress, and a released n.

te Another dental t and a short "eh". This final syllable is what English readers most often delete.

Hear it in a sentence

Hoy es un día importante.

Today is an important day.

Listen: Hoy es un día importante.

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"Hoy es un día importante" places the adjective after the noun. "Día" carries an accent to break the i from the a, making it two beats, and it is one of a small group of masculine nouns ending in -a — which is why the article is "un" and not "una". Say "día importante" and the final a links straight into the i.

Where English speakers slip

The English "important" is so close that speakers import it wholesale, dropping the final e and reducing every unstressed vowel: "im-POR-tunt". Spanish has four full syllables, ending in a clear "eh", with the beat on TAN. The opening i also needs tightening from "ih" to "ee", and the r in the middle is a single flick, not the English r that swallows the vowel before it.