LingoDrop
Spanish · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la chica" in Spanish?
lah CHEE-kah — the ch is as in "church", and both a vowels stay wide open.
Two syllables, CHI-ca, beat on the first, straight from the default rule for a vowel-final word. The ch counts as one consonant for syllable division. The final a is what marks the word feminine, which is why it must stay audible — reduce it and the gender marker disappears.
Listen: la chica
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Sound it out
Hear it in a sentence
La chica canta muy bien.
The girl sings very well.
Listen: La chica canta muy bien.
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"La chica canta muy bien" pairs the noun with "canta", stressed CAN-ta on the second-to-last syllable. "Muy" is one syllable, "mwee", with the u gliding rather than standing alone, and "bien" packs its ie into a single beat too. Three of the four words end in a fully pronounced vowel.
Where English speakers slip
Learners reduce the final a to "uh" — the reflex English applies to every unstressed ending — and the feminine marking disappears with it. Keep it wide. The stressed i then wants slackening toward the "ih" of "chick". And note the register: "chica" is casual, so for a young woman in a formal context "joven" or "señorita" fits better.